Marketing platforms are shifting to adapt to our society’s technological preferences and as such, marketers and PR professionals continue to explore new ways to reach their target audiences. During a recent webinar hosted by the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), Claudio Schapsis of Georillas presented several effective ways to utilize mobile marketing tactics in PR and marketing campaigns. As specialists in public relations and marketing for B2B companies in healthcare, technology and insurance, we have noted a few of these tactics that could be implemented specifically for B2B companies looking to increase their digital footprint.

First, let’s look at some background on the shift in technology:
Traditional marketing methods (collateral materials, print campaigns, etc.) will likely continue to be effective for both B2B and B2C campaigns, but today,

• More than six billion people own and actively use some form of a Smartphone or tablet,
• 1.4 billion people own and watch a TV, and
• 1.6 billion people own a computer or laptop

Even more thought provoking, the majority of marketing/PR professionals use the primary bulk of their budgets on television and computer-related campaigns when only 39.8% of a person’s time is spent actually watching television. Similarly, companies are only investing 1.6 % of their marketing budgets on mobile technology/smartphones/tablets, yet the general public spends 11.7% of their time on these devices, surfing and searching the web (see graphs below for a visual analysis of these numbers).

Any way you look at it, mobile marketing tactics should always be taken into consideration when strategizing a PR and marketing campaign, whether you are representing a B2C or B2B company.

How this affects B2B campaigns:

One up-and-coming tactic that is already widely used and successful in B2C campaigns is called geo-locating —the capability to detect and record where you and other people are located and to use the information to target customers most interested in your product or services. So the question for a company like Scott PR is “how can we leverage geo-locating technology for B2B campaigns?”

We frequently work with our clients on tradeshows and speaking engagements at conferences. Geo-locating platforms such as Foursquare or Facebook could be invaluable resources at these shows to find and obtain information on people who visited our booth, enticing them with information or other incentives for “checking in” with us. This information can then be populated into a database of potential new business contacts or people to follow up with in the future.

We recently attended RIMS 2013 in Los Angeles (a tradeshow for the risk management and insurance industry) and with so many booths on the floor, it can be difficult to distinguish your company from the competition. Utilizing ‘check in incentives’ can not only be memorable for visitors, but can also be a powerful tool to increase brand visibility in public settings.

Search Engine Optimization is Key

Additionally, it is critical that your company and its services are among the top results when a customer searches the web for a related product or service. In fact, 70% of the sales process takes place online via Google/Bing/Yahoo searches before a customer will ever speak to a sales representative or other person about the company. By optimizing your company’s website and its content with relevant key terms, you are ensuring that you are there, front and center, when people/customers/business prospects are looking for a product or service that you offer.

Traditional marketing initiatives focus on ‘pushing’ content out to targeted audiences but that is often not enough to garner people’s business. Inbound marketing methods like SEO (aimed at “pulling” target audiences with optimized content on your company’s blog/white papers/case studies etc.) are proving to be increasingly beneficial with the growing amount of time people spend online searching for content that matters to them.

To that point, it is also important that your website is compatible with the various different platforms being used today: tablet, cell phones, laptops, etc. to ensure that people can easily find your services and contact information no matter what platform they use.

We’d love to hear how the shift to mobile marketing will affect your brand’s campaigns and what steps you’re taking to adapt to the evolving marketing landscape. What tools do you find most useful for your mobile marketing campaigns?

If you’re in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries, and need help with public relations, marketing or crisis communications, contact Scott Public Relations.

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