B2B mobile apps can be an effective marketing tool.

It’s predicted that nearly 6 billion mobile app downloads will occur in 2010 according to Marketing Charts and ABI Research.  Of course the growth in smartphone sales (up 20% in 2009) is driving the development of apps. 

So I started thinking about how B2B marketers could benefit from apps beyond increasing brand engagement. A more powerful use of B2B apps is to enable greater personal productivity and connectivity.  Find out what would make your customers and prospects more productive.  Based on my work with B2B high tech and industrial companies, the following list offers ideas for B2B mobile apps:

• Let’s say you provide a B2B software application.  Is there a dashboard or other view that would simplify a process for your customer?  For example, a busy plant manager spends a lot of time working throughout the plant.  Could an app connect that person to his or her desktop and your software application from a mobile phone or device?  Most likely, the answer is yes.
• In a similar manufacturing setting, could a mobile app enable more efficient equipment reliability and maintenance?   For example, the use of a mobile application that would allow a machine operator to connect to the equipment manufacturer for troubleshooting.
• In regulated industries such as food and pharmaceutical, could a mobile app help streamline regulatory compliance or avoid non-compliance for processes such as commissioning and qualification, hazmat handling, etc.?
• Connect your app to location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla, where it can enhance productivity by optimizing support resources and improving customer response time.  (Ok… that one may seem like a stretch today, but not in the near future.)  Read more on Geo Location Trends from Mashable.
• Calculators and reference tools are popular B2B apps, especially for the technical audience.  Whether it’s ROI, popular engineering formulae or productivity/efficiency calculations, calculators can be an effective B2B app for boosting your brand and your customers’ productivity.

How much does a B2B mobile app cost?

B2B mobile app development costs vary widely.  Apps can range from $10K to $300+K depending on the complexity of the app, number of platforms on which it will operate (iPhone, Android or Blackberry) and interface with other platforms or systems such as a CRM sytem, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Typical rates for developers range from $50 per hour to $100 per hour.  Despite the wide range of pricing, the average cost to develop a robust app appears to be around $30K, although I’ve heard of less robust apps coming in at around $5K.

Consider how the app will be used to determine whether it should be free or fee-based.  If your B2B mobile app is designed to help further engage prospects within the buying cycle, then a free app may be justifiable based on the potential return on investment.  If the mobile app is an integral part of your product offering or a value-added service, then consider a fee-based mobile app or a free trial period.

When determining the cost of a B2B mobile app, you should also factor in promotional costs.  After  your app is developed, you’ll need a marcom plan for promoting the app and driving users to download it.

Should you be “app agnostic”?

With more than 125,000 apps and growing, the Apple iPhone is one of the most popular destinations for apps .  However Google’s Android OS is quickly gaining popularity along with Blackberry and other devices.  As B2B marketers, consider what device your customers are primarily using for business connectivity.  The Blackberry is a popular device among enterprise users and a likely destination for B2B apps.  You may wish to consider other devices such as iPads and Windows Mobile OS devices as viable alternatives.  You’ll have to weigh the development costs of each to determine what is feasible. 

Measure the success of your B2B mobile app

The number of downloads  is one metric, but it only tells part of the story. Consider the category in which your mobile app will reside and seek to be in the top for your category.  For example, the “lifestyle” category is one of the most popular. Of course, the more specialized the app, the less crowded the space.  When developing your app, consider building in tools to monitor usage such as AppViz,  Heartbeat,  or Pinch Media.

A B2B mobile app can be another element in your marcom mix designed to move prospects to the next step in the buying cycle or as an added value to your product.

I’d love to hear more from other B2B marketers and mobile app developers on what you’re seeing in B2B mobile apps.  Thanks!

More information on mobile apps for B2B:

BEST PRACTICE: Seven rules for developing iPhone apps – James Hepton shares practical advice for developing B2B mobile apps.

What Offers a Bigger Opportunity Than Paid Mobile Apps? – Paid or free mobile app?… Rob Weber offers advice.

Marketing Mobile Apps – Davis Brewer offers good suggestions on marketing your mobile app.

Mobile Ad Campaigns More Effective Than Online – If you’re a MarketingProfs member, you’ll be able to read these excellent recent stats on mobile ad campaigns.

Marketing Your App is More Important than You Think – iCombat provides a good review of how to market your mobile app from a gaming perspective… worth a read.

The folks at B2B Voices hosted a group of marketing and communications professionals to discusss the topic   “Social Media and ROI: Dare We Talk About It.”  One of the most important outcomes of the meeting was the fact that metrics used to determine social media ROI should be money-focused such as increased sales, lower cost per acquisition, etc.   However, what often are reported as ROI metrics–number of followers, likes, subscribers, etc.–don’t really cut it when talking to marketing execs… especially when it comes to asking for more money for your social media program.

The following slide show by Weber Shandwick’s Aaron Pearson (@apearson) and Andy Keith (@andykeith) shares helpful information on where most B2B marketers are when it comes to measuring B2B social media effectiveness.  Interestingly, most B2B marketers are still struggling with where to begin.  The 20-slide show offers a practical good start.

B2B marcom managers solve the content conundrum with a social media workflow.

Content , links and trust are the currencies of the internet. Relevant, useful content provided on a regular basis across multiple social and online media helps build trust. This same content can also generate the links that boost search traffic, leads and sales.

Whether you’re a B2B marcom manager who’s taking on social media as a grass roots effort (you and one or two colleagues) or you’ve enlisted a team, content creation can be daunting, even meeting the bare minimum frequency. A blog alone takes a minimum of 12 posts per month, and it’s recommended that you have at least two months’ worth of blogs already in the queue to ease the pressure of developing content on demand. Like many B2B marcom managers who are beginning a social media program, you and your already burdened staff are responsible for creating most of the content in addition to your day jobs. Before you read any further, make sure you have a content marketing plan and a conversation calendar.

How to develop a B2B social media workflow

One of the biggest hurdles to social media adoption in B2B is adapting the B2B marcom workflow to allow for social media. For starters, you need to develop a sharing mindset and integrate it into your daily activities. Any media that you consume or develop has the potential to become “social media fodder” that can be finessed into a tweet, blog post or comment on someone else’s blog. For example, when you’re monitoring your news feeds, copy one or two articles/posts and quickly post them to your social media status updates or your Facebook fan page, and then bookmark them on Delicious or Digg them. Social bookmarks serve as a good reference for future blog posts and Twitter tweets.

Note: If you’re not monitoring the social sphere and you’re new to social media, start by setting up your listening posts. It will save you a lot of frustration and embarrassment later.

As you develop the social media workflow, you’ll need a repository for all the content you collect (The new buzzword for collect is “curate.”) You’ll also need a system for managing content. Your repository can be as simple as a “content” folder on your desktop and a Delicious social bookmarking account or a Digg account. There are many other social bookmarking sites; so sign up for one, and as you come across content, bookmark it.

Organize your desktop for social media success

Begin each day with a blank document on your desktop. Then, as ideas come to you, add them to the document. If your idea came from something online, remember to copy and paste the URL for future reference. The blank document approach also works well when an opportunity arises to comment on another blog. I find that you can write your comments more freely in the blank document, than the blog comment box. Plus, you can run spell check before copying and pasting your comment into the blog and do a character count to make sure your post is suitable for 140-character status updates. Remember, comments posted on other blogs often become good fodder for a blog post of your own. So save the document each day and revisit it for future blog posts.

Then, organize your browser to optimize time spent online. Save tabbed groups for the social media-related sites you visit such as productivity tools (mentioned below), your listening posts, bookmarking sites and your company’s social media venues.

Take advantage of the free productivity tools such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and Seesmic which allow you to monitor your followers’ and your activity in the Twittersphere and on other social sites. These apps also allow you to schedule tweets as well as simultaneously update statuses on other social networks. Be careful with this one. The idea behind social media isn’t to batch and blast status updates, but to connect with real people real time. Although it’s perfectly acceptable to post what I call reference content—something that you read or saw that may benefit others in your community, but be mindful of the social idiosyncrasies of each community. For example, some posts are more suitable for Twitter, while others may be better for LinkedIn. Remember, not everyone has a Twitter account. So @replies and hashtags, although perfectly acceptable in a tweet, may appear confusing on another social media platform.

Effective B2B social media marketers are masters of time management

In the world of B2B social media, busy B2B marcom professionals must make every minute count. It helps if you think of time in smaller chunks. You may have five minutes before a meeting, which is plenty of time to post a tweet or two. While you were in the meeting , did any discussion spark an idea for a blog post or even a series of posts around a given topic? Make sure you capture those thoughts in your “content” document for future reference. An extra 15 minutes is enough time to outline a blog post. Then carve out a little more time to complete it and post it. Most B2B marcom departments have plenty of existing content that simply needs to be adapted to social media—usually that means shifting from a company focus to a community focus. There are numerous blog posts on the topic of repurposing content. I’ve listed a few below.

You’ll find that as you become more proficient at writing for social media and more comfortable with your workflow, you’ll become more efficient at managing social media, making it less of a burden for an already burdened marcom staff.

Here are a few tips culled from the advice of top bloggers and content creators that will help you overcome the B2B marcom content conundrum:

13 Ideas to Inspire your blog by Denise Wakeman

What’s your social media diet by Paul Dunay

Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2010 by Michael Seltzner answer the question, “How much time does social media take?”

Warning Signs You Might be a Blogcrastinator by Michelle Russell

A B2B social media strategy should include a conversation calendar. Your conversation calendar lists the media and frequency of all your social media activity. The conversation calendar acts as a dashboard of your owned and earned media and the number of posts anticipated per month.

The conversation calendar is especially helpful if you’re a B2B marcom manager who’s enlisting the help of other colleagues in the social media program. It makes it easier to assign social media to various colleagues and lets your colleagues know how much time to budget for their social media activity.

Your conversation calendar also gives you an idea of the volume of content required to support your social media program. It’s a lot more than you think! But before you become overwhelmed, read Ardath Albee’s advice on b2b content development. Ardath explains how to leverage your existing B2B content to keep up with the demands of a social media program.

Aside from its use as a planning tool, your conversation calendar can also be used with your social media monitoring program. Compare your activity on the conversation calendar to the number of mentions in the social sphere to get an idea of the impact of your social media program. You may find that you need to adjust the frequency of activity or completely drop under-performing activity from your program.

A simple spreadsheet is all you need to create your B2B conversation calendar.

Do you have another way to manage your social media conversations? Tell us here…

More B2B marketers are realizing the power of content to engage prosepects as they move through the sales funnel. Content marketing or inbound marketing is especially effective as a B2B marketing communications strategy. Here’s an excellent presentation from VizEdu.com on the power of content marketing.

Shameless plug here: content marketing requires good content provide on a timely basis… I can help you write it.

If you’re thinking about starting another website, remember the domain name is the first place to optimize for search. Read Choosing an SEO-friendly Domain Name.

Akhilesh Gill of SEO Traffic Spider explains whether a dot com is still the best choice, plus shares tips on length and use of special characters.

The question of ROI in social media continues to perplex many B2B marketers. Assuming you have a strong marketing communications strategy, you may need to adjust your metrics to effectively determine the ROI of social media because it isn’t cut and dry. In fact, in many cases we’re using web 1.0 metrics (clicks, conversions, etc.) to measure web 2.0 tools. While sales is the ultimate driver of B2B online marketing initiatives, measuring the interim effectiveness of the tools takes a different metric that revolves around engagement and brand affinity.

Robin Grant of the agency We Are Social wrote an interesting post on measuring the ROI of social media including a good slide presentation embedded below from Jon ‘yongfook‘Cockle.

Testing has shown that the long-tail (more specific) search is usually a good indication of a higher level of interest, which leads to better conversion. That said, the total number of clicks will be much lower for long-tail phrases than for a general term, but conversions drive sales. See an older post PPC Copywriting vs. SEO Copywriting… they’re inverse.

So how can B2B marcom pros boost conversion with long-tail keywords?

Go back to the B2B buying cycle. Prospects who are further along the buying cycle, in the consideration phase, are looking for more information to help them make the right decision. In the consideration phase, you may find long-tail keyword phrases more effective, because that’s when B2B buyers begin narrowing down their searches. They may often search on solutions to specific problems instead of product categories. For example, they may search for reliability maintenance analysis using the Barringer methodology, At this stage an effective B2B marcom mix could include a white paper, webinar, online video (with complementary white paper), and blog posts–all discussing the details of reliability maintenance analysis using the Barringer method.

Taken a step further, your marcom mix should also use the long-tail keyword phrase, reliability maintenance analysis using the Barringer method, in the drivers to the previously described content–drivers being the banner ads, email blasts and Twitter tweets that drive visitors to the content. So your subject line in the email blast should include the keyword phrase as well as the twitter tweet, banner ad, etc. (In the case of a subject line, you may need to truncate the long-tail phrase slightly.)

So when you identify a long-tail keyword phrase that your prospects are searching on, develop an integrated B2B campaign around it to help move prospects closer to the buying decision. You won’t get lots of clicks, but you will get more conversions.

Here’s a good article from Julie Joyce, How to Use Long-Tailed Keywords in Your Linking Campaign.