Google recently partnered up with The Boston Consulting Group to work out how mobile has affected B2B. The research revealed that more than 40% of revenue in leading B2B organisations was driven by mobile, as well as several other revelations.
50% of B2B search queries are made on smartphones, and the research suggests that this will continue to rise to 70% by 2020. B2B buyers are tech-savvy, using their mobile for work whilst commuting or travelling, and multitasking across multiple screens when they are at home or at the office.
B2B workers spend 2 hours on average on their mobiles per day, which is also expected to increase to 3 hours a day by 2020.
All this smartphone usage means that B2B businesses are being compared not just to others in their industry, but are in fact being compared to every mobile website out there.
Your site may be better than your competition, but if it’s not as good as the best of customer experience online, then B2B buyers won’t have a great customer experience.
Spending more time on a mobile device is one thing, but mobile is actually driving business results too. The research shows that mobile speeds up the time to purchase by up to 20%, which boosts revenue and reduces costs.
Mobile is also generating higher levels of engagement through search queries, site traffic, lead generation and actual transactions. B2B companies are also seeing that a larger proportion of their revenue is driven or influenced by mobile.
It seems that mobile is also increasing loyalty – 90% of B2B buyers reported that a positive mobile experience will affect the repurchase rate, therefore building customer loyalty.
Mobile leaders in B2B are seen to take a more customer-centric approach to mobile – understanding that mobile is key at certain engagement points, and for certain customers. Mobile leaders also develop a specific strategy for each individual within the buying team.
By embracing the many positives of the mobile experience, B2B mobile leaders create a site that has a vertical creative format with minimal text, as well as highlighting and taking advantage of mobile’s ability to gather location data and easy click-to-call links.
Mobile leaders also combine their own data, such as mobile apps and their website, with relevant third-party data, from social media to create a fuller picture of each customer. As B2B purchases can be long and complex, using data to deliver personalised, relevant and well-timed communications may make all the difference.
Source