Traditionally, B2B marketers always relied on marketing channels such as visual media, print media, banners, radio ads, etc. to reach potential leads or buyers. With the exponential rise of the internet and the increasing popularity of smart devices including mobile smartphones and tablets, the scenario has changed. Also, the world has become a connected global village with B2B prospects constantly on the move. This makes them prefer cloud-based solutions that can be accessed anywhere, anything without location limitations. This makes it importantly crucial for B2B businesses to proactively engage with their customers or targets via online channels. The most convenient online form is applications due to their ease of access. This makes a B2B mobile app important to build long-term relations and engage users and potential buyers.
By 2023, the business applications market for mobiles is expected to be worth close to $140 billion. B2B apps satisfy the needs for a niche market segment. The purpose is the main driver and once a prospect realises what can get better with their offering- an app is there to fix them. Mobile apps account for close to 40% of B2B sales.
An epic B2B mobile app encapsulates two key components: always solves a business problem in a cost-effective manner and strongly focuses on functionality.
First, let us understand how B2B apps are different from B2C apps
B2B Mobile Apps and B2C Mobile Apps: A Comparison
The rules of marketing and customer engagement are completely different for a B2B app as with respect to a B2C app. The most important and significant distinguishing factor being the target audience. B2C is mostly regular mobile users while B2B targets decision markers. These small niche people need solutions for their brands and companies and are thus informed, knowledgeable, selective and even demanding. These strategic decision-makers are looking for cost-effective solutions to maximize efficiency of their business and increase revenue to propel growth.
Such users need a clear user experience with reliable functioning across multiple devices. The B2B app also needs to seamlessly integrate with other software tools or cloud solutions the company is using. The app should not be slow and ridden with bugs to handle a multitude of users at any point of time.
The B2B app must provide top-notch security as users will share confidential and sensitive information so leaks must be minimized. A minor leak can have major effect and adversely impact revenue, credibility and reputation. There also needs to be a consistency on the app across all devices making it a scalable option.
Business apps have diverse needs including file storing, sharing, information, team management and other operations. Thus, the app needs to function smoothly and offer several subscription plans to integrate seamlessly. A mobile app can be used to constantly monitor user or customer behaviour, understand customer usage, product adoption and send personalized offers and upgrades.
Why your company needs a B2B mobile app
Easy Accessibility
New-age B2B buyers are mostly on the move, conducting field research, meeting potential clients, and supervising operations at various business locations. Having a website as the only point is not feasible to take a quick glance and understand product or service deliverables. A seamless app that can be used 24×7 to browse product specifics or learn pricing or place an order is always recommended. It makes the buyer journey simple and facilitates easy customer onboarding.
Efficient Monitoring
Once a prospect downloads app and signs up, they get access to all the information about the company. Once you as a company access the analytics and insights, you can notice the online consumer behaviour including products clicked on, purchasing history, FAQs, geographical location and more. With this information, you can alter your marketing metrics and create personalised discounts, catalogues, upsells, and more for each user. Customers can be recommended relevant upgrades based on queries and issues.
Enhanced Communication
This is probably the biggest advantage of mobile apps as you can directly communicate with customers. With in-app offers, push notification, upgrades and tailormade notifications, you can send reminders for service renewal, scheduled maintenance and license expiry. You can communicate with consumers and keep your business alive with smart communication and immediate responses.
24×7 Customer Support
A mobile app can transform the way you offer customer support as it is quick, responsive and immediate. Whether it is AI or a human responder, mobile apps give you a channel to reach out irrespective of location. You can monitor customer service and resolve any complex issue via chat or call. Additionally, you can have quick guides to fix problems and find solutions. This is highly helpful to boost brand reputation.
Improved Customer Retention
A B2B mobile app allows you to directly communicate with potential buyers and offer them a personalized or customised customer experience. These factors make you retain a long-term relationship with clients and ensure they feel valued and important. It aids customer retention and reduces the overall churn rate maximising revenue. It also builds loyalty as customers become advocates of the brand and helps you reach a wider audience.
How B2B Mobile Apps Improve User Engagement
While there is no formula for building a B2B mobile app, it does not have to be something unscalable or too tough to achieve. The features you want to include depends on services, products and target audience. There are some essential features that will improve user engagement and performance.
Push Notifications
Push notifications are the easiest way to directly communicate with potential buyers. Quick, transparent, fast messaging sent to customers keep you on their mind always. From the latest promotional offers to subscription reminders, you can convey information for customer benefit at every stage. It has been known to boost user engagement with catchy subject lines and fun facts as well.
Invoices
If you want your clients to purchase directly from the app, you can not only raise invoice; instead, you can collaborate with payment gateways to receive money online. You can also track orders via an app and create the right payment solutions for customers.
Appointment Scheduling
Virtual meetings are now the new reality. Meeting a potential client is very important to convince them to purchase your product. But, is the time travelling worth it? No, right. You can schedule online meetings or calls to know more about product details and information. If someone has a specific request, it can be addressed by the concerned department.
Optimized Payments
Don’t we all shop and when it comes to paying feel a little insecure about the payment page? That is exactly what clients go through when they see ill-optimized payment pages. You have to offer a simple, hassle-free payment process to them to ensure security and safety. A verified gateway is important to secure a transaction. It must have all details of your shipping and return policies to make it simpler for customers.
Feedback Process
A good sale is always followed by a feedback option. You need to know how your customers fell and so including a live chat feature can help users reach out to you. You can add quick select options to make queries easier for customers and let them email or call customers directly.
Conclusion
A B2B mobile app is an extremely powerful marketing tool that offers end to end capacity to onboard customers. You can communicate with potential buyers, send them personalized offers, and influence their decision making. You can modify your marketing strategy as per the analytics and insights of their behaviour with respect to product adoption. You can also provide awesome customer support and drive the company towards success.
Guest article written by: Niyathi Rao is a content crafter for SaaS Tech products. Previously worked for OpenText and Univariety, now handles content at SmartKarrot Inc., a customer success data platform. She loves podcasts, music, and a bibliophile. When she isn’t doing any of these, she goes on Netflix to chill or try new things.
Mobile app is great way to interact to my customer. I prefer app over website because customer always have the app in their phone and it has less cost of retention the customer.
Nice blog post about how we can improve our app by following the guidelines instructed in this blog post. Nice blog post keep the good work going.
Thanks for this insightful post. Keep sharing.