How to Bring Your B2B Mobile Strategy Up to Speed?

Posted by Rohit on May 12th, 2019

A report by B2BecNews says that not even 50% of manufacturers and distributors run a website that is mobile-friendly. The biggest reason – a lack of knowledge regarding mobile strategies and their importance.

But as B2B consumers become accustomed to advanced digital experiences, businesses must craft the right mobile strategies. However, not all mobile channels may prove to be profitable for you. Depending on your customers’ needs, you can use specific mobile strategies and set yourself apart from your competitors.

1. Responsive Web Design (RWD)

Introduced in 2010 and later popularized in 2016, Responsive Web Design has gained attention ever since. Responsive Web Design is a technology for web pages to adapt to the size of the device of the user. So when a user is accessing a website using a smartphone, they will be presented with an interface scaled for a mobile or tablet by default. Making use of this technology has become indispensable for businesses to provide a cohesive experience to customers across a multitude of platforms, the most important reason being the sheer rise in smartphone users.

Compare this to 2014, when only two-thirds of the population owned a smartphone. The introduction of 4G and other innovations has completely transformed the marketing milieu. With computers in their pockets, customers prefer to purchase online.

Moreover, investing in Responsive Web Design is also important for search engine rankings. Ever since the introduction of recommendations in 2015, Google has now taken it a step further with the launch of mobile-first indexing strategies, where businesses that have fully optimized mobile platforms will gain an advantage over those who don’t (meaning Google crawls, indexes, and ranked websites based on their mobile-friendly interface). Yet, as great a solution as RWD is for general searches, it fails to deliver a more personalized user experience.

2. Progressive Web Applications (PWAs)

The advantage of Progressive Web Applications lies in the relevance to the user’s personal needs. PWAs are websites that hold similarities to mobile applications, both in terms of looks and functionality. If users access a PWA with their Internet browser, they will be presented with the experience of a native app without the hassle of downloading a program.

With the capability of working like a native app on a web platform, PWAs offer a variety of benefits: faster access to information, offline compatibility, and users can set up shortcuts to their devices’ home screens. Users no longer have to waste time and storage space downloading a full-blown app. As PWAs offer the best of both worlds (apps and web pages), load much faster, and adapt well to the screen size of various devices, having a website built on PWAs is not only a profitable choice, but a smart one.

3. Smartphone Apps

Notwithstanding how time-consuming the process of downloading a mobile app is, the scaled-down user experience it renders places it at the top of the technological heap. Where PWAs fail to provide the features of automatic login and account linkage, customers can easily login to their accounts on mobile apps and access only the information that is relevant to their personal needs. A simple example would be that of reorder – Instead of going through an entire catalogue of products again, customers can simply log into their accounts and check order history where they could easily gain access to past orders and make a reorder. Therefore, the amount of time taken to download and sign into an app is compensated for in the time saved searching for the desired product to reorder.

This feature is useful to those who do not have access to a desktop computer and instead browse on their smartphones. Additional features such as QR Code service and enabling multiple users to access via one account make mobile apps far superior to a responsive website.

The bottom line is that making use of various mobile strategies is becoming unavoidable for B2B businesses who want to offer a more personalized and satisfactory user experience, regardless of whether a single channel is put to use or multiple.