So perhaps you’re a talented programming team that’s tired of pushing out an app for the masses, only to be crushed like the other millions of apps competing on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Instead, maybe you just want to offer businesses a service that you can readily provide. In either case, B2B app marketing is the answer to both.
For mobile app programmers, you completely avoid directly competing with other apps in stores and instead sell your services to interested businesses. Essentially you switch gears from business-to-consumer (B2C) and start positioning yourself for business-to-business (B2B). If you’re looking to accelerate this process, here’s what you need to know about B2B app marketing strategies.
Identify and Understand Your Target Business Clients
Before you can sell a B2B app, you have to understand who it is you’re selling to. Just like you would do keyword research and App Store Optimization (ASO), you have to understand what it is that will be attractive to your target client.
While you yourself may be B2B, your customers may be B2C, B2B as well, or even business-to-government (B2G). Narrowing your focus while keeping your goals in line is crucial. Too broad and you’ll never resonate with your customers. Too narrow and you’ll find you may miss out on opportunities and have a difficult time closing. There’s a good balance to be struck, and doing so will take up the majority of your time initially.
Once you’ve figured out who they are, analyze how they make money. What are their pain points, their difficulties in business, and then how your app can solve any of their problems. While it’s most obvious to sell them an app to reach out to new customers, a technical solution that makes their lives more productive and easier is also a possibility.
Setup and Grow Warm Leads First
One method to attracting clients is to attract their customers first. You can use the same methods as you would normally to create and market an app, but start with the end goal of licensing the app afterwards.
For example, if you were to create an app targeting high end car enthusiasts, you could then approach Lamborghini vendors who might want to reach your users. You could put together a resources app detailing driving grounds, legal restrictions, helpful driving tip videos from YouTube and more. From there it’s just a matter of seeing how things go and use that as an opener with your client.
By showing an existing track record to your client you can begin a working relationship with them. The higher end the client you’re trying to reach the less numbers you really need to entice them. For the same work as it might take you to simply promote downloads of your app, you can gain far more profit.
Do-it-all and Sell The Infrastructure
If you do the work once, there’s nothing stopping you from doing it again. In the previous example, you could sell the car enthusiast app with a certain dealership’s branding on it and rebrand it continuously and resell it to new dealers.
In this way, you do less work and continue to reach new profit goals. From this approach, you can create starter apps and then lay down the foundation for clients that sell other items, such as high end mechanics, driving lessons, etc. The possibilities are endless with this kind of thinking. There are many paths that open to you from thinking of your app as less of a product and more as a vehicle for your success.
