“The survival of the fittest.”

Well, that’s something B2B companies need to know a thing or two about. In their world too, only those who adapt best to changing environments survive.

B2B companies need to batten down the hatches to weather stormy market conditions, but there will be always be marketing expenses they cannot cut down on.

So, how do they make necessary expenses and still stay afloat?

Here are some tactics B2B companies can use to handle difficult business environments:

• Acclimatize to the new scenario
  A bad environment isn’t going to go away overnight. So, it’s important to move quickly without panic. Quickly assess the situation and revise your sales and revenue targets accordingly, so that you know how much you can afford to spend and what the required ROI is.
• Prioritize budget allocation
  After you adjust your business plan to current market conditions, reallocate your overall budget based on the results. Focus on the most important short term goals for now. However, some businesses stick to long term goals even during bad conditions so that they are ready when the market turns around.
• Revisit all your offerings
  B2B companies are in a tight spot with their product portfolio during hard times. Maintaining the entire product range may be expensive, but one needs to balance that with a realistic call of what the profitability is and who is buying them.B2B companies often have long standing relationships with their customers and pulling back a product during lean times can hurt their customers’ interests and consequently the relationship. It’s a tough call, but depending on the situation may be necessary.
• Organic social media marketing
  Tough times often requires tightening of company budgets. You will have less spending money than usual, which makes it important to spend it judiciously. Focus your money on campaigns that are imperative and drive daily posts through organic efforts.In difficult market conditions, concentrate on retaining existing customers through relationship marketing. Engage your fan base with new economical offers that will persuade them in sustained investment in your brand.Acquiring new B2B customers may be a process with a long gestation period. You may not have the resources to focus on this. Depending on the prospects’ stage in the acquisition lifecycle, companies may choose to pursue them or divert their resources to get the most from existing customers.
• Continue email marketing efforts
  It would stand you in good stead to continue your email marketing campaigns by focusing on nurturing your current database. You will not only save money otherwise spent on buying lists, you can also build on relations with current prospects and customers. Promote your social media offers through your email campaigns too.
• Participate in industry events
  We’re not talking sponsorship or paid advertising in any form.Send company representatives with strong networking skills to industry events. Participation in industry events achieves a three-pronged purpose: knowledge gain, strengthening customer relationships and interaction with new prospects. All it takes are a few passes to enter as participants and you can let your team do the rest of the work at the event.
• Increase focus on risk management
  When the foreseeable future is bleak, companies will be more interested in understanding how your product/service will help combat the risks of the current market trend. There’s an opportunity for your company if you can effectively tweak your brand communication to emphasize on risk management and deliver the same through products. When a prospect/customer reads your content, they should feel that your company can help them tide over this crisis.
• Understand the impact on brand value and position
  Making changes to your business plan and goals might have an impact on your brand’s value and position in your industry. Keep this possibility in mind while preparing for an impending industry crisis and also during the situation. Don’t make drastic changes that take a wide detour from your brand’s vision and mission. For example:
  • Cutting costs by a large margin might diminish the perception of product quality. Offering too many discounts can undermine your brand’s value.
  • Changing your tone of voice in brand communication too much can pose a threat to your connection with customers.

The way you keep your value, customer value and revenue prospects in focus during times of crisis is what will define your brand.

Can you think of any other way B2B companies can keep themselves above the line of risk in troubled times?

Image source: Brand stories

The social networking site wants to standardize the way traffic is routed between mobile apps with the introduction of App Links.

Twitter has already invested in mobile deep app linking.

Facebook’s App Links will result in standard cross-platform linking between apps and contribute significantly to Facebook’s advertising revenue.

So, how does App Links work?

App Links helps app developers understand how they can send users who are clicking on a link within an app to the app that corresponds to the link. Facebook has launched Software Development Kits (SDKs) for the use of developers on all major platforms.

For example, you click on a link to a Flickr photo album on an email in the Mailbox app. The Mailbox app will check if the Flickr website header has App Links tags showing deep links for the Flickr iOS, Android or Windows phone apps.

Mailbox then sends the user to the deep links found in the App Links header tags on Flickr’s website for your device. If you have installed the Flickr app, Mailbox will send you to the correct deep link and if you haven’t installed the app, you will be directed to the Flickr website.

Advantages of App Links Adoption for Facebook and Marketers

The adoption of App Links will provide Facebook with data from App Links tags and the Facebook App Links Hosting API in its App Links API. Armed with this data, Facebook can understand how web links map to deep links in iOS, Android and Windows apps.

It will offer marketers the ability to create one campaign that can run across different channels: desktop web, mobile websites and mobile apps. If the App Links adoption takes root, Facebook can do this by leveraging its App Links Index.

You will then be able to add a web link and an image into the Facebook Ad Editor for a re-engagement campaign. You only need to add App Links tags to your website for users to be directed to your website after clicking your ad. If a user clicks on your ad from the Facebook mobile app, Facebook can check its App Links Index for App Links tags on the destination and direct the user to the app page.

With this new introduction, Facebook can start persuading its desktop marketers to launch re-engagement campaigns on mobile with no account changes. Facebook can also convert all ad campaigns to web and desktop cross platform campaigns like Google’s Enhanced Campaigns in 2013.

The App Links adoption will also spur Facebook’s recently launched in-app mobile ad network, Audience Network. When your app publishes an ad, Facebook can read the App Link tags of the destination URL or look at its App Links Index, to know what deep link needs to be launched if the user has installed the associated app.

Roadblocks to App Links Adoption

• Both the referrer and the destination apps must support the App Links standard if the user is to be sent to the destination app.
• Facebook will have to garner support from developers and major players like Google and Yahoo to support App Links so that when links are clicked in Gmail, Yahoo Mail or any popular app, the App Links standard is leveraged.
• App Links helps with app to app linking. It does not support web to app linking.

Are you open to adopting App Links? Do you think it will help marketers and increase Facebook’s overall ad profits?

Image Source: altasproject