BtoBlog: Marketing strategies, tactics and insight

I came across some Google slides that illustrated the percentage of daily queries by the hour and by which type of device: desktop computer, tablet or mobile phone. The number of queries varied greatly during the morning, work day and evening hours, but it was significant that the amount of activity on mobile and tablet searches went up in the morning and evening hours. The desktop PC dominated search activity during the "normal" business hours but, naturally, fell off in the evening.

It would seem that people are now constantly connected to the Web, and are seeking information at all times of the day and night through their mobile devices and tablets. There are multiple marketing implications associated with this situation.

Certainly, the implications of this are significant for b-to-c marketers. However, I think there is significance here for b2b marketers as well. If we believe people are multitasking even at home, doing research for work, or never leaving work far behind or working on global business activities, then our marketing messages may need to be crafted for, not only the device type, but also the state of mind or activities of the searcher while at home.

We normally have to produce deep, relevant content and deliver a technical message that can be consumed during work hours on a desktop computer. It would appear people are willing and able to digest this kind of content and marketing during the day. However, given the Google data, perhaps we need to rethink our message alternatives delivered in an effective way during evening hours.

Maybe a marketing "snack" that stimulates further investigation while the kids are doing their school homework on "your" home PC is the right message delivered at the right time. After all, the data suggests you are on your tablet trying to find a few insights that will help you when you get back into the office the next morning for that meeting with the boss.

In our manufacturing markets, some of our customers and prospects are likely checking their online monitoring systems of the night-shift production rates and machine uptime reports any way. Perhaps an effective email at 9pm would be more likely to be viewed at home on your tablet than one the next day during office hours, after you glanced at your inbox and saw 56 or even 156 new messages.

I am interested to see more studies about this phenomenon.