New York—Businesses from small shops to aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. are finding success with mobile marketing, representatives of three prominent b2b companies said Wednesday during a panel discussion at The BtoB Forum: Mobile Marketing.”

Scott Roen, VP-digital marketing and innovation at American Express OPEN; Steven Siegel, mobile specialist-sales at Microsoft Advertising; and Dayan Anandappa, executive IT leader-digital media technologies at General Electric Co. shared their insights in the session titled “What's Working With Mobile.”

American Express OPEN uses mobile to help the small businesses it serves boost sales. “The No. 1 need for small businesses is to drive more customers,” Roen said. One way AmEx helps small businesses is by enabling them to upload special offers to cardholders, he said.

Siegel discussed how b2b marketers use its network. Among these is Boeing, which reaches decision-makers in the military and some industries through its exclusive sponsorship of NBC's “Meet the Press” in broadcast, digital and mobile.

“Boeing is very smart in that they own the channel,” Siegel said.

Anandappa focused his discussion on apps, which GE started developing for internal use in 2007. “We soon realized it's a great way to increase customer touch points,” he said. “It's a great way to differentiate.”

Among the apps GE has developed are ones that monitor jet engines, locomotives and transformers.

In developing customer apps, Anandappa said, companies should focus on “what are the handful of things you need to do in three minutes or less and move on.”