Mobile App Monetization: How to monetize B2B apps

Most mobile monetization discussions hover around B2C apps and rightly so. The last few years have seen a quite a few ‘killer apps’ emerge in India (now that's a word you don't hear too often these days. Maybe because there are so many of them!). The B2C boom has in fact opened up the market for B2B apps and a new segment B2E (Business to Employer) to emerge. Gartner highlighted this shift in 2012, and it is now fully upon us. Business software companies need to have a mobile app now to add street-cred to their solution. And why not, selling custom apps to the enterprise segment has always been a lucrative revenue source.

Few years ago, the local FMCG distributor had runner boys fitted with 8000 Rupee Android 2.0 phones to capture store inventory and relay to Regional Sales when they got back on office Wi-Fi. Nokia was sending commodity prices from the nearest wholesale mandi to farmers as a text message. How did they do it on a feature phone without GPS? Simple hack – send your PIN code on SMS.

But phones and platforms have now evolved and so has the ecosystem. B2C apps have taught people to use maps and send messages (This in a country where limited literacy was touted as a big hurdle to messaging). Consumers now fully understand notifications, settings configuration, image capture and 'upload to server'. These are all skills that have great application in the world of business automation. The ‘Post-PC Mobile-First Business-User' has arrived and there will now be a gold rush to monetize this generation. App users will not just be those in management. Admin and operations staff at the workplace who previously did most of their tasks manually with major risk of data error will now use their company provided mobile apps to stay productive. And IoT (when it booms) will take this to the next level.

So what should B2B app developers keep in mind when developing for this market? Simple - the exact same principles you need for a successful B2C app. Users know a ‘wow feature’ when they see one so make sure you throw in enough of those. First impressions are important when the CIO makes a decision.

As Benedict Evans put it - 'A computer should never ask a question it should know the answer to'. So, if you are building a cab service for a company's employees delivered on mobile, then the app already knows where the staff member is, which vehicle is assigned, driver's phone number, drop off address, best possible route to handle multiple drops for that day, safety alerts, and with the necessary security authentications in place. Most of these features have already matured in B2C taxi apps. Users will navigate through these with native instinct. Like Tarzan amongst the jungle vines. Like Spiderman in Manhattan.

Any legitimate business going in for an online presence has to have a website and if needed, a transaction platform. The question we can now ask is 'why only website?' Why not an app? An end user on a mobile device is infinitely more useful and influenceable than the web counterpart. And some transactions today are just easier done on a mobile. Banking services have proved that. Using a mobile for business is now the norm.

The other major monetization contributor for B2B from the B2C world is ticket size. People today are buying furniture on mobile. Most SME focused SaaS products operate at similar price-points as that of your living room sofa (sounds silly, but you get the point). People are getting comfortable doing online mobile transactions upwards of INR 25k. Mobile apps are now legit for business transactions.

The Verge reports that 250 companies in the US are already using AirBnB for their room bookings. Tech start-ups are usually early adopters of these new B2B service trends that eliminate operational overheads. Happay, a Bangalore based local expense management solution is getting popular among new gen tech companies. Employees can capture card expenses on their Happay mobile app, take pictures of physical receipts and generate expense reports and make fund requests – all from their mobile device.

The biggest question a CIO faces before investing in a new productivity tool (like a mobile app) is - “Will my people use it”. In this context, don't underestimate the power of push notifications. People are now comfortable with standby screen alerts and do not see it as intrusive. B2B companies can take full advantage of this and send customers personalised notifications based on specific user actions. If the message is timely, relevant and important, users will respond. Increase in Active Users demonstrates value delivered for the purchase decision makers at enterprises and also the end users. Companies like Mumbai-based Wizrocket are now innovating on top of phone capabilities to build an app engagement platform. You can alert users to log in, submit data and schedule reminders. These needs are ephermeral and mobile delivers the required actions to make a B2B app stay relevant and successful.

Mobile is today the default primary channel for information. Comfort and depth of engagement a user has in a Whatsapp will make workplace communication apps like Slack easier to accept. Some business transactions can be complex, but using heuristic techniques adopted by B2C companies, the B2B focused players can drive adoption. And we are not talking about big corporations buying these products. In emerging markets, chances that a SME will invest in a mobile-first solution for its business and marketing automation are high given the maturity of the Android ecosystem. There lies a pot of gold in B2B and mobile app developers are making a bee-line for it.

- Nikhil Narayan heads Marketing at Knowlarity, a pioneer in cloud telephony products for SMEs in emerging markets