What if you had the right strategy for the wrong audience?
When it comes to marketing, many people (including major companies) don’t understand the differences between B2B and B2C. As a result, they pour time and money into strategies that just aren’t going to work for their particular audiences.
Want a better understanding of B2B vs B2C marketing? Keep reading to discover a key breakdown of the differences!
Establishing Relationships
Building relationships comes naturally to most marketers. However, B2B and B2C look at relationships very differently. In order to succeed with each kind of marketing, you’ll need to fully understand these differences.
For example, B2B looks at relationships on a more personal and longer-term basis. After all, your business contract will last for many months and you may be in business together for many years. It’s important to consider the B2B customer journey and react accordingly.
Some of that B2B focus on relationships is informed by the rest of the marketing strategy. Because B2B is built on the importance of lead generation, it’s no surprise that it would be focused on the kinds of personal relationships that lead to customer loyalty and new customer referrals.
In its own way, B2C is more straightforward. Customers want a transactional relationship in which it’s clear what they are going to get from your products and services. To make a perfect ad, you must make your product’s value proposition clear.
B2C is also highly driven by customer reviews of various businesses. Because of that, many successful businesses seek out new ways to positively engage with customers and court positive reviews. That may be as simple as offering a small discount to customers who positively mention your brand on social media.
Speaking Their Language
When you visit a new country, it can be difficult to learn the language. However, speaking in your own language is a major signal to the people around you that you’re an outsider. That’s exactly how it works in the worlds of B2B and B2C.
As an example, B2B ad copy tends to be emotionless and to the point. A B2B audience doesn’t want flowery prose that makes a product or service sound enticing. Instead, they want clear and precise language that explains the potential benefits of this purchase.
However, B2C audiences often prefer language that targets their emotions. Ad copy might focus on how excited they will feel when they try a particular product or how happy that special someone will be when they receive this product as a gift.
If you stick with a plain and emotionless copy for B2C audiences, they will skip out on your product. Instead, you should maximize sales by figuring out the emotional motivations of your customers.
To Jargon or Not to Jargon
Our next section is an extension of the previous one. It concerns a simple question: Should your ad copy use industry jargon or not?
As you might imagine, the answer is different for B2B marketing and B2C marketing. For B2B, using jargon can be very beneficial.
That’s because the use of jargon signifies that you understand new developments in your particular industry. By using up-to-date jargon, you signify to your B2B audience that you aren’t stuck in the past.
However, B2C audiences are usually turned off by jargon. They see it as boring company speak that does nothing to engage their interest. If you try to bring in what you see as hip modern “lingo” to your B2C copy, your marketing is going to feel instantly dated.
Making Decisions
Good marketing often feels a bit like you’re back in math class. That’s because you often know the answer, but marketing is about finding the variables and making sure everything adds up.
Nowhere is that clearer than in the decision-making process. From your standpoint, the goal is clear: getting your audience to buy your products and services. But to get the best results, you must understand the differences in how these audiences make purchasing decisions.
For example, B2B audiences like for you to stay in communication and answer their questions before they make a decision. This gives you a great chance to pitch the benefits of your company vs the competition while also smoothing over any concerns they have about how this purchase will impact their company.
Things are simpler with B2C marketing, and that’s why concepts such as the consumer funnel still work so well. Good marketing establishes the consumer need for a product and helps you nurture them all along the decision-making process. Eventually, this leads to your ultimate goal: customer conversion.
Reaching Audiences
Speaking of the customer funnel, that’s another example of how different approaches work better for B2B vs B2C marketing. In B2B, one of your best strategies for reaching your audience is establishing a particular audience niche.
Studying extensive analytic data can help you determine what your customers are searching for. From there, you can work your way backward and determine who your customers are and what is driving their purchases. Once you have this data, you can begin using targeted marketing strategies to drive lead generation.
With B2C, the funnel is very important because you have a much wider pool of potential customers. By employing marketing that is both emotional and product-driven, you can drive more consumers to the top of the funnel.
This strategy basically boils down to see how many potential customers you can find at the top of your funnel. From there, you can use demographic analysis and remarketing strategies to help move warm leads further through the funnel.
The B2B and B2C audiences may respond to other unique strategies. For example, B2C audiences actually enjoy interactions with high-quality chatbots, but a B2B audience remains focused more on personal interactions and long-term relationships.
B2B vs B2C Marketing: Your Future Is Now
Now you know more about B2B vs B2C marketing. But do you know who can help you get the most out of each approach?
We specialize in helping our clients reach their full potential. To learn more about what we can do for your company, check out our client success stories today!
