Understanding your business approach is crucial if you want to have a successful marketing strategy. You can’t treat B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) businesses in the same way when it comes to marketing. That’s why in this blog post, we will break down the main differences that you need to consider for these two business types.
B2B marketing strategy
In this case, you are talking to a company, not an individual consumer. That’s why you need to completely avoid certain techniques and apply others instead. You need to take into consideration that a B2B transaction involves a bigger process and analysis from your client. Let’s see the main points you need to consider in a B2B marketing strategy.
01.
They take logic-driven decisions only
When you are promoting a B2B product or service you don’t need to involve feelings, you need to show the facts. In a company, every purchase usually goes through a process and more than one or two opinions are needed in order to buy.
You need to show how the end-users are going to benefit from your product or service and the benefits this will provide to the company itself. If you can prove that, the decision to buy will be much easier.
02.
Show the time and money saved A B2B company won’t buy something expensive without knowing the return on investment they will have. You need your message to focus on teaching them how they will save time, money, and resources.
If you are not showing up with those facts, they won’t be interested enough because you can’t prove to them if the investment will work or not. Do you see how relevant is this? Because your marketing won’t be around the product itself, will be around the people using the product.
03.
The message needs to be detailed
There is no such thing as too much detail here! You want to provide ALL the information they need. Because that same information will be sent to other people that are maybe in charge of making the final decisions.
Because that same information will be sent to other people that are maybe in charge of making the final decisions.
04.
Lead generation needs to be a priority
Lead generation for B2B companies focuses on getting the leads and create a long-term business relationship with them. You want to make those leads trust your product or service because that can be a game-changer in your B2B.
You have plenty of options to get the leads. Through content marketing, Linkedin, Facebook ads, live chats, free resources… Choose the one that adapts better to your business.
05.
You need to identify your specific niche
If you are creating your marketing strategy you need to have a well-specified niche. You need to know who you are talking to. Otherwise, you are going to spend time, money, and effort into reaching people that are not really interested.
This won’t happen if you know your niche details like demographics, interests, and needs. This is something you will need to do carefully and with patience because at the end of the day is the foundation of your marketing strategy.
B2C marketing strategy
In this case, we are talking about specific consumers who can make emotional decisions for themselves.
The decisions here are a bit more impulsive and if you understand your audience, convincing them to buy shouldn’t be that difficult.
Let’s explore more about this.
01.
They take emotional decisions
If you want to promote a product or service in a B2C you will need to understand the emotions they cause in your ideal audience.
Is the product making them feel happy, nostalgic, beautiful, smart, relieved? Is the service going to help them have more free time? More time with the family? Are they going to be more successful?
You will need to include all those emotions into your marketing messages because people don’t buy the product or service, they buy the emotion behind them and this is really important.
02.
Show them the benefits
The benefits need to super clear if you want them to buy from you. And you will need to make sure that those benefits are covering something they need or want to have. This is related to the last point.
Because if you are capable to identify which is the emotion they need to buy, you will be able to show the benefit in the best possible way.
03.
The message needs to be easy
Once you know the emotions behind your product you need to find the best way to express them. And this doesn’t have to be complicated at all. Because unlike B2B, for B2C people don’t need a lot of information to buy. You just need to touch those emotions and show them the benefits of your product. You need to get to the point because people can get bored easily and you don’t want that.
04.
Brand awareness should be your top priority
Branding is a really important part of a marketing strategy for a B2C company. Through branding, you can deliver a consistent message that will make your audience trust you. If you have their trust and loyalty they are probably going to buy from you more than one time.
This is why branding should be your main priority because you want them to come back to you and buy all the new products and services you create.
05.
Remember that niches are bigger
For a B2C company, you need to know that your ideal client will be harder to find. For example, if you are in the beauty industry there are millions of people that could be interested in what you sell. That’s why you need to be as specific as you can and also do testing. If you are testing ads you will be able to see who is engaging the most and if you use analytics you can also identify this.
After having a good amount of information it will be easier for you to identify your top customer, the one that wants to hear from you.
There you have the big B2B and B2C marketing differences. This is a really important topic that business owners tend to forget.
Just by following some of these steps, you will be able to see a big difference in how your business is performing. If you are looking to create a strategy for your B2B or B2C brand we are more than happy to help.