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Business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) are terms that are often used in the marketing world. Although both terms are connected to business, they mean very different things.
The term business to business refers to companies that sell products or services directly to other businesses. On the other hand, business to consumer refers to companies that sell their products or services to consumers. While marketing is essential for both business models, they each require different approaches in order to be successful.
Keep reading to learn about the differences between B2B and B2C marketing.
As a whole, marketing is all about connecting with people in hopes of making them see why they should buy what you’re selling. However, in B2B marketing, building strong personal relationships is of the utmost importance. Since B2B customers tend to be long term buyers, it’s essential that your marketing strategy be focused on nurturing those connections.
Not only will this approach help you keep existing customers happy, but it can also lead to more customers in the future. If you develop a good rapport with businesses and they are satisfied with what you have to offer, they’ll be more likely to refer other businesses to you. Getting new clients off of the stretch of an existing relationship is one of the highest compliments your business can receive.
Many people’s purchasing decisions are based on emotion, but the same can’t be said for business purchases. As a result, your B2B marketing strategy needs to be focused on logic. Putting emphasis on emotion could actually hurt your marketing efforts when you’re trying to sell to businesses.
You need to cut all of the fluff and get straight to the ways your product/service can benefit your potential customers. Businesses want to know exactly how you can help them. Keep in mind that decision makers don’t typically have a lot of time, so all of this information needs to be explained clearly and concisely.
Content is an important part of every marketing strategy, but how you approach it is slightly different in B2B marketing than in B2C. It’s not unusual for consumers to make purchasing decisions without knowing all of the details, but that’s not how most businesses operate. Decision makers like to be as educated as possible before moving forward with any purchases. This means that your content needs to be well thought out and informative. When businesses come to your blog, they want to feel confident that you know what you’re talking about, and they also want to feel like they can take something away from what they’ve read.
Keep in mind, however, that it’s important to avoid using too much jargon or too many technical terms as this can be off putting to people outside of your industry. The last thing you want to do is confuse people.
In most cases, business decisions aren’t made by just one person. There is typically a chain of command that must be followed which means there’s often a good amount of back and forth before anything can move forward. In fact, around 63% of business purchases involve more than four people and this is a growing trend. From a marketing standpoint, it’s important to know this because it means that you need to make sure you’re marketing towards anyone who could possibly have a role in making the final decision. On the contrary, most consumers are responsible for their own purchasing decisions.
Everything in the business world is about making money, and B2B marketing is no exception. The businesses you’re marketing to will want to know what kind of return on investment they can expect from using your product. How will your product/service help a business make or save money? Your marketing should definitely be able to answer those questions. If you don’t make this information easily accessible, you could miss out on some serious sales.
Consumers, however, aren’t usually as concerned about getting a monetary return on something they buy. Instead, they typically gravitate towards things that make their lives less stressful or more fun.
You’ve officially been brought up to speed on some of the key differences between B2B and B2C marketing. The next thing you need to do is find a marketing agency who can help you develop a solid B2B strategy. Our team at Local SEO Search would be happy to help.
We have ample B2B marketing experience and we have the knowledge to help you grow your business. Contact us today to get more information on what kinds of services we have to offer.
