Understanding the Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketing

If you’re working in the digital marketing world, then you’re more than familiar with both Business-to-business (B2B) and Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. However, you may not be familiar with the different marketing strategies that each of these business types requires. While we’ve touched on the differences between B2B and B2C marketing, the truth is that understanding the difference is crucial to developing a high-performing marketing strategy. In this article, we dive further into B2B and B2C marketing strategies, highlighting 3 significant differences between the two. 

Target Audience

Understanding the difference between B2B and B2C marketing firstly comes down to the target customer. Understanding who your customer is is crucial to developing a high-performing marketing strategy, as it allows you to tailor your content strategy towards that particular audience.

Marina Turea of Digital Authority Partners tells us more on why knowing your target audience is crucial for developing your content strategy as a B2B or B2C business:

“B2B marketers go after key decision-makers within an organization. They don’t have to bother about everyone in the company or even the end-user. For instance, it doesn’t matter if a medical software or device will be used by hundreds of clinicians and care teams; only the CIO, information technology officer, and relevant hospital bosses will make the final purchase decision. So, B2B marketers should make sure that all of their marketing efforts are geared towards this small group of decision-makers. Like we mentioned above, B2C marketers sell directly to consumers, not retailers or any other business down the supply chain.”

Time it Takes to Convert

Wondering why it’s important to know the time it takes to convert? While B2C customers are more likely to make an impulse purchase soon after seeing an ad, B2B customers take much longer. This will usually result in a much different strategy required from the business to make the conversion. 

Ana Gotter of DisruptiveAdvertising.com explains more on why understanding the time it takes to convert is crucial for your marketing strategy:

“People are more likely to make impulsive decisions on personal purchases than they are on business ones, where they may have more finite budgets and there’s higher pressure to get it right the first time. After all, changing business purchases is often more complicated—it may mean requiring the entire team to learn new software and since purchases are often more expensive and larger in number, it can be much harder to change once purchased.”

Marketing Channels

While B2B and B2C businesses may use many of the same marketing channels to reach their target audiences, there will be some differences. Most notably, how they choose to approach their audience. While B2B businesses may use more of a formal, structured, and logical approach, B2C businesses will be focused on appealing to the emotional needs of the everyday customer.

Visitor Queue tells us more about how B2B and B2C businesses may choose to focus on slightly different marketing platforms:

“Since B2C businesses target consumers, their target audience can be found just about anywhere. Nearly all platforms can be used, though it’s best to hone in on channels that are best for your specific industry – for example, Instagram for fashion brands. B2B businesses aim to reach other business owners, so they may need to be more selective in the channels they choose. Consider where other business owners are hanging out – perhaps LinkedIn or Facebook.”

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