Ever felt like B2C marketers get to have all the fun? Coming up with splashy ad campaigns, running irreverent Twitter accounts and generally acting outrageous and getting away with it? That’s right, I’m looking at you, Duolingo.
On the other hand, B2B brands are busy debating which shade of grey best exemplifies excellence or writing 2000-word emails outlining 15 little-known features of their CRM tool.
It doesn’t have to be like that.
Of course, there are differences when it comes to B2B vs B2C — nobody in the business world needs an aggressive owl mascot.
However, the fundamentals of B2C branding are all about building a relationship with your customers on an individual level, and people are at the heart of every decision at the businesses that make up your audience.
Can B2B marketing learn a thing or two from B2C brands? Of course. Let’s find out how.
Acronyms Defined
B2B: Business-to-Business
B2C: Business-to-Consumer
Can We Use B2C Marketing Methods and Research in B2B?
The vast majority of marketing research is done on consumers and focuses on B2C selling, but don’t assume that makes it irrelevant for B2B brands and marketers.
Remember, even when you’re building products and services for businesses, you’re selling to people — these are the key decision-makers within your targeted industry and the end-users of your product.
This means that psychological insights are as relevant in B2B branding as they are in B2C branding, and connecting with individual ambitions, motivations and values can create loyal customers and drive a trusted reputation in your industry.
Given that work and career compose a fundamental part of American identities, B2B brands can appeal to customers on an individual level as well as a business-wide level. Managing both effectively is the secret to an enduring B2B brand.
4 Things B2B Marketers Can Learn From B2C
1. Telling a Story
B2C brands know how to tell a story. From TOMS Shoes’ global mission to Apple’s outsider origin story, brand storytelling is a powerful way to communicate your purpose and your values.
TOMS brand story is clearly articulated prominently throughout their website
This is particularly important in the B2C world, where the focus is on creating an emotional connection with customers. Brands interweave their mission and values into an impactful origin story that creates a strong emotional bond with their customers.
In B2B, we tend to prioritize a colder, more rational brand identity and often forget the warmth that a good narrative brings to the table. However, a strong B2B brand must form an emotional connection with its customers and communicate its purpose and unique selling point with a compelling force.
Integrating an origin story in your B2B brand marketing is a great way to do this and can be used to position your brand as an innovator, an expert or a long-standing industry leader.
You could profile your founder’s story like Mailchimp does or highlight why the problem you’re solving for your customers matters internally too.
Providing a founder story allows Mailchimp to build an emotional connection to the people behind the brand
2. Focus on Your Customers
B2B branding tends to focus on the product or service. Undoubtedly, you’ve honed your product to be the most cost effective, innovative or feature-rich option on the market, and it’s important you emphasize these qualities. But only focussing on the product can inadvertently stall your efforts. Understanding your customers’ experience should always lead your marketing efforts.
B2C marketing strategies have a customer-centric focus which allows them to pinpoint the customer needs they are addressing. They produce highly personalized content — something that 80% of consumers prefer from the brands they use.
In B2B, this means balancing your marketing strategies to ensure that when you’re product-focussed, it addresses the most relevant concerns of your users. Building detailed buyer personas lets you tailor and target your messaging.
For a deeper dive on creating ICPs, stream this episode of the Social Pros Podcast: Building Ideal Customer Profiles for Social Media Success
Personalization is also important, and it builds a strong connection because it reminds customers that you see them as individuals, not as cogs in a larger business machine.
3. Relevant Retargeting
B2C brands excel at engaging potential customers who have some experience with the brand but slipped through the net before a sale. They track abandoned carts and prompt customers to continue with orders, or track email newsletter engagement and provide tailored content to re-energize a dying lead.
Source: flodesk.com
This is more challenging in B2B. When your customers are businesses, you may lack the individualized data that allows retargeting in this way, and you have to be more creative with your retargeting. For example, the B2C standard of a free shipping offer falls flat when you’re an innovative SaaS company.
Nevertheless, retargeting must be a part of your B2B marketing strategy. Map your retargeting strategy to your sales funnel, so that you have relevant content to re-engage your audience, no matter where they drop off.
4. Build a Seamless Selling Experience
B2B solves long-term problems for their customers, and often require a substantial financial and time investment from their customers to implement these solutions. This creates complex selling frameworks and allows some B2B brands to assume they can get away with a less-than-optimized selling experience.
Meanwhile, B2C brands, particularly in industries such as ecommerce, are clamoring for extremely short attention spans. They know that there’s a brief window when a customer is visiting their website that a sale is possible, and any barriers create missed opportunities.
B2B brands can learn from the frictionless selling experiences offered in B2C to create seamless sales. At our domain store, we’ve created multiple payment plans and provide a fully supported domain transfer process to alleviate our customers’ technical concerns.
Ask yourself how you can streamline the experience of your customers. Are you asking for unnecessary detail, or requiring registration when you could allow customers to proceed without logging in?
What is the Biggest Difference Between B2B vs B2C Marketing?
You might think this question has an obvious answer — the customers. But while B2B brands are selling to businesses and B2C brands are selling to individuals, the main difference isn’t in the identity of your audience. It’s their needs.
B2B brands are solving business problems — by intervening in your customer’s business strategy, you must provide long-term solutions. B2C customers more often have short-term needs, like hunger or fashion.
Despite these differences, B2B brands can learn from B2C brand strategy and marketing goals. Lessons learned from the personalized, customer-centric approach in B2C can help B2B brands connect with their audience, build long-term loyalty and a strong reputation.
Wrapping Up
B2B and B2C marketing must differ in some important ways. B2B brands have less leeway in terms of brand tone, for example, and unlike in the consumer world, no amount of branding can disguise a fundamentally weak product. Your customers care about the bottom line.
B2C marketing strategies build strong emotional ties that integrate products and services in customer identities. B2B brands can get in on the action: you’re selling to people, who are at the heart of the businesses that make up your target audience.
Are You Building the Right Connections With Your B2B Customers?
Convince & Convert can help. We can conduct audience research, audit your existing marketing programs, and provide comprehensive strategic plans to get you on the right track – fast. Contact us for a free consultation today.
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