4 Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Marketing
There are vast differences between marketing to business clients and marketing to consumers because their characteristics, needs, and buying patterns differ. And as a digital marketing expert, you must recognize these differences to enhance the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising.
Target Audience
The B2C market is much more pervasive than the B2B market because there are simply more consumers than businesses. As a B2C marketer, you must focus on specific consumer demographics, such as gender, age, income, and ethnic background. Your product may also appeal to certain lifestyles, attitudes, or opinions. With B2B marketing, key target audience determinants include company size and industry.
Needs
The needs and wants of consumers are much different than those of business owners and managers. In B2C marketing, you must appeal more to certain emotional triggers, such as desire, pride, and fear. Contrarily, decisions among business owners are more rational and logical. They want to make sure your company can solve their problems better than your competitors—and do it for a fair price.
Information
In B2B marketing, the content is much more detailed. Business customers are used to poring through brochures and catalogs or seeing demos of products before making buying decisions. You may also need to create new products and attend trade shows to reach new business clients. Consumers often rely on short snippets of content to make purchases–whether a small ad, coupon, twitter promotion, or reviews.
Decision-Making Process
The decision-making process is much longer in B2B marketing. CEOs must meet with marketing and finance professionals to make purchasing decisions. In most cases, you must cultivate a relationship with business customers, present your proposal, and then play the waiting game. The buying process for industrial businesses is even longer, as they must factor risk, reliability, flexibility and service into their decisions. With B2C marketing, decisions are often made impulsively or after a brief amount of research.
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