The marketing world is full of acronyms that are thrown around all the time, and it can become confusing for even seasoned professionals. Two of the most common acronyms that you’ll hear are B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to customer).
Each requires a different approach to marketing, as each aims to sell products on a different scale to a different kind of buyer. Let’s take a closer look at those core differences between B2B and B2C marketing in more detail.
Core Differences:
There are a number of core differences that affect marketing strategies:
1. Target audience
With B2B marketing, the target audience is very different from B2C. This fundamentally changes the way that the marketing process looks. B2B companies sell to companies – they need to attract the attention of buyers and decision-makers in companies and show them that they can offer an attractive solution to a problem that they’re facing.
With B2C, it’s a different process – the consumer themself is making the decision, and as a result, they don’t need to go through the same processes of legitimizing their decision.
2. Cost
B2B marketing is far more complex than B2C, and that process is also a lot more costly. With B2C, you just need to get the attention of an individual and sell them a product. With B2B, you have to find the right individual in a company, and then initiate a longer process. There will be chains of command that have to be navigated, and it could take a long time before a sale is actually made.
3. Relationship goals
B2C relationships are often more fleeting; a consumer will often (but not always) buy a single product or service, and then require limited assistance in the future. With B2B, the aim will often be to establish long-term relationships, facilitate repeat orders and form a mutually beneficial partnership. This also fundamentally changes the way that B2B marketing is carried out.
4. Emotional vs logical
The decision-making process is also different between B2B and B2C purchasing. While B2C marketers can appeal to the emotional side of consumers, offering things that people want but don’t necessarily need, B2B marketers need to show that they can provide a product or service with a clear, logical ROI.
Choosing The Right Marketing Agency For Your Business
While you might think that a single marketing agency can provide all kinds of marketing services, most agencies tend to specialize in a single niche. Headley Media for example specializes in B2B technology lead generation, with extensive experience in providing the best marketing solutions for B2B companies.
The techniques used for B2B, as we’ve seen, differ from B2C, and as a result, for B2C companies, a different kind of agency is likely to be more appropriate.
Once you dive into the intricacies of marketing in the modern age, you quickly find that it’s an intensely complicated field, with multiple further specializations and subfields within it.
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