- “If I give you my money, will you provide me with leads?”
- “Why can’t I just do it myself, why do I need you?”
- “Marketing is a waste of money.”
Any of the above sentiments sound familiar? Chances are, if you’re reading this blog then you’ve either asked or have been asked one of these questions. To summarize marketing into one sentence is difficult enough, summarizing a specific type of marketing in one sentence [in 2021] feels almost impossible.
We get it, lumping all types of marketing and branding into a single category – marketing – can feel like a logical route, one that often we find our customers entertaining. The reality is that different types of businesses require different marketing strategies and even then, we’re only beginning to scratch the surface of how to approach building a strong marketing campaign.
To start, let’s break down 2 marketing acronyms:
- B2B = Business To Business
- B2C = Business To Consumer
2020 presented the world with a litany of new and challenging hurdles. For many marketers, it felt like a daily exercise of guesstimating where the ROI will come from today. Ony one aspect stayed consistent: By-and-large, marketing fell into two main schools of strategy: B2B or B2C. While many things have changed recently, one thing stays true: B2B vs B2C is still the main conversation most agencies and marketing firms are having.
Why does it matter if my marketing is B2B v B2C?
Great question! Determining whether a marketing strategy is B2B vs B2C is incredibly helpful when it comes to determining what type of marketing mix best meets your business’s needs. That’s why we wrote a helpful blog (AKA the one you’re currently reading.)
What is B2B Marketing?
B2B marketing strategies often use logic and features, instead of personal emotion and ethos to convey their messaging. B2B marketing strategies often try to focus on answering why a product is the right solution and how it can improve a business.
Whenever Outmark® works with a client who is focused on the B2B market, we try to focus on important, factual features of the product/service that the business marketing offers. Prime examples could be messaging that focuses on how your product or service saves time, money, and resources.
What is B2C Marketing?
On the other side of this proverbial-marketing-coin, we have B2C marketing. Marketing directly to consumers and potential buyers is an entirely different conversation than B2B marketing. Most B2C marketing works to convey a focus on the benefits of the product and appeal to the consumer’s emotion.
Consumers, especially in 2021, not only have short attention spans but inherently demand a variety of distribution channels for convenience, and more importantly, they want to feel a connection with brands they are supporting.
This is one of the reasons we’ve seen a surge in business social media use in recent years.
Studies have found that most consumers are less likely to be interested in a lengthy marketing message and want you to get right to the point. In fact, in 2000, Microsoft conducted a study measuring how long people can focus on one thing for a specific amount of time. The results showed the average person’s attention span was 12 seconds. About 15 years later, it dropped to 8 seconds (more info here).
With this kind of logic, it’s natural to conclude that consumers don’t want to work to understand your benefits. Instead, consumers will want you to point out the benefits to them clearly and in an easily digestible manner vs B2B shoppers who tend to want to digest more information before converting.
Now what?
B2B vs. B2C marketing is a concept that often has a low entry point of understanding, with a high-ceiling of utility and concept. Basically, just because you know that a B2B or B2C strategy is right for you doesn’t mean you’re done with all your marketing planning.
While this is a good place to start, we encourage you to dive into many different channels and strategies of marketing. Test, test, and restest again. Look at your data and what your audience is responding to – B2B or B2C – how your consumers react to your marketing tactics will be the true measure of their success.
So do your own research and determine what marketing is going to work best for the goals you’re trying to achieve or speak with one of our Marketing Integrators about developing a comprehensive marketing plan to best reach your target audience.
The only way to truly lose one’s foothold in today’s competitive marketing landscape is to stay silent or worse yet, blend in with the crowd. After all, what is marketing if not a bunch of paid social experiments?
