B2B versus B2C Marketing Strategies: Which One’s The Best

Marketing is about creating an awareness of a product/service and selling it to a potential consumer.

Any customer purchases a product/service for his utility. Be it for his use or for his company. Hence, we land up having two types of consumers- business consumers & personal users.

When we use B2B (business to business) marketing strategies, our primary aim is to cater the needs, interests and challenges faced by the customers who are buying the product/services on behalf of their organization.

Read: How to use Online Videos of Business to Promote your Brand

But when we use B2C (business to consumer) marketing strategies, we tend to add value to the customer’s daily needs by providing them with their required product/service.

At the end of the day, both types of marketing falls to P2P marketing ie., person to person, be it any kind of audience.

For instance, an interior designing agency that specializes in designing office spaces for a company (business consumer) is B2B marketing but if it is designing certain rooms for homebuyers (personal consumer) then it is B2C marketing.

Both the marketing strategies can be employed within the same organization serving both the clients as per their requirements. Hence, driving up the sales volume of the company.

B2C marketing focuses on quick and crisp solutions to the consumers while B2B marketing involves building relationships, as their product/service carries high degree of ROI to the business consumers.

Let’s see how the two marketing strategies differ from each other!

Difference between B2B and B2C marketing strategies

Return on Investment (ROI)

B2B purchase process requires high level of decision making in terms of finance incentives as the product purchased should be able to add value to the profits of the business.

Employees of a business buy products/services that will make their business profitable.

On the other hand, B2C customers don’t go for such deep valuation while buying a product/service, they opt for quick fixations and entertainment.

Know-how of the product/service

In B2B marketing, employees who purchase for their company always aim to become the workplace heroes. They investigate too much while buying a product for their company as it will further provide them with greater returns.

In nutshell, they don’t want to regret their purchase but feel empowered with their decision taking skills.

Contrary, in B2C marketing, the actual users don’t really opt for complex researches about the product/service they are buying as long as their needs are getting satisfied.

Chain of commands

In B2B marketing, the product is not sold to one person but to the whole company as every outflow of money is authorized by various departments such as procurement and accounting.

While decisions made by a customer is influenced by his family and peers hence, speeding up the marketing process.

Buying cycle

B2B marketing strategy usually goes through bigger chain of purchase because it is meant to complete long term goals of the company, further going through various complex evaluation stages in the process.

B2C marketing on the other hand is quite a spontaneous action as the consumer focuses upon his immediate needs. Hence, keeping the size of the buying cycle small.

Contract

B2B purchases often build longer relationships than B2C. Businesses can’t just dispose of a product if they don’t like it. Making a decision to buy a product carries high degree of relevance to B2B marketers as they are going to use the resource in their long-term projects.

B2C doesn’t really care about building close relationships. They can be your loyal customers. They might follow you on Twitter but not really into subscribing to your blog.

Industry jargons

B2C marketers prefer informal video content. They don’t find buzzwords attractive.

B2B marketers mostly look for technicality. They take a note of every possible quality of the product/service which they are buying for their company.

Emotionally driven decisions

Seven out of every nine B2B brands is effectively driven by emotions while storytelling contributes only 10 to 20 percent.

Triggering emotions always help to generate sales from both business & customer users.

So, what to conclude?

Both B2B and B2C marketing strategies have their role.

Using the right marketing strategies at the right time is the only key to take your business to next the level.

Be it a business consumer or an ultimate user, the bottom line is applying the right marketing strategies on the right kind of audience.

Read: Why should you use digital marketing for your business?

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