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Posted by Shahid Abbasi
December 26, 2017
Is your content marketing strategy bringing you leads? Do you think your message is reaching the right people?
Content is the best way to demonstrate business to the audience at large. It will suffice your marketing purpose only when it is able to connect with the targeted audience. If it is reaching the wrong people, probably your efforts are going in vain.
When it comes to giving marketing tips, all the people are just talking about creating robust content. No one discusses the diverging points of B2B and B2C. Indeed it matters a lot for the success of a marketing campaign.
When it comes to e-commerce businesses, there is only one thing that matters to a customer, be it B2B or B2C. Though it might look similar, businesses and customers purchase for distinct reasons.
The thinking procedures of both types of customers vary. Due to this reason, it becomes imperative to plan out different strategies to be the leader of both arenas.
For this purpose, it becomes essential to understand their choices and taste them. Accordingly, you can design your content marketing strategy to attract a targeted audience.
Hitting emotions through content is the key to success in attracting the right audience. These types of customers tend to think with their hearts. In fact, studies demonstrate all the customers use to buy by justifying the facts and relying on emotions.
During content creation, using emotional feelings can help viral your message that attracts a number of people, resulting in converting leads into conversion rates. It’s just that they must feel secure throughout the entire buying process.
The approach of business customers is a bit different when it comes to making a purchasing decision. Though emotions are perpetually a segment of the buying process, B2B customers tend to make decisions with logic that are hard and cold.
Unlike the strategy of B2C customers, you can’t come up with an approach of ‘one size fits all’. For B2B customers, every time you’d be required to tailor your marketing strategy. This way you can accommodate flexibility to your business customers and earn their trust in return.
To attract B2B customers, you’d have to focus on creating content that offers information and show off your thought leadership. Offering exceptional customer service and sharing helpful information continuously will definitely increase awareness and win the reader’s trust which is essential to making buying decisions. If a B2B customer has made a single purchase then there are high chances for his returning and that too with big orders.
Now that the difference between B2B and B2C customers are clear, let us break the nutshell and understand how it affects the strategy of content marketing.
The foremost area that makes us stand on the diverging point of B2B and B2C is the intention.
While there are ample companies that have B2B customers as their targeted audience, it is the business knowledge that allows them to stand out. Unlike, end-user consumers, they are not interested just in the product or services offered, but also the brand. The better is your content able to showcase your brand, the higher the chance to engage them, leading to conversion.
Targeting B2B customers would be a great responsibility. You’d have to come up with a thought leadership. If a business customer finds a better brand, he will definitely make purchases, increasing the scope of future orders.
When thought leadership is this important for business customers, this approach won’t be the right fit while targeting B2C customers. These types of customers would not at all be interested in what is the business and how good the brand image is.
B2C customers are just interested in the products or services that are offered. They make a purchasing decision with several motivations such as reliability. If they find out that the brand is able to deliver what the business promises, B2C customers are more likely to trust it.
Therefore, the intent of the content marketing campaign of both B2B and B2C has to be different to suffice your purpose evidently. While targeting B2B customers, a goal to create thought leadership would work wonders to set you apart from the others. Meanwhile, building an individual image or expressing cost-effectiveness perks will help you the most while dealing with B2C customers.
Be it B2B or B2C, constructing a campaign of content marketing message must be inspired by the targeted audience.
As there is a difference between B2B and B2C, so is the way they look for in any business. B2B customers strive for service, value, and trust; whereas B2C customers want emotional satisfaction of product/service and consider its price before they make their purchasing decision.
While creating a content marketing campaign, you must keep these preferences in mind for shining out among the audience. If you’re a content creator for B2B customers, adding trust, value, and service would work wonders to engage them. Accordingly, you can maintain the tone of content and craft it so wisely that business customers find it interesting to give you a try.
If you’re reaching B2C customers, on the other side, proving your price as cost-effective and emotional satisfaction will set you apart. By this means, the efficacy of these tactics will help you take your business to the next level.
Another important deviating point of B2B and B2C customers is the channel. It matters a lot to reach the right audience, as it is the way to do so.
When it comes to marketing channels, undeniably the businesses targeting B2C customers have a better scope than B2B. There are various channels through which it is possible to reach B2C audiences such as traditional advertising, Geo-targeting apps, physical promotions, and much more. This is because, generally, the majority of the targeted audiences are nearby.
With B2B business, on the other hand, there are limited scopes of marketing. This doesn’t mean, it is impossible for them to create better engagement opportunities. Instead, just a piece of native advertising on a big platform can help them to attract a large chunk of business customers which would apparently bring you a great scope to expand. Selecting an effective and trending channel for a content marketing campaign will impress you with better results than B2C customers which are one-time buyers.
The format of content is another prospective way that differs B2B from B2C. There is a certain set of preferred formats for each of its types. Referring to these preferences, you can help yourself to improve your content marketing strategy.
Studies show B2B buyers prefer to go through white papers, case studies, and technology guides during the purchasing process. B2C buyers, on the other hand, tend to refer to user-generated content, comprising of real-time marketing such as social media.
However, these preferences don’t mean B2C marketers should not get their hands on white papers for marketing or B2B should not create user-generated content. It’s just that referring to these choices you can pay more attention to the preferred channels to reach a greater number of audiences.
The main goal of marketing any business is CUSTOMER. It is the main aspect that affects the purpose of promoting and branding. Therefore, it becomes exceptionally essential to consider whether or not your marketing message is reaching your target audience. Simply creating content while keeping in mind your targeted audience won’t work in any way. It is not a final call in the marketing. Rather, you’d have to come up with two distinct strategies varying with the types of customers.
On one hand where B2C customers seek security, and useful information and use their hearts to think. On the contrary B2B customers make a purchasing decision that involves a thought process that used to be logical and profit-driven by using their minds.
Since there is a difference in the goals and perspectives of both B2B and B2C businesses, its strategies should also vary. Have worked with any of these audiences in the past? If so then share your approach by posting on social media. We’d love to have a word from you.
