B2B and B2C Marketing – Differences You Should Know

Do you think marketing is a singular venture, and you can reach all your customers following the same path?

You are wrong!

Just because the end result is the same – pursue customers to buy products or services – you can’t uniformly reach everyone and dream of success. Understanding customers is essential; after all, they say, ‘your business is just as good as the number of sales.’ Although it is true, the end game is to convince customers that what you are selling is the best, yet the road to reach is different. In this article, we will discuss marketing to businesses (B2B), marketing to consumers (B2C), and the difference between them. Even though the two cousins B2B and B2C bear numerous similarities, the differences between them run deeper. 

In this article we are going to cover the following topics:

• What is B2B marketing?
• What is B2C marketing?
• The difference between B2B and B2C marketing.
• Difference Chart.
• Online B2B & B2C marketing.

What is B2B Marketing?

As you can already tell by the name, B2B marketing is all about the commercial transactions between two businesses, such as the supply of raw material for production, services, or anything else. Here, marketers are more likely to focus on details like logic, process-driven approach, wholesale decisions, value for money, etc. There are little to no personal feelings involved. In such situations, since the marketing efforts are directed towards the other people and teams in charge of making purchase decisions, it is crucial to understand their role and position in an organization. Instead of focusing on the product details, the marketers focus on the people who use those products.

When marketing to businesses, the features to highlight are how the product or service saves time, money and benefits the purchasers. The business here is slow and often required detailed product trials, but the orders are huge. B2B marketers offer lengthy marketing messages to influence the customers' rationally driven buying decisions.

What is B2C Marketing?

Business Consumer marketing is all about using conventional marketing tricks. It refers to the organizations that are directly linked with the consumers. The B2C marketers do not target groups or communities; instead, their targets are individuals who are purchasing products for personal consumption. To allure customers, features like desires, needs, satisfaction, want, approval, and fulfillment are highlighted. From cosmetic to real state and everything in between, B2C is involved in all business domains.

B2C customers are likely to perceive small and direct messages clearly. Instead of a lengthy marketing message, pointing out the benefits up-front is what works best. Unlike businesses, the purchase process is relatively quick and straightforward. B2C marketing is all about pointing out the benefits and results of a particular product or service. While directly marketing to the consumers, it is essential to focus on the pain points.

The difference between B2B and B2C Marketing:

It is imperative for marketers to understand and adapt their techniques in the light of B2B and B2C businesses if they wish to go a long way on success. These differences are the key to developing and maturing a high-performing marketing strategy. Whatever your business domain is, here is a cheat sheet of B2B and B2C differences that will help you take more calculated, aware, and right marketing decisions.

Target Audience:

Although B2B and B2C marketing overlap each other in various ways, when it comes to the target audience, the boundaries are loud and clear. B2B marketers deal with a certain person of importance in an organization, and they don’t have to cater to everyone in the company or even the end users for at matter. On the flip side, B2C marketers deal with the consumers directly. They have to target all their resources and strategies to the end-users.

Customer Relationships:

B2B marketers aim to develop personal relationships with customers. This helps them to drive long-term business. Given the possibility of repeated business and referral opportunities, lead generation is profoundly crucial in B2B businesses.  Hence, we can conclude that relationship building is extremely vital here. At the same time, B2C marketers go after transactional relationships. For B2C, time is money, and as a result, they do not spend much time getting to know their customers. Reviews, PR packages, influencers, and other techniques help B2C marketers push their customers to buy their products.

Logic Vs. Emotions:

Captivating stories can help you capture customer attention. It also helps to win customer loyalty, but the way B2B marketers and B2C marketers tell their stories, it is at a 180-degree contrast. As stated above, B2B is about logic. Here the marketers sell their products based on the points as to how it can benefit organizations, save money and appeal to other logical features. There is no hint of emotional involvement. Contrary to this, B2C marketers are all about creating an emotional connection between the individuals and the product or service.

Decision-Making Process:

When it comes to B2B, the decision-making process is more open. The businesses involved openly communicates whether the deal is going to work for them or not. Comparison of the positive aspects might help marketers here. The decision process is quite complicated and takes a lot of time. B2C consumers, however, make decisions quickly. Their consumers are much more flexible when looking at a specific product to buy and have many more choices.

Marketing cost:

It is true Marketing to businesses is a lengthy and costly process. It requires long command of marketing messages, a great deal of persuasion, and so on. Since the decision-makers are not just one person but an organization, B2B marketers need to invest heavily in influencing them. Marketing to direct consumers is relatively cheap. Consumers are more likely to make snappy and quick -decisions. When dealing with one-person, it does not require heavy capital.

Buying Cycle:

One of the primary differences in B2B and B2C is hidden in their buying cycle. B2B consumers do not just make buying decisions; it involves a long list of departments that include procurement, manufacturing, quality control, financing, etc. Since the marketers are dealing with more than a few people, they have to work hard to build trust, and each buying cycle is long, depending on the order quantity. With B2C, the story is different. B2C customers are usually alone decision-makers or require the approval of close family members when purchasing goods. Also, they do not buy in bulk quantities; hence the buying cycle here is relatively shorter, and the decisions are made in a couple of minutes. 

                                      Difference Chart

Online B2B & B2C Marketing:

B2B and B2C marketing both have moved away from the clutches of traditional marketing approaches and are now standing in the new spotlight “online world.” Today the marketers are more focused on promoting their message digitally. Especially when it comes to B2B buying or selling, online trading platforms like Tradewheel.com help B2B marketers spread their message wide and far. Similarly, B2C marketers have also made the most out of this digital opportunity. B2C websites are also flourishing, helping marketers to go beyond the physical restrictions and reaching customers worldwide.