What’s the difference between B2B and B2C marketing?
B2B, also known as business-to-business, is where one business sells their products and services to another business. B2C, or business-to-consumer, is where businesses sell their product or service directly to the public. Naturally, these two different types of commerce require different marketing strategies. Wrap your head around the nuances and you’ll smash your B2B or B2C marketing.
1. People
Usually when a consumer buys a product, they are the sole person involved in the purchasing decision. This makes B2C marketing a lot simpler than B2B in many ways, because you only have to appeal to the individual. When businesses buy a product, there can be a host of people involved in the purchasing decision. This involves everyone from managers to stakeholders. With B2B marketing, marketers need to delve into the mindsets of numerous purchases and reach them through various touch points.
2. Time
Depending on the product or service, a consumer could take anywhere from a few hours to many months to make a purchasing decision. Businesses, on the other hand, can take a lot longer. Not only are there many people involved in decision-making, but there are processes, rules and regulations involved in these decisions. This is why B2B marketing typically involves a longer buyer’s journey than what you’d find with B2C.
3. Costs
So far we’ve looked at how much more time, and how many more people, are involved when businesses purchase a product. Cumulatively, this amounts to much higher research costs and expenses. This makes B2B marketing more complex, time consuming, and yep— more expensive. B2C is a traditionally a lot simpler and a lot cheaper as the individual has little to no expenses—and nothing at stake—with their purchasing decision. They can simply get a refund or exchange if they don’t like the product they’ve bought.
4. Focus
When a consumer buys a product, they are motivated by personal needs and desires. When a business makes a purchasing decision, its main motivation is profit. Therefore, the people who are involved in the purchasing decision on behalf of a business are looking at how their consumers will like the product, as well as the return on investment (ROI) for the business. A consumer’s choice will be highly emotional, whereas a business’s choice will be based on logic, often backed by data and analytics. B2C and B2B marketing are fundamentally different, because marketers need to look at the consumer’s vs the business’s end goals.
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