B2C Marketing: A Complete Walkthrough

What is B2C Marketing?

B2C marketing is an abbreviation that stands for Business to Customer marketing. The B2C business model is where a business makes a product to sell directly to the end consumer. It focuses solely on appealing to the masses based on emotional and clever marketing strategies over showing product performance or stats.

Differences Between B2C and B2B

B2C marketing differs in its objective and nature from that of B2B marketing:

• B2C marketing is more driven by emotional messages attached to its marketing campaign. B2B marketing, on the other hand, is more product-driven and is focused on building a long relationship based on the quality of the product/service.

• B2C marketing is more generalized due to the audience being the entirety of the general public. B2B marketing is more personalized as the goal is to convince a small group of potential clients to enter into a long-term business relationship.

• B2C marketing focuses more on entertainment-based appeal in their marketing and often avoids jargon. B2B marketing focuses more on presenting the upside, effectiveness, and efficiency of their product. They are usually very straightforward and filled with industry jargon.

• B2C marketing would apply to consumer products like soft drinks, snacks, personalized electronics, etc. B2B marketing is where one business markets its products/services to another company.

Also Read:

What is B2C eCommerce? An Ultimate Guide

Aspects That Make B2C Unique

The following are aspects that make B2C unique as compared to other marketing models:-

• Sales Cycle

The sales cycle of B2C consists of 6 steps:

1. Finding possible future customers - This is done by understanding the ideal customer or buyer persona through lead generation methods.

2. Lead connection - Here, the business works to find problems their leads face, which they can solve through their product. Businesses provide free material and information to build a relationship with the lead.

3. Qualifying leads - Not all leads are convertible. Thus leads that are unlikely to be converted are weeded out.

4. Pitching/ advertising the idea - In B2B models, this is more direct, but in B2C, this is done through targeted ad campaigns directed towards leads with the potential to become customers.

5. Overcoming the objection - In this step, the marketing team goes over the doubts of unconvinced customers and public reviews. The marketing team then tries to relay the message to the production team to change the product based on the feedback. Once the changes are made, the marketing team, through ads, announces to the public about the improvement in their product.

6. Closure - Unlike in the case of B2B, where businesses personally meet and finalize deals, in B2C, closure happens when the product is bought and preferably meets sales targets.

• Buyer Persona/ User Mapping:

A buyer persona/ user map is a template businesses use to identify their customer base. This can be done for already existing customers or future potential customers. A buyer persona is an image of what the average customer of the product is. In B2C models, the parameters are more human. These can include likes/dislikes, wishes, dreams, wants, web behavior, information on personal relations, job descriptions, etc.

• Ad Communication

The ad communication process in B2C is vastly different from other models. In B2C marketing, ads focus on leveraging human emotions and behavioral patterns as methods of persuasion. The ad communication focuses heavily on selling the emotive side of the product experience over the qualitative. With the advent of social media and platforms such as YouTube, B2C ads are more focused on delivering high-quality short, and hard-hitting pieces of content over lengthy jargon-filled ads.

Learning Points for Marketers

The marketing game has drastically evolved over the last decade. 86% of B2C marketers think content marketing is a crucial strategy. Surveys show that 84% of all customers surveyed agreed to have made purchases after being influenced by a company's video advertisement. Content marketing has become a must for any business looking to market its product. Especially in the B2C space, consumer buying patterns are highly volatile. As a marketer or a business owner, it's imperative to identify the top priorities while planning your digital marketing campaigns:-

• Having a Robust Digital Marketing Plan

The cornerstone of a digital marketing campaign is its plan. Without a plan, a goal often just gets reduced to a wish. A robust digital marketing plan is often detailed, laying out the goals, the targets, the budget, time windows, team roles, responsibilities, etc. It acts as a guiding document that dictates the general flow of the campaign. Having a robust digital marketing plan helps to achieve goals promptly while cutting the cost of impulsive spending in the future. It also helps prepare for any contingencies.

• Creating High-Quality Content at a Fast Rate

The first five seconds of page-load time have a significant impact on conversion rates, with over a 5% drop every corresponding second. 92% of video marketers feel competition has increased in the last year. These statistics point towards the need for marketing through high-quality content, which stands out from the rest at a rate that keeps audiences engaged and invested. Keeping audiences invested in your marketing schemes leads to better conversion rates and, in turn, better sales.

• Distributing Content over Targeted Channels

Selecting the right combination of channels to effectively and efficiently deliver your message to an audience is vital. The most suitable channels will differ depending on your audience and your product. It is always better to market through various channels and capture a broader audience in the B2C space. With the rise of audio content, newsletters and blogs, it's important to work alongside agencies or teams with a wide array of expertise throughout different mediums. Also, exploring avenues such as paid content, guest appearances, and posts have shown to be effective strategies.

• Measuring the Effectiveness of Content Marketing Strategies

Once the plan is devised and the content is delivered through the select channels to the target audience, it is time to measure the effectiveness. Feedback through surveys, reviews, and monitoring sales reports helps analyze the effectiveness of a marketing plan. The feedback is essential to weed out non-performing ideas and channels and replace them with better alternatives.

Conclusion

Doing business is hard enough, but managing marketing alongside it is a seemingly herculean task. But just hiring anyone to handle marketing won't cut it in this highly competitive market space. So what can a business do?

Amura Marketing Technologies is the answer. It is a digital marketing agency that provides businesses with 360-degree digital marketing solutions tailored-made to suit their marketing needs.