Blog Post

Demand Generation

How Your B2B Marketing Strategy Should Differ From B2C

B2B (Business-To-Business) and B2C (Business-To-Consumer) are two terms that often come up in the growth marketing world. You’re likely already familiar with these terms. 

However, knowing the difference between B2B and B2C and knowing how marketing strategies are different for each is another matter.

Marketing to B2B audiences and marketing to B2C audiences require different approaches, and that’s what this article will delve into. You’ll learn how to build a marketing strategy that makes sense, whether your focus is on B2B or B2C.

Customer Relationships

The first difference in strategies is noticed in how customer relationships are approached. Digital marketing, in general, has a big focus on building relationships with customers, and the way this is approached varies between B2B and B2C strategies. 

While B2C marketing likes to zoom in on personal relationships, B2B marketing is less intimate and has what could be called a "transactional" focus. Building long-term relationships take the spotlight for B2B marketing strategies, and the attention is more sales-oriented in B2C marketing. 

Keep in mind that both require customer services and good lead generation to be fast and effective. A "Speed to Lead" approach is essential.

Branding

B2B marketing takes a very different stance on branding than B2C marketing does. B2B focuses on positioning, whereas B2C is more concerned with messaging.

For B2B, good positioning is what makes you stand out among the competition and attract your audience.  Positioning is about more than branding; it’s about perception. It encompasses various elements — from content marketing to branding and social responsibility.

On the other hand, B2C marketing is concerned with what your target audience thinks about you. What does your company stand for? What does it support? People who feel they can relate to your brand are more likely to buy from you. 

Ad Copy

Marketing strategies also diverge for B2B and B2C when it comes to ad copy. B2B companies need to take a professional approach, while B2C companies have the freedom to be more playful and emotional.

Successful B2B marketing ad copy should stick to terms that their audience is familiar with and avoid being frivolous. B2C ad copy should speak the same language as its target audience.

Audience Targeting

The way B2B companies approach audience targeting is also different from how B2C companies do it. To build effective B2B marketing campaigns, it’s important to find a niche and make that the focal point of all marketing efforts.

B2C marketing is more funnel-focused, and this funnel will consist of awareness, interest, desire, and action. A PLG (product-led growth) funnel can also be quite useful. 

Traditional marketing can come in handy but requires a good understanding of existing customers and proven ways to generate leads. 

Using marketing automation software (like HubSpot) can make audience targeting more effective and less frustrating, especially when trying to stay focused on results rather than the small things that can distract your marketing team. 

Sales Cycle Length 

The sales cycle length for B2B marketing is, in most cases, longer than it is for B2C marketing. This is because the decision and approval process requires multiple signatures, so potential customers might need more encouragement to take the final step and make a purchase.

More lead nurturing is required for B2B companies to get the sales they want, and user experience is an important factor here. If customers don’t get the attention they need, they’re more likely to move away and support other businesses. Customer service is a prime part of the B2B sales funnel. 

The B2C sales cycle often requires less input from salespeople, though this varies widely across industries and audiences. 

Emotional Investment

Generally, B2B marketing is far less emotional than B2C marketing because the customers are more calculating. They are driven by evidence of performance and numbers. B2B marketing, therefore, tends to be more information-focused.

B2C marketing calls for more creativity, entertainment, and emotional investment. Customers are more focused on achieving happiness or satisfaction and make more impulsive decisions.

Paid media campaigns can be useful tools for building emotional investment in both B2B and B2C marketing.

Marketing Channels

B2B companies and B2C companies have different marketing channels to choose from when it comes to their marketing efforts. For B2B marketing to work, the challenges of the audience must be addressed, as well as their needs and relevant interests. For this, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial.

Other channels that are fruitful for B2B include PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, referral marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and social media channels.

B2C companies can use outdoor advertising, influencer marketing, traditional advertising, and digital marketing strategies. Search engines and social media also play a big role, with platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook being some of the most popular and effective for B2C marketing.

B2B, B2C, and Matter Made

Planning a B2C or B2B marketing strategy isn’t easy and shouldn’t be taken lightly. 

A well-defined strategy that has the right approach to branding, customer relationships, and audience targeting can take your company to new heights. 

Why not combine efforts with Matter Made? We have a team of expert marketing professionals who can help you build B2C or B2B marketing strategies that will see you rise above your competition. 

Interested? Let’s talk!

Blog Post

Demand Generation

Growth

Why You Need to Implement a Growth Marketing Strategy

Budding SaaS brands leverage growth marketing by constantly trying innovative marketing strategies, measuring their efficacy, and scaling them up accordingly to get more paying customers that add to a strong user base.

In this article, let’s look at five reasons why a go-to-market strategy is a must-have for every budding business aiming for hyper-growth.

1. Growth Marketing Improves Your Brand Awareness

The biggest challenge growing businesses face is that only a tiny percentage of their target audience is aware of them. This increases the effort that a brand has to put in to convert leads into loyal customers.

Growth marketing focuses on getting your business on the front page of the internet in the following ways:

  1. It increases your ranking on search results through strategies like link building and PR mentions.
  2. It boosts your social media following by capitalizing on User-Generated Content (UGC) and increasing activity on social media platforms.
  3. It increases the dwell time of visitors to your website through content creation.

All the above advantages get you more qualified leads, boost your conversion rates, and improve your average customer lifetime value.

2. Growth Marketing Increases ROI

Traditional digital marketing tends to have a lower Return On Investment (ROI) as it shares a one-size-fits-all promotional message without considering the factors that make each of its viewers unique.

Growth marketing is just the opposite. It segments the audience based on various parameters such as age and location and shares customized messages by understanding their pain points and requirements.

This personalized approach pulls the prospect closer to your product or service as they can relate to the message on a deeper level. Consequently, your conversion rates and customer lifetime values increase, and your customer journey improves.

An indirect way growth marketing increases ROI is that some of its tactics (like email marketing) can be automated, saving you time and labor.

In the long run, through sustainable growth marketing tactics such as content marketing, the cost of acquiring customers decreases. 

It also becomes more effective, as you can target your approach for each funnel state (as we know some demand generation content works best at certain stages).

Source: Content Marketing Institute. A table showing the effectiveness of each marketing channel at each buyer stage.

3. Growth Marketing Makes Customer Acquisition Easier 

You have ‘acquired’ a customer when a prospect who doesn’t know your business exists eventually purchases from you. For that, they need to find you, connect with you, and trust that you will give them the value they are looking for.

Growth marketing facilitates each of those things.

Through a diverse set of strategies like content marketing, referral programs, and social media marketing, you can increase brand awareness which will make your audience trust your business.

Once they become a lead, you can nurture them through the sales funnel using strategies like email marketing. Drip marketing campaigns through email (or any platform) are a great way of delivering value through personalized content.

Furthermore, by leveraging UGC, social mentions, and testimonials, you can earn their trust by delivering a great customer experience. This will not only increase the rate of customer acquisition but will also keep the acquisition costs low and improve customer retention.

4. You Can Adapt Growth Marketing to Your Needs

Adaptability lies at the heart of effective growth marketing. This makes growth marketing platforms an excellent option for businesses of all sizes, regardless of their marketing budget.

Based on your current objectives, you can facilitate rapid business growth by investing in selective growth marketing strategies. 

For instance, if you want to position yourself as a thought leader, you can just focus on PR campaigns. Or, if you want to increase your conversion rates, you can invest in tactics such as programmatic ads.

However, to know what will work best for you, it can be hugely beneficial to take assistance from successful growth marketers who have a wide array of experience. As every business, including yours, is defined by many variables, it can be easy to make mistakes that you cannot afford.

This is where a growth hacking team like Matter Made can help you immensely. 

5. Growth Marketing is Scalable 

Unlike traditional marketing, you can selectively scale up your growth marketing efforts to give you specific results.

For instance, if you want to increase the number of visitors to your website, you can scale up your content efforts. If you want to get more followers on social media, increase your activity on corresponding social media platforms.

Furthermore, you can scale up any of your growth marketing experiments whenever you want to. 

Apart from being adaptive to your need of the hour, scalability is another reason why working with an experienced growth marketing manager is indispensable.

Need A Growth Strategy? Chat To Matter Made

Growth marketing helps you in the following ways:

  1. It increases your brand awareness
  2. It improves your marketing ROI by targeting potential customers that are more likely to convert
  3. It makes it easy for you to gain new customers while reducing CAC
  4. It adapts to your needs and constraints of the moment
  5. It scales in the way you want to and when you want to

Matter Made's growth marketing team has helped SaaS companies like Loom and Dropbox grow astronomically by creating and implementing various growth marketing strategies suited to their respective niches.

Our growth hackers can help you strategize and execute growth strategies for faster revenue growth, get you more customers through demand generation, and cement your position as an industry leader through paid media campaigns.

Interested? Let’s talk.

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