What are the key differences in how you to market B2B vs B2C?
The key difference I see between my B2C and B2B clients are sales cyles, ad spends, lead generation tactics and target audiences.
In B2C, it's often very difficult to identify the exact person you need to reach. You can identify cohorts, cookie the crap out of customers visiting your website, or interact individually with them on social, but when you're trying to find a product market fit, this can be difficult to gauge at first. In B2B, your target is more lazer focused. You might be able to know not only the exact job title and pain points of your customer, but you know their name, who they report to, and what their budget is to spend on your product or service. This allows for more insight into what your marketing spend will be.
But even if you know who exactly who your target is, in B2B you might have several decision makers at one company that all have a different problem in mind. You'll have to address that and understand who influences decisions and who actually gets to make the final call. This is one of the reasons why sales cycles can be so long in a B2B play. That and it's obviously a much larger purchase than a $10.00 widget for a B2C company.
That being said, B2B marketers often have to build relationships with their customers. More so than B2C. When was the last time a big brand like Coke interacted with you? Personally, I think a lot more content, depth and expertise must go into B2B marketing than B2C because of those factors mentioned above.
Despite being able to track almost every action your customers make, lead generation is very difficult for B2B companies in comparison to B2C in my opinion. I've seen studies that say "Other" is the biggest reason leads come in the door for B2B organizations. What is that? I read this quote and it couldn't be more true:
“Rather than focus on a single silver lead bullet, understand that B2B lead generation is a composite of unquantifiable activities and behaviors that just work. Basically, even smart people don’t really know where their leads are coming from all the time. A lot of getting “leads” has to do with a lifestyle of consistent marketing efforts, a constant cultivation of industry relationships, and the organic mashup of all kinds of interactions, activities, behaviors, and efforts.”
https://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/04/14/b2b-lead-gen/
The key difference I see between my B2C and B2B clients are sales cyles, ad spends, lead generation tactics and target audiences.
In B2C, it's often very difficult to identify the exact person you need to reach. You can identify cohorts, cookie the crap out of customers visiting your website, or interact individually with them on social, but when you're trying to find a product market fit, this can be difficult to gauge at first. In B2B, your target is more lazer focused. You might be able to know not only the exact job title and pain points of your customer, but you know their name, who they report to, and what their budget is to spend on your product or service. This allows for more insight into what your marketing spend will be.
But even if you know who exactly who your target is, in B2B you might have several decision makers at one company that all have a different problem in mind. You'll have to address that and understand who influences decisions and who actually gets to make the final call. This is one of the reasons why sales cycles can be so long in a B2B play. That and it's obviously a much larger purchase than a $10.00 widget for a B2C company.
That being said, B2B marketers often have to build relationships with their customers. More so than B2C. When was the last time a big brand like Coke interacted with you? Personally, I think a lot more content, depth and expertise must go into B2B marketing than B2C because of those factors mentioned above.
Despite being able to track almost every action your customers make, lead generation is very difficult for B2B companies in comparison to B2C in my opinion. I've seen studies that say "Other" is the biggest reason leads come in the door for B2B organizations. What is that? I read this quote and it couldn't be more true:
“Rather than focus on a single silver lead bullet, understand that B2B lead generation is a composite of unquantifiable activities and behaviors that just work. Basically, even smart people don’t really know where their leads are coming from all the time. A lot of getting “leads” has to do with a lifestyle of consistent marketing efforts, a constant cultivation of industry relationships, and the organic mashup of all kinds of interactions, activities, behaviors, and efforts.”
https://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/04/14/b2b-lead-gen/