Kendall Hogenmiller • January 19th, 2018
When crafting a marketing plan and the content that enforces it, it's important to know who your audience is. In most cases, a company is either in the B2B or B2C market. In this post, you'll be able to define these terms and understand how their marketing strategies can differ.
In short, B2B stands for business-to-business and B2C stands for business-to-consumer. B2B transactions then take place from one business to another, while B2C transactions occur between a business and a customer. In both cases, a specific company has the task of crafting a marketing strategy that best reaches their target audience. These strategies can look different based on who the target audience is, either another business or an individual consumer.
B2B marketing should often be considered as an educational tool, trying to help other businesses to understand why they would benefit from what your company has to offer. You also have the opportunity to create industry insight by highlighting clients who have found great success by using your products or tools and introducing them to your network.
Typical B2B marketing efforts may consist of a strong digital marketing strategy (SEO, Google AdWords, Email Marketing, etc.), presence at industry trade shows, and a strong website.
A popular example of B2B is MailChimp, the email marketing automation platform. Simply put, MailChimp is a business that has a product that they offer to other businesses in order to help them grow via simplified email automation. They're also an example of a B2B company that does a killer job with marketing, in case you're looking for some inspiration.
B2C marketing often requires you to be more creative and cognizant of current trends in order to not only captivate your audience's attention, but inspire or motivate them. These days, it is important for a brand to use their social media platforms as a place to build brand awareness, as well as, a community. It's important that you're not only selling a product or tool, but a lifestyle. A great example of this is Austin founded athleisure company Outdoor Voices. They not only motivate you to buy their unique clothing, but also inspire you to be #DoingThings, possibly even at one of their many community driven events.
Whether you're a B2B or B2C company, knowing your specific target audience and being able to craft a unique marketing strategy to reach them is key to success.
