How Content Marketing Strategies Differ Between B2B and B2C Companies

Depending on whether your business model is B2B or B2C, your marketing strategy should be optimized for the different challenges and goals that come with.

Let’s start by defining the terms and understanding the different sales strategies each requires. 

B2B.

B2B stands for “business-to-business” and refers to commercial transactions targeting companies and bulk buyers. Profit potential, a focus on being cost-effective, and the desire to stay competitive is often what drives a B2B buyer to make a purchase. In a B2B system, businesses make buying decisions on profit potential as well as costs. This is different from B2C marketing, which targets individual consumers and potential customers.  

This volume shapes B2B marketing strategies, making them quite different from those of a B2C plan. Because an individual shopper does not buy a lot of product, not a lot of financial risk is attached to the transaction. A B2C buyer will conduct less research than a B2B buyer, who cannot afford to make an uninformed or impulse decision. In a B2B transaction, thousands of items can be purchased, making the B2B transaction potentially more costly and riskier for the B2B buyer, who has to do a lot of research and trusting before forking over money.  

As a result, the B2B sales process is longer. The B2B buyer will need more information from you about your product or service than the typical B2C buyer. A purchase from a B2B buyer may mean the beginning of a long-term sales relationship. 

B2C.

In comparison, B2C — "business-to-consumer” — selling is quite different. A B2C sales representative, for example, would be selling someone a car, gym membership, or luxury item. With B2C brands, marketers target potential individual consumers — not major companies who need to make bulk purchases. 

The majority of B2C goods are typically at lower price points, at lower volume, and require only one or two decision makers.

So how does all this affect how a business approaches marketing?

If you are involved in B2B transactions, you will want to be very specific in approaching your lead pool size, which is much smaller than a B2C lead pool.

B2B marketers are hyper-focused on how they reach their customers and the messaging they use in their marketing materials, as their customers tend to be more selective about the products or services they purchase. This is because they will be buying large volumes of items or signing expensive contracts, and one bad deal could result in losing a significant amount of money or a lost job.

On the other hand, if you are in B2C sales, your content marketing strategy could potentially be to reach millions of people able to make impulse purchases. Many B2C customers can make buying decisions without any substantial financial risk. 

Content marketing calls for creativity.

With B2C content, marketers have the opportunity to reach and engage with their customers directly through social media, websites and blog postings, storefronts, influencer partnerships and events, and more.