B2C vs B2B Marketing: 4 Key Differences Marketers Should Know

Find Out The Difference Between B2C VS B2B Marketing Today!

You may know if your company is B2B or B2C.

But, do you know what that really means in terms of your marketing? Or how you should be addressing your audience?

Understanding what best resonates with your target market is the key in driving sales, and to do that, you need to:

1. understand which type of audience you have, and
2. orient your marketing to address that type of audience. 

So in this post, we’re going to talk about B2C vs B2B marketing.

As well as what most business owners don’t think about that could scale their profits. Let’s jump right in!

The Difference Between B2C vs B2B

B2C stands for Business to Consumer, and B2B stands for Business to Business.

Most people know if you’re B2C it means you sell your products or services directly to consumers.

And if you’re B2B, you sell directly to other businesses.

But that’s where their definition stops. 

If you’ve been struggling to see the results you want to see from your marketing, it may benefit you to dig a little deeper into understanding your audience.

So now, we’ll go over how to address your target market accordingly if you’re a B2C or B2B business.

4 Key Differences Between B2C Marketing vs B2B Marketing

1. Customer involvement
2. Volume and price
3. Time to purchase
4. Amount of research time

1. Customer involvement

Contrary to what the name may suggest, B2C is usually actually less personal with consumers than B2B is. 

Examples of B2C companies could include retail stores like Target…

…or fast food restaurants like McDonald’s. 

They’re serving consumers, but in quick transactions that require little, personal communication if any. 

Now there are exceptions of course, for example, if you’re a tour guide who provides tours to travelers…

…that’s B2C and requires very personal communication. 

But B2B companies usually require a point of contact between the two businesses for the life of the partnership.

Thus, resulting in more long-term, ongoing communications.

So if you’re B2C, consider how you can make that quick communication you do have with customers efficient, friendly, and helpful. 

If you’re B2B you’ll want to put a lot of thought and intention into the communication you have with your clients.

This is so as to build a partnership that’s long-lasting.

2. Volume and price

B2C companies typically sell to a larger volume of customers at a lower price point.

Whereas B2B companies typically work with fewer customers at a higher price point. 

So if you’re selling to a mass amount of customers, make sure you’re doing everything you can to make their buyer’s journey seamless and easy…

…while either remaining competitive in price or the value of your product or service. 

If you’re working with fewer clients, make sure to take precious care of those relationships to:

• retain them, and
• get good word of mouth from them.

3. Time to purchase

The third key difference between B2C and B2B is the time to purchase. 

Because of the nature of B2C companies usually selling products or services to the masses at a lower price point like we just talked about…

…we usually see less objections from the customer to purchase for these B2C companies. 

They make the purchase quicker because they don’t have to think about it as much or maybe the return policy is really easy in case it doesn’t work out. 

It’s not usually a complex decision, so they’re able to make a buying decision quickly.

Whereas a B2B audience is usually committing to a higher price point and/or an ongoing, monthly, or yearly purchase.

So for B2B businesses, there is often more thought that goes into their purchase. 

As a result, someone in a B2B marketing funnel might take more time or need more nurturing than that of a B2C marketing funnel. 

You’ll want to account for this in your marketing and retargeting materials. Check out this post nest to learn more about what is remarketing.

4. Amount of research time

The last key difference is the amount of time the customers spend researching your product or service. 

Kind of piggybacking off our last point, the higher the cost of your product or service is…

…the longer your customers are going to spend doing research before making a purchase. 

That’s not to say B2C customers aren’t researching at all, it just might be for a shorter time than B2B customers.

And that’s because the product or service isn’t as much of a financial or time commitment. 

So just make sure you’re completing a thorough competitor analysis…

…and doing everything you can to outshine anybody else your audience might find in their research.

And those are our key differences between B2C marketing and B2B marketing and how to adjust accordingly! 

If you want to dig even further into nailing down your exact target audience, we would highly recommend you read our target marketing example post as well.

But whether you own a B2C or B2B business, our digital marketing services can definitely help you better reach your target market. Contact us now!

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