B2B Content marketing v/s B2C Content Marketing

Author : Bharati Ahuja

Though there is a person behind the business to whom you want to market a product or service , there is a difference between marketing to a business and marketing to a person. A B2B purchase is based more on reducing costs, streamlining systems and saving time, effort and money to buy for further sale whereas B2C marketing is geared to make a direct sale to a customer for end use. Hence the B2B and B2C marketing differ as follows:

• The Purpose of buying: A B2B buyer is buying for resale but a B2C buyer buys the product for direct use.
• The Price: As the B2B buyer is buying for resale the price offered to him has to be competitive enough. 
• The communication with the buyer has to be as per their need via the right channel.
• Purchase quantity: The B2B buyer will mostly buy in bulk to get a competitive price but a B2C buyer may just buy a single unit an may be willing to pay a high price.

When there are such stark differences in the focus between both the kinds of marketing then does B2B Content Marketing differ from B2C Content Marketing?

• The goal of B2B Content Marketing and B2C Content Marketing is the same but the difference is in the approach.
• The B2B purchase is a result of a logical decision but a B2C purchase for direct consumption is more driven by emotion and the immediate need of the product at that point of time. For e.g a B2B purchase for jackets for further resale may be a very logical decision made before the season arrives for the use of those jackets but a B2C decision to buy a jacket may be during the peak season when the B2C buyer is ready to pay a high price to purchase it. Hence catering to the B2B logical decision the content should be based on the intricacies of how the decision will be more profitable but the decision made for B2C which may be driven more by utility should focus on how the product is going to be more useful to the buyer and why he needs to buy it immediately.
• Whether the content is for B2B or B2C audience it should be honest and fulfil a need. i.e give accurate information, offer a solution, answer FAQs, etc.
• The content should be published regularly with consistency of thought to win the confidence of the readers. 
• The content should be not be a sales pitch though the objective of the content is to acquire new customers. The order should be educate > engage > acquire and not vice versa.
• B2B buyers usually take decisions in their offices where mostly they are using their laptops or PCs but B2C buyers increasingly are using their smartphones to make purchase decisions hence the content created should accordingly cater to multi screen devices to influence the potential buyer to make the decision.
• The social media platforms used by B2B buyers and B2C buyers also varies. B2B buyers usually prefer LinkdenIn and Twitter and the B2C buyers are usually influenced majorly by FaceBook but the tweens and teens are also getting influenced by Instagram, whatsapp and Snapchat social signals.
• B2B content ideas and content usually comes from the employees but for B2C the content usually comes from your satisfied customers in the form of feedback and reviews.
• Emailing informative content to B2B buyers may be accepted by them as they are constantly looking for more and more information to come to the most profitable decision but emailing content to a B2C buyer may not be welcomed as a B2C buyer wants the information readily available in the right format when he is making the decision and usually gets annoyed if bombarded with emails.

B2B and B2C Content Marketing Trends:

B2B vs. B2C: 10 Marketing Experts Have Their Say (SlideShare) from Babcock & Jenkins

The Following Stats By The Content Marketing Institute give An Idea About What To Expect In 2014 As Regards Using Content As A Marketing Strategy:

• 86% of B2C marketers and 91% of B2B marketers are using content marketing as a key part of their strategy today.

• 60% of B2C content marketers expect to spend more in 2014 than was spent in 2013.
• Over the past year, only 55% of B2C content marketers saw a budget increase.
• 58% of B2B content marketers plan to spend more in 2014 than was spent in 2013.
• Over the past year, only 54% of B2B content marketers saw a budget increase.
• 69% of the least effective B2C marketers plan to increase their budget.
• Only 55% of the most effective B2C marketers plan to increase their budget.
• Brand awareness is the top content marketing goal for both B2C (79%) and B2B (82%) marketers. Customer acquisition (71%) and retention/loyalty (65%) are the next-most common goals for B2C respondents, while lead generation is next among B2B respondents.
• Web traffic is the top content marketing metric for both B2C (66%) and B2B (63%) marketers. Social media sharing is relatively more important to B2C respondents, who are far less interested in measuring sales quality and quantity.
• Lack of time is the top challenge faced by both B2C (57%) and B2B (69%) content marketers. B2C respondents are relatively more concerned with producing the kind of content that engages, while B2B marketers are more concerned with producing enough content.
• 39% of B2C marketers have a documented content strategy, compared to 44% of B2B marketers.

Is the content strategy for your brand ready to face this emerging trend?

Image Credit:http://www.brandingbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/b2bvsb2c_627x330.jpg