marketing, web development, graphic design blog

by Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

What is it?
The terms B2B Marketing and B2C Marketing were originally coined in order to tell the difference between companies that sold to consumers (B2C) and those organisations who sold to other businesses (B2B).

While marketing to each of these types is fundamentally the same, including newsletter services, direct marketing, internet marketing, advertising, public relations and Search Engine Optimisation. They are different in the way they are executed, what the message has to say, the results of the marketing activities and the metrics behind measuring the success.

B2C marketing strategies have a different focus. As a buyer, the consumer is often simply continually looking for the best price and will typically do a fair amount of searching around doing price comparisons, before moving on to purchase the product.

B2C internet marketing is one of the most advanced consumer marketing strategies that revolutionised the business world. It not only helps in developing a direct contact between the consumer and business but also allows the entrepreneurial businessman to independently, with low set up costs, advertise and sell his products and services in a simple way, using the like of eBay and Amazon.

When to use it?
The goal of B2C marketing is to convert shoppers into buyers as consistently as possible. B2C companies will use more coupons, displays, storefronts, and discount offers to encourage their shoppers to buy.

What does it achieve?
B2C marketing campaigns are focused entirely on transactions which are shorter in duration and designed specifically to capture a potential customers interest right away.

One aspect of B2C marketing that is different from B2B marketing is that many companies are focused on consumer loyalty. Loyalty is the only way that you can successfully keep your customers coming back. When you have great customer service along with your marketing campaign, you will have great success.

Key steps:
The first step in determining your marketing strategy is the same whether you are doing B2B or B2C marketing. First, you need to identify who the customer is and why they should hear what you have to say.

It is at this point that you will notice the difference between B2C and B2B marketing. Just remember that your marketing plan does need to take into account these fundamental differences between B2B and B2C marketing. Knowing this, you can develop the right activities for your individual markets.

Tags: consumer marketing, newsletter services, search engine optimisation

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 7:38 am and is filed under How To Do..., Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.