We’ve touched on ‘B2C or B2B’ many times in the past, but we’ve never really delved into an in-depth comparison before. I think it’s about time we put that right, so let’s take a look at the differences you need to be aware of between B2C or B2B marketing content…
Tone of voice
The words you use
Imagine you’re a mechanic creating a video tutorial showing somebody how to do something. Whether consciously or unconsciously, you take into consideration who you’re talking to. Are you explaining a high-level procedure to a qualified mechanic looking to extend their knowledge, or are you offering a beginner’s guide to help somebody without any experience carry out a basic procedure?
If your tutorial is worth its weight in salt, you’ll realise your target audience and adjust your language to accommodate that; using layman’s terms to avoid alienating beginners or incorporating technical jargon to give other mechanics confidence in you as an expert. With that said, striking a balance on both sides is important.
If you remove technical terms from your content, or explain every other word you say, it’s easy to sound patronising. They may not be qualified in your field of expertise, but that doesn’t mean they’re not intelligent. Likewise, as a writer, I can’t tell you how many novels I’ve given up on because the writer was so desperate to show off their range of vocabulary that it ruined the entire book.
The hidden tone setters
This goes beyond just linguistics, though. If you’re selling tickets to a festival, you’ll obviously want to use more fun, friendly language. But you’ll also want to consider the punctuation, the length of your sentences (short & snappy or long and elaborate), the tone (conversational or professional), how word-heavy your content is and so on.
Think of it, again, like a video tutorial: write in the way that you would want to speak to them.
Marketing channels
Whitepapers & infographics
For the most part, you would only ever really use a whitepaper in B2B marketing. Whitepapers are a fantastic medium for portraying your brand as a credible, trustworthy expert by serving up valuable industry insights. While this will still ultimately lead to offering a product/service to enhance their business, creating an advisory, analytical package is much more likely to engage your target audience, convert sales and even gain loyal customers.
An infographic is like a whitepaper’s fun cousin. Sure, you’re still showing that you’re the expert, but you’re doing it with flair! While they’re still very useful in B2B, they’re much more accessible to people outside the industry; making them a great alternative to whitepapers if you want to reach a B2C market.
As far as the B2C or B2B question goes, I’d recommend keeping whitepapers in B2B but letting infographics roam freely across the border – just bearing in mind that you’ll need to adjust the tone of your content.
ABM
There’s no question of B2C or B2B here. ABM (account-based marketing) is strictly B2B. You’re creating hyperpersonalised content and targeting clients to such a degree that you could be creating a campaign for just one person. That simply wouldn’t be profitable for B2C, but if that one person is a decision maker for a business then an ABM campaign targeting them alone could be more profitable than multiple less lucrative customers.
Social media
This is a vast, ever-evolving landscape. It would be easier to bury my head in the sand and pretend I don’t know it exists. Social selling can be both B2C or B2B, and it’s by far the most convoluted simply by virtue of its vastness. There’s obviously the basic methods of posting your products, then there’s building your brand with funny or meaningful posts that go ‘viral’, but then you start looking at sponsoring well-known social media presences. At that stage, you’re creating a B2B partnership for B2C marketing.
None of that is particularly unusual in the world of marketing, but the medium is so new, so dynamic and so unpredictable that I could write an entire article on social media marketing (and I might just have to) but barely scratch the surface
B2C or B2B? Both, and let’s leave it at that for now but stay tuned for a full article in the future.
Out of home advertising
Out of home advertising is most often B2C, but, as Kris Britton points out in his podcast with Toni Kent, it can crossover with B2B strategies like ABM. The way Kris has managed to utilise a billboard – targeting a single prospective client – is extraordinary even in the world of ABM, but it just goes to show that you can never rule out any strategies as they can all be effective with the right marketing mind behind them (and trust me when I say there’s none better than Kris).
Of course, like any B2C or B2B marketing, it all boils down to what you’re promoting. The interesting thing here is that you can almost always predict where you’re going to see B2C or B2B marketing and what they’ll be selling.
How many bus-stop banners have you seen over the years? How many billboards have caught your eye as you drove by? The vast majority are B2C. But you’ll find little crevices of everyday life where B2B out of home marketing thrives.
Let’s take football matches as the perfect case study. When you go to lower-league, lower-budget football matches, you’ll see banners for skip hire, construction materials, etc. Then, when you attend a Premier League or European match, you’ll see marketing targeting corporate audiences. Much like digital content, it’s all about placing your marketing in front of the right audience.
What do KAYBE offer?
Our varied experience and expertise is exactly the reason we can offer you insights and advice like this article. We love sharing our wisdom with you, and we’d be more than happy to set-up a meeting to discuss any B2C or B2B marketing strategy you’re interested in, or even guide you towards the optimal B2C or B2B strategy for your business.
Feel free to contact us and take advantage of our offering now.
