Put on your marketing hat for a minute. Would you use the same marketing strategy for promoting a bottle of mouthwash as you would for promoting premium watches?
Both are B2C products, but each is designed for a specific audience. If that’s the case, shouldn’t their marketing approaches be different too?
In this complete guide to B2C marketing strategies, you’ll learn what B2C marketing is and how to craft a compelling B2C digital marketing strategy for success.
What is B2C marketing?
B2C stands for business-to-consumer. B2C marketing is the process of selling services and products to individual consumers.
Any organization that focuses on serving the needs, demands, and preferences of individuals can be called a B2C company. Here are some examples of B2C companies:
- An over-the-top platform that offers premium movies and TV show subscriptions
- A retailer that sells sporting goods and apparel
- A resume writing service for college graduates and working professionals
B2C marketing vs. B2B marketing
While B2C marketing is focused on promoting products or services directly to individual consumers, B2B marketing concentrates on promoting products or services to other businesses or organizations. B2B marketing typically involves longer sales cycles, larger purchases, and more complex buying processes.
How does B2C marketing work?
The first step in B2C marketing is to create a simple marketing funnel that puts your brand in front of prospective customers. Here’s an example of a funnel:
- Introduce the potential customer to your brand
- Encourage the prospect to engage with your brand
- Subtly lead the potential customer towards making a purchase
Once the funnel is in place, it’s time to create an effective marketing strategy that helps marketing teams streamline communication and boost campaign results.
How to start with B2C inbound marketing
Did you know that inbound marketing produces 54% more leads at over half the cost of traditional marketing tactics?
Inbound marketing helps companies build brand awareness, attract prospects, and engage with customers meaningfully. It entices prospects to your brand by showcasing its unique value additions.
Inbound marketing can be a great tool for increasing sales and delighting customers. But how do you start with B2C inbound marketing?
Develop a buyer persona
Every B2C business has a picture of its ideal customer. Go deeper and create an imaginary buyer persona with demographics, preferences, and related information.
Understand the buyer journey
Each buyer goes on a unique journey to reach your brand. Here's how it typically looks:
- Awareness stage: Prospects realize they have a problem
- Consideration stage: Prospects are clear on the reason behind the issue and are actively scouting for solutions
- Decision stage: Prospects have shortlisted their preferred brands and are about to choose a product or service that resolves their problem
When crafting your inbound marketing strategy, make sure to create content that matches buyers on each of the three stages of this journey.
Create a content marketing strategy
94% of B2C marketers either have or are planning a content marketing strategy to boost brand revenue and awareness. Reaching your customers is easier with a solid content marketing strategy in place.
What is B2C content marketing?
B2C content marketing is the process of planning, creating, and distributing educational and helpful content for your prospective customers.
There are a few different kinds of content that fit well into a larger B2C content marketing plan:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Case studies
- Whitepapers
- Videos
- Audio recordings
- Webinars
- Product tutorials
Before creating any of these, make sure that they:
- Are relevant for every stage in the buyer's journey
- Address the needs in the buyer personas
- Have a personal touch
- Meet prospects where they are
How to plan a B2C digital marketing strategy
Traditional B2C marketing includes offline retail, pay-per-view movies, infomercials, and mall shopping. However, the internet has given rise to a whole new digital dimension for the sale of goods and services.
To help you create a successful B2C digital marketing strategy and a robust commercial framework for your brand, we've curated some key tips.
Drive engagement
Did you know that 72% of customers prefer engaging with marketing campaigns personalized to their specific needs?
Modern B2C shoppers are looking for great experiences. In today's world, there are thousands of competing products and services in all kinds of niches. As a result, catching a prospect's attention is not easy.
81% of customers say that they are willing to pay more for a better customer experience — to gain customers' love and trust, brands need to diversify across channels, create engaging content, and craft a strong social media presence.
Build trust on social
Each customer is different. Google research confirms that customers use multiple channels to complete one specific transaction.
For example, an omnichannel shopper may browse the brand's mobile app, visit their website, and walk into their brick-and-mortar store.
Marketers need to have a robust digital marketing strategy and be present across social channels to respond to customer needs and preferences. Since prospects can come from any source, marketing teams should employ a diverse mix of channels, including:
- Email marketing
- In-store brochures
- Blogs
- Podcasts
- Social media platforms
Create a loyalty program
Having a loyal customer base can significantly enhance brand awareness, increase business ROI, and bring in new clients.
Want brand ambassadors? Loyal customers can fill that space quickly. Create specific programs that reward their loyalty to your business — examples can include offering:
- A discount for their next purchase
- A membership card with benefits
- Free points with every purchase that can be redeemed for products
Personalization
According to the State of the Connected Customer survey, more than 79% of customers consider the customer experience provided by a B2C company equally important to its services or product offerings.
Customer experience can make or break a brand. 89% of customers say they would make a repeat purchase from a brand if they had a positive first experience.
Creating customer-centric and personalized experiences is non-negotiable for B2C brands across sectors. Tailoring marketing campaigns help marketers serve and engage existing and new customers with a personal touch.
Choose the right tool
Are you wondering how to personalize your B2C marketing? Deliver tailored experiences to your customers through collecting, segmenting, and reviewing customer data.
Processing huge volumes of customer data can be challenging. Having the right marketing automation tools can make a huge difference. With versatile marketing campaign software, you can analyze data quickly, allowing your team to stay focused on collecting leads and growing the business.
Top tips for creating a B2C marketing plan
A B2C strategy is not complete until you have a solid B2C marketing plan in place. To make one for your brand, choose content marketing strategies that fit your buyer personas.
Here’s an example: If your ideal demographic is under 40, a combination of brand loyalty programs and social media marketing can be more effective than traditional TV advertisements.
Play around with a few strategies to see which one fits best with your ideal audience and company goals. Here are some more tips to help you create a winning B2C marketing plan:
Connect with customers personally
B2C buying decisions are guided by emotions — so promote the sizzle, not the steak. Focus on creating personable and relatable connections with your target audience. Let that personal touch reflect in all places you connect with your potential customers.
Whether you're writing a blog, recording a podcast, or posting a story on Instagram, keep everything real, grounded, and authentic.
Use influencers to boost social proof
Did you know that 97% of consumers say that online reviews contribute significantly to their buying decisions?
Social proof can be highly valuable in B2C marketing. When a typical B2C customer wants to find out about an organization’s track record, one of the first things they do is search for reviews.
Having influencers promote your brand is an effective way to boost social proof. Influencer marketing can create trust and authenticity while enhancing brand awareness and potential reach amongst target audiences.
Go mobile-first
Mobile is the place to be. Diversifying across multiple channels is key in B2C marketing, but mobile still comes out on top.
63% of shoppers prefer reading online reviews on their smartphones before even speaking to in-store retail staff who may be standing right in front of them. Utilizing mobile marketing is highly valuable for local businesses that rely on search.
In light of the pandemic, it’s clear that focusing on in-store traffic will not work. With more than 55% of web traffic coming from smartphones, mobile users need to be guided towards a personalized sales experience.
3 B2C lead generation strategies that work
According to the 2021 Global Marketing Trends Report by Deloitte, modern customers are savvy, empowered, and quite unpredictable.
However, establishing a relationship with them need not be challenging. Striving to deliver a better client experience, showcasing social proof, and personalizing your marketing towards customer needs still works.
Once you understand your ideal customer and employ personalized marketing using B2C lead generation strategies, your company will see a significant increase in sales and revenue.
These widely used B2C lead generation strategies can help increase revenue, build brand awareness, and get results for your business:
Content marketing
In B2C marketing, companies market directly to the end consumers or decision-makers. Most B2C consumers don't make their decisions on facts or how helpful a product or service is, but by how they feel about it.
B2C marketers can leverage this by creating personalized content that draws out the audience's emotions. Nearly 47% of prospects view a minimum of three pieces of content on a product before making a purchase.
It's evident that creating compelling content is a B2C strategy your organization needs to reach, engage, and gain trust with consumers.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
In any B2C inbound marketing strategy, setting up your website for organic search traffic should be a high priority.
Search engine optimization helps bring potential customers to your website through different landing pages month after month without spending any paid advertisement dollars.
With more than 81% of customers conducting online research before buying anything, your organization needs to be visible to search engines through the use of keywords.
Social media
54% of the global population spends a daily average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media sites, and more than 91% of social media users use smartphones to access these platforms.
As the importance of social media in customers’ daily lives grows, great marketers must leverage this key statistic.
Social platforms present creative and engaging options for B2C brands to not only interact with their ideal audience but form deeper relationships with them.
What are the top B2C marketing channels?
When figuring out the most effective B2C marketing channels for your company, proceed with these three key steps:
- Identify your marketing objectives, goals, and KPIs
- Document the typical journey of your buyer persona
- Do an in-depth competitive analysis of the marketing channels your competitors use
There is a diverse range of channels available for your B2C digital marketing strategy, including:
- Email marketing: Promote your brand offerings by sending personalized emails to your list of potential customers for a higher return on marketing investment
- Pay-per-click advertising: A paid marketing channel in which brands pay a fee every time a customer clicks on an online advertisement for their website
- Social media marketing: Brands need to be present on the platforms where their customers are spending time to attract, engage and build strong relationships with them (these platforms include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and TikTok)
How Wrike can help your B2C marketing campaigns
Whether you have an e-commerce store, brick-and-mortar business, or SaaS offering, digital marketing is something no business can ignore.
With customers searching online to educate themselves on potential purchases, your brand needs to be highly visible to have a significant impact on buyer behavior.
Streamline your marketing communication and centralize your content assets using collaborative marketing software that helps your teams stay on the same page. Turn routine data into valuable insights by using Wrike as your work management platform.
Create customized dashboards that show real-time data from advertising, social media, and marketing campaigns to create visual business intelligence reports. Make faster decisions by automating approvals, reducing review times, and optimizing marketing resources.
Employ a versatile combination of B2C digital marketing strategies to supercharge your organization's growth. Start a free two-week trial of Wrike to create your winning B2C marketing strategy and launch high-performing marketing campaigns.
