When you’re running a business, you’re sure to be looking for easy-to-use, convenient tools to increase sales. Many companies use Marketing Automation for individual customers to improve communications and gain more conversions, but keep in mind that marketing automation is also useful for B2B companies. In today’s article, we’ll show you the differences of its use in these two business models.
What’s the difference between B2C and B2B
In a nutshell, B2C (Business To Customer) is a company’s business relationship with individual customers, while B2B (Business To Business) refers to business relationships between companies. The buyer in B2B is the business entity that will use our products in its business. Let’s compare the two models:
Type of customer
The customer in B2C makes purchases impulsively, driven by emotions. The best example of this is online clothing shopping, where many shoppers throw a lot of products into their shopping carts every day, but their decisions are not always well thought out, resulting in either abandoning the transaction or returning the purchased items. Advertisements targeted to individuals must be thoughtful and short, conveying content in an understandable way. Messages sent to new users should be based on individual needs, so use personalization and choose a good communication channel.
B2B buyers always try to make informed decisions, to check the profitability of a given investment, but they enter into contracts for many months or even years. Their purchase will usually be for a much larger amount than individual customers. When targeting B2B audiences, the most important thing will be valuable content, tailored to their requirements and industry. You can encourage them to learn more about your offerings through interesting blog posts, introductory e-books and videos.
Purchase path
In B2C, the entire buying process is fast and the customer makes most of his decisions based on his own information search. Contact with your company is not the most important thing for him, although it may contribute to the final completion of the purchase and the desire to return. It is important to tailor communication to the recipient (through appropriate channels, interesting layout, specific information) and, for example, display personalized product recommendations. They usually purchase many things, but they are of lower value than in B2B. Various types of discount coupons, special actions, sweepstakes with codes (e.g., generated on specific products) are effective incentives.
B2B is based on mutual communication. The salesman should contact the potential customer (showing interest) and present a personalized offer. The audience is most attracted by valuable content (e.g., e-books) that makes your company perceived as expert, full of professionalism. The purchase path is longer than for an individual customer, the process from interest in your company to purchase can take up to several years. Someone who wants to purchase your services usually needs a lot of deliberation and analysis to finally decide to enter into a contract. Thus, you need to adapt the materials you prepare and provide simple, short content at first, before moving on to more and more advanced content (such as webinars).
Loyalty and engagement
In B2C, many customers make one-time purchases, but there are also those who regularly source the products they need from you. Using loyalty programs and awarding points for given activities, you can reward loyal people. You can send messages with a discount code to the least active buyers to increase their engagement.
In B2B, a contract is usually not a one-time deal, so interest in your offerings can lead to many years of cooperation. Businesses that are satisfied with your services are sure to continue to show loyalty, and information about your customers will become advertising for other companies. It’s important to remember to keep improving your products to better and better meet buyers’ expectations.
What to use Marketing Automation for in B2B
Generating leads
Business conversations take a lot of time, and it’s obvious that not everyone showing interest will sign a contract with you right away, so for B2B, the most important thing is to acquire quality leads. The easiest way to acquire leads is through forms, which will allow you to make the first contact with your company and leave data. Thanks to the scoring and data collected in the contact database, you will determine, based on various criteria, which people will be of key importance to you and may end up in a long-term cooperation. The president or manager of a given company, for example, will get more points for his/her position and participation in a webinar organized by your company, so you’ll know who to target and easily inform the salesman about sales leads (this is where marketing automation scenarios come in handy, among other things).
Recommendation of products and services
Using recommendation frames, you can not only showcase your most popular products, but also present content that is relevant to your audience. In B2B, for example, the recipient will be shown blog articles about his or her industry with relevant links, as well as your services, most relevant to the sector. Recommendations should be tailored to the specific customer, which is possible if only through proper segmentation.
Satisfaction surveys and research
B2B business is based on long-term contracts, so it’s a good idea to check the level of customer satisfaction from time to time. For this purpose, use NPS surveys, which will allow you to express satisfaction to users in a transparent way, as well as contribute to the analysis of company performance and quality improvement. In iPresso, you will set additional questions that will appear depending on the selected value (e.g. “What can we improve” with a rating of 7, which is considered neutral on the NPS scale).
What to use Marketing Automation for in B2C
Personalized communications
Individual customers primarily expect messages in a convenient form, tailored to their needs. Choosing the right communication channel (e.g., SMS or email) and personalization allow you to increase the interest of a specific recipient. Additional discount codes on the occasion of birthdays or holidays can attract an undecided user, as well as contribute to increased sales and the purchase of more items by loyal customers.
Manage your contact database
Collecting data about your site’s users, as well as tracking behavior for better communication and offer customization, are just some of the advantages of creating a contact database. In B2C, it is especially important to observe the actions taken by a potential customer, through which you will be able to create a perfectly tailored campaign.
Use of Feed Manager
In B2C, the order in the database with products is especially important. Every day, many products are purchased, some end up in stock, and customers often add items to their shopping carts that they later remove. Feed Manager makes it easy to manage product data by pulling information from various sources, allowing you to recommend available goods, as well as send messages to those who wanted to buy sold-out items.
Summary
Marketing Automation is widely applicable to both B2C and B2B business models. Differences in type of customer, purchase path, and loyalty and demonstrated engagement make MA tools applicable differently. In B2B, the key is to acquire the right quality leads with whom to establish a long-term relationship. In B2C, personalized messages sent through the right communication channel to increase conversions and sales play a big role.
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