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Content marketing for B2B and B2C differs because the content targets different types of clients.
Whether a business is promoting its products and services directly to businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C) impacts the strategy, goals, approach, and even the content itself.
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B2B is the acronym for business-to-business and defines those businesses selling their products or services to other businesses.
B2C is business-to-consumer and describes businesses selling their products or services directly to consumers.
To get an idea of what each type of marketing is, it helps to know some examples of what B2B and B2C businesses promote:
Keep in mind there may be some crossover (for instance SaaS can be B2B or B2C depending on the software).
However, if a company has both business clients and individual consumers, the marketing for each audience still typically differs.
Both B2B and B2C content marketing have some fundamental similarities:
While B2B and B2C content marketing have fundamental similarities, there are some differences, let’s take a closer look:
While the chart above highlights some areas where B2B and B2C can differ — just to complicate things they can also overlap! For instance, both B2B and B2C content marketing may incorporate similar marketing channels such as email marketing, blog content, and social media as part of their strategy.
The best approach is to focus on tailoring your marketing plan and content to your target audience to create engaging material that resonates with your customers.
Considering the differences in audience, goals, and approach, B2B and B2C content marketing typically favor different types of content to communicate their message.
Because B2B content marketing is aimed at selling to business clients, it needs not only to do a good job of promoting the professional good or service, but it must also present industry-leading authority that can solve business-specific challenges for the client.
B2B content marketing must build authority and trust through logic, expertise, and the return on investment for the target audience. The content must convince decision-makers through demonstrated knowledge and expertise, through marketing pieces such as:
For instance, if a SaaS company is trying to sell its project management software to a large marketing firm, it must demonstrate how the product works, how it can solve the client’s problem, what the measurable results are and the timeframe in which they can be expected. This may involve a multi-channel campaign that includes any and all of the content types above, along with online demos, video tutorials, team consultations, and more. This is why B2B has a longer sales cycle and a relationship built over time.
B2C content is aimed at individual consumers buying products or services for themselves or their families. B2C companies are delivering more immediate solutions and benefits to their audience.
B2B content is still helpful and relevant to its audience and prioritizes building trust and authority. However, it takes more of an engaging and relatable approach to a shorter-term conversion. Content types include:
For instance, if a company sells smartwatches, the brand may establish a strong web presence with detailed product pages and a blog. Then, they could complement this with a social media strategy that encourages users to share their real-life experiences with the watch (UGC and testimonials) and may include an influencer-driven campaign. The end goal in this example is to sell smartwatches directly to consumers in the audience, which is a shorter sales cycle.
B2B and B2C content marketing both follow the best practices and fundamental strategies of content marketing.
However, because they have distinct goals and audiences their approaches typically differ (although the marketing channels they use can overlap). This even includes the type of content that works best for their audiences.
Despite those differences, both B2B and B2C marketing have another critical characteristic in common: they must build trust and authority with their audience and bring solutions that their customers are looking for.
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Then, learn more content marketing best practices in our top guides:
