Marketing

Blending B2B & B2C Marketing Strategies for Maximum Results

July 1, 2016

As the MarTech landscape explodes (it’s grown by 87% in the last year alone), B2B Marketers need to focus on the most effective strategies to produce significant results. Some B2C fundamentals can cross over to engage B2B prospects.

Why are these marketing strategies important? According to a recent ITSMA survey, 85% of B2B marketers globally expect that understanding their buyers will become their #1 responsibility within two years. Consumer habits are changing like never before. Social and mobile are the new channels of discovery for television, and how, where and when to watch video has opened up new possibilities and challenges. Marketers need to understand and respond to evolving consumer behaviors as B2B prospects are, after all, consumers at the core.

Recognize that as much as one might like to believe, B2B marketing is not dealing purely with facts and logic. Emotion plays an influential role in appealing to and engaging your target audience. B2C consumer behaviors transfer over to B2B. A Fortune Knowledge Group survey showed that 65% of almost 1,000 executives shared that they used “irrational” and subjective emotions as a primary basis for making a decision. B2B decisions are typically influenced by more people, but along with the bottom-line is the emotional component inherent in every individual and stakeholder.

Know that B2B buyers want to look good in their organization and among their peers. The wrong decision can impact their status and how seriously they are taken in the future. The right decision can open new doors to forward-thinking buyers. How can you appeal to the B2B buyer’s need for recognition, status, and opportunity? For CEOs and those at the top of an organization, understanding their motivations can help tweak your approach and offer value-based options that align with their underlying desires.

Create “mini-commitments” from the B2B buyer. B2C has a shorter buying cycle than B2B, taking prospects from awareness to purchase in fewer steps and in less time. B2B can work in ways to produce “mini-commitments” from prospective buyers along the journey. Say a given solution under evaluation consists of 6 main components. Could you grant access to one of these six components to start solving part of the prospects problems before closing the deal? Go beyond the free trial and give stakeholders a taste of how your solution can work for them. Get them hooked on the results and reel them in with the prospect of seamless integration of the remaining components. Speed up the B2B buying process with personalized incentives and discounts when feasible. When prospects experience the effectiveness of a chosen mini-commitment, they will be more given to trust and take further steps in the buyer journey.

Lastly, consider Account-Based Marketing (ABM) to expand your contacts within an organization. It can take considerable time and effort to go from initial contact to a final handshake. While you’re busy leading a certain buyer down the path, there may be others in the company that are unaware of your solution and therefore missing the experience. Neglecting to engage with multiple stakeholders can come back to bite when final decisions are being made, and you don’t have the right champion in the deal.

Taking the best B2C marketing tactics and applying them to your B2B business can net amazing results, open up new doors and ultimately get the deal done. Have you tried any of the above? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Vice President of Marketing

Matt Greener is a marketing, digital and SEO leader. He currently is the Vice President of Marketing at <a href="http://appdataroom.com/">App Data Room</a> a mobile sales enablement platform. He has spent over 15 years as a B2B marketing executive and consultant to businesses and entrepreneurs.