Marketing is an ongoing communications exchange with customers in a way that educates,
informs, and builds a relationship over time. The overtime part is important because only
over time can trust be created.
Marketing is one of the most important functions for any kind of business as given by David
Packard, “marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department”.
So, today let’s discuss the types of marketing and the various trends.
WHAT IS B2B MARKETING?
Business-to-business marketing involves the sale of one company’s product or service to
another company. B2B marketing techniques rely on the same basic principles as consumer
marketing but are executed in a unique way.
B2B marketing is largely employed by companies that make products that consumers have no
practical use for, such as steel. However, it is also used by companies selling products and
services bought by consumers and other businesses alike.
B2B products are complex, and most of the time the product features are not clearly visible.
Hence, B2B marketing has to be intricate, subtle and technical to make the content persuasive
and understandable to the users.
In B2B marketing strategy, one focuses on attracting bulk sales, and hence you get the
opportunity to close sales that brings in huge revenue to the firm selling the product. And that
is why, the role of B2B marketing becomes even more critical, as it can directly bring
business to the wholesaler or the manufacturer.
WHAT IS B2C MARKETING?
Business-to-consumer marketing, refers to the tactics and strategies in which a company
promotes its products and services to individual people: creating, advertising, and selling
products for customers to use in their everyday lives.
B2C marketing is most effective with customers who have already had a positive experience
with the product or company. Happy customers are more likely to buy more and refer the
product to their friends. Repeat business is the key to a successful, growing business,
and B2C marketing practices work to build customer loyalty.
When you are marketing to a consumer, you want to focus on the benefits of the product.
Their decision is more emotional. Consumers also are different in that they demand a variety
of distribution channels for convenience.
B2B AND B2C SHOULD BE USED BY?
- There are B2B companies in every sector, from manufacturing to retail. Wherever the
business is done, you can be sure that a host of B2B suppliers and consulting firms are
active. Every B2C company requires certain products, services, and professional
advice so that every B2C company generates B2B activity. - Automotive Industry: Dozens of other company products are produced in every car or
truck model. These include tires, hoses, batteries, and electronics which are essential
for the proper functioning of the final consumer product – the vehicle. The
manufacturer purchases these products from the various suppliers and incorporates
them into the final product. - IT Industry: If an IT company runs with no initial social media presence,
what could it do to start building engagement and brand awareness with
potential client companies? The most successful social media platform
will depend on where the target clients are most active. If it caters to mid-
to large-sized companies, traditional B2B platforms like LinkedIn are the
best bet. It can expand its presence to include more personalized social
media platforms where business owners are active, such as Instagram and
Facebook. - Digital B2B Companies: The rise of B2B e-commerce solutions has redefined the
relationship between companies and suppliers. As a product of the digital revolution,
these companies can sell products directly to other companies using e-commerce
platforms, while also sharing data and product or service updates. - Hospitality Industry: Should learn from the industry disrupters’ success on social
media by posting content that speaks to customers’ values and personalizes their
connection to a brand, while incorporating appealing visuals that inspire followers to
use their products and services. - Computer and gadget companies
- Software and game companies
- Clothing, jewelry, and make-up companies
THE APPROACHES
- Drivers of Purchase: B2C purchases are usually based more on the product, price, and
convenience “at the moment”.
B2B buying where relationships, productivity, and performance are often the chief
business drivers. - A business will likely conduct extensive research before investing in new software,
office space or a large acquisition with another business B2C transactions are more
impulsive and instantaneous. - Buying Decision Process: B2B purchases are usually more drawn-out and complex
often requiring multiple proposals from several vendors, involving multiple parties
and cross-functional collaboration, and consensus/agreement among key stakeholders.
B2C buying decisions are generally considered much less involved and are often
impulsive, short-term, singular events. - Invest in an explainer video: This type of video content usually takes the form of a story
to inform the potential customer about your product or service, your unique value
the proposition, and exactly how it will benefit them. - Create Brand Awareness: When your brand awareness is good enough, it can
short circuit the buyer cycle. When a potential customer has that light-bulb
moment of “Oh, I know this company,” they will often skip over more
deliberate steps they might take in researching a purchase. - Host creative and engaging contest: The contest proves itself as one of the more
successful B2C marketing strategies because it leverages the relationship between the
company and their consumers. The contest showcases that the company trusts its
crowd and the importance the crowd’s opinion has on company decisions.
TRENDING B2B MARKETING STRATEGIES
A strategy that combines all of the marketing goals into one comprehensive plan. A good
marketing strategy should be drawn from market research and focus on the right product mix
in order to achieve the maximum profit potential and sustain the business. The marketing
strategy is the foundation of a marketing plan.
In today’s competitive world, marketers always strive to be at the top of their game which
gives them an upper-hand among the competition. Hence, keeping updated with the trends
becomes their utmost priority.
So, let’s have a look at some of them:
- ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING:
A personalized marketing strategy which aims to target specific customer instead of
entire market. Account may be an individual or a company. Customized campaigns
are run to acquire business from major accounts. Helps align sales and marketing and
make better use of marketing materials. Delivers 97% higher ROI compared to others.
- VIDEO MARKETING:
The act of creating videos to market a specific business and its
products/services. Video marketing is a valuable tool to have in a business’s
digital marketing strategy, with 80% of video marketers satisfied with their return on
investment after launching a video. 70% of B2B buyers consider watching videos as a
part of their product research before conversion. - MARKETING PODCAST:
A podcast is an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files that a user can
download to a personal device for easy listening. You want to create engaging and
valuable content that attracts visitors, converts them to leads and delights them as
customers. Also seen as an ideal way to speak and connect with auditory audiences. - PAID ADS:
With paid advertising, marketers pay the owner of ad space in exchange for use of
that space. The price paid for the ad space is often settled through a bidding process
between marketers and the ad space owner. 60% of large enterprises use paid ads
alongside content marketing. - SEO:
A technique adapted to rank a website well in search engine results. The process of
growing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of
a website to users of a web search engine. B2B brands can benefit from a local SEO
strategy.
When talking about marketing strategies, we must discuss about Inbound and
Outbound Marketing.
INBOUND MARKETING SUBTOPICS:
- Sales and Marketing team alignment
- Web content with search-ranking factor
- SEO
- Importance of Landing page
OUTBOUND MARKETING SUBTOPICS:
- Relevance of content- Being a one-way communication, right content is the key to
persuade the customers. - Fulfilling the needs- As it operates on push strategy, the offerings should be
something customers find value in. - Communication of the representative/ telecallers
- Importance of Broadcast Media
SOCIAL MEDIA AUTOMATION
Social media automation is defined as the process of automating social media activities to
optimize the results derived from social media channels. It helps marketers save time and
effort spent on managing social platforms, engaging with prospects, and enhancing brand
awareness. With social media automation, you use digital strategies to automate or semi-
automate the tasks you complete on social media each day. This might include scheduling
your posts ahead of when you want to publish them or responding automatically to customers
in your DMs.
TOOLS:
- Buffer:
One of the market leaders, this popular tool helps schedule & publish upcoming posts
across all of your social media accounts. It also offers excellent analytics on your
campaigns. - Hootsuite:
Hootsuite is another popular choice. It can used to schedule posts and monitor the
competition. Using search streams, you can more easily build a community of followers. - Workflow:
With Workflow, you can craft the ideal workflows (hence the name) so that the right
content is always shared at the right time. - SocialPilot:
The tool automates the process of scheduling content across various social media
accounts. You can also learn more about your followers, so you can determine the right
content to post - Sendible:
The tool is designed to help you schedule updates, reply to followers, create reports, and
collaborate with others. - Later:
Later is a tool that helps to post the right images at the right times. The app allows to
upload future posts, perfect the hashtags, and schedule a future time for the photo to be
published. - Planoly:
A free tool that allows users to plan out future Instagram photos to ensure that their
profiles are always a perfect collection of images. By taking the guesswork out of the next
post, the user will have more time and energy to create new content. - DrumUp:
DrumUp is a social media virtual assistant app for businesses. It auto-discovers content to
schedule and post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Both free and paid versions of the
social media content management tool are available. It comes with a smart workflow that
can save up to 90% of the content management effort. - Kontentino:
Represents a great way for any business to align their content to all the major social
networks when organizing and executing the content strategy.
Hence, when we talk about marketing it not only delivers value to customers, but also that
value translates into the value of the firm as it develops a reliable customer base and
increases its sales and profitability. So, when we say that marketing delivers
value, marketing delivers value to both the customers and company.