“B2B” means business to business while “B2C” means “business to consumer”. Business to business sell products and services directly to other businesses. Or, more specifically, they sell to the decision-makers in any particular business. This can include everything from table management software for restaurants to marketing services to office chairs. Business to consumer sell products and services to customers for personal use.
This can include cruises, clothing, cars, landscaping services and so much more. Business to Business and Business to consumer marketing campaigns will share the same technical best practices, like using retargeting to reduce abandoned carts or negative keywords to improve ad placements.
While these practices stay the same, however, there are several crucial differences that separate the two. Understanding these differences will improve your campaigns significantly, so let’s take a look at them. Business to business buyers is “planned and logical, based on needs,” whereas Business to the consumer is “emotional, based on want and desire.
Business to business buyers wants an in-depth idea about the products they are purchasing for their business. Hence, they prefer lengthier content. However, Business to consumer consumers is attracted to shorter, engaging and interesting content that catches their eye. Language in Business to business marketing tends to be heavily influenced by industry jargon and related terms that speak more about the brand’s knowledge than the products or services themselves, as the goal is to target another business.
Business to consumer, alternatively, caters toward individual consumers, leading to language that’s more relatable and simpler enough for a broad audience to comprehend. While Business to consumer marketing often targets the emotional triggers of consumers, Business to business buyers have to “make a case” for their choice of vendor.
Business to business marketing needs to appeal to the rational or logical drivers since buyers often need to obtain consent from multiple stakeholders before a purchase is made. As such, Business to business marketing materials should be backed with logic, financial benefits, and strong data.