What is Business to Business (B2B) marketing?

What is Business to Business (B2B) marketing? Business to Business marketing or in its abbreviation B2B, are those marketing strategies that a company applies to sell products or services to other companies.

 

Its main characteristic is that it is a marketing relationship between companies mainly instead of individuals, as has already been seen in traditional digital marketing.

 

Other particularities of this type of marketing are:

 

Fewer customers

 

B2B marketing seeks to attract other companies as customers.

 

Because they are companies, the volume of clients tends to be much lower than if we talk about individual people.

 

Marketing based on rationality

 

This type of promotion seeks to get straight to the point, not to arouse emotions.

 

Companies that are looking for a specific product or service are not looking for the other party to convince them.

 

Because they already know what they need, but rather, they are looking for a competitive price so that the purchase is as favorable as possible for the budget.

 

Protocol procedures

 

At the time that a company must choose, with respect to acquiring a certain product or service.

 

It normally goes through several decision channels, before the definitive yes, which usually takes time, making it a slow process.

 

Likewise, accessing the person who makes the final decision is complicated, having to negotiate through filters for whom the advertising applied is probably not important.

 

Internet-marketing

 

B2B marketing must be up-to-date with digital innovations, focusing its strategy on the application of online marketing mainly in order to reach more companies more easily.

 

What is B2B, and what is it for?

 

Another definition that we can include is that B2B marketing is a business scheme in which an exchange of products and services between companies is carried out.

 

It is used for one company to offer another a solution to some need that the other demands.

 

An example of the situation would be a digital marketing company.

 

That offers its services to another in order to position it in the market and make it more visible through instruments such as websites, blogs.

 

What is B2C marketing?

 

Business to Consumer marketing or known by its acronym: B2C, is that directed at people or individuals.

 

It is characterized by being oriented to the marketing of mass consumption products or services, which is why it is designed for a wide audience.

 

It appeals to the emotions, so that a need arises in the person to buy what is offered, avoiding giving time to the rational analysis of the transaction.

 

The promotion, customer acquisition and sales processes are usually short, since the hook is sought through promotions or low opportunity prices.

 

The number of clients or public is large, however, that often does not translate into a high volume of sales.

 

For the application of B2C, different digital media are used, with social media being the main or favorite because it’s where the largest number of customers are.

 

Differences between Business to Business and Business to Consumer.

 

Both schemes differ in:

 

Business-to-business	Business-to-consumer
Its objective is to sell products or services to companies.	Your goal is to sell products or services to people.
Focuses on high volume sales	Sales are normally retail.
They seek to close sales quickly and effectively.	Appeal to the emotions.
Dealing with clients is formal.	The treatment of the public is informal, casual, humorous
It is oriented to cover and solve punctual needs.	It seeks to satisfy basic needs or sell products that are not essential.
Inclines to long-term relationships.	It seeks to finalize the sale mainly without the need to establish a permanent link.
Decision-making can be bureaucratic and formal.	The decision to make the purchase depends directly on the customer and is subject to the emotions they may have at the time.
Sales are usually few, but highly remunerative.	It produces large amounts of sales, but of little value.
Look for long-term goals and relationships.	The goals are short-term, hook the customer and make a sale immediately.
Marketing strategies are oriented to logical and rational needs.	It is aimed at encouraging consumption in response to an emotion or desire for a product that is not exactly necessary.

Advantages and disadvantages of B2B.

 

Advantages	Disadvantages
A portfolio of business clients is created	It would be a limited or short list of clients due to the type of product or service they offer.
Once the client has been captured, the acquisition of your product is practically a repetitive event, so it is not necessary to update your campaigns or marketing strategies periodically.	There may not be a significant increase in revenue for a period if new customers are not frequently acquired.
The captured customer usually stays consuming your service for a long period of time.	Negotiations don’t often take place quickly or immediately.
The best tools are email marketing and e-commerce.	Despite being very precise tools, they are limited compared to the rest of the digital marketing strategies that can be applied.
B2B marketing usually involves low costs.	The sales process is slow and complex.

 

Advantages and disadvantages of B2C.

 

Advantages	Disadvantages
Sales are made in a simpler and more direct way.	They may not become loyal, long-term customers, and may change providers.
The trend is towards high trading volume.	Despite making many sales, the income is usually not high.
Customer acquisition and purchases depend mainly on an emotional factor.	Due to this, the campaign used may not be successful as it fails to convince the person.
The public is much more extensive in terms of data on sex, age, geographical location	As the public is so extensive, it can become dispersed and not specify.

 

In conclusion, it cannot be said that one is better than another since their objectives are different.

 

Everything will depend on who your product or service and customers are. This way, you will be able to determine which of the two works better as a digital marketing strategy.

 

Additionally, the cost of the products you offer must be taken into account, often, those who use B2B are large companies whose prices to charge are high.

 

While those who go through the B2C route, often offer objects of less value and of common use that can be marketed through less formal channels, social media being one of them.

 

In this case, both schemes have their advantages, you just have to choose the one that is right for you and your business.