Marketing for a B2C and B2B brand is somewhat similar. The same strategies, such as SEO, PPC, and email marketing, hold the same value in B2B marketing as B2C. However, it’s content marketing that is the most popular strategy utilized in B2B – 81% of marketers say that content marketing in the form of newsletters is the most popular and effective. Video content marketing is also popular, with 75% of companies believing video content generates more ROI.

What’s the difference between using these marketing strategies in B2B and B2C? B2B marketing targets companies making logical process-driven purchasing decisions, whereas B2B marketing targets consumers shopping with emotion. Not to say that B2B buyers are less emotional, but they’re driven by logic and what best suits the company rather than themselves. 

With that in mind, let’s explore why bold marketing strategies sometimes don’t work in B2B.

The Target Audience

The target audience is the main difference between B2B and B2C – marketing to the B2B industry means marketing to entire companies and individual buyers. Millennials make up 73% of the marketing of the people involved in buyer decisions which tells us a lot about the target audience and the marketing strategies that might suit them better.

Studies have found that social media is, in fact, one of the best avenues to market to millennials. They’re using social media 57% of the time to research vendors, and 80% believe social media influences their purchasing decision. Using social media to deliver logic-driven content rather than emotional is the key to B2B marketing success. For example, informative and professional social media posts would work better for B2B marketing than the B2C trending TikTok marketing strategy. 

Strategies That Work Well

With those statistics in mind, it’s to think about what strategies work well and how to enhance them for the best results. Loyalty marketing, for example, is an excellent tool for B2B brands to utilize. A B2B incentive programme can work so well, with 73% of marketers believing they’re a way of showing a brand is loyal to them, rather than the other way round. But it does, in fact, work the other way round. What can you offer? Cashback is the most popular offering, with 39% of brands offering cashback through an incentive scheme.

As mentioned above, content marketing is a strategy that works really well for B2B brands. So much so that 66% of marketers have increased their content marketing budget in 2022. Social media content marketing reigns supreme, but also consider the fact that using LinkedIn to market content can be highly effective. It’s the number 1 channel for content distribution, with 94% of B2B marketers believing it trumps the rest. 

Strategies That Don’t Work So Well

All marketing strategies work well for B2B brands – it’s the delivery of the tactics that must differ from B2C marketing strategies. Circling back to something we touched on earlier, TikTok, for example, is a huge platform that B2C marketers are heavily utilizing. But TikTok isn’t the place for B2B marketers. However, using Instagram and LinkedIn is suitable because it’s more professional, and that’s where the target demographic is spending more of their time.

Another strategy that doesn’t work as well that’s heavily utilized in B2C marketing is influencers and vloggers. For B2C marketers, collaborating with influencers can generate endless ROI, but the target demographic of B2B marketers isn’t suited to influencers and vloggers. Instead, B2B marketers could use public figures and people with authority within the business world.

A bold marketing strategy is simply one that’s aggressive and focuses on getting the best ROI. Some marketing strategies naturally work better in B2B than B2C, and some strategies that work well within the B2C industry won’t work for the B2B industry. Focus on informative, business-minded, and focused content that targets the buyer’s needs.