Business vs Consumer Sales. Does It Affect Your Content Marketing Plan?

It’s important to know your target market when designing and developing a content marketing plan for your website. Just like Growth Hackers quickly determine a product/market fit, content marketers need to ensure they have content/audience fit. That way you create stuff they want.

As obvious as that statement sounds, it can be easy to forget when you are trying to pump out a high volume of content. And this goes for your primary page’s content too. You need to make sure your value proportion is accurate for your market, as well as prominently displayed on the homepage.

But we need to consider another aspect of our customer.

Not as well known is the importance of understanding your target customer with regards to whether or not you are selling Business-to-consumer (B2C) or Business-to-business (B2B).

You see, we hear a lot about using stories to market our products or services, and this is totally true. However, the story you sell a business will be different than the one used with consumers.

Consumers are more likely to buy into a story that is emotional in its truest nature. For example, consumers will quickly attach to purchases a number of social connotations:

  • Affluence
  • Future prospects
  • Family
  • Culture
  • Style

These are all emotional, personal, and human concerns.

Businesses, on the other hand, are only going to buy into a story revolving around a pain within their business. It’s all about solving major problems with solid solutions. But it can still be a story.

You need to present your message in a way that connects a problem to a solution, ideally your solutions. You cannot frame the discussion around a need; it has to be a problem. Businesses are not going to part with their money or adjust their yearly budgets if your product or service doesn’t solve a prominent problem for their business.

Business 2 Consumer Mindset

B2C sales are, in my opinion, a lot easier because consumers are more likely to buy off impulse or emotion. Another reason B2C sales are easier is because often there is only one person involved in the purchase, or maybe two if you consider family purchases by a husband and wife.

Business 2 Business Mindset

B2B purchases tend to be more strategic. A business will have tons of needs, with multiple departments vying for the same limited resources, so usually management is the one making the final call. Each department is going to have to sell your product to management, and they will have a much better chance if you have already given them the ammunition to win. You need to give them the problem and solution, and it needs to be legitimate and compelling.

A few items, which aid a business in determining whether or not a sale is worthwhile, are to address the bottom line. Does your product:

  • Decrease their cost-to-customer acquisition?
  • Improve their prospect-to-acquisition ratio?

Just as an example, let’s look at our company. With our marketing services, we help businesses by reducing their advertising cost, while also increasing overall website traffic.

With regards to web development, we help business to see their website as a tool. We do this by addressing the primary issues they may be having, and build web solutions to solve those problems. Generally they revolve around client acquisition, retention, and/or conversions.

Here is some food for thought.

  • Who are your products designed for?
  • What story are you selling?
  • Are you conveying these quickly and prominently on your website?

And remember:

  • B2C = Emotional story
  • B2B = Solving a business pain