Last two weeks we covered B2B Digital Marketing Strategies, this week we will talk about B2C Marketing, B2C Marketing Definition & B2C Marketing Strategies.
What is B2C Marketing?
B2C is the short form for Business to Consumer which means businesses whose end consumers are individuals fall under this category.
These could be Businesses like:
1. Designer Wear/Clothing
2. Accessories
3. Cosmetics
4. Food
5. Herbs
6. Mobiles
7. Shoes
8. Laptops/Computers
9. Salon & Spas
10. Photography
11. Educational Courses
12. Educational Institutes/ Vocational Trainings
13. Professionals like Doctors, Lawyers, CAs etc.
14. Book Publishers
15. Entertainment industry
16. Software for individuals
17. Services related to Home, Personal Care etc.
All the above businesses could be called as B2C businesses.
Understanding how to market to end consumer who is your potential customer with a push for immediate sales by also creating trust thus ensuring continuous sales from the same customer for years to come is called B2C Marketing.
B2C Marketing Definition
B2C Marketing revolves around the strategy that B2C businesses can use to market their product/service effectively to the end consumer making the brand relevant, trust worthy,consumer-friendly & effective across various digital & offline platforms.
Business2Customer Marketing is important due to the below stats:
1. 30-40 percent of consumers today engage in “recessionary” behaviours (e.g., searching for deals, using coupons) even more than they did during the recession.
2. 58 percent of consumers have tried a new brand in the last 3 months that they didn’t even know about one year ago.
3. Only one third of consumers have a brand in mind when they go shopping.
4. The biggest driver of consumer “stickiness” is decision simplicity – how easy consumers find it to learn about the purchase, trust the information they receive and weigh the options.
5. On average, just 23 percent of consumers are willing to form a “relationship” with a brand.
6. 61 percent of brands’ Facebook “fans” are there primarily for the discounts.
B2C Marketing Strategies
Now that we know why B2C Marketing is important & what businesses are part of B2C category let us understand 5 Top B2C Marketing Strategies that we can use in our own business.
1. Know The Customer
In any business B2B or B2C knowing your customer is very important. This will ensure that you:
- Create Relevant Communication for your customer
- Target the most ideal customers who are willing to buy from you
- Know Whats important to your customer
- Pain points that you can address & solve for your customer
- Create a Better Experience or Bring a Dream or Fantasy alive
We have discussed USP & Target Audience Mapping in a previous blog which will help you create the relevant data points for you to understand more about your customer.
Source – Entrepreneur.com
Effective Sales Funnel
A Typical Sales Funnel provides a step by step flow which starts with providing the relevant information to a potential customer to making him a paid customer.
We have covered Sales Funnel in detail in a previous blog but the Sales Funnel for a B2C customer is a little different from B2B adding a further step called as “Advocacy”.
Though this step is relevant to B2B businesses too given that the ticket sizes are big for a B2B business Advocacy might be a dream rather than a goal.
Advocacy for B2C businesses is highly achievable as the ticket sizes are smaller, customers who buy a specific product for their personal use are likely to buy the same product from the same company far more times & also it is easy for these customers to refer the products or the company to their friends provided the product/service meets their needs.
A Typical sales funnel for a B2C business looks like this:
Now that we know how the sales funnel looks like for a B2C business we should make sure that there is relevant content created, communicated & shared for each of these stages.
1. Awareness
A Potential Target Customer is looking to buy a product/service which is similar to yours. In Awareness stage, your customers are generally researching on the internet or asking their friends for suggestions for products/services that are looking to buy.
As a B2C company, you should make sure that your brand is showcased to your clients at this point in time. It could be by creating relevant content in the form of blogs, videos & also through paid media ads to be shown to people who might be searching for your product specifically.
2. Consideration
The Potential Target Customer knows that they need to buy a Product/Service, they have seen your ads or heard from their friends so they are considering your company to buy the product/service that they need from.
In that case, if your company can provide a gentle nudge or a push for them to take the action of actually buying that would be relevant content.
The gentle nudge could be provided with discounts, taking certain action to get additional points like signing up for the newsletter, showcasing customer testimonials to them of happy customers etc.
3. Decision
The Potential Target Customer is now Your Customer. They have bought your product. Hurray!
Sending a thank you their way & providing them with steps regarding how to reach out to the customer care if there is an issue or sending them some information like a guide would be an ideal content for this stage.
4. Adoption
The customer has bought your product/service. Maybe your product is simple enough to use directly or maybe it is complicated & needs a step by step guide that the customer can benefit them, maybe your product/service can be used in multiple ways which the customer has no clue about.
In this case to make the Adoption of the new product easy sending relevant information & checking upon with the customer regarding any questions & concerns makes the Adoption cycle quicker & pain-free.
5. Advocacy
The most important part of any sales funnel is to make it easy for customers to experience the product & also refer your product/service to their friends & family.
Making your product page shareable, Sharing relevant hashtags with customers so they can use it while mentioning your product, Connecting with them on social media, sending them to survey questions, asking for referrals if satisfied are the quickest ways to gain Advocacy from your customers.
3. Social Media
Social Media is huge for the B2C space with:
1. 2 Billion users are on Facebook and are growing. 76% of them visit the site daily.1 of 5 minutes that people spend on mobile is either on Facebook or Instagram.
2. >600 Million users use Instagram with 51% using it daily and logging on multiple times a day.
3. >150 Million users are on Pinterest 93% of these users use it to plan or buy products.
4. >450 Million users are on LinkedIn and spend more than 15 minutes per day browsing it.
5. 330 Million active users on Twitter
These platforms allow you to meet & talk to your ideal customers. On Social Media, for B2C businesses it is just as important to listen to cues that the customers are putting out there rather than to just sharing information. This space allows you to share the most up to date information, follow target audiences to understand what is important to them & tune your messages as per their priorities. So use this space effectively to grow your B2C Business.
4. Running Creative Contests
Source – puneaffindia.com
As Human Beings, Winning releases Endorphins or the “Feel Good” Hormone in our Brain. The Thrill of participating in a Contest & to be declared a “Winner” is next to none.
For B2C businesses which are into Designer Wear, Clothing, Shoes, Cosmetics, Jewellery etc. running contests gives them away:
- To engage with their audiences
- Create a far deeper bond by involving them in a brand activity
- Interest oriented marketing
- Give a Thrill to Audiences
- The best way for a give away of a new product to let people experience the product without the cost involved
Use this opportunity to create engaging Contests for your Products/ Services & promote them online on the social space.
5. Paid Ads
In the digital age of 2018, it is very difficult to get any leads using organic means. In the 1990s it was very easy to rank well in Google & also generate business leads by organic methods like:
1. Having a Meaningful Website
2. Maintaining a presence on Social Media
3. Posting Randomly on Social Media
But by 2018, Google & Social Media has become a lot cluttered.
Google still believes in Organic search results to a certain extent by means of Search Engine Optimisation & rewards companies accordingly if they manage white hat techniques but given that Google’s algorithm keeps changing maintaining a position on the first page of Google is very difficult & a continuous process.
What other methods can we use to stay relevant to our Potential Customers who are constantly searching for our products or services on the internet? Well, the answer is “Paid Media”.
Paid Media can include:
1. Ads on Google using Google Adwords.
2. Facebook Ads either to increase Brand Awareness, Reach or Sales.
3. Lead Generation ads on Facebook
4. Instagram Ads on Instagram to drive sales for E-Commerce
5. LinkedIn ads for Reach or Lead Generation.
At this point of time in the history, the rates for Ads placed on Google or on Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn are very less when compared to the ROI that is being generated.
In the next 2 – 5 years though when many other businesses realise this, the price of placing ads will go up by anywhere from 500% – 1000%.
So this would be one place to start TODAY.
We ourselves have run effective ads on Facebook & Instagram with ROI’s ranging from 600% – 1600% for our Lifestyle & Fashion Clients. Contact us on sirisha@brandingbypixels.com or 9515110449 if you want to give it a try.
While placing ads on these platforms may seem like a child’s play it is very important to get the targeting right as it is very easy to lose money without any benefits if done wrong.
You should be aware of these points before you start on the journey of Paid Media:
1. Appropriate Keywords to target for ads on Google.
2. Relevant Ad copy as this affects your quality score on google.
3. Targeting options to be precise as per your ideal potential customer who has the highest probability to buy from you.
4. Your CPC this again depends on the above factors
A Professional Digital Marketing agency can place relevant ads for your company with lower CPC rates & higher ROI returns than you can do it by yourself so don’t be hesitant in approaching a Digital Marketing agency like Branding by Pixels.
Conclusion
B2C Marketing revolves around the strategy that B2C businesses can use to market their product/service effectively to the end consumer making the brand relevant, trust worthy,consumer-friendly & effective across various digital & offline platforms.
The 5 Top B2C Marketing Strategies are:
1. Know Thy Customer
2. Create Effective Sales Funnel
3. Social Media
4. Running Contests
5. Paid Media
Hope you found this blog interesting.
Please do leave us your comments if you like what you read & also leave us a comment if you want us to share insights on any specific topic regarding Marketing or Digital Marketing, we would love to cover it for you.
So Stay Tuned & reach out to us at sirisha@brandingbypixels.com to get a Digital Strategy crafted for your Brand.
Have a great week ahead.
Happy Marketing,
Sirisha Varma,
Founder, Head – Marketing,
sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
brandingbypixels.com
