Business-to-business (B2B) is a type of transaction that occurs between two businesses, such as a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer. Business-to-business transactions usually involve goods and services that help one business to operate. Examples include raw materials for production, components for product assembly, and services such as advertising or consulting.
What are the 4 types of B2B?
- Manufacturer-Distributor: This type of B2B relationship involves the purchase of products from a manufacturer by a distributor, who then resells them to the end consumer.
- Manufacturer-Retailer: This type of B2B relationship occurs when a manufacturer sells its products directly to a retailer who then resells them to the end consumer.
- Manufacturer-Wholesaler: This type of B2B relationship occurs when a manufacturer sells its products directly to a wholesaler who then resells them to the end consumer.
- Service Provider-Client: This type of B2B relationship involves providing services such as marketing, consulting, logistics, and financial services to businesses.
What Is B2B Marketing?
business-to-business marketing refers to the marketing of products or services to other businesses and organizations. It holds several key distinctions from B2C marketing, which is oriented toward consumers.
In a broad sense, B2B marketing content tends to be more informational and straightforward than B2C. This is because business purchase decisions, in comparison to those of consumers, are based more on bottom-line revenue impact. Return on investment (ROI) is rarely a consideration for the everyday person—at least in a monetary sense—but it’s a primary focus for corporate decision makers.
In the modern environment, B2B marketers often sell to buying committees with various key stakeholders. This makes for a complex and sometimes challenging landscape, but as data sources become more robust and accurate, B2B marketers’ ability to map out committees and reach buyers with relevant, personalized information has greatly improved.
Who is B2B Marketing For?
Any company that sells to other companies. B2B can take many forms: software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscriptions, security solutions, tools, accessories, office supplies, you name it. Many organizations fall under both the B2B and B2C umbrellas.
B2B marketing campaigns are aimed at any individual(s) with control or influence on purchasing decisions. This can encompass a wide variety of titles and functions, from entry-level end-users all the way up to the C-suite.
Creating a B2B Marketing Strategy
Competition for customers, and their attention, is high. Building out a B2B strategy that delivers results requires thoughtful planning, execution, and management. Here’s a high-level look at the process B2B companies use to stand out in a crowded marketplace:
Step 1: Develop an Overarching Vision
Fail to plan, plan to fail. This truism remains eternally accurate. Before you start cranking out ads and content, you’ll want to select specific and measurable business objectives. Then, you’ll want to establish or adopt a framework for how your B2B marketing strategy will achieve them.
Step 2: Define Your Market and Buyer Persona
This is an especially vital step for B2B organizations. Whereas B2C goods often have a wider and more general audience, B2B products and services are usually marketed to a distinct set of customers with particular challenges and needs. The more narrowly you can define this audience, the better you’ll be able to speak to them directly with relevant messaging.
We recommend creating a dossier for your ideal buyer persona. Research demographics, interview people in your industry, and analyze your best customers to compile a set of attributes you can match against prospects to qualify leads.
Step 3: Identify B2B Marketing Tactics and Channels
Once you’ve established solid intel around your target audience, you’ll need to determine how and where you intend to reach them. The knowledge you’ve attained through the previous step should help guide this one. You’ll want to answer questions like these about your ideal customers and prospects:
- Where do they spend their time online?
- What questions are they asking search engines?
- Which social media networks do they prefer?
- How can you fill opportunity gaps that your competitors are leaving open?
- What industry events do they attend?
Step 4: Create Assets and Run Campaigns
With a plan in place, it’s time to put it into motion. Follow best practices for each channel you incorporate into your strategy. Critical ingredients in effective campaigns include a creative approach, useful insights, sophisticated targeting, and strong calls to action.
Step 5: Measure and Improve
This is the ongoing process that keeps you moving in the right direction. In the simplest terms, you want to figure out why your high-performing content performs and why your low-performing content doesn’t. Understand this, and you’ll more wisely invest your effort and budget. The more vigilant you are about consulting analytics and applying your learnings, the more likely you are to continually improve and surpass your goals. Even with a well-researched foundation, the creation of content and campaigns inherently requires a lot of guesswork until you have substantive engagement and conversion data to rely on.
The differences between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B)
B2B and B2C e-commerce may look the same, but they are quite different. Business buyers and retail consumers have different purchasing needs. The differences can be:
- Buying Impulsively Vs. Buying Rationally – B2C buyers will buy on impulse and make one-off purchases, while B2B buyers plan for purchases and make recurring purchases.
- Single Decision Maker Vs. Multiple Decision Makers – B2C purchases are decided upon by the buyer, B2B purchases often involve several layers of approval and may involve different departments.
- Short-term Customer Relationship Vs. Long-term Customer Relationship – B2C purchases are often one-off purchases, and B2B purchases are based on long-term and ongoing relationships.
- Set, Fixed Prices Vs. Diverse Prices – B2C prices are generally not negotiable. B2B prices are usually negotiated individually.
- Pre-Delivery Payment Vs. Post-Delivery Payment – B2C e-Commerce is generally paid by credit card, debit card or PayPal before the goods are shipped B2B payment is often on terms and maybe 30 or more days after goods are shipped.
- Deliveries focused on speed Vs. Deliveries focused on punctuality – B2C buyers are looking for speed of delivery and B2B buyers want deliveries on a reliable schedule.
FAQs
What does B2B stand for?
B2B stands for Business-to-Business. It refers to transactions and interactions between businesses, as opposed to transactions between a business and individual consumers (B2C).
What is B2B marketing?
B2B marketing involves strategies and activities that businesses use to promote their products or services to other businesses. It focuses on building relationships and providing value to other businesses as customers.
What are common examples of B2B transactions?
Wholesale purchases, bulk orders, supply chain transactions, and procurement of business services are common examples of B2B transactions.
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