At the very core of content marketing as a discipline is a focus on the customer. And there's a clear business case for adapting and tailoring messages and campaigns to individual customer needs. But is it as simple as dividing the approach into the two traditional segments of B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer)? After all, at the end of the day it's all about communication with human beings and quite frankly ... we're a random lot.
The fundamentals of B2B and B2C marketing are in essence the same. We all know that marketers want to effectively communicate with their audience, provide value to their target market and successfully position their organisation’s brand/product/service in a way that drives loyalty and trust. And today both disciplines are committed to generating content marketing to achieve this.
88% of B2B marketers use content marketing
76% of B2C marketers use content marketing
Yet traditionally the approach to communicating with consumers and businesses has been compartmentalised.
B2C focus lay in big brand building - encouraging immediate transaction.
B2B focus lay in a ‘drip drip’ approach of continual dialogue - ensuring the service or product is top of mind when purchase decisions are to be made.
Underlying both approaches is the need to reach out and inform, educate, provide value and ... yes, influence human beings. But equally it is essential to understand that there is a difference in the needs of each audience.
But do the differences in audience type really boil down to something as simple as a plain divide between B2B and B2C. When you consider these two domains - yes there are differences but there are cross overs too. The following comment made by Doug Kessler in a CMI post so accurately demonstrates that the current segmentation does not really cut it.
Today not only are there overlaps in audience needs and business sales cycles but also in customer behaviour. The average consumer now rarely makes an instantaneous decision based on traditional advertising (yeah, sure that subversive thing still happens to a certain degree) but will reach out and research other consumers' feedback and recommendations.
Whilst business audiences are now so inundated with information and knowledge that there needs to be additional ways in which to grab their attention. They need to be engaged. They need something to shout out to them and grab their attention.
So perhaps it's time to adopt some new acronyms:
But whatever happens to the B2B / B2C definitions it's still worth taking into consideration some relevant differences of approach when targeting your audience.