How do you tailor your content marketing for B2B audiences versus B2C?

Because B2B products and services are complex to buy and implement, customer stories are so much more important. It's critical to build a system that captures insights from your audience and customer base in order to communicate the value of your products and services effectively.

Yes, B2B content needs to be informative at it's core, but we're living in 2024 (sorry for the rhyme). B2B content doesn't need to be stale, storyless and stuffy! It's easy to forget that your target businesses are still made up of people. I would recommend thinking of B2C marketing as building a customer's dream. B2B marketing as building trust (not just informing). How does this look though? Well, don't blindly use corporate speak and whitepapers if it isn't resonating. Think about your target audience(s), the Ps of marketing, your marketing funnel, and the customer journey to evolve what tone/content you make at each stage. B2B content should look different if you're talking to micro-business owners vs corporate giants.

In modern marketing, it's not just about B2B or B2C—it's H2H, human-to-human. Your content should resonate deeply with your customers' lives, addressing their pains, gains, and jobs to be done. Creating a cognitive and emotional connection makes your B2B marketing truly impactful. Focus on humanising your brand and ensuring your copy and visuals speak directly to the heart of your audience's needs and aspirations. Understanding your customers, speaking their language, and empathising with their challenges are the secrets to creating content that positively impacts your audience.

B2B Focus on Value: Highlight ROI and business benefits. Data-Driven: Use case studies, whitepapers, and detailed reports. Professional Tone: Maintain a formal, expert tone. Longer Content: Provide in-depth articles and guides. B2C Emotional Appeal: Connect with personal stories and benefits. Engaging Content: Use videos, infographics, and social media posts. Casual Tone: Keep it friendly and relatable. Shorter Content: Create quick, easy-to-consume pieces. Tailoring content ensures it resonates with your specific audience, whether B2B or B2C.

In B2B content marketing, positioning your brand as a thought leader in your industry can be highly effective. Create content that demonstrates your expertise, provides valuable insights, and addresses common challenges faced by businesses in your niche.

B2B: Focus: Industry insights, case studies, and ROI. Tone: Professional and informative. Content: Whitepapers, webinars, and detailed articles. B2C: Focus: Emotional appeal, benefits, and experiences. Tone: Engaging and conversational. Content: Social media posts, blogs, and videos. Understanding your audience ensures your content meets their specific needs and preferences.

Business buyers want ROI. Consumers want uncluttered utility and automation. e.g. A Telco business buyer wants you to solve and automate their complex process and they require a bill of materials (BOM) and statement of work (SOW) to validate their decisions. The Consumer wants one button to order a product they are seeking or that has been recommended (Thanks, Jeff B). Ideally, you create consistent and persuasive content that resonates with these buying behaviors.

For B2B content marketing, it's crucial to understand the specific needs and pain points of the businesses you're targeting. Develop buyer personas that detail job roles, industry challenges, and the types of content they consume. With B2C, you should focus on the lifestyle and values of your consumer base, creating personas that reflect their interests, habits, and the emotional drivers behind their purchases. Tailoring your content to these distinct personas ensures it will resonate and drive engagement.

For B2B marketers, it's crucial to develop buyer personas that include job roles, industry challenges, and the business’s pain points. Content should be designed to educate and inform, supporting a logical and data-driven decision-making process. For B2C audiences, marketers should focus on demographic and psychographic segmentation, understanding consumer lifestyles, preferences, and emotional triggers. Content here can be more narrative-driven, aiming to entertain and engage on a personal level.

B2B: Professional and Formal: Use industry jargon and technical language. Informative and Detailed: Focus on data, case studies, and ROI. Problem-Solving: Address specific business challenges and solutions. B2C: Casual and Friendly: Use simple, engaging language. Emotional and Entertaining: Create relatable and inspiring content. Value-Oriented: Highlight benefits and personal experiences. Adapting tone and language ensures your content resonates with the intended audience effectively.

Le B2C a pour objectif de créer du lien / connexion émotionnelle avec son audience et sa cible. Faire appel aux émotions en se mettant à la place du lecteur en partageant ses expériences personnelles et professionnelles qui sont en lien et font sens avec le contenu abordé. Il doit s’adresser comme à un ami, avec un ton léger et décontracté pour favoriser l’engagement et activer la discussion. Restez simple et compréhensible par tous, suscitez l’intérêt et captez l’attention avec du contenu attractif.

In B2B content, the tone is professional, often formal, with a focus on industry jargon that communicates expertise and credibility. This helps in establishing trust and authority. In contrast, B2C content often benefits from a more casual or even playful tone to foster a relatable and appealing brand personality. The language is straightforward, aiming to connect emotionally and simplify the decision-making process.

In B2B content marketing, the tone should be professional and informative, avoiding unnecessary jargon unless it is specific terminology that the audience understands. It is important that language conveys experience and value, offering ideas and solutions to specific business challenges. On the other hand, B2C content can allow itself to be more informal and emotional, using a conversational tone that connects with consumers on a personal level. The language should be accessible and relatable, with a focus on storytelling that helps build a relationship with the consumer. This difference in approach is key to ensuring that content appropriately resonates with each type of audience and meets their specific expectations and needs.

Les B2B accentue les contenus plus complexes et approfondies, avec des formats longs. L’objectif est de consolider leur crédibilité, leur expertise et éduquer leur audience sur le long terme et les convertir plus efficacement. Contrairement au B2C qui est axé sur le snack content. Le contenu doit être court et engageant, facile à consommer et/ou à partager. La création de contenu est primordiale pour divertir, inspirer, éduquer et crédibiliser son expertise. Mais attention aux fausses croyances, cela reste une stratégie long terme. L’objectif est de créer de la confiance et appuyer sa crédibilité, mais la capacité à capter l’attention sera plus rapide par rapport au B2B.

B2B marketers often rely on in-depth content formats such as whitepapers, case studies, and industry reports that provide detailed insights and showcase expertise. Webinars and how-to videos also play a crucial role in educating buyers. For B2C markets, shorter, more visually engaging content formats like infographics, short videos, and blog posts work well. These formats cater to consumers’ shorter attention spans and preference for quick, easy-to-digest information.

There are many differences between B2B and B2C content marketing, but I'm going to discuss formats and tactics. B2B content is more long-form and often involves the production of webinars, white papers, use cases, blogs, and LinkedIn content. B2C is often shorter, 'snackable' content and involves leveraging video social content more (Instagram, TikTok, X, Pinterest, YouTube), influencer partnerships, user-generate content, blogs, etc.

Selecting the right content format for your audience is like choosing the perfect tool for a craftsman. B2B audiences require precision instruments like webinars, eBooks, and whitepapers—tools that provide in-depth information, demonstrate expertise, and influence business decisions. These formats act like finely tuned machinery, offering detailed and substantial content that aids in complex tasks. Conversely, B2C audiences appreciate versatile, quick-use tools such as short-form videos, infographics, and blog posts. These are akin to handy gadgets that are visually appealing, easily consumable, and shareable, capturing attention swiftly and effectively.

With Whitepapers, case studies, eBooks, webinars, industry reports, and blog posts, the types of B2B contents might be powered. But After all B2B consumers are people so some short videos, It might attach their attention. the important thing is that the issue is quality. The purpose should be to educate, inform, and build credibility. Content length is typically understandable and more detailed. Types of B2C Content Should consist of social media posts, videos, infographics, blog posts, emails, and newsletters that their consumer like them. Its purpose emphasizes entertaining, inspiring, and prompt quick actions. Content length: Typically shorter and more visual.

This is why one of the P’s of marketing is Place. Placement of content matters all across the internet. Copy and Pasting isn’t going to work anymore, marketers need to double down on how their audience segments are distributed and Position themselves across as the best personal value addition or the top long-term value provider, depending on their objective! (And also, experiment, experiment, experiment - the internet’s too big not to explore)

Tenemos claro que el canal es crucial solo si ya pasamos la fase de saber quién es y dónde está nuestro público. Con esta premisa y una estrategia adecuada de contenido, procedemos a la elección del canal que está directamente relacionado con el tipo de contenido (que van de la mano, pero no son determinantes el uno del otro). Creo que el canal se debe determinar por los datos de uso de RRSS y no solo si es B2B o B2C. Y con estos datos me refiero a fijarnos en a donde nos quieren llevar las plataformas. Instagram adaptó el formato de Snapchat en “stories” y de TikTok en “reels”, Youtube adapto el formato de TikTok en “shorts” y ahora TikTok está adaptando el formato largo. Al final el objetivo es que el mensaje llegue correctamente.

In B2B content marketing, think of LinkedIn and industry forums as professional networking events. These platforms are ideal for sharing business insights and connecting with professionals. In B2C, imagine engaging with your audience at a lively social gathering. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube allow you to reach consumers with visually appealing and interactive content. Selecting the right channels ensures your content reaches and resonates with the intended audience.

Linkedin is great, but video first platforms where people seek education. If your brand can get into the audience during their discovery and learning phase with videos and then go to more in depth in blogs or requested white papers. You will be winning.

In B2B marketing, the journey from prospect to client can take several months. A simple ‘Get Started!’ isn’t enough for corporations considering multi-million dollar investments. Understanding these timelines is crucial before setting deliverables. This leads to the question: quality or quantity? Often, it’s about finding a needle in a haystack, and just a few needles can be sufficient. In B2C, the stakes are lower for consumers, and the path to conversion is more direct. While each sector has unique tactics and challenges, comprehending our target audience’s behavior is essential. This insight is critical for analyzing KPIs and measuring our strategic approach’s effectiveness.

Os KPI’s de cada campanha devem ser definidos junto ao desenvolvimento da estratégia e cada conteúdo terá uma métrica mais relevante. N?o há uma regra para isso para nenhum mercado, vale saber qual é o intuito daquele conteúdo.

Combining qualitative feedback with quantitative metrics provides a richer picture. For both B2B and B2C, consider integrating feedback loops where you gather direct insights from customers or clients about how they perceive and interact with your content. This can be through surveys, focus groups, or direct conversations. By taking a nuanced approach to metrics and deeply analyzing the data through the lens of strategic business goals, you can more effectively measure and optimize the success of your content marketing efforts, ensuring they are precisely aligned with the unique needs and behaviors of your B2B or B2C audience.

Don't forget even if you are creating content for B2B, people will consume that content! Yes, it needs to be a bit more formal and the message needs to be focused more on the ROI and features of what you are selling. But, at the end of the day, people will see the content, connect with the content and make the buying decision. Too often we forget the human side of B2B and we end up with dull or even boring content that says a lot of things but connects with no one.

Another key perspective is building relationships through content marketing. In B2B, it's crucial to nurture long-term partnerships by understanding business challenges and offering ongoing support. Trust is built with customer success stories. For B2C, the focus is on creating memorable experiences and personal connections. This involves personalized campaigns, responsive customer service, and content that resonates with the consumer's lifestyle and values.

I think B2B can be as fun as B2C but it depends on your audience. I market to small business owners and entrepreneurs but I want to attract a certain type of client. So I create content that would resonate with them. So it is less formal but yes, educational as well.

El contenido es el rey porque el “pueblo” lo promueve. Siempre he dicho que si el contenido genera valor, es claro y llega a quien tiene que llegar, el 90% del trabajo está hecho, el otro 10% es solo la “formalidad” de vender. Para lograrlo yo recomiendo el uso del modelo HHH (Hero, Hub and Help). Es una estrategia muy eficiente para estructurar, producir y direccionar contenido de alto impacto, informativo y personalizado para el público objetivo. Si generamos valor lo demás es una formalidad.