Is B2B marketing surpassing B2C?

I am curious if you also noticed that B2B marketing topics are gaining more attention than B2C marketing topics. Let's put it this way if you would ask me to give some numbers it is shifting from 20/80 towards 50/50 in terms of attention across the board. To me that is quite interesting but how come? Does all the martech innovation happen within the B2B arena or does the industry start to understand that having to cope with longer customer journeys is something different than transaction-focused sales activities? Or do we simply see that there is not so much difference between B2B and B2C marketing other than what we have learned when we were students? Let me address a couple of myths that I hear quite often when speaking to peers.

'B2B buyers don't use social'

Well, I hope that for most of us this is not an issue anymore. I remember the rise of Twitter back in 2009. At that moment in time, I was the marketing manager of Twinfield, an online accounting SaaS platform. We were a relatively small player compared with the incumbents like Intuit and Exact. To avoid features and functions discussions we positioned ourselves towards the external accountants (the most trusted advisors for small businesses) as their go-to guide into the new world of social media. Especially in the conservative world of accountancy, this was something that resonated. It gave us a lot of visibility and awareness and also learned that social media was not exclusively for consumers. Today we call it the dark social, a kind of black hole where companies and people share a lot of stuff with each other without being tracked. So it is all about authenticity and genuine skill sets or knowledge to become an authority in a certain domain. A modern sales and marketing approach fully embraces the abilities and characteristics of social media.

Today we call it the dark social, a kind of black hole where companies and people share a lot of stuff with each other without being tracked.

'B2C is about brand, B2B is about performance'

Both are true but also the other way around. In a world of commodities, you can either distinguish yourself on price or try to create an emotional brain position in the heads of consumers which can't be copied so easily by competitors. The last decade has shown that consumer brands are true artists once it is about building these preferred brain positions. But what we have seen lately is that also for B2B brands it is of utmost importance to build on the brand. We have seen that on average about 5% of the companies and business individuals we touch are 'in-market' and the rest is just exploring or gathering information.

Businesses started to realize that only firing bottom-of-funnel messages won't resonate that much. People forget and the next time you touch them they won't remember they've seen you before. Unless you are conscious of the different phases in the buying journey. That for most of the people you touch, you can consider them as the customers for tomorrow, not for today so a more emotional persuasion works better. So the brand has become or has always been important for B2B too.

We have seen that on average about 5% of the companies and business individuals we touch are 'in-market'

'Business people make rational decisions'

Can you recall a project where you were convinced you would close the deal but that it finally went to the competition? That you started to realize the business case and all ROI calculations were rock solid but internal politics on the customer side prevail? That's because also business people are just human beings, like every other consumer. In our world of apps, the distinction between a business and a private user is disappearing. Besides human emotions also things like customer experiences come into play.

There are no business people anymore, we are all people with our common characteristics and behaviors.

We are used to ordering everything that we want or discovering new things with a touch on our mobile at our fingertips. The way we behave at home and our expectations as a private person we carry with us within the offices of our employers. There are no business people anymore, we are all people with our common characteristics and behaviors. Many people are always searching for more convenience. Whether it is listening to music or buying new software, we all want to be well-informed before taking action.

'B2C marketing is aiming at huge market volumes and are thus more complex'

The question is when practicing marketing, does volume really care? I think it is not. Regardless of our target audiences and the volumes related to them, we are always looking for creating meaningful connections. Touchpoints that are extremely relevant in order to help our potential customers in their journey. Due to the variety of media channels, we can reach out to our audiences, the different stages of their buying journey we have to be conscious of and the massive amount of (behavioral) data which is available by default marketing has become a complex game.

B2C or B2B it doesn't matter, the essential game is exactly the same and the tech stack for both sides has become rather complex. Today for every task or function there is an app or a piece of software. The subscription and platform economy with enormous ecosystems makes it for business users extremely easy to sign up, start en get onboarded. A nightmare for every company with employees having that power, heaven for software builders with an addressable market that is kind of limitless.

'Consumers always buy stuff at brick and mortar' is the same as 'businesses will always close deals with a sales executive'

Well, I guess we all see and experience that the shift toward online buying behavior is ongoing and unstoppable. Recent market research concluded that almost 25% of business buyers are willing to spend more than USD 500k of order value online without the necessity or need to have in-person contact. The rise of product-led companies will further drive this number upwards. Customer onboarding, customer success, and customer support are moving into the cloud. AI will play a tremendous role in making this more digital and more smooth. When thinking about the marketing discipline orchestrating, with their AI-driven tech stack, the entire customer journey, which one sounds more challenging? A consumer that buys a new television or a business buyer that signs a contract for CRM software?

25% of business buyers are willing to spend more than USD 500k of order value online

Conclusion

I think that B2B marketing isn't surpassing B2C but also not the other way around. Both disciplines are becoming fewer disciplines anymore. As a marketer, you will have more experience on one side or the other. And both experiences are complementary to each other. Nuances are different within B2B and B2C but essentially it's a marketing game on both sides. Still, I notice that working at a consumer brand house such as Unilever is considered as the holy grail and that the number of B2B brands in many end-of-year rankings is understaffed. But it is not relevant anymore. There is no difference, only in people's experiences.