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11 MIN. READ
B2B marketers can learn quite a few refinements from their B2C brethren. For the most part, B2C marketing techniques rely on personalized ads. B2C marketers do so by tugging on the consumer’s heartstrings. B2B marketers, on the other hand, rely on convincing an entire company to buy their product. The Budweiser Clydesdale horse commercials that run each Super Bowl are a great example of both B2C and B2B marketing.
As a large beverage manufacturer, Budweiser wants consumers to buy their drinks. The Clydesdales appeal to a sense of nostalgia for a simpler time when deliveries were made by horses. Add in a baby horse practicing for when he grows up and can join the team, and you have the perfect recipe for melting a typical consumer's heart.
But Budweiser actually sells its products to other businesses too – distributors, stores, sports venues and more. Technically, their ads are B2B marketing. Yet, because of their strong B2C pull, the ads create a demand for Budweiser products. Distributors and other related businesses would be foolish to ignore this pull.
Let's take a closer look at what B2B can learn from B2C.
When you began in manufacturing, most of your business came through word-of-mouth advertising and traditional sales calls. All of your company’s efforts were outbound – you reached out to other businesses that were likely to use your products.
Technology manufacturers were ahead of the marketing curve. They offered robust websites. Most other manufacturers offered a static web page listing the items they produced and basic company information. Many small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) still operate in this bare-bones manner.Once the internet exploded, though, companies could no longer hide behind a static web page. Businesses could check the reputations of manufacturers up and down the supply chain.
Now, manufacturers know that they need a combination of inbound and outbound marketing efforts. Distributors and customers expect the same level of attention that they receive from B2C marketers.
With the rise in digital marketing, B2B should take a page from the B2C handbook and improve its digital footprint. B2C understands that digital allows for more customer-centric approaches. One such approach is to create an ideal customer profile. If you manufacture toys, your persona would include children who would like to have your toy and their parents who would likely buy the toy. This persona would be light-hearted and appealing to both the fun and the educational components of the toy.
If you manufacture building supplies, your persona would focus on the characteristics of a builder or supplier. You might extol the virtues of how easy your product is to install and how durable it is. You would include information about the timeless beauty of your fixtures. While you would still inject some personality into the mix, this persona is looking for facts, figures and prices.
Once you have established the basics of your target audience, you want to take a deeper dive. Armed with this knowledge, you can create more relevant content that will resonate with your prospects.
Rather than focusing on the company purchasing manager, focus on the end-user. This approach requires you to flesh out your base personas. Rather than focusing on “a builder,” think about what kind of builder. Do they restore older homes? If so, your company is looking at someone with a great deal of patience and attention to detail. Does your builder remodel kitchens? If so, your company is looking for someone who requires precision, design flexibility and clear instructions.
Your manufacturing company will create many more highly-developed personas in this manner. Then you will be able to see yourself in your end-user's shoes. Develop content that you would find relevant as someone who restores older homes. Elevate your marketing materials to the point that you can smell the scents of the new wood you uncover under layers of paint. These marketing materials evoke the emotions of old houses. They find the voice that speaks to your customer on an emotionally resonating level.
Once your end-user wants to incorporate your product into their projects, make it easy for the customer to find your product and buy it. Redesign your website and social media profiles so that the customer can ask questions and interact with you on a personal level.
Data leveraging is the last great frontier for B2B marketers. You already have your detailed customer personas. You already have a treasure trove of detail about your current manufacturing customers. Data leveraging allows your manufacturing company to marry the two sets of data.
B2C marketers collect quite a bit of information about every potential digital customer. In this way, they can provide targeted advertising whenever that person logs in again.
Your manufacturing company may want to run a Facebook ad for customers who use other building supply facilities. It could mean investing in Google pop-up ads that are targeted for your different buyer personas.
Instead of relying on past marketing efforts, try partnering with a company that has been a source of reliable industrial data since 1912. IndustrySelect collects and verifies comprehensive profiles of the nation's 400,000 US manufacturers. More than a simple list of company names and numbers, IndustrySelect gives you market insights, reports and analytics so you can not only contact but also understand your prospects with ease. Profiles are verified by an 80-person research team for unrivaled accuracty. See a sample profile here.
Intent data shows you the best chances to create new market relationships using MNI's proprietary first-party data. It suggests how to pitch your products to those companies when they are ready to buy. This feature frees you to concentrate on running your company, not running down potential leads.
IndustrySelect also works with your company’s own data through Customer Match, which analyzes your current list of customers and gives you similar customers looking for manufacturing companies just like you.
Take your B2B marketing to the highest level of B2C marketing by trying out IndustrySelect. Click here to try out your free, no obligation demo.
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