It’s easy to get lost in all of the marketing jargon. What does B2B and B2C mean in the first place? Well, for one, B2B and B2C marketers try to garner the attention of two different audiences, in two different ways. If you’re an up and coming marketer, you may be wondering what’s more profitable—B2B marketing strategies or B2C? The short answer is that it depends on what you are selling and the value of what is being sold. However, before we can truly dive into this discussion, we must first understand the difference between the two.
Both of these markets are types of commercial transactions, but business to consumer (B2C) involves selling products to consumers while business to business (B2B) involves selling products or services directly to other businesses. B2B caters their marketing efforts to the needs, interests, and challenges of customers who are making purchases for the organization or business, not for themselves. One example if the company that I currently work for. The Gems Group is a floral marketing agency focused on B2B sales. B2C, on the other hand, is dedicated to the needs, interests, and challenges of people who are making purchases for themselves. These include businesses that sell directly to consumers. While both of these market types intersect at times, they also differ primarily in terms of their audiences and how they choose to communicate with these consumers. While B2C tends to focus more on finding fast solutions and good content, B2B marketing focuses on evolving relationships and ROI.
This brings us back to our first question. When it comes to B2B vs B2C, which business model is better and more profitable? Where can you make more money and quickly grow a business? While the answer to this question isn’t so cut and dry, the overall impression seems to be that B2B id more profitable than B2C. B2B markets are vertical markets and sales pitches use the same main campaign. B2B also means that you are purchasing or selling in bulk which gives you profit as per your price. As far as B2C, you can really only sell products at market price and sometimes customers will ask for discounts. B2B markets also tend to have recurring sales, meaning these businesses don’t have to run after the same customers each and every time. Typically, customers won’t switch to purchasing from another business because B2B products are usually integrated throughout the organization. B2B can be very profitable because businesses usually have a lot more money to spend than the typical consumer. Businesses have a greater budget and can afford to pay premium prices for products and services.
That’s not to say that there isn’t money to be made in the B2C sector as well. However, you may have to build a solid customer base first. In order to make decent money in the B2C sector, you need a lot of loyal customers willing to dish out the dough. There is usually more money to be made in B2B and luckily you won’t need as many customers to be profitable since B2B can charge higher prices.
A lot of factors play into whether it’s more profitable to choose B2B or B2C as a business model and while there are many recommendations out there for B2B and B2C marketing, the reality is that every company has its differences and the best way for a company to guarantee its success is by implementing new actions, testing them, and continuously measuring results in order to understand what actually functions for their business and what doesn’t.