There’s a world of difference between B2B and B2C marketing. Without hyperbole, B2B requires significantly more focus, energy, and effort to achieve results. You’re dealing with key decision makers and buying committees, which represent a smaller captive audience—one that takes specific coaxing and convincing through the sales funnel. This isn’t to say that B2C marketing is a cakewalk; rather, it’s an indictment of the monumental struggle that B2B companies face in marketing effectively.
It’s important to remember that B2B and B2C are two very different concepts. B2B typically involves precision targeting and a more nuanced buyer journey. B2C tends to focus more on volume and broad appeal.
That said, there’s no reason their strategies can’t be similar. Despite the uphill battle B2B brands face in marketing, there are ways to make it as easy as a B2C approach. It comes down to careful planning and targeting.
Re-thinking ABM in a shift to buyer-first selling
Lots of B2B companies have entrenched themselves in an Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategy because it solves the problem of identifying the buyer: you don’t necessarily need to. All you need to do is gain advocacy within a company, so much that your product or solution is sold through internal evangelism.
While ABM provides a great framework for B2B selling, it requires no small amount of effort in forming relationships, delivering value, and framing benefits across each point of contact within an organization. To simplify this practice, JXM augments ABM with principles of buyer-first selling.
According to LinkedIn, buyer-first selling has five core principles, each designed to simplify B2B by imbuing value: learning, sharing, solving, delivering, and earning. By putting ourselves in potential customers’ shoes, JXM is able to simplify the process of not only targeting key decision-makers, but also soliciting buy-in no matter where advertising efforts land.
Simplifying without diminishing
Making B2B as simple as B2C doesn’t mean scaling back effort. It’s about looking at execution, to work smarter. As JXM clients can attest, our B2B strategies are incredibly robust and precise. Yet, we seek to make B2B marketing easier through the systems we orchestrate—systems to maintain the relevance of messaging.
For instance, we’re able to target specific companies and titles within companies, to deliver ads in an omnichannel approach (OTT, Pre-Roll, Display, Social, Native). We can then track the behavior of the individuals (without Personally Identifiable Information) to an extent that tells us when someone from a target firm interacts with an ad or comes back to your site organically. We can even incorporate waterfall content delivery, so that as B2B targets engage, we can change the creative and message based on their level of engagement.
While this approach takes no small amount of engineering to design, effort begets results. B2B brands spending their time on a more effective ABM strategy can reap the benefits of cultivating relationships that break down barriers between key decision-makers, buying committees and conversions.
Focusing on frameworks enhances the caliber of messaging, making B2B not only easier, but also more effective.
Smaller pond means a bigger net
If you’re a B2B brand that wishes B2B was as simple as B2C, it’s time to look closer at your ABM approach. It’s one thing to work hard; it’s another to work smart. Setting up frameworks for dynamic messaging, cross-platform retargeting, and delivery of unique value propositions to different employees within an organization are all conducive to better targeting. And they’re all effective at simplifying B2B marketing strategy.
At JXM, we don’t wish B2B was as easy as B2C: we know it can be, and we strive to make it so. Sure, it takes a little more setup and some back-end orchestration, but it all pays off in the results our customers see from campaigns that fulfill ABM goals. Grab your Dream 100 list and let’s build a B2B strategy that makes B2C brands envious.
