The Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) are two totally different worlds. Understanding the difference between them is important to boost your digital marketing campaigns. Although these marketing models are similar at many fronts, the way of engaging and approaching the target audience is different.
Let’s understand the main differences.
What are B2B and B2C Models?
You can consider B2B and B2C as ways of undergoing transactions. B2B involves selling services or products to businesses. B2C, on the other hand, sells services or products directly to the consumers. Many businesses are providing both B2B and B2C offerings to cater to a diverse and broader market.
The B2B space is more complicated as compared to B2C with regard to online transactions. During a B2C transaction, a potential consumer comes across a marketing ad, visits the website, and buys the product.
B2B doesn’t involve such a short sales funnel in most of the cases. The services or products are often intricate, and it may actually take the consumer a few months for completing a transaction.
Differences Between B2B SEO and B2C SEO
B2B SEO strategies aim to improve brand recognition, while B2C must attract users to make an immediate purchase. The following differences can help to improve your SEO strategy for both the models.
Content Marketing
The target audience for a B2C campaign is an individual interested in buying the product. The transaction is usually driven by emotions and of lower risk. The content marketing of B2C is thus used for increasing online presence, advertising, and building links.
For the B2B model, the target audience is other businesses looking for solutions and the transaction is logic-driven. Content marketing aims to improve brand awareness, demand generation, and education.
Performance Indicators
Although revenue and organic traffic is the key SEO strategy for both B2B and B2C models, performance indicators are different. Performance indicators for the B2C campaign are sales generated from the organic traffic, while in the B2B model it is lead quality and quantity.
Sales Life Cycle
In the B2B sales journey, the consumer identifies a need, conducts research, and a team of people together decide about the purchase. The B2C sales cycle is comparatively straightforward. The user visiting the website may or may not be looking out for what you are offering. But if they find it interesting, they would purchase it.
Keywords Used
Identifying the target audience will guide you in understanding their needs, behavior, intent, and ultimately the keywords to target the potential consumers. For B2C SEO, consumers have a clear understanding of what they need. So, keywords should be simple and not too technical. You can also consider keywords that a consumer may use while comparing products.
B2B involves a more complex SEO strategy. Here the keyword strategy is used to address the niche clientele. The users are looking for solutions to fill the gap in their organization. So, the terminologies used are technical and long-tail keywords usually help in appealing to these consumers.
Although the B2B model requires a relatively more elbow grease owing to the long sales funnel, SEO strategy should be constantly analyzed for both B2B and B2C. Consider these elements while designing your next SEO strategy for better results.
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