Businesses want to sell their products or services, either to another business or to consumers.
To do this, they harness the power of marketing. In this article, we look at business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, along with strategies you can use to increase your sales.
What is business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing?
When we talk about B2C marketing, we’re referring to the ways in which companies sell their products or services to their customers. B2C marketing encourages a purchase by evoking certain emotions within consumers.
The best way to do this is to get to know your customers and find out what makes them tick. Research is vital, along with a properly formulated marketing plan.
How does business-to-consumer marketing work?
B2C marketing is all about the customers, so it is centred around acquiring consumer data and using it to inform your plan. In particular, you should explore the problems they face, their motivations, desires, and needs in order to work out how your product or service can help.
The first step to getting started with B2C marketing is to establish a B2C marketing funnel. There are three stages to this that correspond to three parts of the funnel; the top, middle, and bottom.
Top: The consumer first finds out about you (Awareness)
This first stage is when a potential consumer is looking for a product to solve their problem and comes across your brand. Here, they become aware that the product or service you offer may well be the solution to their problem. Having an online presence is a great way to start this off.
For instance, let’s consider a business providing a SAP integration platform; a blog post structured around the question “what is SAP cloud platform integration?” would attract customers looking for ways that allow them to easily create legacy APIs for SAP and successfully expose them to the brand, sending them down the marketing funnel.
Middle: The consumer’s attention has been captured (Consideration)
During the second stage, the consumer is considering whether your product or service in particular can solve their problem. At this point, they are deciding whether your brand is the right fit for them.
They will be looking at your content, such as social media posts and reviews, to help them make this decision. It is therefore important for you to have material already in place that shows them exactly how your brand can help them and how you differ from your competitors.
For instance, if you’re in the business of providing IVR systems, include a page answering “What is IVR?” in depth to allow potential customers to access the information they need as well as establish yourself as knowledgeable in the field.
Bottom: The consumer is ready to purchase (Conversion)
At this point in the funnel, the consumer is open to purchasing. They’ve decided that your service or product is what they need; now is the time to encourage conversion by offering attractive offers or loyalty schemes, for example.
Now that you have a better understanding of the B2C marketing funnel, let’s explore some of the strategies that you can implement to further maximise the likelihood of consumers successfully reaching the end of the funnel.
5 Effective strategies to boost sales
- Connect with your customers
B2C marketing aims to evoke emotions in consumers, so it’s important to develop a connection with them. A great way to do this is to personalise your interactions. This can be done via simple means, such as using their names in email taglines, or more elaborate methods, like an email campaign that uses consumer data to create personalised content that makes them feel seen and valued.
- Provide a great customer experience
Great customer experience drives customer loyalty and engagement. If a consumer has had a positive overall interaction with your brand, they are much more likely to return.
Consider how to make it easier for your customers to find the information they need and get in touch with you should they have any questions.
For instance, invest in a toll-free number for business needs, even if your company is small, to make it easier for your customers to reach you for free. This will not only encourage feedback (which is invaluable), but also increase the chances of potential leads reaching out with queries or concerns during the consideration stage (middle of the funnel) that you can then address.
- Work on your social media presence
Having a strong social media presence will serve you well when it comes to putting your brand out there. After all, offering the best customer experience will not help if the customers aren’t finding you. You can use an AI photo editor to showcase your products in the best possible way to make them more attractive to potential customers.
What’s more, consumers routinely have conversations online about brands with which they’ve interacted. Giving them a platform on which to voice their (hopefully) positive opinions about your products or services means that you can use these to attract leads and showcase how your service has been the solution to previous customers’ problems.
You can also gain potential customers’ attention by using creative automation ads, which will help you more effectively engage with them.
- Use SEO
Whether your business is anchored in a physical store or is conducted solely online, you need a website. This website should be filled with plenty of engaging content and encourage consumers to do their online shopping on your website.
SEO is a great way to increase organic traffic to your website and increase the number of customers interacting with your brand. It also does wonders for brand exposure, which helps with the awareness stage of the B2C funnel.
- Don’t forget mobile
Mobiles have changed the way that business is done. In 2021, the number of mobile users worldwide stood at 7.1 billion, and this is projected to increase to 7.49 billion by 2025. They present an opportunity for brands to connect with more customers and reach more potential leads by developing content for mobile phones.
Image sourced from statista.com
At the basic level, this means ensuring that elements such as your website or emails are mobile-friendly and in the right format. Beyond this, you could, for instance, develop an app that supports a product, or offers freebies such as a software proposal template that can be easily accessed on consumers’ mobile devices when they’re on the go.
Being a mobile-compatible brand not only helps with awareness but also increases engagement, as well as loyalty.
Takeaway
Developing a winning B2C marketing strategy is simple when you employ the right techniques. Remember your marketing funnel and take advantage of what technology has to offer; strengthen your social media presence, invest in SEO, and optimise your content for mobile devices. Last but not least, do your research on your target consumers and work on providing an excellent customer experience.
