Running Head: B2B vs. B2C Marketing
“B2B vs. B2C Marketing“
EBUS 400 - Wk 2
January 2, 2008
University of Phoenix
B2B v. B2C Marketing
Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing is different. Some people think marketing is marketing and whether you are marketing to consumers or marketing to businesses, you are still just marketing to people.While the ultimate goal of both B2C and B2B marketing is to create a sale, the goal of B2B search engine optimization couldn't be more different than its B2C counterpart. SEO's goal in the B2C environment is usually to generate an online sale in a single visit. Ideally, searchers find a high-ranking site in the search engine results and navigate quickly from the landing page through a prescribed channel, ultimately through the shopping cart and checkout process. (Searchnewz 2007)
This, however, is unrealistic for most business-to-business marketers, whose products and services are generally not acquired in an e-commerce environment. The goal of search engine optimization for most B2B marketers is not an immediate sale, but rather inclusion in the consideration set, the short list of preferred suppliers from which the ultimate provider will be selected. Conversion in the B2B realm is usually not immediate; nor does conversion typically occur online. In B2B search engine optimization, getting found is merely the beginning. (Searchnewz 2007)
The first step in developing your marketing strategy for B2B is similar to the first step in a B2C strategy: identify who the customer is and why they need to hear your message. From there, the marketing activities diverge. Some important factors in B2B business marketing are that it is relationship driven, it maximize ...