While a business will likely conduct extensive research before investing in new software, office space, or a large acquisition with another business, B2C transactions are frequently more impulsive and instantaneous.

Consumers generally seek out goods and services based on an immediate need, and make purchases more quickly, with less research and due diligence than a business would conduct. This grants B2C marketers a much smaller window of opportunity to influence consumer behavior.

For these reasons, successful B2C campaigns typically trigger emotional reactions or responses, while B2B campaigns focus on offering immediate value. Understanding these differences and making the appropriate changes to your marketing strategy will improve your outcomes.

Businesses that focus on B2C marketing observe trends closely, research their customers’ purchase habits, and closely monitor their competitors’ tactics, as it’s critical to know the challenges—and understand how to break through all the noise to find success.

What is B2C Marketing & Why Is It Important?

To help break down B2C marketing and why it’s so important, we’re providing clarity around the term and the industry itself. To do so, we’ve outlined examples of successful B2C strategies, along with the biggest challenges, best practices, and future projections (plus additional resources for your continued education).

Biggest Challenges of B2C Marketing

B2C marketing is one of the most popular business strategies to date, but there are still potential hurdles of which every B2C marketer must be aware.

Consumers have more control than ever before. They are also more unpredictable than ever before.

9/10 consumers will pay more for a superior customer experience, and 60% will try a new brand for a better experience. This is why, in the digital age, it’s vital to engage customers, not interrupt them.

Smartphones, coupled with nearly unlimited Internet access and an abundance of technological resources, have provided consumers with 24/7 access to any information they desire at the tap of the finger. Brands must be prepared to meet them on their device and channel of preference.

9/10 consumers expect consistent interactions across any channel they choose, so it’s the responsibility of the companies they buy from to proactively (not reactively) provide that kind of experience.

Additionally, most consumers today are predisposed to expect all brands to treat them as well as their favorite brand. As these expectations continue to heighten, the bar for what constitutes a “good experience” keeps rising.

B2C marketers can leverage social media from a sales, customer service, and overall customer engagement perspective. The opportunity (and challenge) for B2C brands, especially, is amplified on social media. The number of social channels available to consumers has exploded exponentially over the past ten years.

Social channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat provide a direct conduit to build connections with customers, but the same characteristics that facilitate immediate, personal, public conversations with consumers can simultaneously be one of your biggest hurdles.

Consumers have no barrier of entry to any social platform, and are quick to publicly bad-mouth a company following a negative experience. It’s also difficult for companies to respond to all consumers, all the time, across every “social” medium.

Social media also presents a flurry of distractions for your consumers; if you’re not entertaining, connecting, engaging, and responding to them, other brands will. As Michael Brenner told me, B2C marketers must find a way to break through the noise while simultaneously delivering strong, relevant, and personalized content.

Doing Your Job with Limited Time and Resources

Time and resource constraints are a major obstacle for most B2C brands, especially new or growing companies or SMBs trying to scale their productivity, marketing, and product fulfillment/delivery.

With the help of technology, any B2C marketing team can alleviate many of these constraints that threaten productivity and your ability to reach customers.

Any #B2C marketer can even the playing field & achieve #personalized marketing w/ the help of tech CLICK TO TWEET

You can use software to automate, scale, and amplify your personalized marketing strategy—and even render obsolete some of your mundane day-to-day tasks. Ultimately, these tools exist to help you increase efficiency and better reach customers, regardless of the resources at your disposal.

Dealing with Data Overload, and Using Customer Data

Customer data is generated at every touch point and interaction, from every customer, web visitor, or prospect you’re trying to reach.

Many B2C marketers believe this is the most significant challenge today; keeping up and making sense of all this data, then using it to draw insights and inform your marketing at scale. This process is nearly impossible to achieve manually.

New technologies can help you by automating the process of collecting, mining, analyzing, and leveraging data. These include:

Customer data platforms to help store and manage all customer information you’re collecting.

Machine learning to help algorithms self-learn, without the need for manual updates.

Artificial intelligence marketing to help you scale the process of personalization.

The complete collection and accurate application of data confuses and eludes many B2C marketers. However, customer data is also your greatest asset, and is the gasoline which fuels your B2C machine.

Essential B2C Marketing Tips

To achieve success as a B2C marketer, it’s important that you focus on reaching your consumers at the most appropriate time, while delivering perfectly tailored messages that ensure conversion and retention. Here’s look at three ways your B2C marketing efforts will be boosted by focusing on personalization and creating one-to-one interactions.