The Differences You Should Know Between B2C And B2B Email Marketing

Email is unanimously the best marketing channel to amplify your profits as a small enterprise. Whether you’re catering to B2B or B2C customers, your goal remains the same: to sell the product/service. 

However, the way a B2B buyer makes a purchase decision is different from a B2C customer. Thus, you’ll need to adjust the tone and structure your marketing emails to build trust by tweaking the content. 

Read on to learn more about email marketing for both B2C and B2B companies.  

B2C versus B2B 

B2C refers to the process of selling directly to the consumer. The five types of B2C companies are online intermediaries, direct sellers, community-associated, advertising, or fee-related. 

On the flip side, B2B refers to business-to-business activities such as that of the wholesalers. For example, the business between your supplier and your company would be a B2B relationship.

Unlike direct transactions in B2C, B2B focuses on building long term relationships with the business team or multiple end-parties. 

The Main Differences To Pay Attention To 

Whether you’re buying from a supplier or selling directly to your customers, you’ll need to learn about the core distinctions between B2C and B2B. 

Take a look below. 

Purchasing Psychology

While B2B purchases are emotional, business purchases are more logical. Both are governed by different causes and results. 

For example, when you buy a shoe for yourself on Amazon, you’re looking for an accessory that you can personally use. However, when your business is looking for an email marketing software, your CEO and other team members will have an influencer on selecting the appropriate software.

Here are the core concepts behind the purchasing psychology of B2C marketing:

• An emotional trigger is crucial to the value of products for B2C consumers. 
• B2C customers take a few minutes to a day to make purchase decisions and have quick sales cycles. 

When it comes to B2B marketing,  these are the psychological factors to consider:

• For B2B clients, you need to feature the value of investing in the product. 
• When it comes to B2B clients, purchase and sales cycles are longer because it’s controlled by multiple parties.

The Element Of Trust Building

As B2C and B2B businesses target two different audiences, both stimulate different points of interest. While B2B needs to generate trust over a longer period of time for different stages of the funnel, over one-third of B2C customers have a history of purchasing directly via email alone. 

While B2B is formal, B2C tends to be more casual. Even the spam filter for a common consumer differs from that of a business email address. Accordingly, you’ll need to adjust the way in which you build trust with each of the different markets. 

Here’s how to build trust with B2C customers via email:

• Selling directly to the customer by personalizing the tone to be more informal can invoke emotional purchase decisions. 
• Aim for a higher frequency of emails as you’ll need to set up campaigns for holidays, birthdays, or personal days that are special.
• The best sending time is usually during evenings, the start/end of a day, or during the lunch break on weekdays.

Here’s how to build trustworthy relationships with B2B clients. 

• When it comes to the tone of voice of your marketing emails for B2B customers, formal and straightforward tones suit the best. 
• When catering to B2B customers, you need to set a slower pace for the email cadence so as not to irritate the customer which can result in them unsubscribing.
• The best sending time is during the weekdays between 11 am and 1 pm. 

Delivering The Message

As a marketer, it’s your responsibility to communicate the right content to the right audience. One of the main differences between B2B and B2C content is usually around the topic: educational vs. entertainment.

The type of content sent to B2C customers differs from that of B2B customers. While it has to be concise and eye-catchy for B2C, B2B content is often cut-and-dry with stats. B2B customers invest in products that can serve the business as a whole or increase productivity. On the other hand, B2C consumers buy products or services for personal interests, preferences, or desires. 

Here are some common characteristics of B2C content:

• Triggers for emotional purchasing require more persuasive tactics such as discounts or upsells. 
• Creating emails that place an emphasis on design helps invoke emotions that trigger sales.

Here’s how B2B email marketing content differs:

• The main element for a B2B customer is the value of the product over the costs. 
• B2B emails focus on non-promotional, educational content such as whitepapers and case studies. 

Bottom Line 

While B2C serves the individuals, B2B caters to organizations and companies. 

There are many differences between the two however the main one is that B2C focuses on emotional purchases, unlike B2B purchases. 

Simply put, the purchasing mindset, trust, and content of the email differ drastically when marketing to either B2C or B2B customers.