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The Ultimate Guide To Building A B2C Marketing Strategy

by Arthur Zuckerman

Business-to-consumer marketing has been around since the days before electricity and indoor plumbing. 

While we once relied on word of mouth marketing, TV announcements, radio ads, and print advertising to move our products, we now have to focus on search engines, social media, and influencers to get our marketing messages out there. 

But with the landscape of B2C marketing shifting all the time, where should you even begin when crafting a B2C marketing strategy as we move into 2023? 

That’s what we’re going to cover in this informative guide. 

Identify your audience

When marketing directly to consumers, you’ll first have to determine who those consumers are. 

You’ll need to acquire a wealth of demographic information on your customers, including their:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Location
  • Interests
  • Occupation
  • Dislikes
  • Preferred social media platforms
  • And much more

You can gather this information via online surveys, social media polls, and customer surveys delivered via your email list. 

Once you’ve collected your data, it’s time to build your buyer personas. 

An example of a buyer persona vs target audience.

Each buyer persona should represent a segment of your target audience and their specific characteristics. 

With individual buyer personas in hand along with customer data, you can then separate your audience into segments and develop marketing plans based on what appeals to each. 

A guide to segmenting your audience.

These segments will allow you to precisely target your marketing efforts. 

For example, by using tags for different segments of your email list, you can send special discounts or offers to those customers who’d be most interested while avoiding becoming an annoyance to (and earning unsubscribes from) those who aren’t.

Invest in the right software

Use marketing software programs to plan and execute campaigns. Refer to the subsequent analysis of the results to understand each campaign’s success or failure.

Some of the software options you should look into includes:

Create meaningful content

If you want to capture the hearts and minds of your audience, you’ll need to create meaningful content that resonates with them via text, images, video, or audio. 

Be sure to consider what your audience likes and how they typically consume content — then base all of your content marketing decisions on those details. 

Take Digits as an example, a company that offers AI-powered accounting tools, such as report creators. Its content strategy revolves around dynamic short-form videos discussing its products, mission, and other relevant financial topics. 

Content that’s simple, specific, and detailed like this is more memorable and can inspire more shares on social media. 

Use lead magnets

Fall in love with lead magnets.

Lead magnets are free services or products given in exchange for personal data and contact details. They’re invaluable for companies looking to gather contact information for marketing and data analysis purposes. 

Take Nlyte, a data center infrastructure company, as an example of strong lead magnet marketing. 

In this example, Nlyte uses a “DCIM For Dummies” ebook on its site as a lead magnet.

Since what the company offers can be a very complex topic, it decided to give away this educational product for free. Users only have to leave their contact information before downloading it, a strategy that’s helped Nlyte gather multiple leads and customers.

The lesson here? By offering something for free (your “lead magnet”) in exchange for contact information, you can gather pertinent customer data to understand your audience better — and reach out to more prospects via email marketing and push marketing campaigns. 

Promote on popular platforms

Once you understand what platforms your audience frequents, it’s time to become an expert on them and create tailored content for each channel.

When in doubt, video is your friend. 

In fact, nearly 85% of the content we consume today comes in video format. 

With that in mind, it’s no wonder many B2C brands are harnessing the power of Instagram and TikTok marketing. Building a strong presence on tiktok not only boosts brand visibility but also fosters genuine connections with customers. The exponential growth in TikTok followers further emphasizes its significance as a pivotal marketing tool in today’s digital landscape. Take Kudos as an example in the image below.  

An example of TikTok marketing.

Kudos offers a smart wallet that maximizes your credit card rewards when you shop. The company creates valuable video content and then posts it on its social media channels like TikTok and its website. This content provides useful information to the Kudos audience, allowing them to learn more about financial topics and products. Since Kudos adds value to its audience’s lives, its audience continues to show up to consume its content.

But again, you have to consider your audience. 

If your ideal customer doesn’t fit the demographic of the TikTok audience, you’ll have to focus on other platforms. 

If you want to reach people on search engines, consider Google Ads. If they’re more into Facebook, boost your posts using Facebook Ads. 

Meet your audience on the platforms they frequent most to effectively get your message out there. 

Use Influencer Marketing

Endorsements from social media influencers can go a long way in today’s marketing world. These are celebrities in their own right with massive online followings you can bring on to work as brand ambassadors for your company. 

A well-planned influencer strategy supported with a solid influencer analytics tool can completely supercharge your social and digital PR marketing campaign. 

When working with an influencer, you can run programs that cut through the digital noise and meet your audience head-on. 

For instance, if you own a keto diet weight loss app, consider asking influencers in the fitness industry to use your app every day for a set time and post about their experiences. They can discuss the recipes they’ve been preparing from the app and discuss their progress to create more buzz and perceived value.

Invest in product-led growth marketing 

Customers love nothing more than being able to test your brand for themselves before they decide to invest in it. If you’re looking for an effective B2C marketing method, consider giving product-led growth marketing a try.

This can come in the form of free samples or even money-back guarantee periods. 

By allowing the audience to try your product risk-free, you can let your product do the marketing for you. Amazon actually started doing this with clothing items, creating the “try before you buy” system.

Customers can order clothes, try them on, and then decide whether they like them before they’re ever charged. Amazon shoppers can send the items back if they don’t fit right or if they simply don’t like them.  

Gather data and re-evaluate

When running a marketing campaign, keep a firm eye on data. 

Data gives you an essential view of the campaign as a whole, so you can determine whether it was a success or a failure. 

If you notice your campaigns are underperforming, be sure to investigate why. Stay flexible enough to change course and try something new if the campaign isn’t working.

Wrap up

The consumer marketing world is always changing. 

Now? The emphasis is on online engagement and the customer experience. 

Thankfully, by following the steps we covered today, you can create a solid B2C marketing strategy that’ll nurture the customer experience and help put your business on the map for years to come. 

Are you ready to build a solid B2C marketing strategy?

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