Effective Marketing Tips for B2C Businesses

Effective marketing begins with knowing your audience. There are distinct differences between marketing to businesses (B2B) and marketing to consumers (B2C). Businesses are seeking benefits to their own business from your products or services, so appealing to logic and how you can affect or improve their bottom line is key. With consumers, more emotion is involved, as well as meeting needs and connecting on a more personal level.

Beyond those basics, different audiences of consumers must be targeted differently. Baby Boomers are attracted to certain principles, while Millennials are drawn to an entirely different set of values. Knowing your target audience and what appeals to them most is key to crafting an effective marketing plan for your business.

When you know your audience and what attracts them the most, then you can shape the marketing tips below to better reach them. Just using these tips in a general sense will not bring you the growing list of leads and customers that you desire like carefully targeting them toward set audiences. We recommend creating separate sets of marketing channels using these tips directed at different audiences, or customer personas, to connect with them closely and elicit a better response.

Turn Your Customers into Brand Ambassadors

While most consumers are much more likely to make purchasing decisions based on emotion, they still need some help learning that they can trust your company. Modern consumers are cynical, like people from Missouri (The “Show Me” State); they want to see proof that you can be trusted to deliver what you promise. This is why your B2C marketing campaigns should include social proof.

Social proof is anything from a satisfied customer that influences others to trust your brand. This includes:

  • Client recommendations
  • “Likes” and followers on social media accounts
  • User “shares” of your social media posts and blog articles
  • Customer testimony videos
  • Customer referrals

Using this user-generated social proof makes you appear trustworthy to potential clients because “normal people” just like them trusted your products or services and were pleased with the results. Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers, offer rewards or incentives for customer referrals, and then display this content from satisfied customers all across your company website and social media channels.

Another great tip to help customers turn into brand ambassadors is to help them understand your brand. Picky modern clients, especially the Millennial generation, want to do business with companies they believe in, companies that support agendas with which they resonate strongly. Strategically promoting your brand as one that makes an impact on the world around you can draw many customers to take a close look at your company and what you have to offer.

Focus On a Great Customer Experience

Of course, in order to turn customers into brand ambassadors, you must provide them with a great experience. Modern consumers want more than just a product or service – they want an exceptional customer experience. There are likely many other companies like yours competing for the same customers. How do you stand apart from the rest? Research proves that 8 in 10 consumers will pay more for a better customer experience.

In order to do that, you must delight and excite your customers with every aspect of your products, services, and overall purchasing experience. Engage them with contests, offer great discounts, provide multiple channels through which they can connect with your company, provide great customer service and pricing, and of course, feature the best products or services in your niche.

Keep Your Brand Top of Mind with Content Marketing

Content marketing is the most effective inbound method for attracting users and creating leads for your company. Relevant and interesting blog posts on your website that provide quality, useful information in your industry draw people to your website and your company. They also create brand recognition and awareness for your company, positioning you as an industry leader in your local area.

A constant stream of purposeful, relevant, and diverse content keeps users returning to your site, and keeps Google indexing and ranking your site higher in its search engine results. SEO still matters in B2C marketing. Consumers that are searching for information in your industry niche need to find you on the first page of Google, Bing, and other popular search engines. Use written and illustrated content, podcasts, videos, and infographics to generate interest and convey information that is useful to your target audiences.

  • Answer consumer questions
  • Provide simple solutions to consumer problems
  • Tease the senses/emotions with creativity
  • Share your company’s engagement with the community/world
  • Offer discounts or attractive incentives
  • Showcase your company “behind the scenes”

Establish Relationships Through Social Media

Social media marketing has emerged as one of the most important tactics for virtually any brand. A vast majority of your target audiences are on social media, so it only makes sense to establish a presence where they are and engage them in conversation in this digital, yet human, environment. Consumers want to feel a sense of affinity with their favorite brands, and those companies that can create this level of engagement will reap the benefits of regular customers.

Use social media to create a more well-rounded customer experience by:

  • Engaging in two-way conversations
  • Encouraging followers to contribute user-generated content
  • Adding some personality to your brand
  • Offering value through information and/or entertainment

Of course, this requires constant monitoring and rapid responses to user connections, so having someone in charge of your social media programming is vital. Most companies cannot do that on their own, so they partner with a marketing company to bolster their social media game.

Engage with Retargeting

The CRM experts at Salesforce have discovered that it takes between six and eight touches in a customer buying journey to create a viable lead. This means that your B2C marketing efforts must be able to re-engage with interested consumers in order to raise your chances of making a sale. Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a fantastic and effective way to do this.

Retargeting uses simple JavaScript code to anonymously “follow” your targeted audience all over the Internet. Hidden code on your website places a “cookie” into the browser of every site visitor. As these visitors browse other Internet sites, a retargeting provider serves ads for your company at relevant times and places, showing products or services that this visitor has previously viewed on your site.

Retargeting is a great way to convince clients to return to your website and make a purchase. It unobtrusively offers them many more opportunities to see and engage with your products or services, helping to influence purchasing decisions. With all the constant pull on the Internet from social media, email, chat, and more, helping consumers refocus on your offerings can raise your level of sales considerably.

Are you looking for help with effective marketing for your Northeast Tennessee small business? 1-FIND SERVICES can help! Contact us today for more information.

Casey Carmical
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