B2C marketing relationships
“Death of a salesman” is the literal translation in how purveyors of marketing and advertising operate today. We are no longer selling in a world of transactional sales and product demos. The trend for service providers today is to offer total package experiences to a better-informed audience and to work hand in hand with their customers, their partners and suppliers. 1
For B2C selling agents, it is vitally important to stay on top of new tends and innovations that are appearing on the scene every day. Business-to-customer marketing refers to the stratagems and best practices used to promote products and services among consumers. B2C is a customer-centered marketing approach.
It is estimated that in three years, the customer experience will surpass the cost of products as the main branding feature. This matters not only in how companies market and sell, but also how they deliver products and services, and how they handle client relationships.
B2C selling mediums
Within the coming year, we will probably see marketing techniques adopt a more aggressive customer-centric strategy and an internal infrastructure to support it. 2
As with most forms of marketing, technology has greatly increased the number of mediums B2C sellers must use in their marketing campaigns. One such strategy that B2C marketing businesses have found great success in are blogs.
Blogs should be written specifically to appeal to consumers who may be interested in various products. Written content subjects are designed to enlist a wide array of market members. This strategy is gaining support as a successful B2C content marketing practice.
The most popular or effective medium is the Internet. It is fast becoming the main source for shopping research. According to the Pew Research Center, 33 percent of millennials turn to the internet first when seeking all types of information.
Pew further states that around 26 percent of Generation X adults rely on the world wide web to perform their searches on services and products.
B2C trends
Other customer-centric strategies include content marketing programs. Some of their trends moving forward include:
- Focusing more on quality, quantity, and target-specific content
- Integration of content marketing into account-based marketing (ABM) and other types of sales driven techniques
- Adding diversified content formats to include more video, interactive content, podcasts, etc.
- Adding sophisticated technology infrastructure to support programs
- Concentrating more on “native” advertising. The Federal Trade Commission defines native advertising as mixing advertisements with entertainment, news, and other content in digital media.
- Targeting niche promotions that prioritize providing a better product
- Using social media connections to reach larger audiences and connect with people on a more personal level
Driving force of technology
Massive data, smart machine learning, and artificial intelligence marketing are the new wave of the future. These advanced technologies will help selling agents create individualized and personalized experiences for specific audiences.
In the world of B2C marketing, these personalized contacts are the main ingredients to building loyal customers who will become return buyers. In summary, B2C marketing is all about data and consumer personification. Vendors will have to learn to rely on new technology to help organize and implement these new trends.