How to boost sales? This is the question that even Apple’s marketers and managers ask.

And if your company is still on the way to the global level, or you are just thinking about launching a B2C startup, we decided to help you with your marketing strategy and tell you the following:

• What is B2C
• B2B vs B2C (the main difference)
• Bonus: seven effective and trendy B2C marketing tactics that you should start using right away.

So, are you ready to boost your B2C sales and get new insights for your marketing strategy? We’ll help you with it!

B2C marketing foundation: What is B2C in a nutshell?

It’s very easy to explain what B2C is in just a few words. B2C or business to consumer means that your business directly provides services or sells goods to the end consumers.

Intuitively, it may seem that the B2C segment is the largest segment of the global market, however, the B2B (business to business) segment is six times larger.

Let’s find out the difference between B2B and B2C.

In addition, there is another very important point that significantly distinguishes B2C marketing from marketing for B2B. Purchasing decisions at B2B and B2C segments are taken differently:

• Most B2C (business to consumer) purchases are emotional.

• Most B2B (business to business) purchases are rational.

That is why successful B2B and B2C marketing need different approaches to reach the target audience.

Further, we will tell you how to deal with your B2C customers to improve sales and build long-lasting relations.

7 actionable tips and examples to boost B2C sales 

So, let’s finish the theory and move on to practice.

1. Give your users what they want to see through video marketing

One of the strongest trends in digital marketing does not need long introductions. Video is what your users expect from you. 99% of marketers used video in 2019 and will continue with it in 2020.

But! The most amazing benefit of video as a marketing tool is that you can use it:

• at any stage of your customer relationship – both at the stage of the first meeting and to stimulate subsequent purchases.
• on any channel of customer interaction – a professionally created video with a clear marketing message will give results on your website, social networks, and even in email newsletters. Surely, the most impactful channel for video marketing is YouTube, so take care of your unique YouTube marketing strategy.

What kind of video do you need to run B2C sales? 

• Demo video – 65% of users said that the demo video helped them make a purchase decision. Many business owners believe that the demo video applies only to software products, but this is not so. A demo video can be created for any product or service without exception. All you need is to demonstrate how your product looks, works, and can be exploited to the user’s advantage.
• Explainer video – if your product is difficult to use or needs special safety rules (for example, you sell lawnmowers or chainsaws), then you better show your customers how to properly and safely work with the tool in the explainer video. Use it on your main page, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Backstage video – users love when companies open the curtain and talk about themselves personally. This is especially important for B2C marketing since you work with people directly.

See how efficiently Patagonia uses video marketing to boost their B2C sales.

2. Always be in touch with consumers via email marketing

Believe me, email marketing still works. In fact, this marketing channel is the easiest way to expand your base of subscribers and increase customer loyalty.

Even a single letter containing some promotion, discount, announcement or summary of new blog posts per week will be enough to start making B2C sales.

All you need is to add lead forms on your website and motivate buyers/users to subscribe to the company newsletter. You can use the ready-made plugins or special mailing services such as MailChimp, Reply.io, or other tools to implement lead forms with no technical skills.

Add the lead form with some hot offer to the middle of the page. If a user doesn’t leave your website before this moment, the probability is that he/she is pretty interested in your product.

When you collect at least a small base of subscribers, it’s time to segment your audience, create a targeted strategy, write down a few email sequences and catchy subject lines, and keep the greatest focus on personalization. Remember, personalization is the key to successful email marketing!

Here is one brilliant B2C example confirming that this approach really works. For their B2C email marketing campaign, Cadbury Chocolate Factory has collected user data from their subscribers’ Facebook profiles and defined which chocolate they like the most.

Each email contained a personalized video with the mention of the consumer’s favorite chocolate taste, which brought a 33.6% increase in conversion rate as a result.

3. Show yourself off on social media

In fact, it’s possible to create thousands of social media marketing guides (by the way, we’ve already composed one – Social Media Marketing For Dummies: Basics And More Advanced Tips).

Here are some additional marketing tips:

• Choose the highest-priority social network based on the age and preferences of your users.
• Follow the same style in all of your social media posts.
• Use the most advanced Facebook targeting features to make your ads look rocket-like.
• Instagram is great for creating the right visual impression. And, of course, do not forget about Stories and IGTV (for the videos that we suggested you create in the previous paragraph).
• Competitions, marathons, and challenges perfectly increase the number of subscribers, coverage, and sales accordingly.
• Use a branded hashtag for all of your posts.
• Encourage users to create user-generated content and use a branded hashtag.

I bet now you have a clear vision of a profitable social media marketing strategy for your product. Be creative and active – these are the key!

4. Invest in a recommendation engine 

Recommendation systems boost b2c sales very well. Surely, you have seen how it works on Amazon. The platform creates a personalized list of recommended items based on your online behavior. Just imagine the introduction of this system improved Amazon sales by 35%.

Yes, this technology is based on machine learning, and it’s a little more difficult to implement it on your website than connecting a WordPress plugin, but the result is worth the effort and investment. Think about such a technological advancement for your e-commerce platform in the long run.

5. Ask influencers to talk about your brand, product, or service 

Influencer marketing is one more strong trend. And it is also especially relevant for B2C marketing since influencers are a direct bridge between you and people. Just what you need!

So, what should you keep in mind when coming up with your influencer marketing strategy?

If you are a small or medium-sized business, choose a micro-influencer

Let us give you an anti-example. Did you know that Cristiano Ronaldo has more than 2 million subscribers on Instagram, and his promo posts cost $750,000?

Yes, this may give you the greatest coverage, but you may never know if Ronaldo’s subscribers are interested in your product. His target audience is too diverse – from young girls who adore him to 60-year-old bearded men.

But your task is to target your potential users more accurately – that is why you may need a micro-influencer who shares the value of your company with the hope that his or her subscribers do as well.

Seek influencers on relevant platforms

If you have a limited influencer marketing budget or just want to find out how it works – choose Twitter as the cheapest platform.

If you want to get great engagement, come up with a video in cooperation with your influencer and post it on YouTube. Or agree with an influencer that he or she will mention your product in his/her personal video.

Promote values and tell stories

Influencer marketing works well when an influencer tells a real-life story and shows how a certain product or service helped him or her solve some problem. What is more, this story should be about values that their subscribers share, too.

As for the influencer marketing in B2C examples, see the campaign from Olay. This is a great way of how the B2C brand can talk to users while promoting values and motivating people to share their feelings with a branded hashtag #Faceanything.

6. Create content with SEO in mind 

If you ever hear that SEO is dead, don’t believe it. SEO can’t die while search engines are alive. Therefore, make sure that you create every significant piece of content with SEO in mind.

Follow these SEO basics: 

• Create a semantic core for your site. Select keywords based on the queries that users may use when searching for your product or service. Use special SEO tools such as Ahrefs or UberSuggest to pick the relevant keywords according to your target country, niche, and website ranking on Google.
• Optimize your content and keywords to voice search. Using voice, users usually ask straightforward questions – for example, where to buy a Gucci dress in New York? So, insert the same keywords. 
  

• Take care of mobile optimization. A huge share of Internet traffic comes from mobile devices. That is why you should create a mobile optimization strategy for your website. All web pages should be responsive, have a separate mobile URL, a clear user interface, and fast loading time.

7. Evoke emotions with visual marketing

As we said, most B2C sales are triggered by emotions. Our brain works in such a way that, at first, we see a visual stimulus. This stimulus triggers an emotional reaction that transforms into the urge, “I want this product.”

Here is what you can do to run this chain:

• Create heroes similar to your users. This is a psychological trick that will help them identify themselves in your pictures.
• Use these characters to tell a story and share values.

Take a look at Dove’s visual marketing campaign. These are ordinary women – not silicone models from Instagram. And this is what really gets to people’s souls.

All-in-one B2C marketing

Ideally, you should use all of these approaches. Don’t be afraid to spend a big marketing budget because all of the listed tactics can be recycled again and used in another channel.

For example, the video will work both in email and on YouTube. Visual marketing will work both in email and on social networks. SEO will produce results without your direct involvement, as will the recommendations section on your site.

Our team will help you define the highest priority tools for your B2C marketing arsenal. Contact us today to give your consumers no choice but to choose your brand!