These are all good questions to ask as we face the new media marketing trend. The tools of marketing have expanded and for many businesses, this new media is an unknown territory that complicates the marketing mix.

Whether your business sells to consumers (B2C) or to businesses (B2B), new media marketing will have a profound effect on your marketing plan in the future. You need to prepare to join the conversation, listen to your customers, and build a long term relationship with them that helps your business succeed.

Social Media Tools

The new social media tools enable users to publish content easily, building a brand not only for their businesses, but in many cases for themselves. The following are the tools that you need to be aware of and work into your marketing mix over time. There are others, but we’ll focus on the basics first.

• Blogs – A blog is a web site using technology that makes it easy for anyone to post information to the web. The blog itself is a frequent post of information about a particular topic welcoming comments and discussion. If you don’t have a web site yet or are considering an update, consider moving to blogging software as the foundation. It makes updating content easy and you can add the blog to your site when you are ready to do so.
• Podcasts – A podcast is an audio file that automatically gets delivered to your computer and can be transferred to your portable MP3 player so you can listen to it wherever you are. If you are familiar with RSS, simply think of podcasting as RSS for audio. (If you need more on RSS, read my last article on The Benefits of Using RSS.) You do NOT need an iPod to listen to a podcast.
• Social networks – A social network is a community of people who share interests and activities. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, provide an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users.

Why are they called Social Media?

Internet technologies we have been using have enabled us to push our marketing messages out into the marketplace. Web sites spoke to your audience, explaining what you have to offer. Getting qualified prospects to your Web site was a matter of creating a compelling offer and using direct marketing, search engine marketing, Internet advertising and other marketing activities to direct their attention to your landing pages.

Social media marketing enables you to build relationships with your prospects, enabling them to voice their ideas and opinions with you. In order to make this type of marketing work for you, you need to develop a safe environment that invites people to speak with you. You need to join the conversation and build your brand through your words and actions.

Where Do I Start?

Businesses interested in employing social media tactics as part of their marketing plan should begin now to research how these are being used and how to get started. There is a culture and etiquette associated with the use of new media that you should understand before diving in. If you are a small business that sells services, a blog may just be the thing you need to boost your credibility and attract new clients. If you have a lot to say and want to make it easy for folks to listen to your opinions and information, then consider creating a podcast of your information. Social media marketing may seem like it is just one more thing to add complexity to the already complex marketing world, but diving in and learning how to take advantage of these as marketing tools will pay off in the long run. Don’t get overwhelmed – pick one area and learn it.

For example, start with learning how blogs work by visiting a number of them that cover a topic you are interested in. To find blogs, you can go to the Google Blog Search and type in the topic you are interested in. Read a few, subscribe to some with RSS, and watch, listen and learn. Create your blog and start posting regularly. Then start adding comments
to some of the posts you read with useful information on topic, sharing your knowledge and opinion with others while getting links back to your blog. Like all marketing activities, getting your blog visible to the search engines will take time, but adding fresh content and getting links back to your blog will help it rise in the search engine rankings so people will be able to find you.

Join the Conversation

Whether a business targets consumers or other businesses, social media marketing is going to have an impact on the marketing activities very soon. Learning what is available to you, determining whether your market can be effectively reached through social media and tying it in with your traditional marketing activities will benefit your business in the long term. Using these tools to market your business is more than worth investment.

B2B:

• Relationship driven
• Maximize the value of the relationship
• Small, focused target market
• Multi-step buying process, longer sales cycle
• Brand identity created on personal relationship
• Educational and awareness building activities
• Rational buying decision based on business value

B2C:

• Product driven
• Maximize the value of the transaction
• Large target market
• Single step buying process, shorter sales cycle
• Brand identity created through repetition and imagery
• Merchandising and point of purchase activities
• Emotional buying decision based on status, desire, or price

This weekend I got an email from a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University with questions about these comparisons for a project for her marketing class. I’m always glad to help students learning marketing so I sent her the following response to her questions.

What does it mean for B2B marketing to be relationship driven, maximizing the value of the relationship verses B2C marketing being product driven, maximizing the value of the transaction?

The goal of B2B marketing is to maximize the value of the relationship to the prospect through marketing efforts that educate them on value you provide. If done successfully, your marketing activities will result in a relationship built on trust and credibility. Value of the relationship will be determined by what is important to the client.

The goal of B2C marketing is to drive consumers to the product and maximize the value of the transaction through activities that upsell or provide incentives to buy additional products. Relationships between companies and consumers are based on the consumer’s experience during the purchase process. Value of the transaction will be determined by the quality of the experience or the transaction.

What does it mean to create a brand identity based on the personal relationship in B2B verses through repetition and imagery in B2C?

In B2B marketing, the brand is based on your reputation. So although B2B marketers develop brand awareness through marketing efforts, the brand identity is based on how how you treat clients, the quality of the work, how reliable you are, and other factors that provide value to the clients.

In B2C marketing, companies build brands by repeatedly getting the image in front of the consumer. Consumer products need to ensure we see their brand enough times to recognize it and consider it worthy of our purchase.

How has social media changed the landscape of B2B verses B2C marketing?

Social media has effected how brands are perceived across all of marketing, but it is more pronounced in B2C today. Developing relationships with consumers is now more important than ever and consumer marketing needs to understand how user generated content effects their brand and how to leverage new media to help them develop their brand identity and reputation.

Take Amazon as an example. They:

• Provide a purchase experience that encourages you to buy more.
• Build a relationship with you by personalizing your experience and making it extremely easy to do business with them.
• Add value through secure transactions.
• Develop user generated content by encouraging you to rate your purchase experience and the product.

This is all part of social media and how consumers are being influenced by their peers. It’s making B2C marketing more challenging but very interesting too. Will it have the same effect on B2B? Thoughts?

Hey business owners: If you have had a “sales” conversation with another business and you have decided on another firm or different direction, use common sense and let that person know you are not going to hire them. Trust me, it’s not like we can’t handle rejection! We are in business for ourselves, right? We really don’t feel all that bad about it as that’s part of business. And by telling us we didn’t get the business, it helps us make decisions about taking on other clients. But not saying anything, not even an email to let us know, is basically a rude business practice that makes me question whether I really want to do business with you.

In business today, the world is small. It doesn’t take much to tarnish your brand. Your brand identity is built through all your interactions in business, including your marketing materials, how you answer the phones, to how your service and support organizations treat your clients. So when you deal with vendors, extend the courtesy to them that you would your clients, business partners and other people associated with your business. I know people don’t like delivering negative messages, but if you treat your vendors this way, do you treat your customers any differently?

The process to switch was pretty smooth and so far I like the phone service. It has a lot of options I didn’t have on my business line through Verizon (which they offer but I never was successful at getting them turned on) and our home line which I added for the $20 also has unlimited calling, making that even a better deal (our home line was bare bones basic which we still paid $30 for!).

Now the marketing lesson here is what Verizon didn’t do to save a customer. All I got from them was a recorded message on my answering machine and two form letters sent special delivery (one for each phone number) saying the same thing they said in the recorded message. This actually made me laugh as I felt that I was not important enough to save. I hope they didn’t think that the special delivery of the letters would make me feel special!

Had I received a call from a human to discuss my switch with them, I would have at least felt as if losing a customer for whatever reason was important to them. Even if they couldn’t match the price and service Comcast is offering, they may have learned something from our conversation.

Every one who touches a customer has to be part of the marketing effort to ensure your customers maintain a high impression of your business. Making it human and personal is still the best way to maintain a relationship, even if you lose that customer. Who knows, that customer may want to come back someday and they will remember the personalized touch.

Well, yeah they are people, but a person buying a product for themselves verses buying for their company is a very different, emotional experience. In fact, there are profound differences that you must remember when developing your marketing activities. B2B depends on relationship building marketing efforts. Using consumer-focused strategies to market your B2B business will, at best, just cost you money. And, in some cases, it may cost you customers.

What is B2B and B2C Marketing

These terms were coined to differentiate Internet commerce businesses that sold to primarily to consumers verses those whose market are other businesses. These terms have expanded their definitions to refer to any business who sells primarily to the end customer (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B), both online and offline. Although the marketing programs are the same for each type of business (events, direct marketing, internet marketing, advertising, public relations, word of mouth and alliances), how they are executed, what they say, and the outcome of the marketing activities differ.

The first step in developing your marketing strategy for B2B is similar to the first step in a B2C strategy: identify who the customer is and why they need to hear your message. From there, the marketing activities diverge.

The highlighted boxes summarize the differences between B2B marketing and B2C marketing. Your marketing plan needs to take into account the differences and ensure you are developing the right types of activities for your particular market.

Businesses that Sell to Consumers

The ultimate goal of B2C marketing is to convert shoppers into buyers as aggressively and consistently as possible. B2C companies employ more merchandising activities like coupons, displays, store fronts (both real and Internet) and offers to entice the target market to buy. B2C marketing campaigns are concerned with the transaction, are shorter in duration and need to capture the customer’s interest immediately. These campaigns often offer special deals, discounts, or vouchers that can be used both online and in the store. For example, the goal of an email campaign for a B2C company is to get consumers to buy the product immediately. The email will take the consumer to a landing page on the web site that is designed to sell the product and make purchasing very easy by integrating the shopping cart and checkout page into the flow of the transaction. Any more than a couple of clicks and the customer is likely to abandon the shopping cart.

One interesting aspect of B2C marketing, however, is that many companies have realized the importance of loyalty. Amazon, Best Buy, and Staples combine merchandising and education to keep customers coming back. Add great customer service, and you get a winning combination.

Businesses that Sell to Businesses

Although the goal of B2B marketing is to convert prospects into customers, the process is longer and more involved. A B2B company needs to focus on relationship building and communication using marketing activities that generate leads that can be nurtured during the sales cycle. B2B companies use marketing to educate various players in the target audience because the decision to purchase is usually a multi-step process involving more than one person. For example, the goal of an email campaign for B2B is to drive prospects to the web to learn about your products and services. The e-mail to a business must contain contact information for offline communications and the landing page should contain information on features, benefits, and possibly pricing. This marketing activity is usually the first step in a longer, integrated touch campaign that may include direct mail, telemarketing, Web casts, newsletters and follow up by sales representatives who will discuss the businesses requirements in more detail and move the prospect through the sales cycle. Content is king for B2B marketing and white papers, newsletters, and coverage of your products and services by the media helps companies educate their prospects.

The B2B Buyer vs. the B2C Buyer

The business buyer is sophisticated, understands your product or service better than you do, and wants or needs to buy products or services to help their company stay profitable, competitive, and successful. Marketing copy must talk to a sophisticated audience. Your typical reader has a high interest in – and understanding of – your product (or at least of the problem it solves). Therefore, writing marketing copy is more complex and requires research to ensure you deliver the necessary information to the buyer.

The B2C buyer is usually looking for the best price and will research the competition prior to shopping. Another factor that does come into play, however, is whether the buyer trusts the retail outlet, either the store front or on the Internet. Although you can find the products on the Internet at many different price points, many consumers will still buy from a trusted source. In that respect, B2C marketing needs to convince the person to buy and build trust and loyalty with their customers.

Both buyers are interested in quality customer service. B2B customer service comes into play prior to ever making that first sale and begins with a customer’s very first contact with your company, whether you call them or they call you. B2C customer service helps build customer loyalty where customers will be willing to pay a slightly higher price to know that they can return the product easily and can trust the source they are dealing with. In other words, customer service is critical and although may not be considered “marketing”, bad customer service can render all of your marketing efforts useless.

Importance of Brand

A strong brand is important to both the B2B and the B2C markets, but for different reasons. With B2C, a strong brand can encourage the consumer to buy, remain loyal and potentially pay a higher price. In B2B markets, brand will only help you be considered, not necessarily chosen.

Business buyers are using more rational thought when selecting a product or service for their company. They are motivated by saving money, increasing productivity or raising profitability. Consumers are motivated by desire, style and prestige. For consumers, brand plays into the equation since we are more apt to buy “status” brands, such as BMW, Lexus, Rolex or Nike even though we most likely will pay more for the brand. In businesses today, however, the adage “no one ever got fired for buying IBM” no longer rings true. This is not to say that a professionally developed brand is not important for a B2B business. A quality brand is needed in any business in order to make a good first impression, but putting excessive marketing dollars into building brand awareness is not what counts in your B2B marketing plan.

Plan Before You Begin to Market

The bottom line is that the difference between B2B and B2C marketing comes down to the buyers’ emotional perspective about the purchase. Consumers make buying decisions based on status, security, comfort and quality. Business buyers make buying decisions based on increasing profitability, reducing costs and enhancing productivity. If you are a B2B business offering products and services to other businesses, put your marketing dollars into marketing programs and materials that offer your target what they need to make a rational buying decision. Help them determine the value of the product and service you offer through quality materials, testimonials, and other activities that build credibility. If you are a B2C business, understand what motivates your buyer and the emotional aspect of the buying decision. Create compelling materials that build awareness for your brand, enhance their comfort in buying from you, and project quality service and best price. As you create your marketing plan for the coming year, remember what is important to your target audience and create your marketing programs to speak to them.