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Business to business (B2B) marketing isn’t all that different from business to consumer (B2C) at the end of the day. On the surface, it seems like one would be more logical while the other is more emotional. However, as you’ll soon learn, that’s not always the case.

But there are a few big differences between B2B vs B2C marketing. And those key differences have the power to make or break your results. It’s not always as simple as using LinkedIn or Facebook depending on who you’re targeting. But it does have a huge impact on how you can target them, what works vs. what doesn’t, and how much you can afford to pay.

Here are a few of the major differences between B2B vs B2C marketing to fail-proof your campaigns.

• B2B Marketing Has More in Common with B2C than You Might Think
• B2B Sales Cycles are Much Longer than B2C (on Average)
• B2B Companies Can Spend More than B2C to Acquire Each Customer

B2B Marketing Has More in Common with B2C Than You Might Think

B2B marketing is often seen as wildly different than B2C. There are a few key differences between the two that we’ll explore in a few minutes.

Are B2C vs. B2B purchases really all that different at the end of the day?

You know the standard argument. Tons of “B2B vs B2C” articles, like this one, say something like

there is little to no personal emotion involved in the purchasing decision.

But is that true? After all, people are still buying. Decision making in companies still come down to a few people making gut choices. And when you look at the data, the differences between B2B and B2C consumers might not be as different as it initially appears.

For instance, the vast majority of B2B purchases (84%) still start with a personal referral. Same as all consumer purchases, where 92% start with a trusted referral.

Review sites are also critical to most purchases. 95% of buyers use them, while 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to buy after reading a review, too.

So… these ‘referrals’ are happening on ‘professional’ places like LinkedIn. Right? Wrong. According to the 2018 annual industry report from Social Media Examiner, 91% of B2B businesses use Facebook over LinkedIn.

In other words, both B2B and B2C buyers shop in a pretty similar fashion. But… B2B buyers shop without emotion, right? Just like that article said!

Except, that’s not entirely true, either. In fact, the exact opposite might be.

Several other studies about the B2B purchasing process have shown how critical soft skills are to getting a deal over the line. According to CMO.com,

On average, B2B customers are significantly more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than consumers.

Turns out that B2B buyers crave certainty. And certainty is a feeling that comes directly from establishing some trust (or emotional connection).

The reasons behind the choices we make aren’t easily measured…

Confirms Christoph Becker to Chief Marketer, who’s gyro firm partnered with the Financial Times to study B2B buyers.

Real people are tribal and emotional. Now, more than ever, marketers must focus on what their customers and prospects are feeling and deliver in a way that makes them feel both confident and optimistic.

According to the Harvard Business Review, is trend is becoming even more pronounced:

As B2B offerings become ever more commoditized, the subjective, sometimes quite personal concerns that business customers bring to the purchase process are increasingly important. Indeed, our research shows that with some purchases, considerations such as whether a product can enhance the buyer’s reputation or reduce anxiety play a large role.

They’ve highlighted research done by Bain & Company about all the different factors that influence a B2B purchase, and put them together in this beautiful diagram:

When you look at the bottom, you see the typical considerations like compliance, ethical guidelines, specs, and pricing. These are the hard, rational items that would appeal to logical buyers.

However, as you move higher in the pyramid, you’ll quickly see how those objective measures give way to more subjective, touchy-feely things.

In other words, yes, there are a few specific things B2B buyers look to make sure a vendor or partner is in the right ballpark. But after that, it becomes more about who’s a better ‘fit’ than which one is providing the lowest price.

Net Promoter Scores (NPS) in the same research back up this up, too. Only three of the top ten factors for B2B loyalty fall in the logical camp. The other seven are all more subjective metrics rooted in emotion.

So that whole “B2B buyers purchase solely based on logic and numbers” is not all that true at the end of the day. These purchases are a lot more emotional than you might think.

What’s different is how, specifically, these buyers buy. And then what you’re able to do to drive more of them, which includes everything from where you’ll find them, to how you attract them, to how much you can spend to acquire each one.

And that’s what we’re going to dive headfirst into now, starting with the time it takes to make a purchasing decision.

B2B Sales Cycles are Much Longer than B2C (on Average)

A B2C purchase doesn’t often take that long to materialize.

Yes, $10,000+ vacations might. $50,000+ car purchases or $500,000 houses fall in the same camp. These purchasing decisions might take weeks (or months) to materialize.

But these are often rare events in most people’s lives. Most consumer purchases throughout the course of a year fall in the ~$100 range. And these can often be made on impulse without too much thought, research, or in-depth analysis.

The same can’t be said for B2B purchases, though. At least 31% of respondents in one study confirmed that B2B purchases are taking significantly longer than even just a year ago. In other words, B2B sales cycles might take weeks or months to unfold.

And this directly impacts how you attract awareness, generate leads, or even drive sales.

Take Facebook ads. We already saw how B2B buyers prefer Facebook over LinkedIn. Yet, if that’s the case, why do so many businesses claim that “Facebook ads don’t work”?

Maybe they’re just doing it wrong. They’re trying to promote a big purchase to a cold audience who’s not remotely ready to buy.

It’d be like selling a car off an ad. Yes, you can use it like Darcars and Dealer.com did to drive a ton of exposure with 45,000 vehicle detail page views. But people aren’t exactly going to swipe a credit card, either. You just want to get these people onto your lot or into your store.

Before you can sell the new six-figure deal, however, B2B buyers need to not just have a problem you can fix, but they also need to realize they have this problem in the first place.

The ‘buyer’s journey’ becomes even more important in long, drawn our purchase processes.

Let’s say you’re traveling this Saturday. You’re visiting a new city, so you need a hotel. Easy. Pull up Expedia, punch in the dates, sort by star rating, review three hotels within your 4-star budget range, and pull the trigger. All of this takes maybe an hour to play out.

Now, contrast that to B2B purchase processes. The same steps play out, but over a few weeks (as opposed to a few hours).

That means you need a much, much slower ramp from attention to interest to purchase. Online