Scaling B2C Businesses through B2B Marketing: An Alternative Growth Strategy

Over the past few years, a number of B2C clients have come to us asking for help because they do not see the consumer adoption they had hoped to achieve. Whether it was a fintech app or a crypto utility coin, they saw their path to success and reach by obtaining mass adoption at the consumer level.

The truth of the matter is that achieving mass consumer adoption for a B2C fintech app or a crypto utility coin presents significant challenges. We all want to believe that our product is unique and will prove so beneficial to the consumer that word of mouth alone will propel sales.

However, many obstacles often impede the consumer, including lack of trust, competition, or simply apathy, which can make adoption difficult. We often find solutions to these issues through a number of programs, including influencer marketing, referral marketing, gamification, and/or guerrilla marketing.

However, imagine our B2C clients' surprise when we tell them that they actually have a B2B marketing opportunity that will drive massive adoption of their consumer product.

For a new brand, creating B2C success can be a slog. Getting through the noise of competing brands takes innovative strategies and often significant financial investments. Many great concepts are left on the cutting room floor because these brands cannot get traction quickly enough to stay viable. We are not suggesting that we do not still do all the traditional and innovative B2C strategies, but the reality is we are often able to jump-start success by getting a major business partner adoption.

These business brands have the advantage of already being trusted names in their respective verticals and having millions of customers. One example of this was a client whose fintech app was designed to help young adults learn how to manage their money better and understand how to navigate the various financial milestones they will encounter in life (e.g., marriage, buying a house, children).

We did some innovative B2C marketing, including influencer marketing, referral marketing, and even enlisting gamification involving sororities and fraternities to generate buzz on college campuses. While this created some traction, the real success was when the colleges themselves offered the app to all students and even more when a major US bank began providing the app to all young adults who had a checking or savings account with their institution.

This article explores how certain B2C businesses can benefit from adopting a B2B mindset and targeting other businesses as their primary customers. By offering their products or services to companies with existing client bases, they can tap into new markets, gain rapid adoption, and achieve significant scale. We will discuss this approach's key considerations, benefits, and challenges, providing a roadmap for B2C businesses looking to unlock new avenues of growth through B2B marketing.

Advantages of Using B2B to Scale B2C Opportunities

Larger Deal Sizes and Higher Customer Lifetime Value:

Scaling your B2C business by leveraging a B2b partner means that instead of acquiring consumers one at a time, you will get mass adoption when the business partner rolls out your product to their customer base. Acquiring a single B2B customer can have a significant impact on revenue and cash flow. Additionally, B2B customers tend to have a higher customer lifetime value as they continue to acquire more clients.

Faster Adoption and Scalability:

Focusing on businesses that already have established customer bases can result in growth and expansion, for B2C companies. By implementing strategies like account based marketing (ABM) you'll discover that forming a partnership with a business entity is often faster and more cost effective, than targeting consumers directly.

Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs:

B2B marketing can significantly reduce customer acquisition costs. Instead of spending resources on acquiring individual consumers, B2C businesses can focus on a smaller number of B2B customers with higher purchasing power. This allows them to allocate more of their budget toward product development, customer success, and other growth initiatives.

Strategic Partnerships and Co-creation Opportunities:

Leveraging strategic partners' time, energy, talent, and relationships means that the trust they have acquired with their network transfers to you and your brand. By aligning with the right B2B companies, B2C businesses can gain valuable insights into their target market, co-create innovative solutions, and leverage each other's networks and resources. These partnerships can lead to mutually beneficial growth and create a competitive advantage for both parties.

When collaborating with B2B firms as a B2C business owner or entrepreneur can help you better understand your audiences needs and preferences by working on new ideas and utilizing each others networks and assets. These alliances could result in shared growth opportunities. Give both parties an edge, in the market. When establishing partnerships for your business strategy to thrive successfully and harmoniously with your offerings, to ensure this is the case, consider the following elements:

• Target Market Alignment: The B2B company's existing client base should align with the B2C company's target market. This ensures that the B2C company's product or service is relevant to the B2B company's customers and increases the likelihood of adoption. Evaluate the demographics, needs, and preferences of the B2B company's client base to determine if there is a good fit.

• Complementary Offerings: The synergy between your products or services should be evident and ideally fill a gap in each other's portfolios. This creates a comprehensive solution that is more appealing to potential customers.

• Reputation and Brand Alignment: The reputation and brand values of the B2B company are crucial. Remember, they are an extension of your brand, so ensure that your brand image, business practices, and customer satisfaction align with yours.

• Cultural Fit and Shared Values: Cultural alignment is essential for a successful and sustainable partnership. If you envision your brand as enlightened and woke, partnering with a brand that has a conservative vision of their company is a recipe for disaster. Make sure your values and life views align. We live in an age where consumer boycotts are becoming common because a brand is misaligned with its consumer base. It would be tragic if your brand were canceled because of a strategic partner's social-economic belief system.

Elements of a B2B Marketing Plan to Drive B2C Adoption

Understanding the Marketplace: The first step for any marketing campaign is completely understanding your industry, competition, and strategic partners' role. This includes your B2B customer profiles, value propositions, messaging, and channels. You then need to understand the targeted buyer personas within the B2B space and tailor your content and messaging to address their pain points and priorities. The key is to first understand where they go for information, education, or entertainment. Then you need to craft the messaging they need to see at each stage of the buyers' journey to take the next step.

From this, you can develop a mix of marketing collateral, including whitepapers, case studies, webinars, and videos, that showcases the value of your offering in a language that resonates with B2B buyers.

Build a Strong Online Presence:

Establish a strong online presence to reach and engage potential B2B customers. You will want to harvest as much organic interest as possible, so invest in on-page and technical search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure your website appears in relevant searches.

Establish an aggressive Performance SEO program by leveraging content marketing to establish thought leadership and showcase your expertise. Ensure your content is distributed where your targeted buyer personas go for information, education, and third-party verification. Utilize an omnichannel social media program so your prospects will see your content as they surf the internet. Be certain to use business-focused platforms, such as LinkedIn, to connect with decision-makers and showcase your company's capabilities.

Utilize Account-Based Marketing (ABM):

ABM is a highly targeted and personalized marketing strategy that treats individual B2B accounts as markets of one. By focusing your resources on a specific set of high-value accounts, you can create tailored campaigns that address their unique needs and challenges. ABM allows you to build strong relationships with key decision-makers and influencers within those accounts, increasing your chances of winning their business.

Because it provides a hyper-personalized targeted approach to customer acquisition by focusing on specific individuals within a specific account, it has a higher conversion rate. The highly focused nature of an ABM program means that the targeted companies will learn more quickly about your unique value proposition and how you can help them solve their problems and concerns.

Use Influencer Marketing:

Ultimately, all marketing is about building relationships. If you can leverage the pre-existing relationships and social reach that influencers have already acquired with your target market, the speed and ability to close a B2B partner will be easier. In many cases, the decision of whether your B2B partner will engage with you will be made by their C-Suite.

The C-Suite often relies upon the opinion of influencers who are industry experts in their field. So, we recommend identifying and enlisting the efforts of influencers to shorten the sales cycle for your B2B prospect.

Conclusion

For B2C businesses seeking rapid growth and scalability, adopting a B2B mindset and targeting businesses as customers can be a transformative strategy. By partnering with the right B2B companies, B2C businesses can leverage existing client bases, gain faster adoption, and achieve significant scale.

With a thoughtful strategy, a compelling value proposition, and a willingness to adapt to the B2B landscape, B2C businesses can chart a new course for growth and unlock their full potential.

To achieve growth and scalability, many B‌‌2C ventures will find that a shortcut to growth can be obtained if you shift towards a B‌2B strategy. If you have a product which can help the growth of another B2B company, often you can create a partnership that gives you access (maybe indirectly) to the customers of the other business. By collaborating with another B2B company, a B2C businesses can make use of established customer networks speed up their market penetration and attain expansion.