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Silverpop Survey:
Exploring the Differences
and Similarities of B2C
and B2B Marketing Tactics
Engagement Marketing Solutions
Silverpop
Engagement Marketing Solutions
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SILVERPOP SURVEY:
Exploring the Differences and Similarities
of B2C and B2B Marketing Tactics
B2C or B2B. It’s not so easy to be a marketer these days.
It was bad enough that the dramatically rising chatter of competing messages
drowned out advertising and made many marketing campaigns ineffective.
Next the rise of social media led prospective customers to make up their minds,
not as a result of encountering well-phrased promotional materials, but rather
because the sister-in-law of a friend of a guy the neighbor works with wrote a
product endorsement on a Facebook wall. And then, just to make things really
interesting, the economy faltered.
If you’re a B2C marketer and think the grass is greener on the B2B side, What are your top two marketing goals this year?
you’d be wrong. And the view from the B2B side of the fence back over
isn’t any prettier. Both sides struggle to grab attention and keep it. And
Better leverage new
both are seeking new ways to drive revenue and prove their worth.
31%
marketing channels
Silverpop recently conducted a survey of B2C and B2B marketers
to learn their top challenges in the coming year. More than 1,800
marketers responded. What they told us about their challenges, the
marketing tactics they think worked best and what they want to try next
shows us that there are more similarities than differences between
B2C and B2B marketing tactics. Both groups use email marketing as a
core tactic to reach customers and prospects, though B2B marketers
sometimes fail to implement some of the more sophisticated email
methods that can have dramatic impacts on results.
Improve analytics to
strengthen campaigns
Survey Findings
When asked to select among six options regarding their top challenges
in the coming year, B2C and B2B marketers gave divergent responses in
two areas and similar ones in the remaining four. Finding more prospective customers, upselling or cross-selling to the customer base, improving analytics to strengthen campaigns and better leveraging new marketing
channels are challenges both B2C and B2B marketers face.
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39%
38%
38%
Increase contact database
37%
41%
Increase customer loyalty
45%
27%
Move prospects/leads faster
through the sales pipeline
Responses diverged dramatically on the perception of the importance of two
marketing challenges posed in the survey. While 45 percent of B2C marketers
are challenged to increase customer loyalty, only 27 percent of B2B marketers say that’s a key concern. And while half of B2B marketers want to move
sales prospects through the pipeline faster, only 29 percent of B2C marketers
want to speed up the time consumers take to make a purchase decision. Both
B2B and B2C marketers should want to achieve conversion in the shortest
time possible, because until the sale is completed, competitors can still gain a
foothold, whether you’re selling backhoes or backpacks.
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B2B
34%
Upsell or cross-sell to
customer base
There are other differences as well. As we review the survey findings,
we think you’ll agree that B2C and B2B marketers have much they can
learn from each other. Both employ tactics little used by the other that,
when put into the right process, can boost results.
B2C
29%
29%
51%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Let’s take a look at each challenge, review how marketers typically face
them, and see what lessons B2C marketers can learn from their B2B
counterparts, and vice versa.
Challenges Faced by Both B2C and B2B Marketers
Better Leverage New Marketing Channels
Social is all the rage right now, and you just can’t feel like a real marketer
if you’re not doing it. The pressure is on for both B2C and B2B marketers
to maximize their usage of Facebook and Twitter, blogs and community
forums. Yet both camps struggle with the strategy and tactics behind making social media work in real and meaningful ways.
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As in many cases, we can lay part of the blame on the recession. It’s
made marketers more accountable than ever to deliver results with a high
ROI. Using social media is seen as a fairly inexpensive way to go. Certainly
advertisers’ social marketing budgets have remained small. Nearly infinitesimal, in fact. Forrester Research reports that more than half of online
advertisers spent less than $10,000 on social media in all of 2007.1
Social media works for both because, when used correctly, it
engenders engagement. Conversations occur and understanding
results. Stimulating interest and insights among prospective
customers helps move them through the first stages of a buying
decision; that is, they learn they have a problem or need and that
there exists a solution.
Incorporating social media into the marketing mix is a trend more popular
among B2C marketers than B2B. When asked what marketing tactic
they’ve used that worked well, more than four out of 10 B2C marketers
checked “including links to social network sites in emails” in Silverpop’s
survey. But less than three out of 10 B2B marketers selected that option.
B2C and B2B social marketing campaigns need to start out the same
way. Identify recipients’ hot buttons. Find out what social networks your
customers frequent and determine what will engage them to the point
that they want to let others know what they know and spread your
promotional messages to their friends.
What email marketing tactics have you used that worked particularly well?
Distributing cart
abandonment messages
Incorporating relational tables to
enhance personalization
Implementing lifecycle
campaigns
Behavioral targeting
Triggered offers based
on recipient activity
Including links to social network
sites in emails
Including marketing promotions
in transactional emails
Gathering recipient information
through surveys
3%
12%
B2C
B2B
13%
11%
28%
20%
24%
24%
31%
32%
42%
29%
38%
42%
40%
43%
When Silverpop evaluated
the social sharing activities
of B2C and B2B marketers, it
found that every social email
evaluated included at least a
link to Facebook. MySpace,
Twitter and Digg were the next
most frequently included links.
While LinkedIn was a distant
fifth overall, within the B2B
emails analyzed, 83 percent
included a link to LinkedIn.
Interestingly, while links to
Facebook, MySpace and
Twitter were included most
often in email messages, Bebo,
Delicious and LinkedIn actually
had a higher percentage of
share link clicks among the
networks.3
Improve Analytics
to Strengthen Campaigns
Marketers know the ability
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60% to harness customer data
across platforms enables
B2C marketers are attracted to social media because they sell to individu- them to craft more meaningful messaging. But the enormity of the
als, and social lets them join in one-to-one conversations with customers
task leaves many at a loss of where to begin. While targeting and
and prospects. B2B marketers need to approach social in the same way.
retaining a company’s best customers is a key marketing function,
Whether you’re selling cupcakes or copiers, buyers are all individuals who
manipulating customer data to better inform marketing decisions can
seek out others like themselves for insights and recommendations. Adding be extraordinarily difficult to do.
the human element through social networking benefits both B2C and B2B
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions can provide
marketing programs.
both B2C and B2B marketers with important business intelligence,
B2B marketers who use social media are finding success. With nearly sev- enabling companies to better monitor client actions and preferences
en out of 10 B2B companies setting up group pages on social networks
and identify commonalities among a brand’s top customers.
and more than half now using Twitter to communicate with customers and Yet responses to Silverpop’s survey found that while seven out
prospects, it’s clear that social media is a channel of high interest and
of 10 B2B marketers use a CRM system, only 4 out of 10 B2C
importance to B2B as well as B2C marketers.2
marketers do.
Identifying best time
to send emails
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50%
51%
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Yes
No
69%
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Do you use a CRM solution?
B2C
B2B
31%
42%
Yes
69%
Yes
58%
No
Forrester Research has reported seeing an increase in marketing investments to improve companies’ customer management capabilities, with
CRM technologies becoming widely adopted. In a survey of IT decisionmakers in North America and Europe, Forrester found that 70 percent said
they were using or planning to use a CRM solution.4
Both B2C and B2B marketers benefit from using CRM software to
systematically track and monitor customer actions. Not only do these
solutions allow marketers to create lists of customer and prospect contact
information, they also help record sales activity, product returns, calls to
customer service and much more.
Upsell or Cross-sell to Customer Base
Once you have established a strong understanding of your customer base,
you can better build promotional campaigns that deliver highly relevant
and personalized reasons to buy. Whether it’s to a consumer audience or
business purchasers, marketing campaigns created to upsell or cross-sell
must deliver value at every interaction.
Messaging becomes particularly important when reaching out to customers and encouraging them to spend more. You must create a holistic
messaging system that provides consistent reference points across all
No
B2C
communications channels. It confuses and dilutes a value proposition if
you entice a sale with a coupon in one outreach and promote value and
benefits in another.
Marketers benefit from technologies that help ensure messages are sent
and received when customers are most receptive to making additional purchases. The kind of timing to reach inboxes during these potentially lucrative
42%
windows of time requires marketing automation solutions that help ensure
promotional messaging
that
58% is triggered following an action by a customerYes
would indicate the potential for an upsell or cross-sell opportunity. No
Fully half of all respondents to Silverpop’s survey said identifying the best
time to send emails was a tactic that worked well for them. And finding
the optimal time can be elusive. A study conducted by the Beta Research
Corporation and sponsored by AOL found that 34 percent of U.S. Internet
users check their email “throughout the day,” while 23 percent prefer to
read their messages “as soon as they wake up.”
Another tactic for upselling or cross-selling customers is to use promotional messages embodied in transactional messaging. Four out of 10 B2C
and B2B marketers said in the Silverpop survey that including marketing
promotions in transactional emails worked well for them.
Silverpop’s Send Time Optimization
Both B2C and B2B marketers want their messages to have high visibility when the recipient is looking at his or her inbox. Silverpop’s Send Time
Optimization analyzes recipient behavior on a rolling basis to predict the ideal message delivery time for each address on the mailing list. The system then individually delivers messages to recipients at the precise day and time they’re most likely to be in their inboxes. Scheduling delivery at the
optimized time also solves international mailing challenges. With a single send, messages are delivered at the optimal time, worldwide, eliminating
the need to schedule multiple sends across time zones.
Mint.com is the nation’s leading online personal finance service. The company tested Silverpop’s Send Time Optimization feature by splitting its
recipient list, sending half of the list an email at a specific time in the regular manner and the other half with Send Time Optimization enabled. The
email with Send Time Optimization enabled generated 10 percent more clicks than the other message.
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Emails Go Viral with Share-to-Social
The Silverpop Engage Share-to-Social feature can help you spread your marketing message and promote your brand through word of mouth
on social media networks, ultimately making your marketing messages more effective and meaningful than ever.
East Coast trains is a franchise operated by National Express Group, one of the world’s leading international public transport groups. Through
Silverpop’s Share-to-Social feature, East Coast trains was able to significantly bolster its viral marketing activities and engage new customers.
An email campaign for one-way fares led hundreds of customers to share the offer on social networking pages. Of those who posted the link,
17 percent had at least one open of the post, and 33 percent who opened a post then clicked.
While commercial emails are increasingly ignored or considered spam,
recipients say transactional messages are the type most worth reading.
And six out of 10 consumers state they don’t mind receiving marketing
messages included within transactional emails.5 Yet far too many marketers fail to maximize the marketing potential of this powerful channel. They
ignore the revenue-generating possibilities of improved branding, crosssell and upsell opportunities afforded by this communications channel.
loyalty. The trick to sending the most consistently engaging marketing
messages lies in developing a solid understanding of customer likes, dislikes, preferences and even, in some cases, secret yearnings. Having such
a mix of customer insights to draw from enables marketers to better send
relevant campaigns. By implementing a program to survey customers
about likes and dislikes, needs and desires, you’ll be better able to deliver
what they want, when they want it.
Forrester Research recently found that just 14 percent of email marketing
executives plan to begin placing offers in their transactional messages.6
Transactional emails can be a powerful tool for marketers. By taking advantage
of the high open rates of transactional messages and establishing brand loyalty
at the time customers are most likely thinking about the company, top online
retailers strengthen relationships with customers and drive revenue growth.
People love to be asked for their opinion. Don’t forget to ask your customers
for theirs. Mechanisms for customer feedback are important to help ensure
they feel engaged with your company. B2B marketers have long recognized
the importance of customer feedback, and conduct surveys and develop community forums to continually delve into issues of importance to their clientele.
B2C marketers can also gather important customer insights through surveys.
Increase Your Contact Database
Who, in this day and age, isn’t looking for more warm bodies to sell to? It’s
how you grow a business. Thirty-seven percent of B2C and 41 percent of
B2B respondents to Silverpop’s survey identified increasing their prospect
database as a key challenge in the coming year.
Building customer loyalty is about keeping customers, not selling more to
them. Especially when business is tough and customers are increasingly
cautious with their spending, it’s tempting to move the focus on revenue
generation to current customers. And while it’s OK to try to sell them more,
it’s not OK to pat them on the back for their loyalty with one hand while
you try to remove their wallet with the other.
Marketers will only be successful at attracting prospects to their
messaging by developing a highly nuanced picture of the customer. You
have to know what excites them and what turns them cold. Know where
they shop and what media they use. You have to do your homework to
ensure you speak the right language at the right time and use the right
channels to reach them. If you want to grab their attention to give you a
shot at making the sale, you have to give them ample reason to listen to
you and be sure the information you’re providing is not only relevant but
uniquely personalized for each individual’s circumstances.
Different Challenges Faced by B2C and B2B Marketers
Increase Customer Loyalty
The true power of sophisticated email marketing lies in its ability to create
personalized relationships with customers and prospects that drive brand
Recognize that truly engaged customers are valuable assets that must be
nurtured and protected. Even those folks who don’t buy a lot but talk a lot
about how much they love your products can prove to be supremely valuable to your bottom line.
In the world of social media, people who promote your offerings are called
influencers. Whether they just purchased a bag of diapers from you and
were delirious with the absorbency, or received a salary bonus because
the fan belts they ordered came in on time and under budget, don’t pass
up the opportunity to connect with them in real and transparent ways.
Recognize that individuals who willingly or eagerly offer their opinions and
perspective are of greater value to you than those who merely passively
purchase your products. Treat them accordingly.
Want to Know What Customers Are Thinking? Ask Them!
The Georgia Aquarium uses Silverpop Engage’s Survey offering to get customer feedback. The findings help generate market research and improve
customer satisfaction. Aquarium marketers use surveys to better understand how guests perceive sponsors, how satisfied annual pass holders are,
and as follow-up to event attendees. Because they integrate promotional offerings with the surveys, response rates are as high as 50 percent.
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Do You Know Which Contacts on Your List Are Most Engaged?
Silverpop Engage offers unique contact scoring tools that help you automatically identify hot contacts in your database based on demographic information or their interactions with your marketing efforts. For email marketers, this allows you to automatically create buckets of your most or least engaged
contacts, and for B2B marketers, your hot leads are automatically funneled to sales, while earlier-stage leads are sent to your nurturing programs.
Move Prospects/Leads Faster Through the Sales Pipeline
Remember the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t
make him drink”? The same goes for prospects. They may have found your
Web site, and they may have even downloaded your latest white paper or
searched your site for a new pair of shoes or a recipe using your cake mix.
That doesn’t mean they won’t buy from someone else. Or will buy at all.
Marketers benefit from nurturing potential customers along the pathway to
a purchase decision. B2B marketers frequently utilize lead-nurturing programs to maintain ongoing contact with prospects that are interested but
not yet ready to make a purchase. Such efforts can benefit B2C marketers as well. By implementing marketing programs that gather information
about where potential new customers are in the buying cycle and moving
them along in that process while favorably influencing them toward the
company and its products, marketers are better able to influence results.
Strong marketing programs that move potential customers from interest to conversion incorporate automated,
timed communications designed to build trust and keep
B2B
your company top-of-mind. Lead-nurturing communications can include educational emails, newsletters,
product information, industry news and more.
A prime element of moving prospects from interest to
49% where they are in the buy51% conversion is understanding
ing process. While more prominent in the B2B Yes
world,
ranking or scoring prospective customers on their perceived readiness to buyB2B
can help all marketersNo
better
communicate the right messages at the right times.
B2B
Not surprisingly, B2C and B2B marketers that rank or score prospects
use different criteria. B2C marketers evaluate geography, opens and click
rates, household income and gender. B2B marketers are more likely to
score prospects based on their industry, the expressed time to make a
purchase and corporate revenue.
A solid approach to identifying prospective customers with a high propensity to buy not only helps you better market to them, it can help you
build a more powerful and accountable marketing organization. By tagging
individual opportunities with a “propensity to buy” score, better tactical
decisions on handling prospects can drive significant improvement in both
marketing and revenue results.
If you rank or score prospective customers,
what criteria do you use?
Household income
6%
Gender
6%
40%
Geography
29%
26%
Pages viewed on Web site
Opens/clicks of emails
22%
35%
16%
Corporate Revenue
41%
31%
51%
49%
0%
53%
26%
B2C
Yes
42%
33%
Content downloaded from Web site
B2B
45%
24%
Expressed time to make a purchase
49%
B2B
31%
Industry
51%
B2C
10%
20%
30%
57%
40%
50%
60%
NoYes
No
B2C
36%
64%
B2C
Yes
B2C
No
Do you rank or score prospective
customers on likelihood to purchase?
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64%
36%
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Inc.
Yes
64%
36%
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Conclusion
Are there important differences between B2C and B2B marketing practices? Yes, of course there are. But both require well-defined processes
and a willingness to let prospects and customers lead a bit more than they
follow. Both audiences require information to make decisions and desire
the respect that allows them the time to make these decisions.
B2C marketers can improve results by nurturing potential customers along
the path to a purchase decision. And B2B marketers can take a hint from
their consumer-oriented counterparts by creating loyalty programs that
generate brand ambassadors.
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FOOTNOTES
1. “Social Marketing Scorecard,” Forrester Research, July, 2008
2. “Rethinking The B2B Tech Marketing Mix In The Digital Age,” Forrester
Research, March, 2010
3. “Emails Gone Viral: ’Share to Social’ Performance,” Silverpop, 2009
4. “Eight Ways to Mine Value from Your CRM Systems,” Forrester Research,
May 2009
5. “E-Mail Marketing: How to Improve ROI,” eMarketer, May 2005
6. “US Email Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014,” Forrester Research, June 2009
To find out more about Silverpop’s Engage platform and how it can benefit your company, please contact us toll-free
at 1-866-SILVPOP (745-8767) or email us at [email protected].
Visit us at www.silverpop.com
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