As an online and internet marketer should your focus be on the B2B market, or on the B2C market? Both has it’s advantages, and disadvantages. The real question is how much control of your business do you want to relinquish?
Let’s look at this from the 30,000 foot viewpoint and focus on how both affect your business.
A Quick Definition.
B2B is business to business, B2C is business to consumer. In other words B2B means you are selling, or distributing to other businesses. They in turn are either using your product or service directly, or selling it via B2C.
B2C, on the other hand is business to consumer. You are dealing directly with the end user in most cases. You are selling to them, with all the associated tasks, and in a retail environment.
What it Means.
You may indeed be very familiar with both the terms and the differences in the business models.
What you may not be familiar with is the amount of control you have, or suddenly don’t have over your online business when implementing the different business models.
Want to Rely on Someone Else for Profits?
There is a certain amount of reliance on the customer to create profits for you in the B2C model. They buy, you profit. They don’t buy . .
As scary as that may be, in this B2C environment, you have immediate options and choices. You tweak this, you rewrite that, you make it happen until the customer is satisfied enough with your product and offerings to buy.
When dealing with B2B the choices may not be that simple. Indeed they may be a royal pain in the butt.
If you are selling to a business and they are using the product or service for their own use, then the transaction and support is pretty straightforward.
But if you are selling or using B2B for them to then sell your wholesaled product at a markup and profit, the situation can get messy in a hurry.
The Trap of “Easy.”
Physical products, (widgets or doo-dads) can be successfully wholesaled out if you want to go the B2B route. Online specific products, such as digital books and courses always lend themselves better to B2C selling.
Here is where many new, pie-in-the-sky excited online entrepreneurs run into trouble.
Many online marketing offers try and use other businesses to promote, and ultimately help sell their products. A good example of this is to have a product that you are selling, and promote that product through ezines, writing platforms, or even search engine pages and websites.
Those venues are not buying and then selling your product, giving you an immediate profit. They are hosting platforms for you to display your product or services.
So in essence, you are selling B2B first, hoping that your B2C customer likes the platform enough to buy your product.
It is virtually the same as Walmart or Big Lots giving you room on their shelves to sell your products from. Easy money, right?
But what happens if your customer has a bad taste in their mouths from previous dealings or perceptions with these outlets? What if these outlets and platforms have really bad customer service? What if these platforms and outlets suddenly change their algorithm? Or what if these platforms and outlets don’t fit with your product or service?
You could very easily have your whole program, product and even ads buried where no one even sees them. You have lost control of your marketing, and your profits.
It doesn’t matter if you are wholesaling widgets or placing you products for sale on someones platform other than your own, you are B2B. And that business controls you profitability.
Affiliate Programs Are Better.
Often times marketers will use the B2B route simply because they don’t want the hassle of dealing with the everyday, fickle consumer.
Refunds, bad fictitious reviews, and service issues can beat you up pretty quickly.
However, these are issues that can be dealt with directly when you are going direct to the consumer. If you are receiving these because of the business or platform that is promoting your items, then you have additional worries and issues.
And these may be completely out of your control. Enough complaints and you could be out of business, all because of the platform or outlet.
So, where does this leave you?
B2B can have it’s advantages if you are large enough, and are equipped to run your business on a large scale.
If not, then B2C is a much better way to go. If you want additional salespeople and outlets, an affiliate program where you set the parameters can multiply your efforts and profitability.
With an affiliate program you can control everything from markup to where your product can be offered. The specific affiliate then brings their creativity to the plate and sells according to their talents and business savvy.
Learn Where to Plug In.
Understanding where to position your online business and how to properly market your product requires you to stop thinking like an affiliate, and start thinking like a true online marketer.
Stop marketing other peoples products in all the different ways they suggest, and start marketing your product in the best ways possible. You control the product, your control the offerings, and you control the profits.
John Thornhill offers just such a training program.
In his Partnership to Success program you are trained in how to create a product of your own, how to market that product, and the proper platforms and affiliates to plug into and bring onboard.
There is entirely too many “offers” out there that have little to no value. The internet is littered with them. When you create your own product, and control the placement and marketing, you create true and lasting value.
And amazingly, it’s not that hard! Watch this webinar to gain immediate and valuable insight, and to learn of the real way to bring your online product to market.
