Despite the difference between B2Bs and B2Cs, many people argue that the lead generation funnel for both types of businesses is the same. Although both of them overlap, fundamental differences between them exist.
It’s because B2B consumers and B2C consumers are, in fact, different. Their decision-making processes vary from one another.
Because B2B and B2C sales work differently, it is important to understand that they do not follow the same sales cycle. They need different approaches to turn prospects into leads and leads into buyers.
In this post, I will guide you about the differences between B2B and B2C lead generation funnels and how to develop an effective B2B lead generation funnel. But firstly, let’s start with basic information about sales funnel.
What is a Lead Generation Funnel?
A lead generation funnel is a step-by-step process through which businesses make their prospects aware of their products and services, ignite their interest by showing why the company is valuable for them and how it solves their problem, remove doubts and encourage them to buy.
A well-designed lead generation funnel helps businesses target the most ideal prospects, nurture them step-by-step, and convert them into sales.
Stages of Lead Generation Funnel
A lead generation funnel consists of three main stages: Top of the funnel (TOFU), Middle of the Funnel (MOFU), and Bottom of the Funnel( BOFU). At each stage the target audience narrows down. Just like the funnel is wider at the top, similarly the target audience at the top of the lead generation funnel is more as compared to the middle and bottom stage and gets reduced as the sales process proceeds down the funnel.
Each stage is designed to move the prospects through the sales process and bring them closer to conversions and paying customers.
Top of the Funnel
At this stage the main goal is to create awareness about your business among your target audience and evoking their interest.
This can be done through marketing in the form of social media and content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and advertisements.
Once the potential customers are aware of your business, the next task is pique their interest by engaging them further.
Engagement can be enhanced by providing valuable content, resources or offers that address their needs, pain points, or interests.
Middle of the Funnel
In the MOFU stage, prospects are already interested in your business, and they start evaluating whether your offerings align with their needs, requirements or specifications or not.
This is a relationship building stage. In order to build trust and credibility, provide your potential customer with the information about unique selling points via case studies , testimonials and demos.
In the later part of this stage, your potential customers are closer to making decisions about purchase or investment. At this stage, you have to encourage them by offering incentives, discounts, exclusive deals, or free trials, to nudge them toward conversion.
Moreover, use clear calls to action and straightforward purchasing options to make the buying process easy and seamless.
Bottom of the Funnel
At this stage, your prospects convert into customers and complete the desired action in the form of purchase, sign-ups, or booking consultations.
Once the conversion occurs, it does not mean the task is complete. You have to keep nurturing the customer relationship through post-purchase communication and support to earn loyalty and retain them.
Difference Between B2B and B2C Lead Generation Funnel
The difference between the two funnels exist because the target audience of both types of businesses is different. In B2B, businesses sell their products and services to other businesses, and decisions of purchase have to be made by many stakeholders. So, we can say that the B2B lead generation funnel is a bit complex and longer as compared to B2C.
Difference Between B2B and B2C Lead Generation Funnel |
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|---|---|---|
| Aspect | B2B Lead Generation Funnel | B2C Lead Generation Funnel |
| Target Audience | Targets a group of people within a business | Targets individual customers |
| Sales Cycle Length | The sales process is longer because decisions take time and involve a group of people. | The sales process is shorter and faster because decisions are made by only one person. |
| Number of Funnel Stages | It has more stages because buyers evaluate deeply. These stages include: awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and buy. | It has fewer stages and is more direct. The stages of the B2C lead generation funnel include awareness, interest, desire, and action. |
| Decision Making | Decisions involve multiple stakeholders | Decisions are made by one person |
| Buying Behavior | Buyers make decisions after proper research and comparing options and considering thoughtfully how a particular product or services will ease their business. | Buyers make decision on the basis of convenience and price |
How to Build B2B Lead Generation Funnel
Designing a B2B lead generation funnel requires careful planning, conducting thorough audience and market research, alignment between teams, and proper lead nurturing strategies.
1. Conduct Audience and Market Research
The initial stage of developing a lead generation funnel is thorough and deep audience and market research to identify your target audience and form an ideal customer profile.
Once you identify your target audience, segment them. In segmentation, the target audience is grouped into different segments on the basis of industry, company size, role of decision makers, business needs and buying behaviors.
Segmentation helps marketing and sales teams to approach different segments in the right way according to their needs, preferences, and specifications.
Once you know your target market and have segmented them, create detailed buyer personas to represent each segment.
The ideal customer profile of each segment defines your prospects’ goals, challenges, and buying behaviors.
Do not form the profile by imagining or guessing either use surveys, interviews, and analytics to collect information about your ideal customers. The more accurate and detailed your personas, the more targeted and effective your funnel will be.
When agents know better about the audience, they exactly know their pain points and are in a better position to persuade them via more relevant information.
Suppose an agent contacts an ABC IT company, that is mid-sized and decision making authority lies with directors, CEO, and CTO. so agents will research the challenges IT companies are facing and they know which of their services better align with the needs of mid-sized IT companies. So, they will approach the decision makers aptly with the right services and with the right information.
2. Align Sales and Marketing Efforts
The common challenge in converting the prospects into leads and customers is the lack of synergy and synchronization between sales and marketing teams. To complete the sales process successfully, it’s very important for both teams to work hand in hand with each other.
Suppose a marketing team of a company that provides business solutions to mid-sized IT companies launch a campaign with in-liners like “Free IT Tools for Teams” through social media ads and email blasts.
The campaign generated leads. When the sales team connected with leads they were mostly individuals, junior developers, interns, and IT support staff who were interested in free tools, not long-term service contracts.
However, the company’s actual goal is to sell enterprise IT solutions. Because the campaign message focused on keywords like free tools instead of business solutions, the wrong audience entered the funnel.
Even though marketing delivered many leads, the lead generation funnel failed because the campaign did not target the right people with the right message.
In this case, the goal of the marketing team was to generate leads and the sales team was to make conversion. Although, the marketing team succeeded in generating leads but not the right leads due to which the whole process failed. This shows that synergy between the teams and their goals is very important otherwise the whole process fails.
The best way for creating synergy between teams is regular communication in the form of joint meetings to discuss goals, strategies, share insights, and address challenges.
3. Build the Three-Stage Funnel
Design your lead generation funnels in such a way that helps potential customers move step by step through it.
TOFU
This stage of the funnel creates awareness among the potential customers about your business and engages them by sparking their curiosity and planting the seed of interest in your solution.
To build attention, present high-level content in the form of blog posts, eBooks, whitepapers, and how-to guides that address common issues your target audience faces. Base your content on the keywords your potential customers might be looking for. Your marketing content must focus on your expertise to present your business as the most suitable solution to all their problems.
MOFU
During this stage, you have to nurture the interested leads. Right now, prospects want to know how your business is the best suitable option for their challenges. To provide them in-depth information about it, you need to focus more on your services and offering. Present them blogs and guides based on your services, case studies, webinars, product demos and comparison guides.
Design your content in a way that presents your business as the sole suitable solution, credible and most valuable option
BOFU
At this stage you have to encourage leads to make a purchase decision by offering compelling reasons to choose your product.
Provide conversion-focused content like FAQs that clear their doubts, testimonials, success stories, or live demos.
At this point, leads want to see evidence that your business is the most suitable solution. Therefore, it’s the best time to show customer success stories, offer free trials, or provide personalized consultations.
Make your content in a way that it supports decision-making. For this purpose use clear calls to action that compels leads to make purchase decisions.
4. Nurture Leads
Once the lead is in your funnel, you have to properly nurture the lead until it turns into a customer. Nurturing is all about building relationships with your prospects and leads. It helps businesses remember your brand, so when they are ready to buy, they think of your business first.
There are different ways to nurture the leads properly like personalized email campaigns, retargeting ads etc.
In personalized email campaigns, you deliver emails to your leads based on their position in the lead generation funnel. For example, if lead is at the top of the funnel and discovering about your brand, send them simple and educational content like blogs, guides, videos, checklists, or social posts. If the lead is at the middle of the funnel, provide it with case studies, webinars, comparison guides, and detailed explanations. If the lead is at the bottom of the funnel, provide it with product demos, free trials, pricing details, testimonials, proposals, and consultations
Businesses can use retargeting ads strategy to keep your brand visible to prospects. In this strategy, ads are shown to leads who have engaged earlier but are not converted yet. This makes them aware of your brand and business and might consider you first when they want to purchase.
FAQs about B2B Lead Generation Funnel
1. What is a B2B lead generation funnel?
A B2B lead generation funnel is a step by step process through which businesses convert their potential customers to loyal customers by making them aware of their business, building their interest, and finally converting them to loyal buyers.
2. Are B2B and B2C lead generation funnels the same?
No, B2B and B2C lead generation funnels are not the same because the target audience of both types of businesses is different. B2B is a comparatively longer and more complex sales process because it involves compelling a group of people within business to make sales. Moreover, the decision rests with a number of stakeholders. Whereas B2C is less complex because businesses have to compel a single person to make decisions.
3. What are the main stages of a B2B lead generation funnel?
There are three main stages of the lead generation funnel. Top of the funnel, Middle of the funnel, and Bottom of the funnel. As the top of the funnel is wider, so at this stage businesses have a broader target audience that gets reduced at each consequent level of the funnel.
4. Why does the number of prospects reduce as they move down the lead generation funnel?
The number of prospects reduces as they move down the funnel because as the sales process continues only the interested ones stay while others who are not ready to buy drops out.
5. How do businesses nurture leads in a B2B lead generation funnel?
Businesses can use a variety of strategies to nurture leads to make them loyal buyers. They can do this via personalized email campaigns through which they can share personalized content based on the level of the funnel the prospect is. Prospects at the top of the funnel only receive educational content in the form of blogs, whereas ones at the later stages receive case studies, webinars, comparison guides, testimonials etc. Moreover, businesses can use retargeting ads strategy for prospects who show initial engagement but did not convert yet.
