You already know the importance of an effective B2C marketing campaign. However, the hardest part is often thinking of the next great idea for a campaign. This article solves that problem with a list of 10 B2C marketing campaign ideas.

Facebook Messenger Chatbot

Facebook Messenger chatbots burst onto the marketing scene in 2017. 2018 is no different with Facebook reporting over 100,000 active bots on Messenger.

These bots can provide a connection with customers and help with orders. Not to mention that customers now expect a response to their inquiry within an hour.

Capitalize on Facebook Groups

The days of reaching customers with organic Facebook posts are over. You must purchase ads these days. However, Facebook allows for the creation of groups from your business page.

These groups work great for increasing engagement. You can do this by opening the group for general discussion or member discounts. These groups can get quite unruly at larger sizes, so you need a moderator to keep things running smoothly.

Try SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is not new. However, most companies still ignore the potential of this great technique. Just about everyone has a mobile phone these days, and over 90% of texts are read within 10 minutes of receiving them.

The lack of businesses using SMS campaigns combined with the high engagement makes it one of the most promising ideas for 2018.

Have Live Chats

Not live chats for customer service (that works too), but rather live streaming. Business live streaming experienced some of the most growth in 2017 and 2018 does not look any different.

Some things to live stream include events or even a Q&A session with your customers. What better way to build a brand than having the CEO do a live stream Q&A with customers all over the world?

Use Private Media

If you haven’t heard of private media, then here is what you should know – it’s basically the messages that occur privately on public social media. This is everything that happens on Messenger, SnapChat, Instagram DM, Twitter DM, and WhatsApp.

The major social media networks are still developing this feature, so make sure to stay up to date. You want to utilise this campaign method before it becomes oversaturated.

Try LinkedIn

Most advertisers abandoned LinkedIn around 2014. It has since been acquired by Microsoft, and they have really improved the platform by updating the newsfeed to compete with Facebook.

The best part about LinkedIn as a marketing channel is that it is a “frontier” marketing platform. Most advertisers ignore LinkedIn, which means less competition and lower prices. Not to mention that many business professionals have left other social media networks in favour of LinkedIn.

The combination of less competition and lower prices makes LinkedIn one of the most promising platforms for B2C businesses. Your company must have the right product or service for LinkedIn as most users are business professionals.

Keep it Personal

Personalizing your marketing towards your customers has been a rising trend in the past few years. Adding a personal touch is great in the age of corporations that treat customers like just another number. Some ways to personalise the experience include using the customer’s name and recommending products based on past purchases.

However, you must be careful not to appear disingenuous as that will have a negative impact. This marketing trend requires an overall shift in company culture. Maintaining personalised marketing has little effect if the customer service department has a very impersonal relationship with customers.

Now, many companies go about personalising their marketing in the wrong way. Usually, this involves attempts at personalisation that appear disingenuous. Some ways to avoid appearing disingenuous are not to overdo anything too much. Companies normally appear disingenuous when they use a person’s name too much in marketing or spam their inbox with low-value emails.

Use Content Marketing

Content marketing can be used by almost every type of business. This usually involves writing detailed blog posts that help customers. However, it could involve other types of content too. Some examples include memorable social media posts such as internet memes.

Content marketing is sure to grow in 2018 with updates to Google Algorithms that favour high-quality content as opposed to thin content.

Focus on Mobile Marketing

The majority of internet traffic was mobile in 2017. This trend looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future as mobile traffic takes over the internet. Many businesses fail to realize this and have an awful mobile experience.

The best way to change this is to ensure that the mobile experience is the same as the desktop experience. This includes fast loading times and ensuring that the process of visiting the website operates smoothly.

Create an emotional connection with your customers

Maintaining an emotional connection between the company and customers rather than a transactional connection will improve the buying experience. The absolute key to creating an emotional connection is to not lead your marketing campaigns with the sale. Instead, you should lead with some sort of experience that guides a customer toward the sale.

Some of these experiences could be as simple as a video or as complex as local events. Just ensure to focus on the emotional aspect rather than the business aspect.

Final Thoughts

All in all, the ten ideas listed above should give you a good place to start for creating an effective B2C marketing campaign. In the new age of marketing, the focus is on creating an emotional connection and finding those platforms that have not become oversaturated with other marketers.

SMS marketing, LinkedIn, and private social networks still provide some untapped markets. Two of those three involve a direct and personal connection to the customer. That is why the list emphasised the importance of connecting with your customer.

Other developments to watch for include the focus on automated intelligence and machine learning. These processes are opening up to smaller business with the availability of messenger bots and the creation of item recommendation algorithms.