Back in the business school, consumer behavior was my favorite marketing class. I loved learning something about the psychology of marketing and spending people out as they do. No wonder that I still love B2C marketing today.
But as funny it is, it is also a challenge – especially in 2025.
If you unpack the latest HubSpot data, we chat about what the B2C marketing landscape looks like today and which trends you have to master this year and beyond in order to remain competitive.
Table of contents
What is B2C marketing?
B2C or business-to-consumer marketing are marketing tactics that aim to sell products directly to individual consumers-not to other companies or organizations.
That means marketing that speaks to you, your best friend, her mother or father, boss or sister of the sister of the friend of the second cousin.
B2C marketing also drives consumers to buy from third parties such as retail stores and partners. Tactics can include website strategy, e -mail marketing, social media, content marketing and public relations. However, these responsibilities are often passed on to the retail partners.
What distinguishes B2C marketing from other types of marketing?
To be honest, I am at the party that all companies are B2C. I mean, no matter the product, there is a consumer or one person at the other end, right?
However, there are some subtle nuances that distinguish B2C from For example, business-to-business (B2B) and Direct-to-Consumer (D2C).
B2C marketing against B2B marketing
source
B2B marketing applies to products or services that are used by or for organizations. Individuals like the actual purchase, but they make it for professional purposes.
For example, when people buy software to help their team communication such as Slack, then B2B.
They try to increase trust in other companies and increase sales by focusing on values ​​such as improved productivity, efficiency and profitability. Messaging is more conventional and concentrates longer on the capital return and the sales cycles.
Note how Sprout Social is emphasizing other companies that use your tools and makes it clear that it speaks to organizations in its copy.
When people buy a product with personal goals, e.g. B. the improvement of your sporting performance (e.g. Nike) or your health (e.g. calm down), then it is B2C.
B2C marketing is usually casual and focuses on the value of value such as personal fulfillment or improvement in everyday life.
Depending on the purchase size, B2C sales cycles can be long or short, but since they are purchases that are made for themselves, they can usually be made faster and with less risk and barriers than B2B.
For an even deeper immersion in the differences, you can find in our article “B2B vs. B2C marketing: My Wecy TakeAways as a marketer”.
But what about D2C?
A few months ago I dug up in D2C marketing, and I needed a bar to understand how it was different from B2C. That’s how I summarized it.
“B2C works with third parties or” middlers “such as wholesale dealers, retailers or distributors to bring their product into consumer hands. Retailers often even help to owe part of marketing to increase sales. “
In the meantime, “D2C has none of this help. Your product goes directly from the manufacturers to the consumer who bought it through the website, shop or popup of the brand. Overall, it is a more direct line for the buyer than B2C. “
B2C marketing challenges
Like marketers from every industry, B2C marketers stated that they generate traffic and leads and stay with trends, since some of their greatest challenges are up to date in 2025. However, there are also some more unique pain points that you face.
Here are the top three.
- Consumers trust less trust in their personal data (22.83%)
- Bad data quality 18.07%
- How quickly the life of your audience has changed in recent years 17.95
Consumers trust less trust in their personal data
Data protection concerns are alive and good. Modern consumers are concerned about the fact that their information and identity are sold.
For this reason, many hesitate to share their names or e -mail addresses or to grant brands the cookies they need to personalize experiences.
This can make it more difficult for B2C marketers to understand what their audience wants to see from them and their marketing are effectively assigned.
Bad data quality
In addition to the consumers who do not want to share their data, B2C marketers are also exposed to poor data quality. We talk about inaccurate or old contact information and data with typing errors or redundancy.
Problems like this create incomplete information about this with which you work. They make it difficult to form a strategy and use AI to be more efficient.
Ryan Gunn, director of Demand Gen & Marketing Ops at APTITE 8, recently explained how clean, well -structured data is the secret for the success of the AI.
“When companies carry out segmentation and personalization, the synchronization of more precise data across the systems is the key to exploiting the complete potential of the AI. The better your data is, the more intelligent your AI-affected marketing and the easier it is to achieve your goals. “
Pro tip: Tools like Drift Kings Media’s Breeze co-pilot Can keep your data clean and up-to-date by connecting your CRM data to all your business efforts.
Lifestyle shifts
It’s no secret: the world has been pretty crazy in recent years.
Between the COVID-19-Pandemie blocking, shifts to remote work, rising living costs and lots of social and political unrest, consumer lifestyles and buying behavior have changed dramatically. And they have not yet settled.
As a B2C marketer, it is difficult to keep up. Constant shifts make planning difficult, regardless of whether they think about budget or messages.
How do marketers navigate these challenges in 2025? We asked over 1,400 global marketing experts find out.
TOP B2C marketing trends from 2025
In 2025, almost 80% of those in the B2C marketing plan to increase or maintain their marketing budgets.
The question is: where exactly do these big dollars go? Are our colleagues in the same strategies or try new trends for the size? Should you do the same?
Here are the three biggest trends that we have uncovered in our research.
- User -generated content (22.34%)
- Creation of content that reflects the values ​​of your brand (e.g. social responsibility) (21.86%)
- Use AI to transform text into multi-channel campaigns. (e.g. Videodemos, product change, presentations, podcasts) (21.61%)
1. User -generated content (UGC)
User-generated content is voluntarily created by your buyers or the target market via your product or brand, usually on social media and let me tell you that it is some of the best content that you can have as a B2C business.
Why exactly?
Here is the truth – people trust others more than they trust brands.
Everything a brand says only as a sales talk, because they try to sell something. Of course they will boast.
News and praise from other consumers are considered more trustworthy and reliable because they have no horse in the race. For this reason, word of mouth and influencer marketing are so effective and why so many people turn to product ratings before buying.
When real people share their experiences with them online, it works as Social proof of what you claim. So, lean on it in 2025.
Encourage your customers to publish content on their brand on social media or to send them to you by e -mail or direct messages.
Create a unique hashtag that you can use to present your content, or better offer the opportunity to share it on your account. This not only shows appreciation for your customers and offers you great content to highlight your audience, but also a sense of community.
One of my favorite -UGC efforts is Apple’s #Shotoniphone. The campaign is 10 years old this year and continues to deliver most of the content that is shared on the Instagram account of the Tech giant.
(I mean, just search the hashtag and you will be made over 30 million contributions.)
 |
 |
The iPhone users can not only enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame by having their content presented on almost 34 million people around the world, but Apple can highlight how good the camera quality is really.
In your marketing strategy you will find in your marketing strategy how you can use user -generated content to learn more about UGC.
2. Create content that reflects the values ​​of your brand
Last year, Manuela GaitanMarketing manager at Awtanatold us:
“There was a growing trend to create content that reflects the values ​​of a brand, especially those who focus on social responsibility. Although this approach may not be as popular as only concentrating on product functions or lifestyle images, it proves to be a worthwhile investment for B2C companies. “
And this trend only continues in 2025. Almost 56% of the B2C marketers plan to tackle social problems in their marketing in 2025, while 57% information is effective in their marketing last year.
But why is it so effective?
Gaitan believes that there are three reasons that create content that reflects the brand values ​​is important for B2C marketers. As she puts it:
“Aligning marketing content with the values ​​of a brand helps to establish a deeper emotional connection with the consumers. By providing companies with a commitment to social responsibility through content, companies can take advantage of their target group at a lower level and promote loyalty and trust in the process. “
“A company can withdraw the communication of brand values ​​in marketing content from its competitors in a crowded market. By highlighting these values, B2C companies can get an independent identity for themselves and attract like-minded consumers who feel attracted to their mission and purpose. “
Now I know. It can be scary to take a position – almost 73% of the marketers are also concerned about it (although around 44% say that it is only a small problem).
They may fear alienate buyers and lose money, but here is: more and more people will put their money where their values ​​are in 2025.
It is often under Gen z and millennials, who quickly become the best -known players on the buying market. If you ignore this buying behavior now, you can now injure herself in the long term.
Even if some buyers can turn away, they also help you to present your values ​​in your content, and marketing will also help you new Buyer – buyers who probably remain more loyal and even promote their brand because they match their vision on a lower level.
(You could even create some of the Golden UGC content that we talked about.)
So take the chance.
Pro tip: Regardless of the values ​​you present, make sure that you are authentic for your brand and practices.
For example, if you are a fast fashion brand, you cannot preach sustainability. That just won’t fly. Buyers can recognize if they only jump to one cause to win them and study how how This from the University of Chicago Show that you will not support the performative ally.
Think about what your brand really believes in. What change would it like to see in the world and how does it reflect this in the way it does business? Return to our example of sustainability – a brand that is good for this is Allbirds.
The company’s shoes and packaging consist of natural resources, and 90% of the materials are recycled. It also works with the non -profit Soles4Souls® to donate easily used products to charity.
All of these practices on his website are discussed in detail and even published an annual sustainability report in order to be held accountable.
source
3 .. Use AI to transform text into multi-channel campaigns
In my opinion, one of the best applications from AI in marketing is a conversion.
Construction of your content for a new medium, format or a new audience is an efficient way to get even more out of work that you have already done, and AI makes it faster than ever.
How else can you use AI to reproduce content?
- Transform blog posts into video scripts.
- Transcribe podcasts or videos into blog articles. ((Pro tip: Description or Otter.ai)))
- Transform long-term content into short-term social media contributions.
- Create visuals based on long forms to share them in a social way.
- Create the targets from e -mail sequences or podcasts.
- Transform product content in marketing advertising materials.
- Take raw data and create data visualizations and reports.
The Drift Kings Media Content Remix is ​​a tool that was specially created for the conversion of content.
With the remix of content, users of Professional and company level in Content Hub can convert existing content into new formats.
These can be materials that you upload to Drift Kings Media (i.e. pictures, social contributions, text messages, ads and blog posts) or new content to the tool.
You can do content from the content -remix tool, the overview page for your contributions or pages and the content editor Remix Remix Remix Remix.
How to create a future-proof B2C marketing strategy
1. Meat from your target group.
Before you start a campaign, let alone a B2C marketing campaign, you need to know who you want to achieve – in other words, who is your target group or your buyer personality.
Once you have understood this, you know what preferences and behaviors have to adapt your strategy. Enter your buyers and carefully pay attention to your shopping behavior. where they consume content and their pain points.
If you have no buyers, better late than never. Use our free template to document all important information for your B2C marketing strategy and other initiatives.
2. Define your goals and metrics.
What do you want to achieve with you with an identified audience? Would you just like to build up the brand awareness? Would you like to increase sales?
Clarify your goals with the intelligent framework and use them to determine which metrics you use to pursue your progress towards you.
For example, if you want to increase sales, you can follow leads or income that is generated. If you try to strengthen brand awareness, then it may be a website view or new followers on social media.
3. Set your budget.
Fortunately, many modern B2C marketing tactics and media are low or no costs, but before you start, you would like to have a firm understanding of how much your team can spend if necessary.
This has an impact on whether you can invest in certain premium tools or even paid ads.
Here are some resources to help:
4. Clarify your brand positioning.
This is a greater question beyond your B2C marketing strategy: How do you want your brand to be perceived in the eyes of your target group? How will it differ from others in the room?
This is your brand position, and if you have a firm understanding, she informs all of your B2C marketing -messaging. To be honest, it is a big undertaking, but for these intentions and purposes you can concentrate on your unique selling point (USP) and your branded voice.
- Unique selling -out interview (USP): Indicate what makes your product or service different and valuable.
- Brand: Develop a consistent tone that is included in your audience (e.g. friendly, aspirative, relevant).
Marketing pioneer and founder of Mailshake Sujan Patel packs the brand in detail in “A complete guide for successful brand positioning”.
5. Decide on your platforms and tactics.
The list of platforms and tactics that you can use for B2C marketing is long and grows.
It is easy to catch yourself and try everything out, but when it comes to achieving your goals, it is best to focus on your strategy on proven ways and also experiment.
Your strategy can contain, but not limited to:
- Content marketing: Blogs, videos and other content to educate or entertain.
- Social media marketing: Share and share with your audience where it hangs. You can also consider social sales. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest are particularly popular for B2C brands.
- E -mail marketing: Use personalized e -mails for care and retargeting.
- Search engine optimization (SEO): Put the organic traffic by optimizing for relevant keywords.
- Influencer marketing: Work with influencers in your niche to use your audience.
- Personalization: Use data to deliver tailor -made customer experiences (e.g. product recommendations, local offers).
- Paid ads (or pay-per-click (ppc)): Use Google ads or social media advertising for targeted campaigns.
- Buy incentives: Discounts, advertising campaigns, free trial versions.
- Loyalty programs: Offer exclusive advantages and rewards for return customers.
Take a look at the behavior and data of your existing audience to determine which platforms and types of content you enjoy and in line with your budget. When it comes to social media, I have always found this Wordstream diagram helpful.
source
6. Develop your plan to pursue your success.
Do you remember these metrics and KPIs that we have previously found? Here you create a plan for the persecution and reporting on you during your campaigns.
I know – pay me too – but you can’t ignore them until your campaign ends. If things don’t go so well, this doesn’t give you time to turn.
If you are a lifting spot user, you can set up dashboards reporting Set up for your most important metrics and even your portal so that you first see what you are registering. (More here here.)
If this is not the case, you can also use tools like how Google Analytics for data
I also found that it is helpful to have spreadsheets with only the numbers. In this way you can easily see how things have changed over time and what your most immediate attention needs.
Checkout: 22 best free marketing and sales templates for Microsoft Excel
7. Check and refine.
So how did you do it? After you have carried out your strategy, it is time to ask yourself and ask yourself what worked well and what did not. Take your time to analyze your performance critically and constructively.
So you know what has to be refined and improved in the next strategy.
Consumers the loyalty they long for
The future of B2C marketing is exciting, dynamic and full of opportunities to stand out. With user-generated content, value-driven messaging and AI-powered efficiency that leads the fee, a year will be a year big victories for marketers who are willing to try out new things.
But here is the kicker: it’s not just about tracking the data or trends – it is about knowing your audience, being authentic and constantly refining your approach to do it right.
The heart of the B2C marketing will always be about connecting to people on a meaningful level. This is also the key to long -term customer loyalty.
Take these findings, mix your own brand magic and create campaigns that inspire, delight and convert.