Build a Successful B2B Business by First Engaging Consumers

It turns out there’s a hack for that. Businesses that want to sell to other businesses can circumvent the usual process of offering their products and services directly to potential business customers. They can do this without spending a lot on direct-to-consumer, either. I’m seeing and hearing about this business model much more, including in conversations with a wide range of entrepreneurs.

Consider the health care space. Well-known companies like Calm (sleep, meditation), TalkSpace (therapy), Noom (weight loss), and others built initial business-to-consumer models to try to acquire as many paying users as possible. But for most, this terrain proved quite challenging. This is because U.S. consumers have been spoiled by having insurers and employers pay for, or at least subsidize, many health care-related services. That drives customer-acquisition costs through the roof.

So, many players tried to pivot to the business-to-business model, by selling services that employers could provide their employees. Strike two.

Why? There was simply too much out there—an oversupply of app-based health care solutions and tools. Consumers could find everything from step- and sleep-tracking to weight loss to DIY pilates and yoga. Employers were more open to such solutions during the pandemic. However, after purchasing many of them, leaders soon found themselves with an ecosystem of fragmented, redundant solutions with little consistency. This was at no small cost to them. No surprise, employees stopped using them as much as the pandemic eased, and employers became much less willing to pay.

Luckily, there’s another way to create a B2B in health care or other spaces that rely on end-user engagement and satisfaction.

I will refer to it as the business-to-consumer-to-business model, or the B2C2B. Let me explain, by way of an example, and then provide some tips for getting it right.

The case for B2C2B

NOCD is a virtual care company that started focusing on treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, which affects an estimated eight million people in the U.S. As Stephen Smith, the co-founder and CEO of NOCD puts it, “Our aim is to help people with OCD know that they are not alone and, most important, that a normal life is not only possible, but accessible."

Rather than pitching the product directly to consumers or employers, Smith and other leaders of NOCD built communities of users. The users did not pay for access. Instead, they offered content to this underserved community. Content included helpful articles and research to inform and engage users, building awareness of their organization through SEO and word-of-mouth. 

As the number of NOCD users reached critical mass, the business went to employers and insurers and pointed to the high numbers of their employees and enrollees, respectively, who were already using the platform. This provided proof-of-engagement that made these potential enterprise customers more likely to buy in. It’s easier to get past concerns about employees not using something when confronted with strong evidence they’re already using it. In some cases, employees themselves would even suggest the employer look into a given product or service they’d found helpful.

In this way, the business model becomes more like B2C2B, or business-to-consumer-to business. You start by engaging consumers, stimulating demand from the bottom-up, which boosts organizations’ willingness to buy. In this way, you can take the backroad to a B2B business model by starting with B2C

Get B2C2B right 

I’m confident B2B2C can work and have seen it succeed in multiple business models. However, I don’t want to make it sound easy. It takes a thoughtful, strategic approach. Here are a few practices to yield success:

• Leverage existing communities. These days there are vibrant online communities for just about every topic you can imagine. My wife, who is new to Reddit, an especially popular online community platform, recently marveled at the community of millions (millions!) of people actively engaged in a conversation about power washing (not a joke—she was really into it).
  Engaging with and contributing to such communities is an excellent way for small companies to drive awareness and credibility while keeping the cost of customer acquisition low. (Note: High customer acquisition is one of the largest challenges in building B2C businesses, which, in the case of a digital health business, can range anywhere from $10 to $300-plus per acquired user.) The strategy here is not to use Reddit and Quora as your sole acquisition channel, but to attract enough early users to make the case for a B2B business model in the longer term.
• Get the content right, with a strong point-of-view. One of the biggest things to think through is content—what’s going to engage your target users best? Here, NOCD exemplifies infusing content with a unique, resonant point of view and above all, empathy. It focuses foremost on the struggle its users are managing, not the solution.
  For example, they understood that many who suffer from OCD may be misdiagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, depression, or other conditions, and developed content around that understanding, with a highly personal and non-judgmental voice. “Our content engenders hope, which leads to action,” says NOCD co-founder Smith. This empathetic, outcomes-focused content helped NOCD evolve into the largely B2C2B model it is today, as more employees and enrollees have begun using and benefiting from the platform.
• Think freemium. Part of a strong content marketing strategy is attracting users—not just with the content itself but with the ability to engage with it at low risk. That means possibly offering content of value at no cost to the consumer, with additional premium content at an accessible price point. If employers and other organizations see consumers are willing to pay for an app, it only bolsters the case to “buy in bulk,” leading to a successful B2B model.

Sometimes, the best way to execute on a B2B model is to start with B2C, by engaging users and creating a fast-growing base of devotees. Content is the key to success in many cases, and can prove a low-cost way to get to critical mass. I hope the ideas here prove valuable on your business-building journey, whatever acronym best fits your business model.