Earn Your Customers: Be Useful

Rick Short recently published a blog based on an article from Marketing Profs called “Advertising is the Price You Pay for Not Being Creative.”

In today’s economy, I’d argue another spin on this title: “Advertising is the Price You Pay for Not Being Useful Enough.”

Your commercial customers are struggling with budget cuts, lack of resources, and a credit crunch. The company that is going to win their business today is the company that understands their challenges and offers business advantages beyond the features of your latest-and-greatest widget.

It’s a good thing, too, because a study done by Marketing Profs and Forrester Research showed that 40% of surveyed B2B marketers expected a budget decrease in 2009 – which means, it’s likely that you can’t afford to shout about your widget’s newest features from those standard advertising vehicles.

I’d venture to guess that even well after we recover from this downturn, the most successful B2B institutions will be the ones that earn their customers rather than pay for them.