It is certainly harder in the digital age to maintain customer attention. Unlike in the past where everybody was glued to the television, Today eyes are all over the place. Therefore the trick is to find them. Jay Baer believes the most efficient way to grab the customer’s attention from competitors is to be useful. Useful in the genuine sense, actually fulfilling the customer’s needs. To that pursuit, Baer provides us with an essential way to put it into practice.
Youtility Strategy: Self-Serve Information
There is a popular story from the recession that highlights the utility of self-serve information. At the height of the recession, Marcus Sheridan’s pool business was in trouble. He ended up creating a blog on his website where he would answer every single question he could think of regarding the pool business. Eventually, prospective pool buyers who had thought of these questions themselves were driven to the website in search of answers. Because Sheridan was able to answer so many of their questions, many of these prospective buyers turned into customers. Becoming a Youtility is what turned Sherdian’s business around in the worst economic downturn in decades.
Implementation Step #1: Identify Customer Needs
In answering all those questions Marcus Sheridan was identifying customer needs and meeting them. The important question is then “how do I identify customer needs?”. Here are some ways customer needs can be identified:
- You can use Google Trends to determine which keywords are associated with your business or your market
- You can again use Google to see what Google auto correct associates with your business
- If you use search advertising, you can find out what search terms placed your ad in front of people, then create content that reflects those search terms
- If all those digital strategies don’t work, you can always simply ask a customer what they need. A customer will know what they need more than anyone.
Implementation Step #2: Market Your Marketing
The biggest mistake people make when it comes to Youtility is assuming that once you create something, people will see it. An important step in Youtility is actually getting people to see what you’ve done. Here are some ways you can get your Youtility strategy in front of other people.
- Make your Youtility marketing appear on the front page of your website
- Send your Youtility marketing regularly to employees and ask them to share it around
- Make your Youtility marketing a regular feature of all your email marketing
- If you can effectively share your Youtility with the right influential people, it can make a big difference.
Utilize these initial steps to begin to make Youtility work in your marketing strategy!