On Usefulness and True Customer Value: Check out this “Youtility” author’s advice!

According to marketing author Jay Baer, relevancy is the killer app that captivates consumers’ attention.

So, if you want your brand to succeed and achieve this goal, you have to be someone’s FAVORITE. And to be someone’s favorite, you have to be HYPER-RELEVANT.

Read on to know more about Jay Baer’s contributions in the marketing industry and the importance of relevance, usefulness, and true customer value in the independent workforce.

CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

On Usefulness and True Customer Value: Check out this “Youtility” author’s advice!

Jay Baer: Author of “Youtility” and CEO of Convince & Convert

“Helping is the new selling.”

This was what author and marketer Jay Baer wrote in his book titled,  “Youtility.”

According to him, helping customers find answers to their questions, fulfill a task, or discover solutions to their pain points is a good way to sell and market your brand.

… and today, I believe that statement is more than ever a connected and social one. Being useful to your customers or clients is what business and marketing are increasingly about.

Allow me to voice out some of Baer’s tips in his  “Youtility”  book:

1. The best marketing transcends the transactional and focuses not only on pushing the product but also on improving the lives of customers.

   In the  “Youtility”  book, Baer discussed the connection between service in the broadest sense (being helpful and at service) and marketing.

   He believes that marketing has to begin with offering value and delivering promises.

   I also think this should be part of our mindset as independent professionals who are looking to build a brand.

   So, instead of seeing marketing as something that you or your company needs, first identify your prospects’ needs then develop and measure executions according to those needs.

   This will help you create and offer products or services that are relevant to your target market’s demands and preferences.

2. If you sell something, you make a customer today. If you help someone, you make a customer for life.

   Baer wrote in his book that he often hears marketers say,  “Well, nobody in our industry is doing that”  or  “That case doesn’t apply in our industry.”

   Well, let me tell you this:

   Consumers of all types are manifestly impacted by best practices, regardless of where and how they are unfurled.

   So, if you’re offering your products or services to your target market, don’t just do that to sell. Help your prospects, too! This will enable you to make customers for life and not just customers for a day.

3. Customer-centrism and usefulness requires playing the long game and attempting to achieve unprecedented relevancy.

   As mentioned a while ago, relevancy is one of the solutions to the challenge of getting consumers’ attention.

   Without this factor, your offerings won’t appeal to your target market.

   But in this hyper-dynamic and digital world, it’s not just enough to be relevant. You also have to be hyper-relevant.

   If you can, be someone’s favorite blog, podcast, video, haiku, or any other type of content in this world.

   This is because the more you become someone’s favorite, the higher the chance for that someone to convert your loyal customers AND help spread positive word about your brand.

Baer calls for businesses, marketers, independents, and others to move away from implementing the same old ways of ‘doing’ marketing, which was inspired by fear that makes no sense at all. Instead, those in the business and marketing industry must focus on creating real customer value through context, connection, integration, footprints, data, and action.

Remember: Fear is the “dragon” we have to keep fighting! Always strive to be useful anytime. Additionally, don’t be blind to reality. Take note of the stuff that works well to your brand’s advantage; it’s all a matter of balance and knowing your customers.

Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful.

Follow us on  LinkedIn.

Stay tuned for next Monday’s MicroBusiness Marvels!

(first line of next draft of the same day)

Learn more about ___ and ___ on next week’s  MicroBusiness and Marketing Marvels !