Youtility by Jay Baer - Book review

Youtility

Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype

By: Jay Baer

Published: June 27, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1591846668
ISBN-13: 978-1591846666
Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin












"The way consumers gather information about companies and make purchase decisions has changed. Consumers' time and attention has never been more scarce, and their suspicion of lazy interruption has never been more acute", writes hype-free marketing strategist, speaker, and President of Convince & Convert, Jay Baer in his revolutionary and marketing transformational book Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype. The author describes the changing landscape for marketers, where consumers no longer believe or act upon traditional marketing techniques, and offers an alternative in the form of what he calls Youtility.

Jay Baer understands that in the modern online world, consumers have altered the balance of information, rendering the older opaque marketing models much less effective. Indeed, the author considers the entire concept of marketing to having been overturned, and the old rules and strategies are now treated with suspicion. In a marketplace where time and attention are in short supply, and tolerance of interruption by marketers is at an all time low, Jay Baer offers the concept of Youtility as an alternative. In today's free information saturated world, the author presents Youtility as essential to marketing success.

Jay Baer (photo left) recognizes that the focus of many companies today is to be amazing to their customers. The author offers the more modest, but potentially more valuable premise, of being useful to customers. In this way, the company is helping the customer solve a need or problem.

The basis of Youtility is to be helpful to consumers, and create a bond with the customer for life. The idea of Youtility is marketing that is wanted, and not simply needed, as the information offered is free, helpful, and establishes a long term relationship with clients.

Jay Baer provides the guiding principles of Youtility, and being helpful and useful, in three overarching sections. Those three main areas of Youtility are as follows:

* Turning marketing upside down
* The three facets of Youtility
* Six blueprints to create Youtility

For me, the power of the book is how Jay Baer combines an overall theoretical framework of the principles of Youtility, with the practical strategies and techniques to put the concepts into practice. The author changes the traditional method of top of mind awareness marketing into one that adds frame of mine and friend of mine to the equation. This widening out of awareness, from its previously narrow focus, ensures that marketing moves out of the now outmoded traditional methodology mindset. In its place, Jay Baer presents the more comprehensive and useful premise of Youtility.

With its foundations of self serve information, radical transparency, and real time relevance, Youtility moves marketing far beyond the intrusive top of mind awareness approach. The basic pillars of helping, usefulness, and trust are a powerful combination for marketers, transforming the process into one focused on the needs of the customer. Jay Baer provides numerous examples of companies who implement the principles of Youtility, to illustrate the concepts in action in the real world. At the end of the book, the author also adds a quick glance at Youtility to ensure the principles are always remembered and fresh.

OI highly recommend the very clear and fascinating idea packed book Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype by Jay Baer, to any marketers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders who are seeking a more effective, and more human needs based approach to marketing. This book will change your mode of thought and action to being helpful, useful, and trustworthy.