Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype

by Jay Baer

The difference between helping and selling is just two letters If you're wondering how to make your products seem more exciting online, you're asking the wrong question. You're not competing for attention only against other similar products. You're competing against your customers' friends and family and viral videos and cute puppies. To win attention these days you must ask a different "How can we help?" Jay Baer's Youtility offers a new approach that cuts through the clut­ marketing that is truly, inherently useful. If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Social Media, Leadership, Professional Development, Buisness, Audiobook

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 27, 2013

About the author

Jay Baer is the co-author of The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter & More Social.

He is social media strategy consultant, and founder of the firm Convince & Convert, that works with leading companies and their agencies on social media integration.

His Convince & Convert blog is one of the world’s top English-language marketing resources, as was ranked the #3 social media blog in the world.

A founder of five companies, Baer has consulted for more than 700 companies on a variety of digital marketing and social media initiatives since 1994, and clients have included Nike, Sony, P&G, Monsanto, Caterpillar, MetLife, and Cadbury.

A November, 2010 issue of Fast Company Magazine cited him as one of the three leading social media advisors in America.

Reviews

[Ram Tr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still reading this book, but I thought I should write this review before I get to the last page.

A very interesting concept, a must read for all marketers out there. This book move on from where the earlier books left, the earlier concept was all about hype, creativity, inbound, sales funnel etc that follows a rather linear trend. This one talks about how brands or companies should be helpful to anyone whether they are your prospects or not. Just being helpful gets you to the trustworthy stage of relationship. This will eventually help you win or retain the customer.

The first part of the book is about introducing the concept with lucid examples. The second part (i am yet to finish this) is all about the "how to" be useful. This is not exactly a field book for being useful but it opens your eyes to this new (some people already know) aspect of being useful. Building content for the sake of building content is no good. But useful content that affect the Zero Moment of Truth - a concept pioneered by Google is the way forward.

This is one of the first few books on this concept, there will be many more coming up on this.

This is the future of marketing. Very important read for brand managers, marketing campaign owners, content marketers, agencies, CEOs of small and mid sized companies also should read this book.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jay Baer has some bad news for us...and some good news.

Bad news: In the age of information overload, you're not going to keep your company at the top of people's minds by constant advertising.

Good news: You don't have to. Getting the ear of the right audience is better than paying for name recognition by the masses.

Bad news: Just because people can find you online, it doesn't mean they'll become your customers.

Good news: Recommendations from their friends influence people's decisions. Word of mouth has always been important, and today, it has a new address: on social media.

Bad news: Getting people's attention is hard. You're competing with their friends, the latest cute cat video, and photos of their grandchildren (who are probably a lot cuter than you!)

Good news: People will pay attention when you solve problems for them or provide them with information they need. That's what Baer calls "Youtility."

Baer doesn't often address nonprofit organizations. His idea of a small organization is still a lot larger than many community-based businesses and nonprofits I know. The book is still very much worth reading.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of the top marketing books I have read in a long time. Baer breaks down the changing face of marketing which companies must adhere to or get left behind in the evolution of more involved customer bases and presence of social media.

Examples are well laid out and measurement tactics are well defined.

With the buzz surrounding this book, I wanted to make sure it wasn't fluff. It isn't. This is a book that I will be purchasing.

[Andy Strote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have been 5 stars but last group of pages isn't as great as the first 80%. Well worth reading if you're in marketing, communications, sales, etc. Nearly everything Jay Baer writes is worth saving.

[Jennifer Buggica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jay Baer does an excellent job of describing just what smart marketing is all about, in a relatable, easy to read way that I appreciate.

[LaDonna Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. I've started putting into practice some of the things found here and am enjoying myself. We shall see if I am effective at Youtility.

[Mark Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solid advice, but I found his examples lacking

[Josh Guilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good, if you're someone who isn't sure about the value of storytelling/content marketing and want to see how it works and what it can do for you this book is right up your alley.

[Mezei Cristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

It blows my mind that most businesses have not realised that a Youtility mindset (which is basically content maketing where the focus is serving your potential customer with valuable, helpful information) is the way to go. Tools change, so the emphasis on mobile apps may not be that relevant in 2020, but the idea of putting out helpful content in the age of informational self service is here to stay.

This book takes you through several case studies that show you just how valuable real content marketing can be, regardless of your niche.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for school, my digital marketing & analytics class. It was good but a little outdated I felt that the author did give some good tips and advice but his statistics and examples were old. That’s not his fault though that’s just when the book was published. I don’t think it’s still thaaaat relevant so it felt a bit boring. I think it could’ve been shorter.

But for the time of when it came out I can see why it is an excellent resource for marketing.

I just would like a more modern version of it.

[Shitiz Srivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found about Jay bear on internet as now his field of business is digital marketing and he handles some of the top clients like Nike and Apple. The book advertises that it is going to talk to you about marketing in general but it actually gives only his views on the subject and most of the book is about you should advertise your company and products on internet. Insightful book because he has tremendous knowledge in the field but at times it becomes repetitive. There are things on which he sometimes emphasizes too much that you want to skip some sections. There is nothing, I feel, is left in the world of marketing anymore. Anything that needed to be told is already out there and now people are just presenting the same data in different containers. The book is helpful if you are a start-up man and want to increase your business using digital marketing. Trust me, this guy is professional in it and his advice will help you and if this is your first book on marketing, then all the more better.

[KatieMc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gah... if my boss recommends another inane business book I an going to scream. Actually it wasn't that bad.

[Gene Babon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Success flows to organizations that inform, not organizations that promote.

Today's customers are staring at an invitation avalanche, with every company asking for likes, follows, clicks and attention. There are two ways for companies to break through this cacophony—be amazing or be useful. It is difficult to be amazing, consistently. This book is about being useful.

Youtility is marketing that is wanted by customers. Youtility is massively useful information, provided for free, that creates long-term trust. Youtility doesn't always require creating helpfulness from scratch. Taking what already exists and putting it in an inherently more helpful format can be just as effective.

There are three ways to build Youtility:

~ provide self-service information
~ answer every question
~ be relevant in real time

Best concept explanation:

Zero Moment of Truth—that moment in which a customer decides to either take the next step in the purchase funnel, or to exit and seek other options. Buy or bail. It is at this moment when access to information reduces risk. Customers want this information to be self-serve because we want to be left alone. No phone calls. No e-mails.

Best quote: "Content is fire and social media is gasoline."

The bottom line: We need to provide value to the customer other than simply giving them a product at a cheap price. We need to differentiate ourselves to offer value that is beyond a product and a price.

"You are in two businesses. You're in the 'whatever business you are in' business, and you're in the media business." ~ Joe Pulizzi

Youtility can help you develop your media business so that you can grow your 'whatever business you are in' business.

Access Gene Babon's reviews of books on Business Leadership and Business Strategy at Pinterest.

[Mick Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Youtility is a form of marketing that is desired by customers (because it freely provides them with useful information) and beneficial to companies (because it creates loyal, trusting business relationships).

Author Jay Baer says Youtility is replacing three former marketing strategies that are difficult to achieve and maintain: top-of-mind awareness (sustained messaging), frame-of-mind awareness (fulfilling existing demand at the time of purchase) and friend-of-mine awareness (reliance on viral messages and riding the zeitgeist).

Youtility marketing features self-serve information, radical transparency, and real-time relevancy. Much of this is made possible through online technology and media, including email, blogs, videos, social media and apps.

Organizations must resist the inclination to use these avenues to promote themselves rather than provide information that is actually useful to future customers. For Youtility to work, it must be central to a company's processes, part of its DNA. Marketing strategies must be entirely reconfigured around the goal of being useful, relevant and transparent. And organizations must continue to adapt the strategy to meet the need.

One interesting point from Chapter 10, "Insource Youtility," is Baer's contention that social media marketing is a skill every employee should learn and use. The author explains that just as typing and making photocopies were once reserved for separate departments but have become competencies expected of every employee, so too will social media engagement. A company's knowledge is locked inside the minds of a wide range of its employees, and empowering them to contribute to the organization's Youtiliity is key. Besides, customers are known to trust a company's experts and other employees more than its CEO.

Baer's book is easy to read and follows its own advice, providing an easy reference guide at the end and a free executive summary and chapter online. It will force you to rethink your company's marketing approach, and your own service orientation.

[Dmitry · Rating 1 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath Russian one)

Данная книга вышла впервые в 2013, а прочёл я её только сейчас. Книга «GET FEEDBACK. Как негативные отзывы сделают ваш продукт лидером рынка», того же автора, вышла впервые в 2016, а прочёл я её год назад (2018). Почему это важно? Потому, что данная книга – книга, благодаря которой автор стал известен и которая имеет много общего со второй его книгой – мне абсолютно не понравилась. Я нашёл её настолько слабой, что прочитай я её первой, я бы возможно и не стал связываться со второй книгой автора.
В чём главная проблема этой книги? Два момент. Первый касается того, что как многие англоязычные читатели заметили: книгу можно было спокойно сокращать в два раза. Т.е. мы имеем и так небольшую книгу в 200 страниц объёма, так её ещё можно спокойно сократить до 100 страниц, а может быть даже и больше. Второй момент заключается в том, что в книге нет нормальной, чёткой и весомой идеи. Что-то такое просматривается, что можно было бы попробовать развить в интересную идею, но у автора это просто не получилось. Ну, может не ужасно, но точно слабо.
Главная идея автора заключается в том, что путь к сердцу клиента лежит через помощь. Быть полезным – главная идея всей книги. И, в принципе, идея интересная, но как я сказал, лично мне показалась, что у автора просто не получилось хорошо её подать. Так что тут проблема с формой, а не содержанием.
Прежде чем приниматься за книгу, нужно чётко понимать, что это очередной образчик а-ля книга блогера. А, следовательно, рассчитывать на какую-то серьёзную теорию, качественное описание материала и пр., не стоит. Хотя, нужно признать, автор предлагает совершенно новые примеры из мира бизнеса. Так что очередного повтора из практики The Coca-Cola Company и Apple, тут нет. Но и ожидать известных компаний, примеры из их практики, тоже не стоит. Автор будет писать о малоизвестных фирмах (думается мне, даже в США мало кто знаком с этими компаниями).
Вот что ещё важно. В книге «GET FEEDBACK. Как негативные отзывы сделают ваш продукт лидером рынка» автор пишет о важности реагирования на жалобы клиентов, на важность коммуникации с ними, в особенности это важно в связи с появлением и развитием интернета в целом и социальных сетей в частности. К этому у меня никаких претензий нет. Но вот уже в этой книге – «Полезным быть выгодно» – всё не так однозначно. Автор пишет, что, мол, делая всё, чтобы помочь клиентам, мы тем самым создаём лояльных клиентов или привлекаем новых. И вот тут у меня есть сомнения, что это действительно работает всегда и везде, ибо вашей помощью могут воспользоваться, но пойти приобретать нужный товар клиенты могут совсем у другого продавца. Возможно, автор где-то упомянул про «при прочих равных». Однако лично я это не нашёл.
Так что в целом, было очень и очень скучно читать. Не из-за ошибочности идеи, а из-за того, как книга написана. Вполне возможно, что это только моё восприятие и кому-то покажется, что всё обстоит как раз наоборот.
Ах да, совсем забыл. Подавляющая часть примеров будет связана с онлайн бизнесом. Автор приводит примеры того же Google Map, который как многие знают, действительно помогает людям. Тем не менее, уклон в один лишь онлайн мне не кажется удачным решением. Всё же это довольно специфический бизнес. А крупные и средние бизнесы присутствуют в основном в оффлайн (точнее как в онлайн, так и в оффлайн, но большая часть операций осуществляется именно что в оффлайне).

This book was published for the first time in 2013, and I've only read it now. The book "Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers", by the same author, was first published in 2016, and I read it a year ago (2018). Why is it important? Because this book - the book through which the author became famous and which has much in common with his second book - I absolutely did not like. I found it so weak that if I had read it first, I probably wouldn't have paid attention to all the other books by this author.
What's the main problem with this book? Two things. The first is that, as many English-speaking readers have noticed, the book could easily be halved. That is, we have a small book of 200 pages, so it can still be quietly reduced to 100 pages, or maybe even more. The second point is that there is no clear and weighty idea in the book. There is something in the book that you can try to develop into an interesting idea, but the author simply did not succeed. Well, maybe not awful, but definitely weak.
The main idea of the author is that the way to customer loyalty is by helping people. To be useful is the main idea of the whole book. And, in principle, the idea is interesting, but as I said, personally it seemed to me that the author just did not manage to present it well. So there is a problem with the form, not the content.
Before you take this book, you must clearly understand that this is another example a la book of a blogger. And, therefore, do not count on some serious theory, qualitative description of the material, etc. Though, it is necessary to admit, the author offers new examples from the business world. So there's not another repetition of the Coca-Cola Company and Apple practice. But you shouldn't expect the description of well-known companies, examples from their practice, as well. The author will write about little-known firms (I think that even in the USA few people are familiar with these companies).
This is what else is important. In the book "Hug Your Haters" the author writes about the importance of responding to customer complaints, the importance of communication with them, especially in relation to the emergence and development of the Internet in general and social networks in particular. I have no complaints about that. But in this book - "Youtility" - it's not so clear. The author writes that by doing everything to help our clients, we create loyal clients or attract new ones. And here I have doubts that it really works always and everywhere, because your help can be used, but customers can go to buy a product from a different vendor. Perhaps the author has mentioned somewhere about "other things being equal" (Ceteris paribus). However, I personally did not find it.
So on the whole; it was very, very boring to read. Not because the idea was wrong, but because of the way the book was written. It's quite possible that it's only my perception and someone will think that it's just the opposite.
Oh yes, I completely forgot. The vast majority of the examples will be related to the online business (e-business). The author gives examples of the same Google Map, which, as many know, really helps people. However, focusing on online alone does not seem like a good solution to me (it's quite a specific business). And large and medium businesses are present mostly in offline (more precisely, both in online and offline, but most of the operations are performed offline).

[Ibrahim Naqeeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, I believe this book is well written, easy to understand and is full of good case studies and practical tips that could be applied to many companies of different sizes. The title actually matches the content of the book quite well “Help customers to win them, rather than hyping yourself”. The concept or the idea that I liked the most about this book is the Friend-of-mind awareness, which is a marketing strategy that in my opinion reshaped the traditional top-of-mind and frame-of-mind marketing mindsets. By companies being friends with their customers, those consumers will likely bring their friends along. The author suggests that instead of thinking about marketing in a promotional way, the new mode of operation is to think about marketing as a channel through which you can truly help your customers, which I totally agree with him.

I have a drawback of this book, its length and repetition of ideas. I feel it is far too long and reads like it was one idea stretched into a book rather than a book full of ideas. The author often repeats the same points far too much in his book and it was a bit full of unnecessary information that you do not need after you understand the key messages from the book. There are definitely good concepts in this book and they are explained in a way that is easy to understand. However, too many pages are wasted in examples that show the same principles being applied by many different companies. Lastly, the author kept trying to push and coin the word “Youtility” a lot in his book, which I think the word has been repeated over 150 times, which is nothing but the author’s way of referring to a concept that I believe the reader only needs to read half the book to get what “Youtility” is all about.

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marketing is something I've always wanted to learn more about, especially digital marketing. I've of course dabbled in it to get the word out for various side ventures, and I'm on several social media platforms, but that's as far as my knowledge goes.

That's why I was happy when my Online Business Book Club members voted to read and discuss Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype by Jay Baer.

Not only is this a fast and enjoyable read, but you learn so much, all backed with great anecdotes.

Just a few highlights:
1. Whereas marketing used to be about top-of-mind or frame-of-mind awareness, in this day and age of information overload and social media, it must lead to friend-of-mine awareness to have any long-lasting impact. What this means is if you're marketing is useful to your customers, they'll remember it, share it, and turn to you when they're ready to buy.
2. To be useful, provide you customers with all the answers they need in a self-serve format and if possible, in a useful app that makes the information easy to access and relevant for their current experience. And don't look for it to lead to immediate sales.
3. Youtility (useful marketing) should be an ongoing, measured process at your company that is part of its DNA and gets all employees involved. It's also key to not only understand what your customers need and how they prefer to get that information to truly be useful, but to also then market that usefulness so that word gets out.

This is one of the best and most readable books I've read on marketing and it has totally shifted my thinking on the topic. I highly recommend it.

[Sairam Krishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect much when I picked up Youtility. Another new age marketer spewing the same pseudosmart things everybody knows, was my estimate.

And quite happily, I was proved wrong. Youtility is a great little book with some great ideas and a lot of action items, which most marketing books these days lack. Jay Baer leads on with examples and pushes on to do-it-now type instructions, which I found very helpful.

What's great about the book is that it isn't too long. It tells you what it needs to with brevity and clean, unassuming prose, and gives readers a lot of takeaways to implement.

If you are a digital/inbound/content marketer in this age, it wouldn't be a bad idea to read this book.

[Mahmoud Khoder · Rating 5 out of 5]

You own a company, you created a website and your not getting any leads? The reason why people will not find your company website because your not marketing your website online. And your potential customers will not buy from you if your marketing your website using the (look how awesome my company is) attitude, though they will buy from you when you do useful marketing, marketing will actually help a potential customer either by providing useful information on your company blog, or creating a free useful mobile app which will help your target market in their needs, your useful marketing is an ongoing process not hit and run scheme.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the concept was great. Not earth shakingly new for those in the space, but there are some very actionable things in the latter half of the book in creating a solid approach. He has some great stories like riverpool, REI, Hilton and others with how they engaged people and what they did with blogs and apps and social media to create the kinds of relationships and experiences that they did. In short, it's about giving. Paying it forward online first, as in youtility is about you being useful to those around you so that they see you as a trusted friend that they will want to go to when they need something and someone they want to help when they can.

[Sharon Markowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to give this book another try. If you can fast-forward the forward, no pun intended. Then the new orator comes on and is a much better option for audible listeners.

I read about 90% of this book. However I would say you only need 50% to get what Youtility is all about. It's basically about giving customers what is relevant to them and not about selling. If you sell less you end up selling more. There are lots of examples but I feel that it does get a bit drawn out and that is why I only give it three stars. But I would suggest you read the first half. This is a book for marketers or sales people.

[Flossmoor Public Library (IL) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this book is four years old, I found the concepts the author provided to be very useful and interesting. The idea of Youtility, where your marketing and PR is done in a way that is beneficial to customers without being overly pushy, is something I had never heard of before. The examples, while possibly dated in 2017, are still interesting: a hospital designing an app for parents to select and install a car seat for their children; a popular hotel chain offering assistance in helping visitors to cities find their way around through "suggestions" on Twitter; etc. Anyone interested in marketing would likely find this book a useful read.

Miss Anna

[Marjorie Clayman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read. Jay suggests that instead of thinking about marketing in a promotional way, the new mode of operation is to think about marketing as a channel through which you can truly help your customers. I was happy to see that there was a chapter on actually measuring the results from these kinds of efforts and also some realistic notes about the pros and cons of such a campaign. This kind of approach may not be realistic for many companies, at least not yet, but it's fun to get the thoughts rolling in your brain.

[Brian Petro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pre ordered this book, and Jay Baer demonstrated Youtility: I was sent a free copy to share. Which I gladly did. It is great to read something that provides hard evidence to the way you already think. Customer service is an area of opportunity that many companies have missed the boat on. This book talks about a new way to provide even better customer service options, creating lifetime customers. The examples are brilliant, and the measurement tips are helpful. A brilliant read for growing your business by being helpful.

[Lawson Hembree · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful read for anyone involved in business. Youtility is a common sense approach to building your brand. Think of the Youtility concept as the Golden Rule of the marketing world: "Help people with your brand the way that you want to be helped by other brands."

The book includes some great case studies, easy application tips, and plenty of detail without getting bogged down in jargon. Take some time to read it and then start implementing it with your personal, corporate, or nonprofit brand.

[Cindy (BKind2Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book on marketing your product/company using social media/blogs. The premise is that it is going to be more important to be useful to your customer versus selling. By putting the information that the consumer wants out there and making it about the info and not about the product, you increase your "youtility" - that is, your marketability. And those who don't? Well, it is becoming readily apparent that they'll be the ones digging ditches for the rest of us.

[Dwayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is an important book for any marketer to read. Baer takes content marketing back from the SEO keyword-stuffers and takes it back to its roots -- providing potential customers with helpful information that answers questions before they have to be asked and relentlessly building trust. It's a fun read, too -- Baer's wit shines through. Highly recommended. Includes actionable recommendations for organizations of any size.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

pool consult vs installer, self-qualify, customers who read 30 pages win 80%, sell more by selling less, best customers think they can do themselves, inform vs promote, marketing that is wanted, 31 to 13 tv rating in 50 years, Holiday World park McDonalds Canada Meyer store layout, answer questions with advocate quotes, help vs hype symptom and cure more right answers and wrong for information, useful.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two ways to stand out from the crowd and grow your organization's influence: be amazing and be useful. There are a lot of books and talks and tools on how to be more amazing. It's hard to do.

This book is about how to be more useful to those your organization serves (and those you want to serve). From practical tips on what not to say to deep ideas on choosing a heart of service--being truly centered on the customer--this is a powerful book that every leader can apply.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was by far my favorite marketing book. Jay have specific examples by enough differing companies that I felt inspired to come up with my own, small youtilities for other companies. It was written for 2012, and I know some things have updated and changed, but the heart is there. Sometimes you can read a book and see the timeless applications past all the dated examples. I feel like this is that kind of book. I would actually happily buy it now that I've listened to the audiobook.