[How you can do this in your market]
Mike drove a cab.
Taking business people and tourists from airport to hotel, he noticed they often asked the same questions about local places to eat, where to stay, what to do, etc.
So he did something interesting. He put together and handed passengers a dining guide with his recommendations that sorted restaurants by the things that people were asking about. “What’s the best coffee shop here in Banff?” “Where’s can I get a good breakfast?” “Who has the best outdoor dining?” And so on…
Mike made it informative, relevant and entertaining.
And with his help, that flyer found it’s way to hotels, restaurants and spas all over Banff. So who do you think a hotel concierge is going to recommend when someone asks about local taxi service?
His story illustrates how to get known in a world with way too many things distracting our potential customers.
His flyer is fun and informative. But it doesn’t extol the benefits of choosing Mike’s taxi service. It doesn’t talk about why he’s the best. Other than contact info at the bottom of the page, it doesn’t even mention him or his service. It just helps travelers – his target customers – get what they want.
It provides what Jay Behr, one of the speakers at Infusioncon 2013 calls, “Youtility”.
People are distracted. We now have literally millions of choices. How do we get our business noticed, not to mention engaged with?
The idea with “Youtility” is, don’t be as concerned with selling as with helping. Provide something useful and entertaining for the people you want to do business with.
In another example, a sports medicine clinic teamed up with a children’s hospital in Nashville, Tennesee to create “CoachSmart”, a smart phone app that alerts sports coaches about lightning strikes and hot weather advisories in the area.
They are providing value, “Youtility” for coaches likely to think of them when they need to send a kid to the hospital or a sports medicine clinic.
So what are your ideal customers looking for?
Here are four ways to discover their needs and wants:
1) Run a keyword search – Type in search terms in Google Keywords Tool and check numbers of people searching.
2)Do an internal search – put a search feature on your site and monitor the kind of info visitors are looking for
3) Analyze traffic patterns on your web site – which pages are getting the most views? How long are they staying there?
4) Actually ask them – call one of your clients, or take them out to lunch and dig for stuff that gets in their way, or that takes their time, information they wish they had at their fingertips when making a decision.
The questions people are most interested in may surprise you, so it pays to ask.
You can provide “Youtility” with a report, book, quick video, directory, cheat sheet, webinar, blog post – even a T-Shirt.
I recently attended a performance my son Bryan helped create of “Evil Dead, The Musical”, put on at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. It’s a campy parody of the original ridiculously gory horror film and if you paid an extra ten bucks you enjoyed the privilege of sitting in the “Splatter Seats”. They gave you a T-Shirt, which for pretty much everybody in those rows was well splattered with red before the evening was through.
To pull the curtain back a little, this “Youtility” thing is why I write you every week. I know you are interested in growing your business as I am, so I’m always looking for how to best to that and share it with you.
I pay real close attention to the feedback I get in the form of opens, clicks, opt-ins, inquiries, deals closed – as well as comments on why or how much you liked something. I hope you will agree that this kind of information is useful. The reason I keep doing it is for the feedback in terms of thanks, referrals and inquires it generates.
Example at hand is tomorrow’s interview with Robert Skrob. This will be 100% content. Robert gets paid $1200.00 per hour for sharing the information you will hear, so you have an opportunity to get tremendous “Youtility” by attending and asking questions.
(If you haven’t signed up yet, click here. And you are more than welcome to pass this along to a friend.)
Your takeaway?
Today’s reality is with more than half your market getting their information via cell phone, you are competing not just with competitors, but with EVERYTHING.
You have to get from “Me too” to “You!” maketing. Less focus on selling, more on delivering utility in interesting ways to your ideal customer if you want to stand out.
Best of Success with this!
BTW, in case you missed them, we had a couple of well-attended, enthusiastically received events this past week:
1. Mastermind Interview with Robert Skrob about his new book, Your Association Shortcut. Said one attendee, one of my clients, Allison Harden, Executive Director of Beyond Betty, an organization that helps “Women in Recovery“:
“Great job today! Thanks for reminding me of the importance of thinking about alignment with “right” associations. ”
2. Boulder Big Vision Entrepreneurs Meetup, where two partners of a fast growing local real estate company, Scott Rose and John Beaupre received much-needed clarity and focus. Here are John’s comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cs9FCFR-5I
Keep an eye out for more great business building tips and strategies right here – more coming your way soon!
BTW, what would be especially useful for you right now? Please comment below – we read and respond to all of them!
