Build Brand Loyalty with Utility Marketing
What is utility marketing?
How can it help my business?
How do I get started with it?
Let’s face it: Attracting and holding onto customers isn’t always a walk in the marketing park.
You need to make sure potential customers looking for you or your services can find you, and then turn them into actual customers. Meanwhile, you’re ensuring your brand continues to stand out and resonate with your current customers.
But no matter how good your marketing is, sometimes people just aren’t in the buying mood and don’t want to be advertised to. Even so, you can interact with them without doing a sales pitch. You just have to offer them something useful.
The trick is, what you’re offering has to be both valuable to your customers and true to your brand.
Let’s look at an example of what one business could do.
With utility marketing, you can increase your brand’s value, relevance, and reputation by helping your target customers instead of selling to them.
Utility marketing is simply finding which of your customers’ interests and habits intersect with your brand’s personality and identity, and then creating a helpful product, service, or promotion in that area.
For example, a sunscreen brand could create an online travel guide for people who want some fun in the sun. Or a dog food company could start a YouTube channel featuring “how to” videos on dog training and pet safety.
Utility marketing goals are focused on building brand loyalty, not immediate sales. This leads to a customer base that has a better opinion of your brand, thinks about your business more often, and buys more from you over the long run.
To do utility marketing, you should first research your target audience. How would you describe them?
A company that sells sporting goods might say their audience is “young, creative, adventurous, and eager for content, tips, and equipment related to extreme sports.”
Once you’ve described your target audience, explore how their interests fit with your products or brand. For example, the sporting goods company’s audience loves to ski and snowboard, and the company sells clothing and gear for these sports.
Now think about what needs they might have that are related to those interests. Do they love sports and need real-time score updates? Do they need to know snow and wind conditions on the ski slopes?
This is where you can create content or experiences that meet those consumer needs and make your brand a part of their lives. Remember, your offering should be tangentially related to your brand identity and not be too salesy.
For example, the sporting goods company can add a mountain weather report on their website that will tell their audience what the current skiing and snowboarding conditions are.
DO THIS NOW
Let’s find out if utility marketing is right for your business by doing a quick self-assessment.
If you’re participating in the course, go to the next section to access your self assessment.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Utility marketing is a way to interact with and help your target audience without selling to them.
You can use it to build brand loyalty and reach customers who otherwise would not have discovered you.
Start by describing your tester audience and seeing which of their interests align with your brand.