Unless you’ve been off-planet, you’ve probably already seen, heard, felt, tasted and/or smelled more than one piece of content concerning Jay Baer’s new book Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help, Not Hype (what, you missed the delicious Jay Baer Claws, available as a PDF you can output on that new 3D-printer oven?). In fact, Jay himself did a masterful job of throwing the curtain back on his own command content performance, in the wonderfully transparent eBook, “How I Wrote and Marketed A Best-Selling New York Times Business Book.”
So, given the juggernaut that the already tremendously successful Jay would doubtless create, why would anyone (me, specifically) invest a good amount of his own time and money into creating content supporting the book?
Yes, Why Would I Sink My Own Money Into Marketing Someone Else’s Book?
It’s simple, really (as I continue to explain to my wife): I believe in this book. Yes, beyond the self-aggrandizing, link-building potential of connecting my content creator self to a New York Times bestselling author, I believe that:
- The concept underlying Youtility can help fundamentally change the spirit of business. BUT…
- Many people seem stuck in interpreting its message as just another set of content marketing case histories and tactics.
Me & Youtility: Bringing Humanity to the Forefront of Marketing
One of Jay’s many tweetable quotes captures the core of why I get so excited about Youtility, The Concept:
The best content marketing transcends the transactional and focuses on the lives of customers, not just pushing product.
Really think about that for a minute, even deleting the word “content.” What could it mean if marketers harnessed themselves to the notion of making money by being servants? What if corporations tried to redeem Mitt Romney’s remarks and act like they really are people (operationally at least, corporations are indeed nothing but a body of – what else – people). What if we moved beyond the tactical self-congratulations of CSR programs and finally understood that if corporations truly act like humans serving humans, lasting relationships of mutual benefit will develop?
In short, what if we acted as if good business embodies that most fundamental expression of relationships: me and you?
When Jay and I talked about creating a song for the book (and, to his credit, he did offer to pay), it was that phrase “me and you” that immediately sprang to mind. I decided to create it in the most “me and you” way possible, enlisting musical talents who are all about helping me: my super-gifted nieces and nephew, Jessica Presley Strutz, Andrea Presley, and John Parker Presley. Here’s a “making of” presentation that shows just how the song and video “Me & Youtility” came together:
What Will Be the First “Full-Tilt Youtility” Brand?
I realize that getting companies to completely shift to not just a customer-centric but actually a human-centric mode requires more than a sea change – it’ll take a tsunami. Still, in a world that trusts advertising and marketing less and less (see the tracking surveys by Edelman and Nielsen), I am hopeful that Jay is right when he says:
“Someday it will happen. But it takes a lot of courage to go straight Youtility, with no interruption marketing creeping into the equation. Easier for a challenger brand, I’d fathom.”
Will yours be that breakthrough challenger brand? I hope so. In the meantime… here’s to Me & You(tility)!
