If you’re a regular visitor to digital marketing blogs you might have seen this phrase before. Utility marketing is about specifically marketing your product or service’s usefulness. You’re addressing a need, solving a problem, saving time, or fulfilling some other essential need for your target customer or user.
What does utility marketing look like?
Hupspot recently outlined five types of utility marketing that address specific customer needs:
- Time – Being available and useful at the right time for the customer
- Place – Being available and useful in the place the customer needs it
- Possession – The product or service is easy to buy and get their hands on
- Form – The product or service is ready to use as soon as the customer buys it
- Information – The customer has the information they need at the right time
These five types of utility marketing all emphasise convenience and – of course – utility. If your business provides convenience and utility it will encourage purchases and brand loyalty, because you’ll give potential customers exactly what they need at the right moment. That’s basically all people want.
Lots of big brands have been using utility marketing for decades. That’s why there’s a coffee chain at nearly every service station in the country and so many of us sign up for online subscriptions when we’re presented with a timely pop-up offer.
How YOUR business can use utility marketing
Your business, products, and services can always be more useful. A new year is a good time to analyse your online (and in-person) buying processes, customer service, online information, and user experience and make it more utilitarian.
Time and place
Are your products and services prominent and available at exactly the right time in the right place? That could mean promoting specific products and services at specific times of the day, week, or month, website pop-ups on specific pages, targeted email newsletters, and more.
Possession and form
How seamless are buying, service delivery, and use? It’s important to go through every stage of your buying process and look for potential delays and problems, whether it’s all online or there are offline pick-up or delivery elements.
Information
Your customers should always have enough information but not too much. If your products or services require some education, are you providing it at the right time in an easy, digestible way? This is where your website, social media, and newsletters can come into their own.
Digital marketing help in Chorley
If you’re not sure where to start with utility marketing and your digital marketing strategy, we can help. Get in touch with Tall Zebra Designs to find out more.
