Is Guerrilla Marketing Dead?

You may think guerrilla marketing is dead, but really it's evolved with the times. If you haven't done the same, then you need to take a leap forward to get the most impact from your marketing dollars.

What is Guerrilla Marketing?
Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term guerrilla marketing in 1984 with the release of his book, Guerrilla Advertising. In military terms, guerrilla refers to an unconventional form of warfare used by armed civilians, often against a force with superior numbers and weaponry. It relies on surprise, sabotage, and the ability to hide among a crowd. Guerrilla marketing is a take on advertising that uses similar tactics to gain attention.

The primary advantage of guerrilla marketing is its ability to increase a marketer's impact using less costly resources than traditional advertising. It relies on high energy, imagination, and ingenuity. The idea is to take your customers by surprise, make a lasting impression, and create the kind of buzz that gets people talking.

The following two examples will help you wrap your mind around this strategy:

1) A new, locally based beverage company posted creative flyers on light poles and other public structures all around town. These flyers looked more like graffiti than advertising. Nobody even knew what it was all about, but the images stayed in their minds. After approximately three months of bombarding the public with these images, a billboard was displayed which used the same images, but also identified the company and the product. A brand was created before anyone knew what the brand was for. This is guerrilla marketing.

2) Compare this to a strategy used by a national research organization. They created billboards and took out full-page magazine ads that compared a neurological disorder with child abduction. These fundraising advertisements included the organization's name and contact information. The shock factor backfired and complainants formed organized protests. This isn't guerrilla marketing. It's simply disrespectful and in poor taste. There is a difference.

How Has Guerrilla Marketing Evolved?
If you visit Jay's site, you'll see that guerrilla marketing is alive and well and evolving with the times. Guerrilla marketing is online -- and you should be, too. Guerrilla marketing values permission-based marketing strategies -- and you should, too. Guerrilla marketing uses popular culture to make an impression -- and you should, too. Guerrilla marketing emphasizes ethical communications that are also creative and unique. And that's exactly what you need!

When guerrilla marketing first became a hit, consumers were inundated with "professional" advertisements on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers. Now, it seems anywhere and everywhere we turn we encounter ads -- they're even in public restrooms! If we were numb before, we're deadened now.

Advertising and "traditional" marketing just doesn't have the impact it should for the dollars companies spend. And it's no wonder when there's so much advertising in so many places that it seems we never get a break from it. Guerrilla marketing breaks through all that clutter by being different. Not just different from your competitors, but different from its own past.

How Can You Use Guerrilla Marketing?
You can use guerrilla marketing to get the scattered attention of your target customers by becoming a bit more creative in the ways you reach out to them. Surprise them. Capture their interest. Offer something of real value.

Remember guerrilla warfare. You can't rush success. Guerrillas knew that. Civilians battling a superior force with superior arms would spend years, decades, even generations fighting for what they believed in with whatever means they had. Take a lesson from them.

First, know that your business is worth fighting for. Second, you won't win the success you want instantly. Third, you need to build your credibility with your target audience (i.e. the civilians you're saving), not with your competitors (i.e. the superior force).

With these three things in mind, break out of the marketing box you've fallen into and prioritize communicating with your customers. Surprise them with how helpful, genuine, and trustworthy you can be. Sabotage the competition by offering a better value with better intentions. Don't be afraid to blend in and mingle with your customers. After all, they are the only ones who really matter. Be one of them. Help them. Build a future with them.

This isn't a battle for sovereignty or freedom. It's a battle for the hearts and minds of your customers. The secret isn't a parlor trick or a timely fad. You can't take their trust. They have to give it to you. You have to earn your customers' trust. If you can do that, then you can evolve into the future with them right by your side.

Direct Mail Is Alive and Well, Thank You

Marketing fads come and go. Marketers today have a bewildering array of choices never seen before. Consequently, busy business owners don't always know who to listen to in order to find what is working most effectively right now. Everyone can claim their systems and tools are the secret to a never-ending stream of prospects and customers.

Is Direct Mail Worth Exploring For Your Business?

Have you noticed that many of the Internet companies (like Google, among others) have been increasingly turning to direct mail to advertise their services? The reason is that old school direct mail worked long before the Internet and has been working for smart marketing in businesses all along. It just happened not to be the flavor of the day, thereby not getting much attention.

Now that the furor and publicity surrounding the "free" aspect of social media marketing has settled into the reality that free doesn't necessarily equal real customers, smart marketers are looking for real campaigns that result in real customers.

Living Together in Harmony

Leveraging one proven marketing channel is great, but taking advantage of two or more is better. As effective as one channel may be, you limit the potential impact when using a single platform. With an integrated marketing strategy, you position yourself to maximize the real potential of your campaign.

The truth is that direct mail can still deliver real results when done correctly. In fact, direct mail works even better when coupled with email marketing and Internet marketing. When coupled with other channels, direct mail has the capacity to be even more targeted, personalized, and effective than when any of these channels are implemented alone.

To make this work and deliver results, it's very important that the messaging and branding be consistent across all the channels you use. The logo, tag line, messaging, design, and colors used in one campaign should be reinforced across all media to generate stronger results and a more powerful impression. Consistency allows each campaign to feed off the other and deliver a bigger bang for the investment.

This is how big brands are able to leverage the power of multimedia messaging. Today, with the availability of affordable, short-run digital printing, you don't need a large budget. It's realistic and available for businesses of all sizes.

An example of a campaign that works extremely well is a new customer campaign. Nothing shows appreciation like a nicely designed, professional-looking direct mail piece delivered to your new customer soon after they become a client. People know that an email costs nothing to send but that a direct mail piece has a real cost.

Now you can follow that up with some informative emails to educate your new customer about how you can help them solve their problems. In the emails and direct mail pieces, ask your new customer to also connect with your brand on social media. Now you can further develop a bond with your new customer by sharing your values and core messages across all media.

Marketing success is about momentum. An integrated, multidimensional campaign, implemented consistently throughout the year, keeps the marketing ball rolling forward. This allows your business to be fresh on prospects' minds when they're ready to buy. The more consistent your brand, marketing message, and integrated approach, the better your results will be.

Your customers consume information in different ways. You can't guess or assume one is better than another. Showing up in the physical mailbox, in their email inbox, and on the web assures that your brand is leaving no stone unturned. Having an integrated marketing strategy assures your business will be seen and heard. If just showing up is half the battle, then implementing this multidimensional approach is your call to action to make yourself ready for new customers on the business battlefield.

Be Your Business

Every business would like to grow sales and profits. The future of the business and the livelihood of its employees depend on it. So, as business owners, we go to networking events, make phone calls, send out mailers, and even spend time on social media. Yet growing the business is never as easy or simple as that.

Making prospects aware of your products and services is important. If you don't do it, no one else will. But that's only one part of the equation. There's something far more important that needs to be done first.

When a doctor goes into surgery, steps must be taken beforehand to prepare the patient. No patient would want the doctor to arrive on the day of surgery and begin poking holes and cutting skin at random to find the issue causing the problem. Yet many businesses go about prospecting and looking for new customers in the haphazard way of the unprepared surgeon.

To win more business, first you must isolate the pain points. What's the problem your business can solve for your prospect? The more descriptive and specific you can describe the pain, the better. Yes, it takes a little effort to find specific problems for each type of potential customer, but you should notice trends and common traits you can use to attract a wider group of prospects.

After you've identified the major pain points, you can present the solution your business provides to solve the problem. Now it's time to communicate this message.

Having a focused message before you market helps attract and retain the types of customers you want in the first place. The tighter the message, the better return you'll get on your marketing spend.

Not many prospects care how many years you've been in business, how pretty the customer lobby is, or how incredibly innovative and cool your brochure or website look. Your prospects care about themselves. They worry about their problems. Outline what those issues are, and then tell them how you will make their problems disappear.

Oftentimes, your prospect may not even be aware of the problem. It's your job to show them. Maybe you can save them time or money solving a problem they didn't even know about. This is how you can make your print communication and all your other marketing messages more powerful. Identify the pain and show them how you can make their lives better by engaging your business.

It's your knowledge and awareness of specific problems that will earn the trust of your prospect. Customers are attracted to businesses that best educate, communicate, and present expertise in the problems they want to solve. The best way you can do that is to not just represent your business but BE your business.

Being your business essentially means focusing on your brand and what it communicates to your marketplace. Your brand is more about your message than your logo. It's more about content than design. Once you have your message finely tuned to what your audience is seeking from your business, only then will prospecting and growing your business feel like swimming with the current rather than against it.

Give Them Something They Can Believe In

In an increasingly noisy world, people are looking for businesses to believe in. The business world is filled with hype, over-commercialization, and marketing nobody can believe. Fortunately, there's one simple, yet overlooked way your business can stand apart from the muddled masses: by having a strong company vision statement.

A strong vision statement isn't just for putting on the walls of the company lobby or the back of business cards. It clearly communicates that this business lives what it preaches.

Why having a clear business vision is important

Vision starts with a belief... specifically the belief that your business exists to make a difference in the world. The specifics of that belief could be simple or more complex, but whatever your vision, it must clearly state the core values and purpose of why your business exists and what it wants to accomplish.

A vision is an ideal your company strives to achieve. There are many benefits to creating a company vision. But first and foremost, a clearly written and communicated vision helps define your company's values and guide the behavior of all employees.

A vision statement acts as the guide and cornerstone for everything you do. It needs to be specific enough to say what you will do but can also state what you will not do.

Without a clear vision, a business can drift aimlessly from task to task without understanding the purpose of the organization and the destination it wants to reach.

Here are three guidelines for creating a vision or evaluating your current one:

1. Your vision must be clear, concise, easily understood, and give a sense of purpose for your business.



2. It should motivate everyone in the business toward achieving a common goal. It should be ambitious and challenge everyone to embrace the ideals stated in the vision.



3. A great vision helps link actions to the company's strategic goals. Actions will come from a clear understanding of the value created by following the vision.

A strong vision identifies the core values of the business, understands the purpose of the business, and envisions the future of the business. Often you can immediately identify a company that has a clear sense of purpose and vision from ones that don't. A motivated team working together creates a positive energy not seen in aimless businesses. A clear, memorable, and effective vision points everyone toward a common goal of making a difference in the lives of those being served.

A stimulating vision compels everyone to act, to change, and to become something that stands out in a skeptical world of me-too imitators. You can attract customers by hiring a guy in a clown costume to hold a sale sign in front of your building, or you can gain customers by providing out-of-this-world service from motivated employees driven by a worthy vision. One brings you customers for a day. The other brings you customers for a lifetime.

Marketing Is Just the First Step

The secret to increasing sales is simply to increase the marketing of your products and services. Or is it? There's one other critical part of the puzzle that needs to be addressed in order to grow a business. Without this, all the marketing in the world won't help.

Marketing done correctly with channels like direct mail (using postcards as an example) can equal more leads and prospects.

However, all the leads in the world won't necessarily equate to hefty sales and profit increases without the ability to sell. Therefore, the ability to sell yourself, your services, and your products becomes the second important piece of the puzzle.

Some have attached a stigma to selling with the image of a pushy used car salesman, but there's no need for slime or hype if you have a great product and service to sell.

There's a five-step business life-cycle and ecosystem you need to adhere to in order to have a truly successful, growing company.

Step 1. Marketing to bring in leads and prospects.

Step 2. Selling by making the case why your solution is the best option for the prospect.

Step 3. Systems and processes to consistently deliver an excellent product and service.

Step 4. Delivering great results to encourage referrals.

Step 5. Delivering great customer experience with your business to build client retention and repeat business.

Failure at any step will result in stagnation or decline in your business.

Marketing must be done in order to bring in a consistent flow of qualified leads and prospects. However, step two (making the sale) can't be overlooked. Being enthusiastic and showing passion for what you do and what you provide can go a long way in covering up any shortcomings.

A sale is made when a prospect gets to know you, likes you, and trusts you. There are four factors that can help you go beyond enthusiasm and passion in making your case toward a successful selling situation.

Factor 1: You need to establish rapport. Establishing rapport requires genuinely caring about your prospect. The more you learn about the prospect, the greater the likelihood you'll be able to find a common area to create a bond.

Factor 2: Find out what your prospect really wants from what you provide. This requires knowing what questions to ask in order to learn their reason for wanting your service. Top salespeople know that sometimes what a prospect wants isn't what they really need. Don't just tell them, but show them how your solution delivers what they really want and need.

Factor 3: Prove to them the value you provide. To do this, you must know what differentiates you and your company from the competition. Every prospect wants the least expensive solution, when all things are equal. Differentiation by showing massive value tilts the playing field in your favor because all things will not be equal when you're the one showing the most value. Prospects find a way to pay when they see the value clearly.

Factor 4: Ask for the sale. Most salespeople and even business owners either forget to ask for the sale or are simply too frightened to do so. If you deliver results and believe in what you provide, it's your obligation to ask for the sale. Don't assume the prospect will buy if you don't ask for the sale.

Marketing and sales go hand in hand. One without the other makes growing a business difficult if not impossible. These two are like the oxygen and air that your business needs to thrive. Remember this business ecosystem and work on continually improving on the four selling factors in order to always have a growing, healthy business.

Beating Your Competitors Using Non-Conventional Marketing Tactics

If you're a small business, you have a noise problem. There are so many ads out there that your potential customers just block them all out. This means that most marketing campaigns are just a visual form of white noise that people instinctively ignore. So your have to find a way to stand out and seize the attention of a jaded audience. Unconventional marketing is not a choice; you have to be different if you want to beat your competitors.

Larger corporations have massive advertising budgets that allow them to flood the media and Internet. You don't have that luxury, but you do have another advantage. You may have a smaller target customer base, but you also have a closer connection to them. You know what your customers want and what is important to them. That knowledge is something larger corporation spend thousands of dollars trying to get.

Your familiarity with your community must be the basis of any marketing push you do. The purpose of an unconventional marketing strategy is to seize the attention of your potential customers through surprise. But if your campaign annoys instead of pleasantly surprises, it will drive potential customers away. That's why using your knowledge of your community is so vital when building your campaign.

Another thing you should avoid is letting the ad overwhelm your brand. It's really easy to come up with a memorable ad, execute it well, and then have customers remember the ad but not the company that created it. Advertising works best when there's a clear connection between the content of the ad and the product you're trying to sell. This way, the content of the ad increases your brand's value.

With those warnings in mind, you should know that there are no standard unconventional marketing strategies; if something is standard, it's not unconventional. But there are some strategies that are a good starting point toward building an unconventional marketing plan.

For example, take advantage of local landmarks. Local landmarks are a great place to advertise because people see them every day. One way to really stand out is to use these natural focal points to get your brand's message out. A great example of this is Alteco Super Glue. On a large bridge that had 155,000 cars pass over it daily, Alteco attached a large replica of one of its super glue tubes to one of the steel cable supports. This emphasized the strength of the glue, and the display received a lot of positive attention from the local media. The key to doing this right is to ensure that the ad doesn't offend your potential customers. As a result, it may be wise to avoid landmarks that have significant cultural or local meaning.

Going against convention is good. But it's not enough to be unique; you must always remember to build a relationship with potential customers with every ad you create.

5 Words That Can Change Your Business

Behind the scenes of your business, you make products or deliver services. But on the front lines, where interactions with customers occur, you have to deliver more than that in order to have a dynamically growing company. You must deliver a promise and hope.

The promise revolves around the benefits your actual products and services deliver. The hope is what can set your business apart from all the other companies that promise to deliver the same things you do.

People want to believe in your company and what you can deliver, but many have become jaded due to the culture of over-promising and under-delivering that is all too common in the marketplace. To get past this wall of skepticism, you have to deliver more.

Companies like Coca-Cola, Apple, Starbucks, and Disney World took off when they figured out they were selling much more than a soft drink, computer, coffee, and theme park rides. These businesses understood that in order to stand apart from their competitors, they had to tell their brand stories in a way that resonates with customers.

Coca-Cola sells refreshment, happiness, and harmony. Apple sells a delightful user experience to consumers in a hip, cool way. Starbucks sells the "third place experience" -- a place to get away outside our home and business. Disney World sells memories that last a lifetime.

The common theme among the great brands of the world is that they have found a way to transcend beyond their products by asking this simple, yet powerful five-word question:

What are we really selling?

People aren't really interested in what you sell, but they may be very interested in the benefits you can deliver. These benefits in turn must be told in a way that attracts and connects with your target audience.

How You Can Apply This in Your Business?

You're probably thinking to yourself that this may do wonders for big brands, but how does it apply to my small business?

• Take a step back from the day-to-day operations of the business, and think about what you're really selling. Railroad companies thought they were in the rail business, when they were really in the transportation business. Think about the larger implications around the results you deliver to your customers.



• Next think about this question: What do my customers really want from our products and services? Ask your best customers why they really do business with you. Look for common themes in the answers.



• The final step is to take the concepts you've arrived at and focus on what would move your best prospects to buy what you sell. Put yourself in their shoes. Ask some friends and associates if your idea would move them to act. Then test your ideas by presenting them in your ad copy in print, on the web, and in all your other marketing channels. Test until you find the winners. The sales result will show which one is the winner.

Take these five words: "What are we really selling?" Print them out and put them in a prominent place you can see every day. Your answer to the question will form the core around which your business and your marketing should revolve. Answer this five-word question in a way that exceeds the experiences your target market is seeking, and you'll see your business grow like magic.