Guerrilla Marketing
What is Guerilla Marketing and how can you use it? Guerilla Marketing is the use of avant-garde marketing techniques intended to get greatest results from the smallest amount of resources, which let’s face it; in today’s economy plays an important role. Today, guerrilla marketing is a non-traditional, low-cost, and highly effective marketing endeavor, which when used properly can reap huge rewards for the diligent user.
To further your career or business, it is imperative that you market in ways that are new and unique in order to catch someone’s eye and get ahead of your competition. The first step into the guerilla marketing zone is to think outside the box. What does that mean? Don’t do what everyone else is doing. Here area few ideas to get you started:
1. The use of podcasts has become very popular in the past years, so why not use them to broadcast your business, book or product, helping to expose it to a lot of people who may have never seen it before. Make sure that you plug your website and where they can purchase your products.
2. Check out your library system! Why not go to your local library and see if can do a free speaking engagement there in exchange for a percentage of your sales of product after your show. Libraries are in dire need of funds. Additionally that will help you align yourself as an expert in your field for future marketing purposes.
3. A very easy and free way (free is for me!) to get your name out there and seen is to write reviews on every product your own, have used, read or CDs you have listened to. Then post the reviews on places like amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Amazon and Barnes and Noble will no longer let you put a two or three line sentence / bio at the end of each review that has any personal information so don’t go there. Recently they changed their policy and will take down all of your reviews should you do this and they find them. However, you can post your URL in the Real Names attributes. When you post your reviews, put your vanity email address inside your “real name.” While those sites won’t allow you to post your URL, if your URL is part of your “real name,” they don’t say a word. Check out amazon.com and look for one of my reviews. This is what you will see: “Jaci Rae raeofhope@jacirae.com.” (Don’t use a real email address or you will end up with a lot of spam. That is my website, but the email address if fake.) Why is this an important step? Because people will read your reviews and you get your name out there. Most consumers are Internet savvy and if they are interested in you, will check you out.
4. Junk snail mail. Why not use it to your advantage? When you receive junk snail mail, many times inside with their ads they have kindly sent a pre-paid envelope. Why not put your brochure, business card or a letter inside announcing your product with a note that says something like, “Since you were kind enough to send me your information, I am returning the favor.” Also, inside of all the bills you have to pay do the same. I have gotten business doing this.
With a few ideas of your own and a little leg work you will be surprised at what your efforts will yield. A very important part of the guerilla marketing process is the business side. The trick is that if you want different results and what you have been trying in the past always turns out the same, then you must do something different! Guerrilla marketing is what you need to do differently. Go after your audience with fervor and diligence, but think outside the box to get the results you desire and the exposure for your product that you need.
