Guerilla Marketing
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 97 percent of all Arkansas companies are classified as small businesses. Small business owners like you find themselves in a precarious position during these lean economic times: You want to be the name everyone remembers once the economy picks up, but your existing advertising costs you plenty for a so-so return. How do you maintain name recognition without breaking the bank?
The answer: Guerilla Marketing.
Simply put, Guerilla Marketing is unconventional marketing designed to maximize results using minimal resources – the perfect combination for Arkansas small businesses.
Using a term first coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book on the subject in the early 1980s, Guerilla Marketing focuses on customer service as a way to increase your customer base. It uses approaches outside of the usual television, print and radio advertising buys that can be costly to those with limited budgets.
For example, an outdoors store could offer on its website popular hiking trails with links to the parks and maps of each location. Restaurants can supply recipes online for their most popular dishes, or components of them. A craft store could give customers a flier with each purchase that lists upcoming products or instructions on how to assemble their next project.
TaylorMack has employed Guerilla Marketing effectively for years. Instead of restaurant patrons sitting in the waiting area of Bordinos with nothing to do, they sit and can watch a video TaylorMack created showcasing Bordinos desserts. Immediately after it began running, Bordinos saw a dramatic increase in the number of dessert orders.
Most recently, TMA clients Jose’s in Fayetteville and Springdale announced a new coupon. Any person who comes to either restaurant with a permanent tattoo of the “Ole for Jose’s!” or “Jose’s head” logos will receive free cheese dip for the rest of their life. People have already taken advantage of the offer!
Building trust with your customers keeps them coming back and increases the likelihood that they will recommend you to their colleagues.
The following are 10 Effective Guerilla Marketing Tactics from Forbes.com, posted by Scott Reeves in June 2006:
1. Hone your public speaking skills: Local clubs, community organizations and special interest groups are always hungry for good speakers. Speak for free about the current state of your business sector and include a soft sell of your company. During the question and answer session, answer questions honestly and direct the person to someone who can help them, even if that person isn’t you. Your frankness will be appreciated.
2. Write a column for the newspaper: Do you own a bank? Tell readers how to effectively save their money. Run a plant nursery? Let people know which months are best for planting which fruits and vegetables. You’ll set yourself up as an expert in your field when you are listed as the owner of your business at the end of the column, and it won’t cost a dime.
3. Send off-season cards to customers: Everyone gets stacks of “Happy Holidays” cards. Instead, opt for cards that celebrate the change in seasons, and your company’s effort won’t be lost in the shuffle. For a more personal note, send cards to clients on their own happy days, like the anniversary of their company’s first day in business, or the owner’s child’s college graduation.
4. Up the buzz factor: Create the aura of booming business and big business will follow. Ben Franklin pushed a wheelbarrow filled with paper to his printing shop each day to create the impression that his services were in great demand. A variation on this theme? Ask patrons at your new restaurant to mill around outside on opening day in exchange for a free meal.
5. Catch them by surprise: About 98 percent of direct mail gets tossed before it’s read. So, send empty envelopes with enticing headlines printed on the front and back. Include your company’s name, address and phone number on the upper left hand corner of the envelope. People will call to say the envelope was empty and this can lead to a low-key chat about your services.
6. Infiltrate the stacks: Stuff business cards into relevant books at the library so potential customers see them the next time they check one out. According to Fobes.com, an investigative services business slipped cards into law textbooks at the courthouse library. Attorneys and paralegals assumed other firms used the company, lending the business credibility and a slew of phone calls.
7. Show some leg: Within reason of course. For example, a freelance voice-over artist played off the idea that he could work in the nude, posing shirtless in a recording studio. He used the photo on his demo tape with the caption, “The Naked Voice.”
8. Kill them with kindness: Customer loyalty programs can be expensive. Instead, wrap each order for a client with a small piece of candy. Sweeten the deal and you sweeten your customer relations.
9. REALLY up the buzz factor: For example, a Harley-Davidson dealer in upstate New York advertised a “cat shoot.” Calls from the Humane Society ensued, as well as calls from the mayor and police chief. On the day of the event, the press and a large crowd showed up to find a six-foot tall cardboard cat waiting to be plugged with a paintball gun. All the proceeds went to charity and the dealer got free PR in the process.
10. When in doubt, go cornball: Instead of a snow globe with the company logo or a paperweight with your business’ name that will just gather dust, pass out 12-inch rulers with catchy taglines related to the product. Try, “How do we measure up?” or, “Slap us if we get it wrong and we’ll get it right!”
Guerilla Marketing is all about effective and targeted resource allocation to improve existing customer relations and gain new patrons in the process. But it can backfire, as was the case last year when Turner Broadcasting Systems attempted to use Guerilla Marketing to promote their latest movie.
For three weeks in January 2007, commuters saw hundreds of LED light boxes attached to street signs, light poles and bridge columns shining lights shaped like cartoon characters from the network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon series.
While other cities like Atlanta, Austin, and San Francisco took little notice, Boston drivers notified police, calling the apparatuses explosive devices. The investigation that ensued prompted 1,000 print and online stories about the incident and boosted the number of viewers logging on to the Cartoon Network’s website, but the media conglomerate’s image took a dive. TBS issued an apology, paid the city $1 million, and added another $1 million toward homeland security funding.
Businesses interested in Guerilla Marketing should look to professional, time-tested agencies for guidance. TaylorMack Advertising invites you to review its own experience with Guerilla Marketing for clients online at www.TaylorMack.com.
