Monday, September 10, 2012

Four Guerrilla Marketing Concepts

Hats off to Guerrilla Marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson. I can't recommend his book Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business enough.

In my life as a small business owner, I've used the concepts in the book to build a clientele that has supported me since the 80s. Certainly I have my own ideas about marketing my screen print business, but almost all my ideas dovetail with the philosophy of Guerrilla Marketing. Use your brain and apply lots of energy. Do not throw lots of money at expensive traditional advertising.

Here's a few of the basic concepts underpinning the whole approach that Levinson advocates.

A typical business counts money at the end of each month. As a guerrilla marketer, count new business relationships on a monthly basis. Recognize that the existence of your business depends on the successful nurturing and navigation of ongoing relationships with your customers. Solicit client input on how to better serve their needs. Building successful long term relationships is the key to creating repeat business and garnering positive word of mouth referrals from satisfied customers.

Jay Conrad Levinson. This dude is allright.

While guerrilla marketers understand the traditional approach of growing their business by adding new customers, they seek to grow their business geometrically by doing more business with their existing client list. Look to expand the size of transactions and add more frequent transactions with each client per sales cycle. Dedicate your business to offering superior followup service after the sale. Offering superior service keeps the existing customers returning for more while they fuel your traditional growth by giving you referrals.

The rise of digital technology gives small business marketers access to tools that allow them to pinpoint potential customers and deliver personalized marketing messages to them. In the past, the technology of marketing and advertising was expensive and in the hands of experts such as ad agencies, graphic designers and printers. Today, guerrilla marketers make a point of being tech-savvy. They use social media, websites and blogs to communicate with existing and potential clients. Internet and mobile ads are used to bring marketing messages to prospects based on keywords, location and past buying habits.

Traditional marketing relies on distinct marketing techniques such as paid print or television advertising. Guerrilla marketers use combination of marketing techniques welded together under the umbrella of a unified marketing strategy. For example, a guerrilla campaign utilizing email, direct mail and websites along with traditional marketing brings a consistent message to a focused group of consumers, reinforcing it across a variety of media.

Steve Lafler
Manx Media Custom Screen Printing

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