Guerrilla Marketing for Free: Dozens of No-Cost Tactics to Promote Your Business and Energize Your Profits - Softcover

Levinson President, Jay Conrad

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0618276793 ISBN 13: 9780618276790

Publisher: Harper Business, 2003

Synopsis

The guru of the Guerrilla Marketing series, with over a million copies in print, teaches entrepreneurs how to market aggressively without spending one cent.

Levinson, the authority on big-business marketing on a small-business budget, takes this concept one step further by offering scores of marketing ideas that are completely free. He proves that aggressive marketing doesn't have to be expensive if you use creative and unconventional means.

* Hold a giveaway contest. You'll attract customers and acquire names for your mailing list.

* Give free talks, consultations, and demonstrations. You'll establish yourself as an expert and publicize your business at the same time.

* Post on websites, bulletin boards, and other online communities. They offer countless opportunities for spreading your business message.

* Feed your clients. Sending cookies or offering free refreshments in your store can set you apart from the competition.

Levinson offers dozens of other tips -- some straightforward, many surprising -- in a unique, indispensable guide that proves you don't have to pay top dollar to improve your bottom line.

About this title

About the Author:

Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of more than a dozen books in the Guerrilla Marketing series. A former vice president and creative director at J. Walter Thompson Advertising and Leo Burnett Advertising, he is the chairman of Guerrilla Marketing International, a consulting firm serving large and small businesses worldwide.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

1
Being Aggressive and Confident as You Market for Free

You can be a high-energy marketer, and you can do it for free. Your
marketing can propel you to gloriously high profits, and you can do it for free.
You can become well known for your nonstop, clearly visible marketing, and
you can do it for free.
If you can produce a circular at the cost of a dime, that"s not free
and has no place in this book. If you can run a newspaper ad for only five
bucks, that"s not free either. So you won"t be reading about it in the
upcoming pages.
In fact, the only money you"ll have to spend is money you"ve
probably invested already. That means you"ll need a telephone, a computer,
a printer, a supply of plain paper, access to the Internet, and business cards.
If you have those, you can toss away your checks, file away your credit
cards, put your cash into a piggy bank, and still market like a tiger. Or rather,
a guerrilla.
You"re a guerrilla. That means you know what marketing can and
cannot do. It means you realize the importance of marketing to your bottom
line. It means you understand the vital need to maintain visibility and market
with all your might. But not with all your money. Not with any of your money.
Guerrilla marketing for free is powerfully effective even though it
costs you nary a cent. It can cause the competition to quake in their Nikes,
even if they"re spending advertising money as though it"s going to expire. It
wins customers, maintains their loyalty, builds a business, and increases—
never decreases —your bank account.
Too good to be true, right? But it is true. Even more remarkable is
the fact that the vast majority of your competitors haven"t a clue that they can
market so formidably without spending money. Even when they become
increasingly aware of your marketing and your success, they still won"t have
a clue that you"re doing it all for free. Unless you tell them or they discover
this book, they"ll remain clueless while you frolic about in clover. Well, not
exactly frolic, because you don"t really get good stuff without hard work. But
your entire opinion, degree of control, and satisfaction with the process of
marketing will be transformed once you discover—then cash in on— the
abundance of free marketing options in these pages and in your future.
You"re not going to learn any gimmicks or shady ways to attract
customers and prospects. You"re not going to be given a cornucopia of
complex tasks. You"re not going to be served up tactics that will make you
feel like a pioneer. We all know that pioneers get arrows in the back of the
neck, so your selection here of no-cost tactics is limited to those that have
proven themselves in battle and can"t hurt anyone except those who would
dare to compete with a guerrilla.
Because you can rely on tactics that have consistently earned
profits in the past, you can feel optimistic about how they"ll work for you.
Ideally, you"ll get into the habit of marketing, making it as much a part of your
daily routine as flossing.
Some of the one hundred free tactics you can use are things,
such as marketing plans and testimonials. Some are places, such as
Internet chat rooms and community bulletin boards. Others are concepts,
such as competitive advantages and sales training. Some are attitudes, like
aggressiveness and flexibility. Still others are people, such as fusion
marketing partners and satisfied customers. Many are hard to categorize,
such as viral marketing and speeches for community clubs.
But they all have five things in common:
They take your time.
They must be done right.
They require energy—mostly, but not exclusively,
mental.
They are deceptively simple.
They earn profits for guerrillas. Always have. Always
can.
Instead of making money your prime marketing asset, this book is
devoted to using your marketing enlightenment, your intensity, your
assertiveness, and your resourcefulness. None of those attributes cost you
anything. But they give you marketing firepower that money can"t buy.
You can and should utilize many of these tactics at the same
time. But you never should feel as though you"ve got too much going on.
Guerrillas are rarely in a hurry and proceed at a pace that keeps them in total
control even with a lot going on. Because their marketing efforts all follow a
plan and a calendar, guerrilla marketing for free makes order out of chaos and
profits out of effort.
Guerrillas strive for conventional goals and attain them through
unconventional means. Guerrilla marketing sets profits as the goal and
provides a plethora of overlooked yet industrial- strength strategies to attain
them. You hold in your capitalistic hands an even more unconventional
method of marketing —going at it full bore without spending money.
Be assured, this is not your father"s marketing. This is marketing
that will enable you to make drastic reductions in your budget while
developing a fiery aura as a business owner. I sure hope that all my own fire
and enthusiasm is making you eager to get started. Getting started is half
the battle. Continuing with it is the other half.
But take a deep breath and hang back a bit before you begin. I"ve
devoted the entire next chapter to the tactics you must bring to life before
you start to market for free. I want you to know where you"re heading and
what you want to get for yourself. I want you to aim for both profits and
balance in your life. These tactics are not presented solely to fill your vault.
They are also designed to free up some of your time for things other than
business, other than profits, other than marketing. Life comes first. Business,
profits, and marketing are further down the list.
Now that we"re clear on priorities, let"s get back to what you must
do before you flex your marketing muscles. As I demonstrate in chapter 2,
knowing your destination is a crucial part of your marketing journey. Moving
at the right pace is another. You must be clear on key marketing insights to
be successful. Before taking one step into the fabled land of free marketing,
you must know certain characteristics of your prospects and customers and
of your business—beyond what it says on your card. Just as a wagon needs
four wheels to move forward, you"re going to need four wheels too. In guerrilla
marketing the four wheels are a name, a niche, a theme, and a meme.
Armed with the intellectual inventory you need to make before you launch
your free foray, you"re poised for action. But wait! There"s more.
Chapter 3 tells you what you must know while you market for free.
Besides the knowledge you need to acquire before you begin your marketing
assault, you"ve got to conduct that assault knowing your goals, your market,
and certainly some fundamental details about your customers.
As people are finding out, sometimes a bit too rudely, the age of
the lone-wolf business owner is over—gone with the wind and the innocence.
A vast number of potential allies are waiting to combine forces with you. But
where in the world will you find them? Look no further than chapter 4, whose
pages are loaded for bear with allies who can help you market, who want to
help you market, and who will help you market. Enlisting their aid is
paramount. Paying them is unnecessary. Think of all your customers and
you"ll begin to realize that there are allies all around you.
Once you"re armed to launch your program and know what to do
while it"s under way, you must decide where all of this no-cost, high-energy
marketing is going to take place. Chapter 5 is where you"ll survey the terrain,
get a fix on the geography, and zero in on the bull"s-eyes. It"s reassuring to
know there"s more than one. This chapter is chock-full of bull"s-eyes, along
with weapons to help you score them—zero-cost ways to market the right
way in the right places.
With the basics in place, you"ll be ready to get into the nitty-gritty
of marketing for free. Chapter 6 teems with fine points and details on just that
topic. It shines a bright light on your community, your target audiences, the
Internet, trade shows, and a whole lot more.
Just when you"re thinking it"s time to start engaging in serious
guerrilla marketing for free, chapter 7 counsels and encourages you to give
things away for free. Pretty astonishing that you can market for free while
giving things away. Don"t the things you give away cost money to buy? Nope.
This book is called Guerrilla Marketing for Free, so the tactics don"t cost you
a penny, not even the tactics that call for you to be as generous as the rich
uncle you wish you had. One of the most power-packed and effective tactics
is free consultations. How much money does that cost you? None. Better
question: How much money can that earn for you?
Chapter 8 is about you—and the personality characteristics I"m
hoping you already have that will help your marketing for free pay rich
dividends. Truth be told, if you lack these traits, you may need a personality
transplant.
Chapter 9 is about actions you must take to capitalize on the time
you"ll spend reading this book. If you don"t take them, you probably shouldn"t
be reading this.
Okay, let"s stop talking about you and talk instead about the
people who will be your customers. This is the twenty-first century, and they
are a more demanding lot than their predecessors. But if you"re a guerrilla,
you can meet and exceed their demands by understanding what it is they
want. One of those things is quality.
There are two crucial lessons to learn about quality right from the
get-go. The first is that quality is the number-two reason people patronize a
business, ranking just behind confidence in the business and just ahead of
service. The second lesson is that quality is not what you put into your
product or service, but what your customers get out of it.
You should also be aware that quality is now the price of
succeeding at business. Without it, guerrilla marketing will just speed the
demise of your operation, because more people will learn of your shabby
quality faster and less expensively than ever. I hate to be the first one to tell
you this, but marketing is a waste of money if you offer poor-quality goods or
services.
These days customers equate every aspect of your business with
not only the quality of your product but how well you treat people. So it"s a
good idea for you to do the same. Deep down, I"m hoping that you can skip
this part because you know it all already, but just in case . . . you"ve got to
remember that people assume you have a quality business and then are
quick to recognize any lack of it. In addition, your quality will help you
compare what you offer to what your competitors offer. It will juice up your
word-of-mouth marketing. It will nourish all your other marketing. If you have
the best quality in the universe, hardly anybody will know about it unless your
marketing informs them of it. If they already suspect it, your marketing will
reassure them that buying from you is the way to go.
Guerrilla marketing does sell products and services. But it sells
them only once. It"s the high quality you offer that brings in the repeat and
referral sales. That same quality makes life easier for those who sell what
you offer. The lowest prices on earth won"t rescue you from poor quality. The
speediest service and widest selection won"t protect you from the ravages of
poor quality.
Along with quality, you"ve got to be armed with a storehouse of
knowledge about your customers and prospects. "It is better to know
something about your spouse than everything about marriage." So goes the
old adage that has withstood the test of time because it contains such a core
truth. Here"s a newer adage: "The least expensive way to make more money
and grow faster is to be perceived as a service leader." A marketing truism is
that a small business that heavily emphasizes customer service is more
likely to survive and succeed than competitors that emphasize lower price,
convenience, speed of delivery, or product performance.
There are billions of people out there who don"t meet that buying
criterion. One of your tasks is to direct no marketing at them. If you go about
it right, all of your marketing will be directed only at people who meet those
lofty standards. Guerrillas focus their energies on establishing relationships
that lead to sales over a long period of time. One-time sales are worthless
unless you sell multimillion-dollar products and services.
Almost all business owners are aware that 80 percent of their
sales come from 20 percent of their customers. Guerrilla business owners
seek only customers who will be part of that lucrative 80 percent. Not a
simple task, but not impossible either. I promise you that it is worth the effort.
How does price fit into the guerrilla marketing equation? Let"s cut
right to the chase. Value is far more crucial than price. And perceived value is
far more crucial than actual value. People will pay higher prices for products
and services that deliver more quality for the buck. And they"ll pay higher
prices still for products and services that they believe to deliver more quality
for the buck. If this were not so, Rolls-Royce would be out of business and
Ferrari would be long gone.
I have a boatload of business books, many on the topic of
marketing. I"m floored at how few discuss the significance of value, especially
of perceived value. I think that these books are too wrapped up in the
concepts of quality and service, excellence and teamwork, statistics and
technology—so wrapped up that they"re taking their eye off the ball. The ball
is the value that the customer thinks he or she is getting. It doesn"t have
much to do with price. It has a lot to do with perception. Guerrillas are
cognizant that perception is reality.
Many experts believe that value is simply the difference between
anticipated price and the price asked. In this definition— a good one—there
is no difference between value and perceived value. That"s a bright
observation because it takes into account that perception reigns supreme.
The secret, then, is to control the anticipated price. You may not
have much to say about the actual price—production and materials are
somewhat out of your control. But anticipated price? That"s up to you. You
can raise the price anticipation with your reputation, the presentation of your
offering, even with your marketing copy and graphics. If your offering is
carried in expensive stores, people will expect your price to be higher. They"ll
also be influenced by your stationery, your address, your office décor, and
your attire.
A restaurant with soft candlelight and romantic music charges
more for meals than a harshly lit cafeteria with the sound of dishes clacking
in the background. The cost of the food ingredients, the cooking, and the
refrigeration is the same at both restaurants. But the perception of value is
raised by lighting, music, and décor. The world"s best marketing can
enhance your reputation and build your credibility, but it can"t do beans for
your lighting and décor. If you lack the trappings of obvious quality, your
per...

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0618276793
• ISBN 13: 9780618276790
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208