Guerilla Marketing

How to use experimental advertising to promote your business
By Shannon Ambroson, Writer Guerilla marketing is an aggressive, unconventional way of promoting your business with a very low budget. Marketers spend time, energy and creativity rather than money to promote your product or service.

Guerilla marketing--  the very definition of trend setting alternative promotion-- is great for small businesses. You measure your success in profits, not sales, and focus on customer loyalty and referrals.

Guerilla marketing tactics allow you to:

1. Boost profits using creativity and imagination instead of a large amount of money.

2. Use the latest technology to connect with consumers using Guerilla marketing online and on the street.

3. Incorporate simple strategies to make a big impact.

Hire a Guerilla Marketing company to get you started

Consider the pros of hiring someone to help you with your alternative advertising campaign: immediate results, experience and expert knowledge. Consider the cons: extra expense and reliance on outside creativity.
Try:  Hire an agency to assist you in guerilla Internet marketing or street marketing. If you'd rather save money and advertise in-house, look at online portfolios and examples to get guerilla marketing ideas to incorporate into your own product campaign. Companies that engage in guerilla marketing include Street Sampling and the Michael Alan Group. To see where the idea originated, consult the bible of alternative promotion: Guerilla marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson.

Learn guerilla marketing information from the professionals

Join a Guerilla Marketing group to learn tips, discuss campaigns and hear what worked and didn't work from other business colleagues and professionals. Send your staff to a seminar--they'll come back full of energy and creative ideas.
Try:  Sign you or your staff up for a Guerilla Marketing definition class from the Guerrilla Marketing Coach. Find out how to raise your profits using simple, everyday forms of advertising. 

Use technology and viral advertising in your guerilla marketing campaign

Incorporate Guerilla Marketing tactics using technology. Along with buzz marketing--word of mouth--use Internet marketing to connect with your consumer. Create a website if you don't have one, and advertise it everywhere you can.
Try:  Create a Facebook page. It's free, takes only a few minutes and shows you are current with trends in technology. You can link to your website, add friends and post pictures of your latest guerilla marketing event. Join a webring so people can find you through other websites. These suggestions are free and give you an opportunity to meet people and create relationships.

Combine advertising with guerilla marketing ideas

Go ahead and keep your traditional forms of advertising. Use guerilla marketing information to strengthen your campaign. Partner with other businesses to trade advertising. If you own a movie theater and your friend owns a bookstore, feature movie tie-ins at both businesses to boost sales.
Try:  Hang fliers, have small but creative contests, add business email signatures to every personal and business email and use other guerilla marketing strategies to promote your product or service. Hand out business cards with your website and email address. Drive around with car magnets promoting your latest slogan or product name. Advertise in small ways every day and eventually you won't have to work to promote yourself--you'll just intuitively do it.

• Meet new people and form new relationships every day. Even the best guerilla marketing agencies are only as good as the people they know. Word of mouth advertising goes a long way so don't forget about the simplicity of being helpful.
• Browse online blogs and post comments that show you are knowledgeable in your field. Don't just plug your business--give consumers genuinely helpful answers to their questions and leave your web address at the end of the comment. Online guerilla marketing needs to be simple and unobtrusive.