If you want your business to succeed you need to market and advertise it. Everybody knows this. It’s why so much time and effort are poured into email marketing, blogging, the buying of sidebar, banner and Google ads and SEO. If you’re committed to your marketing and advertising plans you might even put together a direct mail campaign or cold calling campaign. If you’re creative and really want to put a unique stamp on your company, you’ll go guerilla.
Guerilla marketing is a “subversive” (if we use that term loosely) form of marketing that uses creativity, subtlety and relies heavily upon the impact of things found and seen in passing to create an impression. The basic idea of guerilla marketing is to put your business in front of people where they already are instead of creating a space and hoping they show up.
One of the most common practices in marketing (both traditional and guerilla) is the use of the custom printed T-shirt. Creating custom t-shirts is a great way to raise brand awareness. With traditional marketing, you can sell them via your website for some extra income. You can also print them up to give away as promotional items.
With guerilla marketing, you print up a few shirts with your logo and URL on them and then you (and others if you can find volunteers or talk employees to helping you out) actually wear them out in public. Wear them when you go to the bank, the store, to the movies—whatever. You don’t have to approach anybody or talk to anybody unless you want to. The simple act of wearing the shirt is enough to pique curiosity (especially if the shirt is designed well) and make people want to check you out. Your company must be great if someone is willing to wear its name on their back in public, right?
Pens, pencils and notepads are another traditional form of marketing that you can use in “subversive” or “guerilla” ways. With regular marketing you’d have promotional pens printed up and given out at networking events or fairs. As a guerilla marketer, you have those pens printed up and then simply leave them in strategic places—preferably places where people need pens: bank counters, grocery stores, restaurants, the library, etc. Someone uses the pen you’ve left behind, absentmindedly tosses it into a bag and then later pulls it out and thinks “hmmm. What’s this?” and visits your site.
Another good example of guerilla marketing is doing fun and creative things with your business cards. In addition to putting them up on bulletin boards and on those grocery mart walls for local businesses, what else can you do? Leaving them at bus and train stops is good. You can also stick them in the pages of books at the library. Doodling on the backs of them and leaving them behind at outdoor seating areas is also popular. Buy the mass produced (and discounted) cards for your guerilla purposes.
Other great guerilla marketing techniques include putting your catch phrase up in odd places. In Portland, one company got permission to spray paint, graffiti-style, and their catch phrases on the front of businesses, utility poles, etc. One business had fun printing up yard signs and placing them during political seasons. Businesses leaving messages on public sidewalks in sidewalk chalk is another great way to attract attention.
There are lots of great ways to get creative and go guerilla with your marketing. Really, the only things holding you back are your own personal levels of shame and your budget. Beyond that, the sky’s the limit!
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