Business Ideas and Opportunity

Guerilla Tactics In Marketing

HOW MUCH YOU INVEST in marketing doesn't mean nearly as much as how that investment pays off. Guerrilla marketers don't waste a cent of it. They know marketing isn't costly, but marketing mistakes are. That's why they carefully measure the effectiveness of each weapon they try--and they try a heap of weapons.

Here are 10 ways guerrillas get maximum marketing bang from minimum marketing bucks:

1. They stick with one marketing campaign. Discard the notion that you must change your marketing often. Change your offer, your price and your headline as much as you want, but don't change your media, your identity, your visual format, or your presence as a business. Doing so wastes money twice over: 1) by abandoning your original marketing investment before it has a chance to pay off, and 2) by investing in new marketing materials.

2. They realize small is beautiful. As a small company, you're likely to be a very important client to a small ad agency. You won't be as important to a big one. Also consider using individual marketing consultants and freelancers; many provide high-end talent at low prices. Use small ads and increase fre- quency, short commercials and more of them, postcards instead of letters.

3. They use a media buying service. Guerrilla-run companies know media buying services have access to more data and better negotiating skills than they do.

4. They obtain all the free research they can. Guerrillas scan the Internet for data about their target market and find the information superhighway paved with gold--bulletin boards teeming with information, mailing lists of people who want your materials, and statistics on tiny but crucial details. And don't forget old-fashioned customer questionnaires, which can provide just as much information.

5. They use reprints of PR stories. They also use posters, mailers, signs and framed copies of these publicity gems.

6. They create timeless brochures. Quality brochures are costly, and the last thing you want to do is make that investment again next year. So instead of saying, "We've been serving America for 10 years," which means producing a new brochure next year, say, "We've been serving America since 1985," because that will be true forever.

7. They find multiple uses for marketing materials. If you have to pay through the nose for a first-rate photograph, think twice before dismissing the idea. You can use that photo in a future ad, in a brochure, on a sign. It can be the basis for a poster, a mailing, a circular. Looked at this way, the photo fee is quite reasonable.

8. They spend no more than $1,000 to produce a TV spot. The secret: Start with a powerful idea. If you have that, you don't need a sports hero, movie star or killer jingle to get it across. Cable TV companies produce $1,000 spots every day.

9. They experiment. Guerrillas test marketing campaigns, themes, offers, prices, headlines, packaging, media, mailing lists, follow-up and optimum frequency. Only testing gives you the certainty needed for commitment.

10. They market more to customers than to prospects. It costs one-sixth as much to market to an existing customer as to a noncustomer.