Guerrilla marketing is not a new concept. Jay Conrad Levinson first introduced the term in the ’80s. While he was the first to introduce the term, the concept is as old as marketing itself. Just like service providers find new ways to market the same services, like Cox bundle deals, marketing specialists use new ways to market the same old products.
The difference between now and then is their ability to reach us. Social media and other platforms have made it possible for companies to promote their products more successfully. Before we discuss how guerrilla marketing is effective for businesses, let’s understand what guerrilla marketing is.
What is Guerrilla Marketing?
Guerrilla marketing is a promotion or advertising strategy that uses unconventional methods of promotion. It has become somewhat of a norm to be eccentric with these promotional activities. The basic concept still survives, however. At the core of any guerrilla marketing strategy is cost saving.
Designed with low budgets and the idea is to generate organic publicity for the product or even the campaign itself. Companies can use many types of guerrilla marketing strategies.
Most small businesses have a low marketing budget, especially in the advertising scenario. Businesses need to stick out in a progressively competitive market, and companies keep to boost their marketing budget to dominate.
One part that small businesses should seek to exploit is guerrilla marketing strategies. Seth Godin famously said,
“Be a purple cow.”
Here are some of the most common ones:
Most Common and Effective Types of Guerrilla Marketing
There are many kinds of guerrilla marketing strategies taking place all around you. And there will probably be more being created while you are reading this blog.
Here are some of the most common ones:
- Ambient Marketing: This type of marketing uses a peacocking method to grab the attention of audiences. It is the best type when there is enough space available to work with.
- Ambush Marketing: similar to ambient marketing in that it uses a peacocking method. The difference is that while ambient marketing works best on its own, ambush does not. Ambush marketing is when a company ambushes an event or ad space that is usually being used by the competition. It’s a sort of muscle flexing competition.
- Stealth Marketing: is, like the name suggests, marketing to consumers, without their knowledge. Prime examples would be movies and TV shows. When brands promote their products in a movie subtly and sometimes quite blatantly. Movies like Castaway promoted FedEx throughout.
- Viral Marketing or Buzz Marketing: this is probably the most original form of guerrilla marketing left. It depends on creating hype for the product organically or semi-organically by using some sort of gimmick.
After going over the basics of guerrilla marketing, you may ask yourself why. Why would companies go through the trouble of creating a guerrilla marketing strategy? Here’s why the advantages of guerrilla marketing campaigns far outweigh their cost of creation.
Let’s look at some of the ways guerrilla marketing has proven effective for businesses.
6 Ways Guerrilla Marketing Can Benefit You and Give Your Brand the Winning Edge
Here are 6 ways AI can help real estate businesses today:
- Captures Customers
- Encourages Collaboration
- Costs less and Delivers More
- Offers the Best Results
- Encourages Team Building and Loyalty
1. Captures Customers
The point of any marketing strategy is increasing customer conversion rates for your brand. Guerrilla marketing strategies like the ones discussed above, all have one thing in common. They will all succeed in increasing customer conversions if executed correctly.
By using innovative ways to capture their audience’s attention, brands can increase their impact. If a person remembers you positively, they are likely to bring their business to you.
2. Encourages Collaboration
Guerrilla campaigns work better when there is a collaboration in effort with another business or event. To promote the Simpsons movie, they collaborated with the popular chain 7/11. The stores were re-designed to look like the store in the popular animated show. This strategy went viral and proved beneficial for both partners.
3. Costs Less and Delivers More
The basic feature of guerrilla strategies is cost saving. It is a way for companies to compete with bigger organizations, without huge advertising budgets. You have likely heard of Reddit. When it was fairly new, it needed a way to create brand awareness and didn’t have the advertising budgets.
They turned to stickers. The co-founder used to take specially designed stickers with him everywhere he went.
Whenever he could, he would stick them on poles, signs, and even other ads. The company would also distribute them at events and randomly on the streets. Soon, people caught the hype and started sharing on social media. The campaign went viral and was a tremendous success.
4. Offers the Best Results
Guerrilla marketing strategies are so popular because they offer the best possible results. While traditional marketing strategies have their own benefits, guerrilla strategies offer the most ROI.
5. Encourages Team Building and Loyalty
Guerrilla strategies rely on creative ideas and usually can’t be pulled off by one person. They encourage teamwork and employee participation. An employee is more likely to stay loyal to the company they actively promote.
Conclusion
Guerrilla marketing strategies allow brands to connect better with consumers. Reach a larger audience and increase their conversion rates. Any business or service, even things like cox customer service, can develop a guerrilla marketing strategy. All they need is a little bit of creativity and execution at the right time and place.
They have proven successful for decades and are always innovating and evolving. If you have limited resources, and have to compete with large businesses with deep pockets, they can give you the winning edge.
