Most small businesses have a limited marketing budget, especially with promotional activities. Businesses need to stand out in an increasingly competitive market, and companies continue to boost their marketing budget to be prominent.
One area that small businesses should seek to maximize is guerrilla marketing tactics.
Guerrilla marketing is all about using unconventional strategies to get the attention of their customers in a personal and memorable way.
Seth Godin famously said, “Be a purple cow.” Using guerrilla marketing tactics will help your business become a purple cow, a business that will stand out and leave a mark on your target customers.
The secret sauce of guerrilla marketing is time, energy, creativity, and imagination. It continues to evolve and seeks to disrupt the normal and conventional.
The idea is for your business to rebel against the status quo.
Here are seven guerrilla marketing tactics your small business can utilize to gain a competitive edge.
1. Print Calendars
Make a customized calendar for your clients or walk-in customers. For each month, you can place your website address and your business slogan. You should also put a high-definition photo related to your business for each month. Also, you should be collecting customer testimonials, and this can be highlighted on your calendar. You should opt to ensure that your calendar is eco-friendly.
The good thing about well-designed calendars is that people will not hesitate to show it to others or display at the workplaces. This is an easy way to spread the message about your business.
2. Massively useful free e-book
Another tactic you can use is to write and design a massively free e-book and distribute it to as many interested people as possible. Everyone loves free stuff, and he or she will be impressed by the value they can get from your e-book.
The beauty of this strategy is that you establish your business as an authority and having a published e-book boosts your credibility. You can also use this e-book as an incentive for people to sign up for your email newsletter and this newsletter is another guerrilla marketing tactic that you can use to build a better relationship with your customers and those that might have an interest in your business.
The important thing to remember for this e-book is that it must be of high quality. It must not have any grammar and spelling mistakes. The photos used must be high-definition photos, and not some random stock photos found online.
Through your e-book, they will hopefully look you up online, sign up for your email newsletter, and buy your products through your online store. It’s important that your website is well-designed if you are going to use this tactic.
3. Awards
Another guerilla marketing tactic you can use is to take advantage of your competitive nature and vie for awards related to your niche.
Find out the requirements to qualify and start joining. It does not matter if it is just a small award. Compete for all awards related to your niche and win as much as you can. Some of the awards offer digital badges which you can show off on your website.
The strength of this low-cost tactic is it builds authority for your business, and you become associated with positive things like winning. So look around and see what awards or contests your business can join, and do your best to win!
4. Win-Win partnerships
Seek to build partnerships with businesses you are not in competition with but share the same target customer group. The strength of this tactic is that you get targeted advertising. Their customers can become your clients and vice-versa.
For example, if you run a salon, you might want to partner with a car-washing company. You can offer discounted hair services to the customers of the car wash business. The idea is to seek a mutually beneficial relationship. At the same time, you build your network.
5. Ultra-creative business cards
Yes, it is 2017, but no, business cards are not dead yet. You just have to make yours stand out.
Avoid the standard business cards. Make a customized one that lets your brand speak and show its personality. Here is some inspiration for you. There are more here.
6. Charity Donations
Another guerrilla marketing tactic you can use is to donate a small percentage of your profits to a well-liked charity. People love generous businesses, and they will look forward to purchasing from you if they know some of it helps a charity out. It is also good publicity and promotion.
Do a survey among your customers to decide which charity they would like to support and then do it. The important thing is to be consistent, and of course, you should only devote to charity what you can provide in a sustainable manner.
7. Creative Sponsorship
It is time to level up the traditional sponsoring of events. Go beyond the banner and brief mention during the event. Be creative on how you can participate in the event. If you can do a demonstration or do more creative (read: attention grabbing) advertising in the event, then you should go for that. You can also give promotional materials during the event.
Final Thoughts
Always remember guerrilla marketing is all about unleashing your creativity and imagination to your marketing. Seek to be a purple cow in your niche.
Take time to measure your guerrilla marketing efforts to see if they are effective. Ultimately, your key metric would be whether the tactic boosts your profitability.
As an educator entrepreneur, he also runs The Filipino Teacher, a valuable resource for teachers.
