Today’s business market is an extremely competitive place. More businesses enter the fray all the time: for the past ten years, more than 750,000 new startups spring into existence across North America. Unfortunately, over 60 percent of new businesses fail in the first four years.
Why do they fail? According to a study performed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, there are three main reasons startup businesses fold:
Lack of financial planning
Poor sales skills
Poorly planned and executed marketing
Guerilla marketing addresses all three of these concerns. It is one of the most successful marketing methods available, and since it is low-cost and high-impact, you won’t need a huge advertising budget to take advantage of this powerful strategy.
What you will need is a basic understanding of how and why guerilla marketing works.
The Element of Surprise
One of the reasons guerilla marketing works is that the methods are often unexpected. Many guerilla campaigns are highly visible, and contain some sort of element that is unique to the business using it.
Though it is something of a clich by now, you should be prepared to think outside the box when it comes to planning your guerilla marketing campaign. The classic, expensive methods of advertising your business should be employed sparingly, if at all. These include:
Yellow page advertisements
Newspaper or magazine advertisements
Radio or television commercials
Think about it: when is the last time you were heavily influenced by a yellow page, newspaper, magazine, radio, or television advertisement? The fact is that todays consumers are so bombarded with advertising messages, theyve learned to tune out the traditional sources.
As a guerilla marketer, your goal is to catch them off-guard, and advertise in unexpected places. Many times, consumers wont even recognize your marketing efforts as advertising.
The good news is: you can usually do this for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising venues. Guerilla marketing trades effort for money. You will work harder on your marketing than a mega-corporation with a million-dollar ad budget, but if you are persistent and creative in your efforts, they will pay off.