Sometimes you need the unusual, often loud marketing tactics to get noticed in a crowded space and that’s where guerrilla marketing may deliver the results. When choosing between traditional, reliable marketing tactics and riskier styles, here’s when and why guerrilla may deliver the results.
Why use guerrilla marketing over classic marketing tactics?
Classic marketing tactics like social media, blogging, and content marketing are much more popular than guerrilla marketing strategies, but the tried-and-true methods can be a bit slow in generating ROI. Guerrilla marketing can uniquely drive spikes in visibility and therefore, a rush of positive results — we’ll show you how in a bit. And what’s more, they’re often inexpensive.
Another advantage of guerrilla marketing strategies is that they put you ahead of competitors. Their uncommon approach can set you apart, while saving time researching, collecting data, and testing. Often times, you just need to apply your creativity and push your idea out into the IoT. we’ll run though three Guerrilla marketing strategies you can implement and check out for inspiration:
#1 Find your way to top pages on relevant communities
What happens when you inadvertently leave some spill sugar on your kitchen floor? Very soon, hundreds or even thousands of ants will gather and feast on the offerings. These ants seem to come from nowhere. You didn’t even know they were lurking, but they march in from all corners and swarm around the sugar. This scenario is similar to what happens when you find your way to top pages on industry forums through a brand’s guerilla-style tactics. Your brand becomes “sweet” and you get unique visitors on your site, browsing, making enquiries, and even buying what you’re selling. Imagine the possibilities of being featured on a forum like Inbound.org. You submit a new post, ask a thought-provoking question, or write a guest post. If your entry receives a decent number of upvotes or comments, these forums push it to the top of the page.
These three sites, for instance, made their way to the top page on Inbound by getting the most comments and upvotes:
The same happens on an online community like Growth Hacker.
But how do you convince online community members to upvote and comment on your entries?
Know the type(s) of content that works for each community. On Inbound for example, the top three posts (as in the example above) have one thing in common: they all offer fresh news.
The first post is about emojis for B2B brands — which isn’t a topic you often see in marketing. The second post is about what to look for in customer data to improve retention. Then the third article is a case study of how NYTimes increased subscriptions by 46%. In various ways, all three pieces offer valuable insights and digestible news, which appeals to their audience.
If you know a few people who are Inbound.org members, now may a good time to let them know you have a new post on Inbound, and that they can upvote and comment if they like it. If you can leverage your knowledge of Inbound, you may soon see yourself on the top pages of your favorite communities on a regular basis
#2 Get featured on relevant popular publications
Popular publications don’t shy away from putting you right in their headlines — as long as your product is solving a nagging problem. They may also create a headline around the problem your product solves and write the article about your product. This headline featured on WIRED is about a dating app, but the article itself is about the dating app — Pheramor.
This way, your ride on the wings of already popular publications that your target customers read.
#3 Long-term event sponsorship
If you have the budget, sponsorship is a great guerilla marketing strategy. Your brand partners with an event and they put your brand name in front of all their event attendees. One of the most popular events in the UK is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards. It’s so popular that its hashtag is used by ecommerce businesses to sell their products on social media during the event. One of the event’s major sponsors is British mobile network operator EE. Spencer McHugh, Director of Brand at EE, said, “2015 will be our 3rd year of partnering with BAFTA as EE, building upon an existing relationship with Orange who first sponsored the British Academy Film Awards in 1998. Our relationship has been an extremely successful and collaborative one which has helped EE cement our role within the film industry as BAFTA continues to be the most respected and revered film awards in the UK.”
You almost can’t go wrong with event sponsorship — as long as the event in question is popular and it’s one that your target customers would attend in droves.
In conclusion
Guerrilla marketing can be a huge plus to your business. Develop a relationship with a sponsor for long-term and lasting goals. An investment of this sort is a wise decision if you have the budget and the know-how. Otherwise, get featured on a forum or published on a relevant site that will boost your visibility to your target customers. Because they depend a lot on bursts of creativity, it’s not uncommon for guerrilla marketing strategies to draw the attention of a greater number of people than traditional marketing tactics. Stand out and take the stage with your best content. It pays off.