Jay Conrad Levinson came up with the term "guerilla marketing," which is used in the titles of many of his books. Here's a quick look at guerilla marketing and how to get started with it.
What It Is: Guerrilla marketing is really a way of thinking and acting in the context of your business. It means coming up with tens or even hundreds of creative and cheap ways to market your product or service. It's not as important to have a big advertising budget as it is to think like your customers and find ways to tell them how valuable you are. Creativity, consistency, and repeating your message in different ways by using what you already have are the keys.
Who Can Use It? Guerilla marketing is most useful for small and medium-sized businesses. But even big businesses with many niche brands and smaller target markets can use guerilla marketing to promote their products and services. A guerilla marketing campaign can be run by anyone or any business with a small budget, a lot of creativity, energy, and time.
Ethics: Levinson's ideas have a bit of a "by any means necessary" feel to them, which some people take to mean that it's okay to be unethical. I disagree very much with this way of looking at his work. In fact, I think that his books stress that you do have to keep the promises you make to customers when you start a campaign. It's up to you to decide if the way you market is ethical, but guerilla marketing in and of itself is completely legal and ethical.
How to Get Started: To become a guerilla marketer, you need to be more creative and passionate about your product or service. Getting the word out about your product or service to people who might be interested is the key to success. You can learn a lot about Levinson's methods by reading any one of his books. But this practise has less to do with a set, rigid marketing method and more to do with mindset, energy, and creativity.
If your company's marketing budget isn't very big but you want to find more ways to get your message out to potential customers, guerilla marketing is a great option.
