Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing. Jay Levinson Conrad

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СКАЧАТЬ your own good instincts. Don’t make the all-too-common mistake of wanting to make a change but also wanting to wait for the prices to go down. While they’re taking their own sweet time going down, you could be losing a fortune while competitors are building an unsurmountable lead due to their willingness to invest at the outset while their own competitors are asleep at the wheel and saving pennies when dollars are at stake.

      Embracing change is a matter of timing and knowledge, vision and guts. Guerrillas who possess this trait are rarely mired in the past and usually poised for the future. Does that describe you? We hope so.

Trait 7: Generosity

      Guerrillas view their marketing as a chance to help their prospects and customers succeed at their goals. Whether that goal is earning more money, expanding a business, getting a job, losing weight, attracting a mate, or improving their golf score, they try to find ways to help them achieve their goals. Knowing that we’re living smack dab in the middle of the Information Age, they are very generous in providing information.

      Sometimes that information is imparted by a web site. Or it can be given in the form of an e-book, free report, consultation, seminar, or lecture. Often, instead of giving information, they give something of worth and value to their customers.

       THE FULLY OCCUPIED BUILDING

      A series of apartment buildings in Los Angeles had a 70 percent occupancy rate. But one of the buildings had a 100 percent occupancy rate. How did this happen? That particular building put up a sign that said, “Sign a lease . . . get free auto grooming.” What the devil is auto grooming? That meant management hired a person to wash the tenants’ cars once a week. The salary it paid the car washer was easily worth the difference between a 70 percent occupancy rate and a 100 percent occupancy rate. The building management simply asked itself, “What might our tenants appreciate?” The answer was simple. And their generosity in regularly performing the simple act of a weekly car wash was the difference between a highly profitable building and a so-so profitable building. No rocket science here, only common sense and a spirit of generosity.

      Ask yourself, what might my prospects and customers appreciate for free? A ballpoint pen? A calendar? A pocket calendar? A refrigerator magnet? The answer need not be lavish or expensive, but merely an expression of your generosity. Flowers, plants, free samples . . . these are some of the myriad ways you can prove your generosity. You’ll see that they go a long way toward bonding with your prospects and customers. They’re easy to come up with if you have the spirit of generosity, if that generosity is part of your personality. Bonus for you: It’s fun to give rather than receive.

Trait 8: High Energy

      To practice constant acts of generosity, to consistently prove your imagination, to be aggressive in your deeds, to assess and accept change . . . all of those require a consistent display of energy. If you don’t really have that energy, you can’t really put your heart into all of your actions. And putting your heart into them is part of the deal. Customers know if you’re doing something because you have to and doing that same thing because you want to. They’re attracted to businesses that want to serve, that want to make their customers happy.

      Guerrilla marketers know that by doing the work they love, they never work a day in their lives.

      Because being a guerrilla marketer is a full-time job, that takes energy—not sometimes energy, but all-the-time energy. A ho-hum attitude is very apparent, just as a willing attitude is easy to see. For that reason, we have seen that high-powered, highly successful guerrillas happen to be high-energy people. They bristle with energy. Everything about them is electrifying. They spread their energy throughout their workplace, even away from it. It’s no surprise that they get a lot done, moving forward at all times. They are quick to greet customers, sincere in their customer relations, and ready to act without hesitation. They seem to want to take action. And the reason is that they are possessed of more than their share of energy.

      That helps them do the job at hand and then be ready to take on the next job. They are happy in their work, even awaken each morning looking forward to doing the work they love. That, by the way, is a key to their high energy—doing the work they love. They know that by doing the work they love, they never work a day in their lives. This love of work is always manifested by their high-energy level. That’s what it takes to do all the tasks at hand, then be ready to take on more. You can sense their energy level when you see them work. Amazingly, they don’t even work to demonstrate that energy. It is part of their overall personality. If you cannot make it part of yours, if high energy is not second nature to you, perhaps you should pursue a more mellow line of work. But if you can make it part of yours, you have the personality of a guerrilla who is bound for success.

Trait 9: Constant Learning

      Think of a seagull. It flies endless circles in the sky, endless circles in quest of food. When it finally spots the food, the seagull lands and eats its fill. Then it rises again to the sky, only to fly in endless circles again and again. Once more, it flies in quest of food. The seagull does this because it is it’s most powerful instinct.

      Guerrilla marketers have an instinct for constant learning. They’ve learned that knowledge equates with success.

      Guerrilla marketers have an instinct that is just as powerful, just as never ending. Do you know what it is? It is the instinct for constant learning. Guerrillas learn and learn, and then learn some more. They are endlessly learning for they’ve learned that knowledge equates with success.

      They realize that they are no longer in an age when they ought to learn all there is about a topic, but an age when they ought to be learning one thing after another. As marketing changes lightning fast, guerrillas do all in their power to continue learning about the changes in marketing. At the same time, they are learning about the peripherals of marketing: psychology, the internet, technology, and the globalization of business.

      Whatever they are learning, it is a constant endeavor, just as searching for food is a constant activity of seagulls. We have never seen an exception to this observation. Each guerrilla leader that we encounter seems to be engrossed in learning new things. Truly, that is a crucial trait in all guerrillas. We hope and suspect that it is also a personality characteristic of yours.

Trait 10: Love of People

      The people we have met who are running successful and profitable marketing programs know that all people are fascinating, all people are interesting, and all people—you have to dig a bit to find this one—have a lovable side. “The softer side of Sears” is how that company termed it. The idea here is that all people have a softer side.

      Guerrillas look for and discover that softer side, that fascinating side, that lovable side. This interest in people is apparent in their marketing, in their marketing people, and in their treatment of clients. Guerrillas have learned that every person has a story. By being superb listeners—a key characteristic of guerrillas—they learn those stories and adjust their marketing to fit the deeper and inner core of those stories. They are also able to adjust their own stories so that they are equally fascinating, equally lovable—or at least likeable.

      Guerrillas have learned that every person has a story, and adjust their marketing to fit the deeper and inner core of those stories.

      Guerrillas know that every person is unique, each one someone’s son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister. They honor those uniquenesses СКАЧАТЬ