Characteristics of a Guerrilla Marketer
| Category: Marketing Strategy | Date: 2002-08-27 |
There are nine basic characteristics that all guerrilla marketers must share. Let's look at them in order of importance, starting with the most important..
1. Commitment
Guerrillas are committed to their customers, to their products, to their business and to their profits. For a guerrilla, you need a SERIOUS commitment to the first three in order to achieve profits, which is the ultimate goal and measuring stick of your business.
You must be committed to establishing long-term relationships with your customers. When a guerrilla gets a new customer, he must as tenacious as a bulldog and never let that customer get away. The two things that guerrillas do to show their commitment to their customers is exceptional customer service and constant and regular follow up with them.
As far as your product and your service are concerned, you must believe in both of them. If you do not believe your product is the best there is, then how can you expect o convince a prospect to buy it?
2. Investment
This is tied to your belief in your company and yourself. You must be prepared to invest your time, your energy, your talents into your business. Guerrilla marketers are not as concerned about investing money. After all, guerrilla marketing is geared to a shoestring budget. The majority of marketing weapons that guerrillas employ are free.
But if you are not passionate enough about what you do that you are willing to invest your time, energy and talents into your business, then you will not succeed as a guerrilla. The only thing that should take precedence over your business is your health and your family.
3. Consistent
A guerrilla applies guerrilla marketing principles and tactics consistently. A guerrilla develops a marketing strategy and then sticks with it. Poor marketing done on a consistent basis, day in and day out, will get you better results than great marketing done only occasionally. Persistence pays off in marketing.
By being consistnet/persistent you develop credibility. People see your ads or your name or your logo over and over, you develop a subconscious feeling in them that you are legitimate and in for the long haul.
4.Confident
A guerrilla is confident they can handle any situation. Why? Because of their commitment to themselves, their products, their business and because they have learned basic psychology, so they understand the basic laws of human behavior.
Guerrilla marketing is based on those laws of human nature. It's a case of "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and he will feed himself and his family for a lifetime." Most traditional marketing training ("gurus") give you a marketing fish. Guerrilla marketing teaches you how to fish! That makes you VERY confident!
5. Patient
Guerrillas know that buying needs go in cycles. They also know that it takes repeated exposure to your marketing messages to move a new prospect from apathy to buying - some research says at least nine. Also research has shown that only 4 per cent of all purchases are made on the first exposure.Over 30 per cent are made after the eighth sales "call."
Prospects need to develop trust and confidence in you. That takes time. If they do not believe you, they will not buy from you. You must work consistently to develop that trust and confidence. That takes time and patience. But, if you take the time and are patient, you will reap the rewards.
6. Assortment
A guerrilla marketer does not put all his eggs in one marketing basket. Guerrillas use an assortment of marketing weapons and tactics. You must also be flexible and offer an assortment of payment and delivery options to your customers.
7. Subsequent
A guerrilla marketer is committed to a long- term relationship with his customers. This is because a guerrilla knows that a sale to an existing customer is much more profitable than a sale to a new customer. The name of the game here is follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!!! Guerrillas are masters of back-end selling!
8. Convenient
Guerrillas make doing business with them as convenient as possible. This flows out of a guerrilla's commitment to his customers. You must be easy to reach, easy to talk to and easy to do business with. You must be flexible in your dealings with your customers.
9. Excitement
This one is easy if you have commitment. Guerrillas are excited about what they do. They love marketing/selling and it shows. That excitement rubs off on your prospects. It creates a favorable emotional subconscious response - more psychology.
10. Integrity
This one is not on Jay Levinson's original list. I added this one because it is so important in doing business online. And it is a logical consequence of the original nine. If you are committed to yourself, your products, and your business, you do not want to do anything to destroy your good name.
Yet I see so many marketers online doing just that. They use phony and often silly names for themselves. They do not provide full contact information on their web site. They do bulk mailing using all kinds of tricks to keep from being traced.
And people buy from them! WHY???? Would you do business with someone like that off line? I suspect not. Then why do we do it online? If we all ignored them, they would eventually starve to death!
Be proud of who you are and your business. You WANT people to contact you to ask you about your business. You want people to remember you.
So what if you get spam messages! Delete them and go on. You have more important things to do than to chase after fools. Do your business the right way. Encourage others to do the same. That way you will help to make the Internet the greatest tool for free enterprise and entrepreneurship ever invented.
This article is copyrighted by 3R Marketing. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy this article without the express consent of 3R Marketing and the author.
About the Author
John Botscharow is the owner of 3R Marketing.REAL HELP FROM REAL MARKETERS Unconventional Tactics For Conventional Profits! We PREACH, TEACH and PRACTICE Guerrilla Marketing. http://www.3r-marketing.com
Would you like to receive John's syndicated guerrilla marketing articles for use in your newsletter or on your web site? Then sign up for the 3R Marketing Publisher's list syndication@3r-marketing.com
info@3r-marketing.com
http://www.3r-marketing.com
1. Commitment
Guerrillas are committed to their customers, to their products, to their business and to their profits. For a guerrilla, you need a SERIOUS commitment to the first three in order to achieve profits, which is the ultimate goal and measuring stick of your business.
You must be committed to establishing long-term relationships with your customers. When a guerrilla gets a new customer, he must as tenacious as a bulldog and never let that customer get away. The two things that guerrillas do to show their commitment to their customers is exceptional customer service and constant and regular follow up with them.
As far as your product and your service are concerned, you must believe in both of them. If you do not believe your product is the best there is, then how can you expect o convince a prospect to buy it?
2. Investment
This is tied to your belief in your company and yourself. You must be prepared to invest your time, your energy, your talents into your business. Guerrilla marketers are not as concerned about investing money. After all, guerrilla marketing is geared to a shoestring budget. The majority of marketing weapons that guerrillas employ are free.
But if you are not passionate enough about what you do that you are willing to invest your time, energy and talents into your business, then you will not succeed as a guerrilla. The only thing that should take precedence over your business is your health and your family.
3. Consistent
A guerrilla applies guerrilla marketing principles and tactics consistently. A guerrilla develops a marketing strategy and then sticks with it. Poor marketing done on a consistent basis, day in and day out, will get you better results than great marketing done only occasionally. Persistence pays off in marketing.
By being consistnet/persistent you develop credibility. People see your ads or your name or your logo over and over, you develop a subconscious feeling in them that you are legitimate and in for the long haul.
4.Confident
A guerrilla is confident they can handle any situation. Why? Because of their commitment to themselves, their products, their business and because they have learned basic psychology, so they understand the basic laws of human behavior.
Guerrilla marketing is based on those laws of human nature. It's a case of "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and he will feed himself and his family for a lifetime." Most traditional marketing training ("gurus") give you a marketing fish. Guerrilla marketing teaches you how to fish! That makes you VERY confident!
5. Patient
Guerrillas know that buying needs go in cycles. They also know that it takes repeated exposure to your marketing messages to move a new prospect from apathy to buying - some research says at least nine. Also research has shown that only 4 per cent of all purchases are made on the first exposure.Over 30 per cent are made after the eighth sales "call."
Prospects need to develop trust and confidence in you. That takes time. If they do not believe you, they will not buy from you. You must work consistently to develop that trust and confidence. That takes time and patience. But, if you take the time and are patient, you will reap the rewards.
6. Assortment
A guerrilla marketer does not put all his eggs in one marketing basket. Guerrillas use an assortment of marketing weapons and tactics. You must also be flexible and offer an assortment of payment and delivery options to your customers.
7. Subsequent
A guerrilla marketer is committed to a long- term relationship with his customers. This is because a guerrilla knows that a sale to an existing customer is much more profitable than a sale to a new customer. The name of the game here is follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!!! Guerrillas are masters of back-end selling!
8. Convenient
Guerrillas make doing business with them as convenient as possible. This flows out of a guerrilla's commitment to his customers. You must be easy to reach, easy to talk to and easy to do business with. You must be flexible in your dealings with your customers.
9. Excitement
This one is easy if you have commitment. Guerrillas are excited about what they do. They love marketing/selling and it shows. That excitement rubs off on your prospects. It creates a favorable emotional subconscious response - more psychology.
10. Integrity
This one is not on Jay Levinson's original list. I added this one because it is so important in doing business online. And it is a logical consequence of the original nine. If you are committed to yourself, your products, and your business, you do not want to do anything to destroy your good name.
Yet I see so many marketers online doing just that. They use phony and often silly names for themselves. They do not provide full contact information on their web site. They do bulk mailing using all kinds of tricks to keep from being traced.
And people buy from them! WHY???? Would you do business with someone like that off line? I suspect not. Then why do we do it online? If we all ignored them, they would eventually starve to death!
Be proud of who you are and your business. You WANT people to contact you to ask you about your business. You want people to remember you.
So what if you get spam messages! Delete them and go on. You have more important things to do than to chase after fools. Do your business the right way. Encourage others to do the same. That way you will help to make the Internet the greatest tool for free enterprise and entrepreneurship ever invented.
This article is copyrighted by 3R Marketing. All rights reserved. You may NOT copy this article without the express consent of 3R Marketing and the author.
About the Author
John Botscharow is the owner of 3R Marketing.REAL HELP FROM REAL MARKETERS Unconventional Tactics For Conventional Profits! We PREACH, TEACH and PRACTICE Guerrilla Marketing. http://www.3r-marketing.com
Would you like to receive John's syndicated guerrilla marketing articles for use in your newsletter or on your web site? Then sign up for the 3R Marketing Publisher's list syndication@3r-marketing.com
info@3r-marketing.com
http://www.3r-marketing.com
Copyright © 2005-2006 Powered by Custom PHP Programming