Five guerrilla marketing weapons that helped increase my business without spending any money

Guest blogger Michael Tasner is the founder of Web marketing firm Taz Solutions Inc. and Chief Marketing Officer of Guerrilla Marketing. His latest  book is Marketing in the Moment: The Practical Guide to Using Web 3.0 Marketing to Reach Your Customers First.

The end of 2009 and into 2010 was proving to be a very difficult year for my company. I discovered that the old ways of doing business were just not working in the “new economy. I was used to charging $5,000 or more a month on retainer without anyone batting an eye as they saw the massive value we provided. But overnight, $5,000 a month turned into $3,000 and then into $2,000.

I knew I needed to think outside the box. I decided to turn to the most well-known marketing brand in history: Guerrilla Marketing. I’ve been familiar with Guerrilla Marketing for years, but I had never fully utilized its power. The essence of Guerrilla Marketing is using time, energy and imagination rather then money–which was perfect, as I was strapped for cash.

Instead of just reading the materials, I decided to take massive action. I flew to Orlando and spent several days with Jay Conrad Levinson to become a Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer. When I started delving deeper into the concepts of Guerrilla Marketing, I found that there were over 200 Guerrilla Marketing weapons that I could put into action. The following are my top five favorites that produced the best return.

1) Choose a Designated Guerrilla: To keep our strategies organized and streamlined, I decided to make one person at my company the designated guerrilla. This person was responsible for the marketing calendar and making sure that the Guerrilla Marketing weapons we were putting into place were being done correctly and tracked to the nth degree.

2) Add Extra Value: I’ve never been a fan of dropping prices, especially since I never compete on price. Therefore, to make sure we started winning more deals, we began increasing the amount of value provided for clients. Here are some examples of what our clients now receive: a client-only educational event once a year, access to our training portal, and a virtual assistant for 10 hours a week at no cost.

3) Use Testimonials: I had testimonials all over the place, but I wasn’t leveraging them. I also discovered that using video testimonials, as opposed to just text, worked much better. Rather then just letting the testimonials sit dormant on our website, I integrated them into our marketing materials and sales process.
4) Write a Book: A book is the best possible business card you can have. It took a lot more work than I expected, but the results have proven to be invaluable.

5) Give Free Public Talks: This is my number-one favorite Guerrilla Marketing weapon. I contacted various chamber of commerce organizations as well as local business groups and offered to come and speak on various topics relating to Web marketing, monetizing social media and Web 3.0. They were thrilled because they were used to paying speakers, and I was happy because I was able to practice education-based marketing and contribute to the local business community. I did not even have to “pitch” my business to the crowd, which would have been a little tacky. People simply came up to me afterwards asking for my business card.

If you’re looking to generate some business without spending a lot of money, Guerrilla Marketing has worked wonders for me and my businesses.