You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

Guerrilla Marketing: Go Bananas!

Chase’s Calendar of Events © cites April 12 as “Walk on the Wild Side Day”. On this day we are encouraged to do the unexpected, such as going “to work dressed like a gorilla”. This idea sent my head spinning: Why not go to work thinking like a guerrilla?!

Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing is “unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.” In other words, it’s getting creative with what you’ve got, what you can get, what you do, what you can do, who you know, who you can meet— it’s out of the box thinking and out of the box doing!

For most authors, self-publishers, and independent presses, time is short and money tight. Most [traditional] advertising is way out of our realm and hiring a publicist is something we would do...if we won the lottery (see Nicky’s Narrative above—there is always hope!). So what do you do when you don’t have all the resources available to you that you would like? As an old acting teacher of mine used to [repeatedly] tell me: “Work with what you have; not with what you want.”

Without using the Levinson terminology, all the previous marketing tips that have found their way into these newsletters have been types of guerrilla marketing. So don’t let the term, itself, scare you. In this issue, were just giving it some focus.

What gets me going about guerrilla marketing, first off, is simply the name. “Guerrilla” makes me think action. It sounds exciting…and off the beaten path – which is good. It’s like taking the road less traveled…which makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!

The name also makes me think : “Gorilla” – which leads me to think of all the things that go with it, like swinging around from vine to vine, beating my chest - “going ape”, “going bananas”, “it’s a jungle out there”, “monkeying around”….You get the picture: Fun. Wild. Reckless abandon.

At this moment you might be saying to yourself…”There she goes again – what is her point?” I’ll tell you: part of the point is getting to the point. It’s the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from the fun of conceiving new ideas and then having the moxie to implement them! The gusto to network and make contacts and the zest for building relationships are key principles when all is said and done.

Tenacity, persistence, and repetition coupled with out-of-the-box thinking – are all key, key, key and key components when it comes to guerrilla marketing. gmarketing.com has this posted on their site as the “Guerrilla Marketing Tip of the Day”:

When people request and receive more information, what happens? 59% file the information for future reference; 20% buy the product or service; 12% pass the information along to others; 9% buy a competitive product.

Continuing to get your book - and information about your book - publicized, and by repetitively targeting the same audience over and over puts your book and keeps your book in the eyes and minds of the people you’re marketing to. More typically than not, the name recognition, the subject recognition – the familiarity – will either, a) eventually get one of these people to buy your book, 2) lead them to tell someone else about your book, and this someone else will buy the book, and/or, 3) this someone else will tell someone else, and…or maybe the worst case scenario: someone might tell someone about your book. This someone else visits the DPPstore (or your own website, or wherever else you have your eBook posted). They may not buy your book, but perhaps they buy someone else’s. This would be “good book karma” (yes, I just made up the term – but I like it, and it makes sense).

So another author makes a sale – good for them! If their book was found and purchased this way, then there is the fabulous possibility that the same scenario can happen for you at some point!

But let’s get back to repetition. Here’s a great illustration: I was surfing through some guerilla marketing sites on the web and I came across this story about a car salesman. This car salesman used to attend his town’s high school football game on Friday nights. Every Friday evening he would stuff his coat pockets with hundreds of business cards. Whenever one of the teams (it didn’t matter which) scored and the fans cheered, the car salesman would throw a bunch of his cards into the air like confetti. Obviously, a lot of them were lost to the ground. But over time, many people picked them up, and some picked them up many times. Also, because the guy kept going to the games, he met people, he talked to them. People got to know him, to like him, and to trust him. At some point, people called this guy about a car. The man generated business for himself through fun, by creating relationships, and through persistence/repetition.

By the way, business cards can be made or ordered for an incredibly low cost these days and you can get an incredible amount of information on those things. What’s also great about business cards is that they are easy for you to carry and non-cumbersome for the receiver – they can be slipped into a pocket, purse, or wallet without taking up any real amount of space. It’s much easier to get someone to accept a business card than a paper flyer, and they’re easy to “recycle” – meaning whoever you give it to can more easily, and will, more readily pass it along.

Business cards can be tucked under windshield wipers - if you want to get into nitty-gritty urban guerrilization (yes, I made up that word too), and lots of merchants will allow you to leave a stack or card holder of your cards in their shops and cafés. You can use ‘em for many, many more ways than this – but I’ll let you research that or come up with some ideas on your own (or, if you feel really stumped, email me and ask me for more ideas – then I’ll know someone actually read this posting!).

I will let you in on one more thing (okay, maybe two more things) you can do with business cards, postcards (which can also be created on a tight budget), and paper flyers of various shapes and sizes: you can “blanket” all kinds of public places that have bulletin board displays or wall spaces that offer individuals and businesses free space to advertise. Coffee houses and grocery stores (particularly the independents) usually have such a space.

Also, if your book has a “hook” you can promote it in non-book store kinds of places. For example, let’s say you’ve written a book about boats, or a boat or boats are featured in your book, then you can see if a nautical store, sporting goods store, or novelty store would be willing to display your business cards and/or whatever promotional materials you are providing.
For the sake of time and space, I am simply going to list some other ideas to guerrilla market your book in the public jungle: If your city/town has any social gatherings, such as street fairs, weekly, monthly, or annual festivals, river walks or boardwalks – take yourself down there with your promotional materials and hand them out to anyone who will take them. If you’re not shy, and don’t mind looking silly for the sake of sales, wear a “sandwich board” that promotes your book as you hand out those materials.

Send a continual or periodic email and/or eflyer to ALL of your contacts about your book; Create a contest of some sort (contact me if you want ideas for this), offering a free copy of your book to the winner. Someone might read it who wouldn’t necessarily otherwise. They may love it and tell one to a hundred people about it – voilá: you have made an impression (and possibly some sales)!

“Outsider” artist, Lee Godie, used to stand outside of the Art Institute of Chicago with one of her canvas paintings yelling out to visitors of the museum, “the real art’s out here!” She sold many paintings that way, and since her death, her paintings and sketches are highly sought after and worth a lot of money. I am, in no way, suggesting death – I am simply saying that you can do a lot with an inexpensive gimmick (and a lot of moxie).

If you’d like more ideas, contact me, contact me, contact me - I am happy to be your personal guerrilla-marketing-brainstorming-gal. But I’d also highly suggest you check out any of Jay Conrad Levinson’s books, Lee Silber’s Self-Promotion for the Creative Person, and surf the web for sites that offer guerrilla marketing ideas. Have fun with it – go bananas!