Last updated April 26, 2007

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Finding Your Inner “Guerrilla”

“Marketing” is a broad term that can conjure a number of associations; from physically meeting with a prospective customer, advertising a service or product, to strategizing events to inform a target market. There are many forms of “marketing.” However, one form of marketing that is quite intriguing and peaks the interest of many marketers (wanting to capture the strongest market share and increased profits)... is guerrilla marketing.

The term "guerrilla marketing" was first used by Jay Conrad Levinson in his popular 1984 book, Guerrilla Marketing. In his book Levinson described this method of marketing as non traditional, low-cost or no-cost ways of marketing, promoting, advertising, publicizing, etc. Some may consider guerrilla tactics as unconventional or extreme marketing. At MCS, we often call it “alternative” marketing and consider the benefits very effective.

Guerrilla marketing is utilized to reach the consumer while bypassing traditional advertising vehicles. This “unique” type of marketing was initially embraced by small businesses with the ability to create agile, unique strategies, but it is now increasingly implemented by large businesses.

Increased profits and successful results are the goals of guerrilla marketing. In general, guerilla marketing emphasizes creative and targeted planning rather than hefty budgets and overworked marketing ploys.

Guerrilla marketing is a loosely defined term that describes many types of non-traditional media. Some of which includes (yet is not limited to) the following:

Viral marketing -- via social networks

Ambient marketing -- marketing touches on all aspects of the customer experience.

Buzz marketing -- word of mouth marketing

Undercover marketing -- subtle product placement

Astroturfing -- releasing company news to imitate grassroots popularity

Experiential marketing – customer interaction with the product

Although there are many unconventional marketing techniques, the following is a small sample of guerilla tactics:

Word of mouth campaign

Social networking such as a blog site

Interactions with consumers directly through their daily routine

Personal canvassing or street teams

A “headvertise” campaign (Forehead advertising)

“Bluejacking” sending a personal message via “bluetooth”

Truck and automotive signs

Distribute an eye-catching, branded custom promotional item

Apparel marketing – marketing on clothing

Interactive Urinal Communicator

Advertisements printed on store receipts

Are you ready to find your “inner guerilla”? Creativity, customer-oriented thinking and expanded tactics are the first step in creating a guerilla attack on the market!

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Discover Your Demographics with Market Research

Strategic market planning is the foundation for every marketing program, but what is needed as a basis to make good decisions and pull a successful plan together? Information about the market in general (trends, industry statistics, etc.), current customers, potential customers and target markets (demographic, psychographic and the opinions of these people). This information is procured via market research.

According to Wikipedia, market research is “the process of systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about customers, competitors and the market.” The purpose of market research is to help companies make better business decisions about the development and marketing of new products. Market research represents the voice of the consumer in a company. In a nutshell, market research helps organizations learn more about the groups of people they would like to sell their products or services to.

Market research can be an expensive endeavor depending on the depth and breadth of the information needed and the company's situation. In many cases, hiring a market research firm may be best. But, if hiring a market research firm is out of the question, there are a few other ways to secure important market information.

The following are a few market research techniques that may provide assistance in understanding your industry, customers and potential customers:

Conduct market research with your current clients via interviews, surveys or focus groups. Ask what the customer’s needs are and if they can afford the products or services you provide. Do they like your products or services? What can you do to improve? What specific things are you doing right?

Do research in person at a trade show. Take some time at an industry event to listen to attendees. Ask potential customers what they are looking for. What are the hot topics at the tradeshow and what will be needed for the future in the industries you serve?

Research online. For industry updates and statistics, visit industry association Web sites. If looking for consumer information, consider government sites that have a lot of basic consumer statistics. One good site for basic demographic information is the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov).

Learn about your competition from news articles, industry profiles and the Internet. Visit their Web site, and regularly "Google" yourself, your competitors and your industry.

Review all input from sales feedback from customers over the past year.

Talk to vendors and suppliers. Often they can provide insights and information on the industry, as well as customer trends.

The possibilities for market research continue to grow. The best information is waiting to be discovered.

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Click-Through 101

Internet marketing has introduced business terms that marketers need to understand to attract and calculate success online. One Internet marketing term to be aware of is “click-through rate” (CTR). According to Wikipedia, click-through rate is the average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.

CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on the ad or item (such as a link from a search engine, banner or email) to arrive at the destination site; it does not include the people who failed to click, yet arrived at the site later as a result of seeing the ad.

As such, the CTR can be considered as a measure of the immediate response to an ad, but not the overall impact to an ad or email link.

Some advertisers rate the success of an Internet-based ad only on CTR; while others also recognize the value of the “viewing of the ad.” Many marketers agree that the simple viewing of an ad helps develop a company or product brand impression over time.

There are many factors that impact CTR numbers, and there is much awareness of “fraud CTR” (which is a topic all in-itself, perhaps to be addressed in a future Marketing Minute).

Many companies calculate and report CTRs in a different way, by using “total” rather than “unique” clicks. Subscribers can click on multiple links to arrive at a destination site, which means that CTRs based on total clicks are typically about two times higher than those based on unique clicks.

E-mailLabs.com, which describes itself as a leading provider of high-performance email marketing software and services, reports the following ranges for average CTRs based on permission-based house lists. CTRs that E-MailLabs cite are based on unique clicks (only one click per person is counted) and are calculated as: unique clicks/emails delivered:

B2B newsletters typically range from 5% to 15%.

B2C promotional emails often range from about 2% to 12%.

Highly-segmented and personalized lists (B2B and B2C) are often in the 10% to 20% CTR range. Also, email messages with very strong content, but sent to unsegmented lists, like many news or trend-type newsletters, are often in the 10%-15% range.

Trigger or behavior-based emails (emails that are sent to a recipient based on some behavior they showed, such as clicking on a product link, or visiting a specific Web page), are often in the 15% to 50% range.

Below are a number of the many factors that may prohibit the best CTR:

Content with little value to your subscribers.

Too much content within your email, not giving subscribers a need or means to click-through to your site.

Over emailing to the point that emails lose impact and are deleted before viewed.

A questionable opt-in process.

Plan, execute and review all online marketing strategies with the intent of success, and keep the importance of CTR in check with your goals and tracking.