Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Hard Core Guerrilla Marketing

Posted by Anonymous on 11/30/2004 at 3:23 AM ET 250 Points
Let's see if we can rack the collective brain of the group with developing innovative Guerrilla Marketing techniques that you have seen or used that would be applicable to service businesses that have a relatively small geographic footprint like a city or county.

These can be beneficial to large businesses as well but hopefully, they will be things that smaller businesses or non-profits can do too. B-B or B-C for whatever you have up your sleeve.

This is project related for me so any suggestions you can provide are greatly appreciated.

Any service industry will do, but these are examples:

HVAC services
Landscaping
Home builders
Home healthcare providers
Health clinics
Office/store janitorial services
Insurance/Real estate sales

Definition of Guerrilla Marketing: A body of unconventional ways of pursuing conventional goals. It is a proven method of achieving profits with minimum money. Those techniques that most others do not employ, that force your presence in front of willing participants that otherwise would not see you.

Example #1:
Public speaking to local civic organizations on topics that you are familiar with. Local organizations such as community clubs, rotary clubs, Lions, Elks, professional organizations, etc. are not known for their ability to attract speakers. Yet these are filled with community and business leaders as well as private individuals who are all consumers.

Volunteer as a speaker, not to present your company or services, but on a related area of interest for which you would qualify as an expert. Present an interesting discussion of issues that are generally relevant to the audience, including tips, secrets of the pros, how to obtain the best result, and so on.

Example #2:
Most counties in the U.S have their property tax records computerized and they can query the database based upon specific criteria that you define and by any sort method. Therefore, if your company specializes in building garages, you would then specify single-family homes without garages, more than 5 years old, with a property tax value that covers your range of home values, and sort by zip code. The results would give you a very targeted list of potential clients for you to contact directly.


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RESPONSES

  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 11/30/2004 at 4:29 AM Member
    Hi, Steve! It's good to have you at this forum.

    The examples you've given don't seem like guerilla marketing tactics. The first one is more along PR lines, and the second one is just good data mining.

    A while back, there were a couple of good Q&A threads with ideas that might fit your definition better. Look here:

    » Best ways to generate leads for on-site computer service
    » How to get sales in IT security

    It would be interesting to turn some of the ideas there (particularly the Geek Squad) into a guerilla campaign for lawncare or health clinics!

    - Shelley ;]
  • Posted by telemoxie on 11/30/2004 at 8:18 AM Accepted
    One effective technique (although I'm not sure it would classify as "Guerrilla Marketing" ) is to focus a dedicated marketing campaign on folks who might refer others to your business. For example, I'm a part-time marketing department for small technical companies - I could inform accountants about the cost-effectiveness of my service, since they are typically offering advice to dozens of companies.

    For example, a landscape company could market to a variety of firms who target high-end homeowners, especially those who might work with such a homeowner (e.g. real estate salespeople, wedding planners, pool companies).
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 12/1/2004 at 5:48 PM Member
    Paul, if you haven't already done so, you might want to add your link to the Resources page. Or Steve, you could do it.

    Not only does it look useful to a lot of people, but you'll also earn some extra Question points at the end of the year!
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