Advantages of Guerilla Marketing for Small Businesses

Advantages of Guerilla Marketing for Small Businesses

Introduction

Guerilla marketing is a strategic advertisement plan that is meant to produce paramount results by using marketing tactics that are unconventional and low in cost. Guerilla marketing is similar to guerilla warfare in that it uses ambush and sabotage tactics in the marketing industry. The aim of this strategy is to capture the consumers’ interest at a memorable and personal level by creating a valuable and indelible impression. Furthermore, this strategy requires high imagination and is mostly employed by small businesses and big businesses in a few cases to complement existing marketing strategies. Therefore, guerilla marketing is the most ideal for small businesses that desire to reach a large audience and make an impact.

Benefits of Guerilla Marketing for Small Businesses

One of the advantages of Guerilla marketing is the low cost involved. A good example is when a company uses a few employees to make a quick promotional video for a Facebook or Youtube ad instead of hiring a professional team to do the same (Elena et al, 5). Marketing campaigns in this strategy do not need to be expensive in order to be successful. This is because, creativity is used to draw memorable attention to a certain product, brand or service. For this to happen, the company should, first of all, identify the main idea that it wants to instill in the consumers’ minds. Secondly, they should choose a tactic that will brand the message to the audience well, use low cost and involve high ingenuity (Lewis,5). Then, visual or artistic installations should be incorporated to complement the message being put across. This can be done by adding unique visual elements to fliers and pamphlets, use of street art and reverse graffiti and using the internet (Patrick et al,50). The advertising strategy must be careful not to give the wrong impression of the brand. Moreover, they should observe legal regulations governing fliers and graffiti so as to maintain the brand’s reputation.

Guerilla marketing encourages employee engagement and corporation. It is easier for a group to come up with a highly creative idea as compared to an individual. Therefore, when employees come together to brainstorm or come up with an idea for advertisement, it enhances social cohesion amongst them (Lewis,5). This will further improve their communication skills and in the process, they will have fun and break the monotony of their daily work routine. Furthermore, the employees can be encouraged to participate in this process by using internal communication in the form of colorful visuals. This will improve their attitude towards the process, stimulate their interest and they will be able to come up with creative ideas (Lewis,7). Collaboration with other businesses or sponsoring communities further creates room for creativity and good relations.

The brand recognition is increased when viral, ambient and grassroots marketing techniques are used (Haque,242). For instance, viral marketing involves encouraging viewers of advertised content to pass on the message. This involves rapid sharing of content online and it is successful when the content relates to the audience at a relevant timing for example Christmas season. Ambient marketing employs the innovative transformation of environmental objects to eye-catching adverts (Haque,245). For example, placing a Duracell sticker next to the headlights of a bus. Grassroots marketing is aimed at building a close rapport with customers and is less focused on getting the attention of numbers. Other methods are used such as wild postings where advertisements are centrally placed at densely populated places such as malls and busy streets to get exposure. Ambush marketing is also effective since it associates a brand with an existing event and also focuses to improve on weaknesses of rival brands and consequently market itself as a better option (Haque, 247). Another technique is experiential marketing whereby users are given a firsthand experience of a product to ensure they have a better understanding of the product. Presence marketing is a subcategory of guerilla marketing whereby the product is made available in social events, local festivals and in social media platforms (Haque,251). All the techniques above are methods used under guerilla marketing and they fulfill the objective of increasing recognition of a brand by all means necessary.

Keeping a company or a brand at the top of its business is an added advantage of guerilla marketing. This is only possible if one is aware of potential and existing customers, competitors and business goals. Moreover, conversions are boosted and the chances of people becoming customers after being reached out to are high (Ghanbari et al,49). In order for products to boost conversions, the following strategies must be effectively put into place and action; online marketing by use of websites, youtube, and Facebook, value addition to improve customer satisfaction and low-cost advertisement campaigns (Jährig et al,12). Leads can be increased by building a strong foundation for sales, maintain and improving one’s marketing strategy and increasing new leads by fusion marketing. Holding data analytics goes a long way in predicting and recommending what customers need with the help of personalized user experience, boost conversion rates and manage inventory. Content marketing also boosts conversion rates. By keeping one’s content updated with algorithm changes in search engines such as Google (Elena et al,14). Optimizing websites for mobile usage is an effective method since most internet usage is done via phone. This can be done by optimizing web pages to fit phone screens so that users follow on the content posted. Improving the online reputation of a brand or company is also an effective method especially since most millennials read reviews before purchasing a product (De Pelsmacker et al,48). In addition to this, offering discounts and attractive deals is efficient in retaining and attracting new customers.

Further advantages of guerilla marketing include the flexibility of using urban hacktivism. These include open-sourced collaboration which involves landscaping, use of projections on blank walls to create the impression of a billboard and yarn bombing which involves decoration of an urban environment using unique and unexpected objects (Snezhana et al,6). Offline gamification is employed also where customers get rewarded for buying a special combination of goods (Dymek et al,4). This increases the consciousness of the product and challenges customers to look out for the product. Product placement which involves offering products for display known as props to local merchandisers is effective and advantageous especially when reaching out to the local community (Peter et al,6).

In conclusion, the advantages of guerilla marketing are numerous and they provide a highly appealing content that will be relevant to a target audience with low costs. Moreover, capturing the interest of the public unexpectedly in a positive way is advantageous in this marketing technique. Taking advantage of the online tools available is employed in this strategy to ensure the brand and the business is noticed. By using tactics that are low in budget, unique, memorable and nontraditional, guerilla marketing is able to increase brand recognition and thus increasing the chances of improvement, especially for small businesses.

Work cited

De Pelsmacker, Patrick, Sophie Van Tilburg, and Christian Holthof. “Digital marketing strategies, online reviews and hotel performance.” International Journal of Hospitality Management 72 (2018): 47-55.

Dymek, Mikolaj, and Peter Zackariasson, eds. The business of gamification: a critical analysis. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

Ghanbari, Roshanbakhsh, and Amir Roshanbakhsh Ghanbari. “THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GUERILLA MARKETING AND MAKING DECISION TO PURCHASE MAX COMPANY’S.” Current trends in organizational performance and future perspectives 1 (2017): 49.

Haque, Mustafizul. “The Effects Of Guerrilla Marketing On Consumer Awareness.” Frontiers of Inclusive Growth 1.1 (2018): 242-256.

Jährig, Elena, et al. “Guerilla Marketing Using Social Media as a Success Strategy in Crowdfunding Campaigns: Towards a Research Model.” (2017).

Lewis, Barbara. “Creativity: Teaching It and Capitalizing Upon It.” (2018).

Ristevska-Jovanovska, Snezhana. “GUERRILLA MARKETING AS AN UNCONVENTIONAL MARKETING ACTIVITY.” Research in Physical Education, Sport & Health 6.1 (2017).