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We’ve had some great success lately with what I would call Guerilla marketing. I might not use the term 100% accurately, as usually that term might pertain more to stunts. We typically have used that term as we have manufactured news to get our company, our products and our projects media attention in effort to generate a buzz around our interests. Our objective was to generate some buzz for some products and command a media presence by manufacturing news as a hook. Here’s a summary of some of the things we have done in recent weeks that have generated above average results :
1. Given away products free on local micro sites, like community based Facebook sites that we posted to. In one example, we gave away $200 (retail value) worth of products. We had the “winners” pick up the item locally so we didn’t have to pack and ship them. In turn, it generated several hundred hits to our web site from people that didn’t know we existed. An example might be : posting your recently released real estate eBook on a local site that has a ton of fans, but limiting the free giveaway to 10 people. There will be a mad dash to be one of the 10 that gets the free item, but the awareness of the item might be hundreds of people. In our case, we were able to track some offsetting sales directly to the promotional stunt simply by looking at addresses of paid shipments within the next several days. We didn't immediately offset the full cost of the giveaway, but we came close. No idea what the ripple effect might bring in over time.
2. Partnership with community organization in a “cause based” marketing campaign. In a caused based marketing campaign, you co-market your products with a philanthropic organization, and donate a percentage of the proceeds to them. This creates a newsworthy event suitable for joint press releases, joint marketing, social networking, and media attention. An example of this might be… if I owned a juice company, I might stage an event with a local retailer in which we did demos at the retailer, sold products through the retailer, and donated a percentage of the proceeds from the sales to a local homeless shelter. In this example, you have marketing potential from your own fans, from the media, from the retailer, and from the homeless shelter to their donors and friends list. Everyone wins.
3. Radio interviews. Can you manufacture some news? Can you contact 20 local radio stations, and offer to do an interview with them on either news you manufactured, or news that touches on something relevant to your product or company? Let’s use the Paint Brush Cover as an example. Nearly every major metro market has a home improvement radio show on Saturdays. They might want to interview the paint brush cover about their innovation, their shark tank experience, their home depot rollout, or some other topic pertinent to painting. If you have a food product, can you get on a food related show? If you have a supplement, can you get on a health related show? We were on the radio a month ago with news we created, for which we were the logical choice for radio commentary. We then simply contacted our targeted radio station(s) and offered to come on the air to talk about it.
4. Television interviews. Same concept as the radio interviews, with the only caveat being there has to be an interesting visual. News stories are generally 4 minutes or less on television. All local television stories are looking for stories. Your story might just be an interesting story about a local startup company with an innovative new product. Keep in mind, local news cycles require special interest stories multiple times a day. What can you offer them? What can you show them? What can you talk about? Want to get on TV for FREE? Find a reason, and make the call. Best to contact a consumer reporter from your favorite television station directly. They’ll take your call 100% of the time. They need new angles, new stories, and diversions that would be of interest to people.
5. Newspaper stories. Get your name in print. This ranges from guest editorials on a subject of your expertise or choosing, to press releases. It can be product centric, or simply interesting insight from your industry. Local small city papers are the easiest to penetrate with special interest stories, but even major metro news papers are receptive to interesting insight guest articles. Find something interesting to write about, and write about it. Note that the papers like it if the content is exclusive to them, so don’t take a blog post and submit it to the paper. Submit it to the paper first, and if they reject it, then blog it.
6. Press releases. We sell very little from press releases directly, but they serve two purposes. First, they get the attention of industry trade magazines and news services. If I sold remote controlled cars, and I wrote a press release about a cool new remote control car our company designed, I might submit that press release to the editor of Remote Control Car Monthly magazine, and he’d probably do something with it. Keep in mind, people are always looking for content. The second value of a press release is it’s SEO value. When people are searching google for “cool new remote control cars” they might come across your press release, which will live forever on the internet if you submit it using a press release distribution service. You can even use FREE press release distribution services, many of which will have this same “forever SEO” aspect. So, don’t count on your press release to drive immediate sales, but craft them strategically to get industry attention, and to live virally on the internet as a positive SEO hit for search terms related to your company.
All six of these things we’ve done successfully over the last couple of months. We kind of make it up as we go. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have with regard to the above, and would love to hear your ideas for how to get your company attention through unconventional means. You could also post generic industries here (without revealing your exact business or product) if you need ideas, and people might be able to throw out some out of the box suggestions for you.
1. Given away products free on local micro sites, like community based Facebook sites that we posted to. In one example, we gave away $200 (retail value) worth of products. We had the “winners” pick up the item locally so we didn’t have to pack and ship them. In turn, it generated several hundred hits to our web site from people that didn’t know we existed. An example might be : posting your recently released real estate eBook on a local site that has a ton of fans, but limiting the free giveaway to 10 people. There will be a mad dash to be one of the 10 that gets the free item, but the awareness of the item might be hundreds of people. In our case, we were able to track some offsetting sales directly to the promotional stunt simply by looking at addresses of paid shipments within the next several days. We didn't immediately offset the full cost of the giveaway, but we came close. No idea what the ripple effect might bring in over time.
2. Partnership with community organization in a “cause based” marketing campaign. In a caused based marketing campaign, you co-market your products with a philanthropic organization, and donate a percentage of the proceeds to them. This creates a newsworthy event suitable for joint press releases, joint marketing, social networking, and media attention. An example of this might be… if I owned a juice company, I might stage an event with a local retailer in which we did demos at the retailer, sold products through the retailer, and donated a percentage of the proceeds from the sales to a local homeless shelter. In this example, you have marketing potential from your own fans, from the media, from the retailer, and from the homeless shelter to their donors and friends list. Everyone wins.
3. Radio interviews. Can you manufacture some news? Can you contact 20 local radio stations, and offer to do an interview with them on either news you manufactured, or news that touches on something relevant to your product or company? Let’s use the Paint Brush Cover as an example. Nearly every major metro market has a home improvement radio show on Saturdays. They might want to interview the paint brush cover about their innovation, their shark tank experience, their home depot rollout, or some other topic pertinent to painting. If you have a food product, can you get on a food related show? If you have a supplement, can you get on a health related show? We were on the radio a month ago with news we created, for which we were the logical choice for radio commentary. We then simply contacted our targeted radio station(s) and offered to come on the air to talk about it.
4. Television interviews. Same concept as the radio interviews, with the only caveat being there has to be an interesting visual. News stories are generally 4 minutes or less on television. All local television stories are looking for stories. Your story might just be an interesting story about a local startup company with an innovative new product. Keep in mind, local news cycles require special interest stories multiple times a day. What can you offer them? What can you show them? What can you talk about? Want to get on TV for FREE? Find a reason, and make the call. Best to contact a consumer reporter from your favorite television station directly. They’ll take your call 100% of the time. They need new angles, new stories, and diversions that would be of interest to people.
5. Newspaper stories. Get your name in print. This ranges from guest editorials on a subject of your expertise or choosing, to press releases. It can be product centric, or simply interesting insight from your industry. Local small city papers are the easiest to penetrate with special interest stories, but even major metro news papers are receptive to interesting insight guest articles. Find something interesting to write about, and write about it. Note that the papers like it if the content is exclusive to them, so don’t take a blog post and submit it to the paper. Submit it to the paper first, and if they reject it, then blog it.
6. Press releases. We sell very little from press releases directly, but they serve two purposes. First, they get the attention of industry trade magazines and news services. If I sold remote controlled cars, and I wrote a press release about a cool new remote control car our company designed, I might submit that press release to the editor of Remote Control Car Monthly magazine, and he’d probably do something with it. Keep in mind, people are always looking for content. The second value of a press release is it’s SEO value. When people are searching google for “cool new remote control cars” they might come across your press release, which will live forever on the internet if you submit it using a press release distribution service. You can even use FREE press release distribution services, many of which will have this same “forever SEO” aspect. So, don’t count on your press release to drive immediate sales, but craft them strategically to get industry attention, and to live virally on the internet as a positive SEO hit for search terms related to your company.
All six of these things we’ve done successfully over the last couple of months. We kind of make it up as we go. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have with regard to the above, and would love to hear your ideas for how to get your company attention through unconventional means. You could also post generic industries here (without revealing your exact business or product) if you need ideas, and people might be able to throw out some out of the box suggestions for you.
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