Marketing

Gorilla Marketing

Gorilla marketing comes from the term "guerilla marketing." No, this is not about selling to monkeys. Instead, it comes from insurgent warfare. The idea is that you're fighting a marketing battle on unequal terms and you have to use the methods of the soldier living off the land in order to get your message across.

Gorila marketing means that you develop low cost, under the radar methods to market yourself. Don't have the money for a Super Bowl commercial? Well then, can you make the business card that you are going to buy anyway work harder for you?

It's the little things that make gorilla marketing so powerful. The business card idea is to make every bit of publicity work for you. So, what should be on a business card? Some are black ink on white paper. They have the person's name and contact information. Others are four color front and back with elaborate graphics.

The gorilla marketer would say that neither were optimal. You must have your name and contact information. But you also need a call to action. You want to make someone do something with that card. The pretty pictures aren't a motivator to buy. But all that white space isn't working for you either.

Another gorilla marketing idea is the one that you see in restaurants all of the time. They ask people to leave a business card to win a free lunch for two. Then they collect that information and send out periodic mailings inviting these good customers to try something new or take 20 percent off a meal. Considering that if you buy a list of names, you'll pay $0.50 per contact and you won't even know if the people had ever heard of your restaurant, you are getting a bargain by collecting the names for the price of lunch.

In fact, collecting names is a key component of gorilla marketing. Email addresses are especially effective because you don't have to pay any money to send the email. Gorilla marketing experts collect contact information and know how to use it to their advantage.

But gorilla marketing is not just about contact names. Indeed, it's about getting your name and product or service out there in as may forms as possible. For instance, if you can write a guest column in someone else's newsletter, you gain visibility in front of a whole new audience. And the newsletter editor doesn't mind providing you with a forum because that's one less article he has to write!

Another gorilla marketing idea is to schedule a "lunch and learn" at a small office. Ask the manager if you can borrow her conference room in exchange for lunch. Go to El Pollo Loco and pick up food for 12. Your $40 investment gives you a captive audience of a dozen people for an hour.

Hopefully, you're starting to see how gorilla marketing can make a huge impact on your bottom line. If you don't have the resources for a major marketing campaign, gorilla marketing levels the playing field through resourcefullness.

Article Published: Monday 17th December 2007