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Guerrillas In The Mist
By Frank Fiore
I’m very fond of Africa – been there twice on Safari. That was before the onset of e-commerce, but it did teach me a lesson about selling on the Net that I try and teach my clients today.
Here’s the story.
My first trip to Africa was on a Kenyan safari with my 9-year-old son. He was just old enough to find it thrilling but not scared enough to care. We were flying from camp to camp every few days crisscrossing the equator several times. Our last stop on our week long expedition was the Mount Kenya Safari Club. Sort of the Four Seasons Resort of Africa. Once our plane landed, we were lead to buses waiting to take us to a well-deserved two-day luxury retreat to wash off a week’s worth of ‘living in the bush’.
The driver informed us that we would be driving right over the Equator on our way to the Safari Club. We, of course, asked if there were some way we’d know when we were at the Equator. We all wanted to take pictures of us standing on that famous meridian. He nodded and said he’d let us know when we were there.
And sure enough, about 30 minutes from the airport, we saw a billboard up ahead that read “The Equator” – with the obligatory gift shop and tourist trap just behind it. We were all anxious to have our picture taken in front of the billboard and were dismayed when our driver failed to slow down. We brought this to his attention and asked him to stop. But he just drove right on past. Incredulous, we asked why he didn’t stop at the Equator?
His reply – “There’s a better Equator further up the road.” And sure enough, there was. In fact there were several!
Finally, we stopped at one of the Equators that our driver said was the ‘real’ Equator (complete with gift shop) and we stepped off the bus to take pictures. Being mostly sales and marketing people on the bus ourselves, we quickly understood that the native driver was practicing the very same sales and marketing tactics that we used back in the States. We were in search of a particular watering hole, he had our ‘attention’ and directed us to the one he wanted – probably his brother-in-law’s gift shop - and in the process got credit for any sales.
After we were relieved of some our Kenyan shillings in exchange for local trinkets, we continued on our way to the Safari Club learning that sales and marketing techniques are the same the world over – even ‘in the bush’. Why pay to advertise when you know where the watering holes are and have the drinker’s attention.
Another term for this is ‘guerrilla marketing’ – a not so used but powerful sales and marketing strategy.
One of the main tenants of guerrilla marketing is to promote your product or service by spending as little money as possible. Or in other words, first find out who your customers are and what watering holes they congregate around. Once you know that, you can attempt to get their attention and hopefully make a sale. When my clients ask me what’s the first thing they should do to promote and market their business I strongly suggest that they put their check book away and don’t do a thing until they discover the watering holes where their customers hang out. Like the Kenya tourists who arrive in the area looking to ‘hang out’ at the equator.
Case in point.
I recently counseled a potential client who was looking to sell their B2B product to businesses. They sold telephone equipment to apartment complexes and small businesses. The marketing strategies they were using – cold calling and buying lists of companies who just received business licensees – were not working. The telemarketing calls were inefficient and largely ineffective, and by the time a company has its business license, in most cases, they had already purchased their phone system.
I told them to first find the watering holes. Discover where their potential customers hang out and be there to sell to them.
How do you define a watering hole? That’s the person, place or thing that already has their ‘attention’ and credibility in the eyes of your potential customers. Find these sources and you not only find your potential customers but also a partner that will market your product for you – for free!
In my client’s case, I first recommended talking to Title Companies. Any commercial building or apartment complex that is being built needs to have a title search. Title Companies guarantee that the title to the property being built on is free and clear of any and all liens. Since this search has to be done on any property before a bank will extend a construction loan, this puts the Title Company in the position of being a watering hole for businesses that could need a new phone system for the building or even for their future tenants.
It also positions the Title Company as a credible source of information and one that has the attention of those at the watering hole. I suggested that they approach one specific Title Company in their area and offer them an exclusive program to commercial property developers and businesses. Perhaps a discount on a phone system or perhaps a free extended warrantee on the system they buy. The title insurance business is very competitive so Title Companies love these kind of deals because they differentiate themselves for their competition. And since the major Title Companies are nationwide, throwing in with one of them would give my client national coverage for their product.
This is a good example of guerrilla marketing. Here are some others – none of which will cost your business one Shilling.
Think about creating strategic relationships with other web site. Creating strategic relationships with other web sites is a very powerful and cost-free way to promote your product or service and can be done in several ways. First, start by finding web sites that might be linking to you already. It goes without saying, that if they link to you now, they might be interested in deepening a business relationship with your company. And how do you find out if they’re linking to you.
Simple, go to <a href=http://www.altavista.com>AltaVista</a>, <a href=http://www.yahoo.com>Yahoo!</a> and <a href=http://www.google.com>Google</a> and enter in the search box the search command link:domain name of your web site (i.e. link:yourdomian.com). The search results will list all the sites that are linking to yours. These are the first people that you should contact for a strategic relationship. Ideally, these sites will be content or community sites that reflect the interests of your potential customers. After you’ve attempted to find who links to you, using keywords that reflect your business, use the search engines to look for other compatible content and community sites.
And what form could this relationship take? It could include reciprocal linking or even a banner ad exchange. If you’re going to reciprocal link, you need to set up a recommended resources page on your site to list your linking partners. But reciprocal linking can go much further. Instead of a simple link on your resource page, you can add copy to a partner’s link and place it strategically around your web site if he or she would do so in turn. You might even make it part of your navigation structure and frame the partner’s page with your navigation when their link is clicked on. That, by the way, is the only practical use of framing.
Finally, if you are a creative type, you can syndicate your own content to your partner sites. Think about this. You sell a product or a service. You not only know your product or service but also a lot of other information about the jungle they inhabit.
Let’s take my client as an example. They sell phone systems. Writing a weekly feature on how to choose a system, or the ins and outs of servicing, selling or trading phone systems would be of value to content and community sites that focus on telephony. Refreshable content is a desired commodity of any web site. If my client would provide that content for free, they would have a good chance of lining up some valuable partners who have the attention of your potential customers. In addition, your partner’s credibility with their visitors could pass to my client’s company and its products. Regular visitors to a site trust what they see when they get there or else they wouldn’t go there. That trust can rub off on my client and their product.
And of course, included in each weekly column my client could put in a plug for their company and it’s products. In addition, they can invite the reader to subscribe to a telephony newsletter thus building up an in-housed database of prospects to market to in the future.
Here are some other guerrilla marketing ideas to consider.
Suppose you owned a photography company and specialize taking quality pictures of pets. Where’s the water hole that pet owners congregate at? Veterinarian offices for one. Put sample photos in the waiting room with your company’s logo, telephone number and web address. One of the best ways to get the attention of prospective customers is through your ‘sig file’. A sig file is easy to create and cost’s you nothing to produce. Attach it to every email you send and every post you make to newsgroups, discussion lists and discussion forums.
There are three elements of a sig file that will pack the punch of a promotional ad. First is a good tag line that conveys your value proposition that summarizes the benefit of your product and answers the question "Why should I care?" Second, provide a direct link to your offer. And third, provide multiple ways to contact you.
If you put your mind to it, you can come up with others guerrilla ideas that apply to your business.
So before you reach for that check book to buy ads, rent email lists, pay for search engine placement, or invest in sponsorships, think of being a ‘guerrilla in the mist’ and apply marketing techniques that cost you nothing but your time.
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