Local Business Guerrilla Marketing Strategies

OK, so Obama is in office, discretionary income is low, and therefore store front and/or website traffic is down... A lot of consumers have slowed or completely stopped buying non-essential products like home improvement, hot tubs, new cars, etc. and many of the other products you sell... they aren't eating out or going out for entertainment near as often. Well, unless you are ready to throw in the towel, and close up shop, it’s time to start finding new ways to drive prospects to your store/website.

According to some estimates, the average consumer is exposed to about 3000 advertisements per day. So in order to capture your prospects attention, you must offer something unique.

Here are a couple of unique ideas to think about...just a few... I'll give you three:

1 – Co-branding/Joint Ventures
Contact complimentary businesses that sell to your target market. If you are targeting consumers that suffer from back pain, why not get in touch with a local chiropractor, massage therapist and an acupuncturist and have an open house hosted in your store.

Create an ad inviting back pain sufferers to a “Lunch and Learn” Back Pain Clinic on a Saturday afternoon. Each of the sponsors sends out invitations to their current list of customers and prospects and at the end of the event, you all get to share the leads that attended.

That combines two strategic elements: co-branding and event marketing

2 – Offer Unique Promotions
If you think that you can rely on the standard “We match our competitor pricing” or “money-back guarantee” to drive hungry consumers to your business, you are sadly mistaken. Those are too simple for hard times...too generic. Customers are already expecting this and quite frankly, in many industries, this the “the price of entry” – in other words, this does not make you any different than your competition.... b.k.a. "everyone does it."

This is going to get into web design a bit now but stay with me. It applies to brick and mortars also. Every website visitor that you have comes with a problem that they want solved or information they want to find. But prospective customers or clients may be at different stages of the decision-making/buying process. Some may indeed to ready to 'buy now' others maybe, and most are, still in the process of gathering information: finding out why, where, what makes you better, do I need it, etc.

Regardless of what stage in the buying process the're at, you will need to provide them with the useful information that they are looking for as a potential customer so that they can use it make an informed decision about their purchase. If you don't, they will leave you site "wanting" and that's not good for your brand or your hopes of having them purchase from you when the time comes.

Selling most products & services these days will requires that your potential customers be educated about what you do, who you are, why you are different and how your products/services can fill their need. This has been deemed “Education based Marketing” but it's a fundamental and critical part of the buying process that you must fulfill... because the educational process IS the heart of the selling process. And that's what you want to do. Your clients are wanting & needing information and they want credible advice. What they DO NOT want ever is a sales pitch....no body likes to think they are being sold. It has a negative connotation to it. Of course, educating them on why you are better, different, etc. IS sales... so there you go.

Everything you do on you site should have one overriding objective – turning visitors into sales! No surprise here. But you have to do it in a way that is comfortable and effective FOR THEM. This is the purpose of customer targeting and the focus of the LISTEN stage of Straight Line Marketing.

Another element that would help in the sales/buying process would be to provide numerous touch points with the prospect while they are considering, researching, and thinking about this purchase. One way set it up where you can verifiably do that is by capturing their contact information, minimally their first name and e-mail address, so that you can reach out to them again.

What you want to do is get first time visitors to opt-in to something you offer. This could be an email list for future promotions, the opportunity to find you on Facebook, how to follow you on Twitter, or an informational newsletter or blog. In order to do convince them to provide you with their information, you have to offer something they perceive as valuable, something that they want in exchange for providing you their contact information.

There are several different things you could offer: email lists, blogs, white papers, special reports, etc. Their purposes are all to provide needed information that your prospect couldn’t get anywhere else, thus building value in the mind of your prospective client (many times before you even meet in person). This are just some of the things we brainstorm during the THINK stage of the Straight Line Marketing process at Reformation Productions.


3– Tie in With Charitable Organizations
Why not find a way do some good for your business and your community at the same time. Create promotional tie-ins with local charities. Doing so can exponentially drive traffic to your business. How?

Here’s an example. Hold a local high school football team car wash or blood drive in front of your store or do a charity drive at your office. In both instances, both you and the charity being sponsored can get free Public Relations in addition to any advertising you both do. Effective PR can definitely send traffic to your store especially if a school or charity is endorsing it.

After the event, invite the charity and the local newspaper or TV station back to your store and have pictures taken of you and the charity along with the oversized check.

Another example, our company offers event photography and blog write-up to all local charities. We've been known to contribute other things that fall under our expertise, but event photography and public relations is what we put out there. You see our company is passionate about helping local businesses and being charitable. What better way to communicate that aspect of our brand than partnering with local charity events?

In summary, as a business owner, you know that you have to marketing your business if you want to stay in business. That isn't the question. The question is how to market the most effectively and efficiently that you can in these hard times. When the going gets tough, the tough get strategic and creative. We can help you through all this. Our passion is for local businesses and helping them get ahead in the marketing game...even in this down economy.

Contact Rachel Bennett at www.ReformationProductions.com or call 404.862.8814.

Reformation Productions is located in the north Atlanta metro area of Gwinnett County near the following surrounding areas: Dacula, Buford, Hamilton Mill, Braselton, Winder, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Norcross, Hoschton, and Suwanee.

Co-branding bliss

Would you like your product or service to have a stronger market impact? Do you want to reach new customers or reduce the risk of failure for a new product introduction? Co-branding strategies can help you achieve these goals and more.

"Co-branding" is a marketing term that describes the cooperation between two distinct brands to leverage the assets of both brands.In a co-branding strategy, brands work together to create a market presence that neither brand alone could readily achieve.

Barnes and Noble engaged in a co-branding strategy when it began including Starbucks coffee shops inside its bookstores.The company could have developed a proprietary Barnes and Noble brand cafe, serving Barnes and Noble brand latte and Barnes and Noble brand scones. It's certainly a large and powerful enough company to have done so. But the Barnes and Noble brand means books, not coffee and food. A Barnes and Noble-branded cafe would mean little to consumers. The Starbucks brand, on the other hand, stands for certain qualities that hungry or thirsty bookstore patrons find appealing and familiar.

Barnes and Noble and Starbucks are in no way competitors. The association of the brands therefore harms neither, and both have new customers and have extended their relationships with consumers. Starbucks increases its distribution, and Barnes and Noble keeps customers in the store longer. Co-branding benefits both partners in this marketing marriage.

Co-branding can offer a higher return on marketing investment than other strategies such as brand extension. If you'd like your business to offer a product in a new category, for instance, you could spend years building up that product's brand attributes in the marketplace. Adopt a co-brand, however, and you can reduce the time and marketing dollars needed to develop and nurture a completely new product line for your business.

Let's say I've owned an office supply company for 15 years. Over that time, "Edd's Office Supplies" has come to occupy a particular niche, with a brand that appeals to downtown legal firms. One day, I realize that adding a courier service to my business might expand its market presence and extend its relationship with existing legal firm customers.

But "Edd's" means notepads, pens and ink, not couriers. "Edd's Courier Service" would be an unknown for my targeted audience, and it would take a long time and much advertising for the new service to establish its own brand identity. If I reach an agreement with an established courier company that already caters to the same downtown legal firm audience I'm seeking to expand, I've got a built-in name recognition factor to work with. "Edd's Office Supplies Featuring XYZ Legal Couriers" becomes a smart way for two strong, noncompeting brands to expand their businesses - another marketing marriage made in heaven.

Clearly, co-branding can be a shrewd strategy to increase customer access points and distribution, as well as provide additional sales opportunities. If you decide to pursue this strategy, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Recognize that the co-branding effort must be mutually beneficial to both brands. You want to be certain the association will strengthen customer relationships with both brands and not dilute the brand of either party.

Find a brand that complements your own brand. For instance, "Edd's Office Supplies," which concentrates on the downtown legal firm market segment, shouldn't co-brand with a courier firm specializing in transporting medical records. It wouldn't be appropriate for Barnes and Noble to co-brand with McDonald's, since the bookstore's brand does not communicate the same speed-of-service attributes as the fast-food chain. Instead, it found a brand that complements its book-buying environment.

Think of co-branding as a long-term strategy. Co-branding isn't meant to be a quick fix and should not be confused with promotion. A promotion, such as a limited-time offer of a free Coca-Cola with every hot dog purchase at your diner, is meant to bring in a few extra customers for a short period of time. Co-branding works over the long haul, building your brand and business in a more permanent way.

Anticipate investing time to work effectively with another company. Your firm's culture differs in many ways from that of your co-branding partner, and it's sure to have a different organizational structure and procedures. Both parties need to be flexible and understand these differences for co-branding to go smoothly.

Co-branding is similar to a marriage because it's a union of compatible companies working for a common goal. And like a marriage, both partners gain something by working together that they never could gain separately.-Edd Johns

Contact Reformation Productions to build a proactive strategy that's right for you. Should you consider co-branding? Who would you co-brand with? Give us a call.