Guerrilla Advertising: Transform Boring Ideas into Surefire Sales

Apr 30, 2017

By Shawn McCadden

If you are Bechtel Construction, with more than US$17 billion in operations, you need not worry about advertising under budgets in such a way that would prevent you from putting food on the table. After all, most in the construction industry, including designers and architects, are sole owners, with few if any employees. But for those of us who don’t have a million-dollar advertising budget, we can turn to and rely on guerrilla marketing and advertising to get our brand message out there.

Guerrilla marketing defined

Guerrilla marketing is generally characterized by unique or unconventional advertisements that create buzz because they are so mind-blowing. Since it relies more on cleverness than mass reproduction, guerrilla marketing is hallmarked by being very cost effective and, in some cases, free.

Michael Serazio, author of Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Guerrilla Marketing, calls this marketing style the “cool sell,” because of its strategy to use buzz to promote brand awareness, as opposed to a hotter sell of directly advertising the product.

Goals of a guerrilla campaign

Word of mouth is still one of the best marketing tools a business can apply. In the world of social media, word of mouth is amplified by the power of the Internet.

Likewise, guerrilla marketing uses this phenomenon to get people talking about your brand by doing something clever and worthy of conversation. Named for its analogy to guerrilla warfare, this marketing strategy ambushes potential customers using the element of surprise, sabotages competitors in the domain of brand reputation, and uses tactics to reach potential target demographics in a more efficient way.

Tap Into the buyer’s persona

Of course, any marketing campaign has the ultimate goal of driving sales. You want consumers to recognize your company, but you also need them to use your business.

Guerrilla marketing is excellent at influencing consumer purchasing habits. Because it relies on cleverness, this marketing technique inherently sends a message that your business is smart and savvy. The assumption is that you can use this brainpower to benefit your clients; all they need to do is pick up the phone and call you.

Find your niche

Guerrilla marketing is limited in size to a specific advertising platform. In business, this is called a niche market. Working a narrow demographic of like-minded people will lower your advertising costs, make it easier to find ideas that resonate with consumers, and increase your brand reputation.

Case study

Now that you have an understanding of the components for guerrilla marketing, it would suit you well to examine the strategies of some of the more successful companies.

As an eye-catching and surprising motif, various zoos across the country have used the sides of buses drawn to look like a snake or a rhino denting the vehicle for their guerrilla marketing efforts.

Because contractors are constantly on the road, it would be beneficial to use your vehicle(s) for advertising purposes. If the vehicle is banged up, then look into purchasing a new or used vehicle and write it off as a marketing expense. From there, your job is to get creative. Make your vehicle look like it’s overloaded, and paint the motto “We are full of your dreams.”

Shawn McCadden is a consultant, educator and speaker who offers business consulting and coaching services for remodelling business owners who want more for and from their businesses and their lives. He also consults with construction-related product manufacturers and suppliers, helping them understand, find, educate and better serve remodelers. Check out Shawn’s website http://www.shawnmccadden.com/ and blog

www.shawnmccadden.com/Subscribe-to-The-Design-Builders-Blog.