Internet Marketing Expert Series: guerilla marketing – Internet Marketing’s Undiscovered Frontier

I was in a very honorable position today to interview the Father of Guerilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson. It’s surprising that someone with such stature and knowledge would actually be so open with his ideas. I really got some new ideas that I’m keen to implement, and generate even more new and exciting marketing plans.

After all, like I said – we are all focused more on the Marketing side of things rather than the Internet side.

One thing that strikes me the most about Guerilla Marketing is the fact that many people have to develop versatility in marketing, while establishing a higher value for the customer in question. Do you actually provide GOOD value for your market? Are you willing to get your hands and feet wet in order to establish yourself in your business? At the same time, Jay also commented at length about the “heart” side of marketing, which I believe is something we really need to develop.

It’s almost like the soul of marketing has disappeared because people constantly target only the numbers and profits, when in reality, we are focusing on the people. It’s literally the people who are the lifeblood of your business, and if you end up focusing too much on numbers and money, you’ll end up broke. Of course, you could say that we can’t take it to the extreme in either case. Truthfully, most of the things we discuss in internet marketing are really powerful strategies. Experts all over the world use it. However, to craft a strategy that takes a life of its own and to allow your business to grow to greater heights, you will need more than just tactics.

Basic Guerilla Marketing Philosophy

What I realized about the power of marketing, having interviewed a number of experts in this area, is that they have a grounding philosophy. Jay is no different. He is focused on what he wants, and several things strike me as I had this interview.

So in a sense, you could say that I was surprised that the somewhat ’spiritual’ side of internet marketing began to evolve from our discussion. To me, the pillars of success in marketing, therefore, are not removed from who you are. You need to literally align yourself with your marketing message. A lot of the time, the people who market successfully seem to be very powerful when it comes to ’selling’. Yet, when a brand is built, you are remembered for certain things like your character, your reputation and your resilience. In my opinion, a good marketer will have to stay the course, and find a path that enables people to latch onto you and stick with you over a long period of time.

The Seven-Line Marketing Plan: The Epitome Of Productive Simplicity

I admit, I’d heard of this before, but the simplicity struck me powerfully. If your marketing plan is not devised effectively, you will end up being lost in the rat race, ending up with a whole bunch of tasks rather than a real business. As the old saying goes, you have to stop working in your business and working at your business instead.

The simple approach to doing up a marketing plan tells me also that we might be mistaken in many of the things we do, that literally are a waste of time. How many of us actually hone ourselves to be far more effective every single day? I mean, if you practiced something and kept adding something new, you’d keep learning, growing and becoming masterful in your own right.

How does a 7-line marketing plan work? You can check it in the FULL INTERVIEW that I have made available for download. Feel free to discuss this in the forums.

So Many Tools, So Little Time

Jay talked about over 200 guerilla marketing tools! My gosh, if you implemented each of them, you’d have a sudden avalanche of profits instantly! Yet, we all know that these tactics need to be customized to your business and chosen wisely. Everyone has a way to reach out to their intended market quickly, and more importantly, we are on the search for meaning in our marketing message. How it brands, builds credibility and sustains competitiveness comes from the configuration of the marketing effort we put in.

In reality, all the tools we have at our fingertips can be powerful – what makes it an impenetrable force is the configuration of your guerilla weapons that actually are at your disposal. It’s a MacGyver/ninja approach – using everything within your means to reach the results you need to get at the lowest possible cost to it. Still, your total message should be aligned in order to maximize your returns effectively.

Implications For The Internet Marketer

So, are you running PPC campaigns that don’t work? How about banner ads that simply chalk up the cost? At the end of the day, you will realize that the marketing approach you have decided upon online may not work as voraciously as some other strategy. Somehow, I feel that your message and marketing mechanism will be affected mostly by what is most aligned with you as a person. It’s interesting, for instance, that I tend to drive more affiliate traffic through the use of teleseminars than PPC advertising. After all, I am a public speaker, and many of the guerilla tools that are available to me are not available to other people. As I’ve found, there are few people who can vie for the world’s best teleinterviewer. Fortunately because of the skills I’ve developed, I think I might just go for it.

There’s really no point for those of us who have terrible voices to use audio as a tool for marketing. Likewise, if you are bad in grammar, why bother with article marketing? Every marketer must be aligned. So now, we go from the broad-based mass marketing approach, to custom, talent-based marketing approach that I find makes sense.

These are tools that I have at my finger tips. It’s up to you to decide what works best for you. Are you great at writing content? Then focus on that as your money model. Are you good at doing work FOR other people? Then set up a service agency to do exactly just that. Do you have a knack for finding very good deals? Customize your business based on the value that you can provide. Improve on it time and time again, then this is exactly what your clients will appreciate and love about you.

Don’t crack your brains about your marketing strategy yet. Focus first on yourself – because according to Sun Tzu, if you know yourself and your enemy (I wonder if he was talking about the same thing) you will know the outcome of a thousand battles.