Guerrilla Marketing

by Charles Rubin

It's a brand new year out here in cyberspace, and each of us has a chance to make some real changes to our electronic marketing attack. From what I've seen in the past year, there's still a big gap between the real Internet players and the wannabes. Here are some ideas for resolutions you might make to move you off the sidelines.
Spend ten minutes a day surfing the Web. Like it or not, the Web is where a lot of the action is in terms of commercial Internet development. But you won't know what's going on unless you see it for yourself.

Get a serious Web browser. If your Web-surfing experience is like trying to swim through Jello because you're using a lame browser or slow modem, upgrade your browser or modem and get serious. If you're still using Netscape 1.0 or some other browser that came out early in '95, it's time to download a newer version so you can see what you've been missing. Lots of Web sites now take advantage of enhancements (like Java) that aren't supported by older browsers. Upgrading your modem could also be a big improvement if your still using a 14.4 or slower modem. You could speed up your connections by double, quadruple or better for less than $150 with a new modem.

Check your e-mail every day. The early bird catches the worm, and the fastest service usually gets the business. Leaving your e-mail to languish in electronic purgatory for more than a day or two is a sure sign that you're not serious about Net marketing. And traveling is no excuse. You can get someone to check your mail for you. You can also take a laptop on the road, or borrow a desktop system while you're traveling and log into your e-mail account from there. It's not rocket science.

Respond to your e-mail within 24 hours. If all you do is check your mail, you might as well set up your computer to do that for you. The trick is to actually read your mail and respond to important messages within one business day. After all, if people wanted to wait days for a reply, they'd send you a letter via snail mail, wouldn't they?

Join one discussion group and post to it at least once a week. Solid marketing is about building relationships, and you can't do that if you never interact with anyone else. Find a discussion group that matches your business purpose or even a personal hobby or interest, and get involved. You'll be surprised what develops when you begin sharing information with others on the Net.

These are the absolute, bottom-line, minimum things you should be doing if you're at all serious about marketing in cyberspace. Set your sights higher this year and resolve to follow through with these basics, and your business will show the results.