Allowing customers to express themselves

My local health club has a "Comments" box and a supply of forms for members to express their pleasure or their dissatisfaction about the facility. The form begins with a simple "triage" set of check-boxes which members can use as shorthand to express their present frame of mind. Options are:

* Impressed
* Surprised
* A Bit annoyed
* Very mad
* Just wanted to suggest...

These options help categorize comments, but, more important, encourage shorter responses. By providing me with a "Very mad" option, I was able to devote space to explaining the problem, rather than explaining how frustrated I was. In doing so, my anger began to dissipate as I wrote.

Guerrillas always solicit feedback. Here's how to solicit it most efficiently.

Educating to Plant Seed of Future Sales

One of the best examples of proactive market education can be found at www.bhphotovideo.com. Select any camera or major product, and tabs appear for "Accessories," "Features," "Specifications," and "Item includes."

Click "Accessories," and you'll find detailed descriptions of every accessory that could increase the utility and pleasure the product offers. The cost (and profitability) of these recommended accessories, i.e., batteries, power supplies, viewfinders, filters, remote cords, lens caps, etc., can quickly convert a low-margin sale into a highly profitable one.

Does your web site make it easy to cross-sell and up-sell buyers?

Guerrillas Seek the Reasons Behind "No!"

Guerrillas pride themselves on their subtle persistence. When awaiting a prospect's response to one of their proposals, Guerrillas ask questions to find out if the reason for a non-response may be due to questions based on objections that may not be valid.

If they receive a negative response, Guerrillas then ask questions to find out about other frustrations or problems the prospect is facing. Very often, a simple question like, "What else is keeping you from sleeping at night?" may be enough to encourage the prospect to describe other problems the Guerrilla might be able to solve.

Guerrillas Use Technology to Fill Their Prospect Pipeline

Guerrilla Marketers are not content to have a "one-way," or "brochure," web site. Instead, they create web sites that invite visitors to submit their names and e-mail addresses along with permission for later follow-up.

In return, visitors receive a Special Report that offers helpful, non-advertising, educational content plus a monthly educational newsletter. Consistent follow-up with educationally oriented marketing materials replaces the unknown with familiarity and respect. As a result, when the prospect is ready to buy, the first business they think of will be the resource who shares valuable information with them each month.

Display formatted documents on your web site

Guerrillas are always on the lookout for new technologies which solve old problems.

Macromedia has recently introduced Contribute 2. Contribute 2 permits users to create Flash Paper files of formatted documents like newsletters and press releases.

These communicate at a glance. Instead of requiring web site visitors to download an Adobe Acrobat file, they can immediate read, view, and print a newsletter, press release, or training document from a web page.

Folder hierarchy reinforces importance

About two years ago, I experienced a marketing Renaissance when I simply added a "01 Promo" folder to the root directory of my computer.

Now, whenever I Open, Save, or Save As a file, the first thing I see is "01 Promo"
which visibly reminds me that the first priority of any good Guerrilla is to constantly think in terms of marketing.

Once again, the old adage, "Out of sight, out of mind" proves to be true.

Reinforcing presentation visuals with client references

Last week, I attended a great presentation. The presenter did many things right, including "talking" rather than "reading" her visuals.

Most important, she followed the "one idea per visual" idea. But, she went one step further. Not only was there a separate visual for each of her firm's services, she included the name of a client for whom the firm had provided the service right on the visual. Just the name, no elaboration.

The name was enough, however, to prompt her to describe the client case study and continue talking to the audience, rather than "reading" words everyone there could already read.

Once again, less is more

Yesterday, I described how a presenter reinforced every one of her points with a name of a client for whom the firm had provided the service.

What was interesting, however, was that when she provided TWO client names, instead of one, she considerably weakened her presentation.

Whereas the presence of a single case study reinforced the point, two client names not only cluttered the visual, weakening it by making it appear crowded and hard to read, but the two names competed with each other...and neither name emerged with
any impact.

One name prompts a case study. Two names encourages confusion. Points get mixed up, and the presentation begins to drag.

Keeping Marketing Projects Accessible and Organized

Inside my 01 Promo folder, there are 10 subfolders. These correspond to the major marketing activities during the year: 01 Planning, 02 Newsletters, 03 Web site, 04 Testimonials 05 Articles, 06 Press Releases, 07 BNI, 08 Fulfillment, 09 Affiliates, 10 Press photographs.

The numbering is crucial, as it is a great timesaving to have the Promo folders appear in the order of their importance, rather than alphabetically.

Inside each category of folder, there are separate sub-folders for individual projects, or--in the case of newsletters--newsletter topics organized by month.

What I wished I knew about filenames fifteen years ago

When I began writing, I've wasted hundreds of hours of time, and lost thousands of dollars of income, by not having a consistent system for file names and locations. I often had to recreate illustrations from memory (or from looking at illustrations in a published book).

Now, I have a simple way of keeping track of each element of each chapter of each book. I start with a folder named Writing, which is divided into Articles, Books, E-books, On-line, and Audios. Each category, each publication and book has its own folder. Within these folders, there are separate folders for each article or each book.

Within the Articles and Publication folders, each article has its own folder. Everything associated with the article--phone calls, e-mails, illustrations, text, Mind Maps, etc.--are kept together in this folder. The same is true for each topic written for online sources.

Within the Books folder, there is a separate folder for each book title. Each title folder has separate folders for each chapter, in addition to separate folders for "correspondence," "table of contents," "front matter," "back matter," etc.

More important, everything associated with each chapter goes into a single folder, illustrations and text, all drafts, etc. I used to store illustrations in a separate folder, but this was a disaster, as my books are filled with illustrations, and when a chapter was moved from one location to another in the book, it was extremely hard to locate the illustrations.

Sounds obsessive, but take it from me: a consistent file naming and location system can save the day.

If you're marketing with direct response TV, keep the phone number on the screen at least ten seconds. Tests proved that response rates increased 70% by increasing the phone number exposure time from three seconds to ten seconds.

Participate in a newsgroup

Joining a newsgroup is the best way to target on a group of people with common interests. You can learn what they are saying about the subject in general, and what specific things they like or have problems with. You can conduct market research about new products or promotions, and then you can offer helpful information that will enhance your reputation and increase your customer base.

It is important that you get your message across without blatantly promoting yourself. Use a signature at the bottom of each message you post, identifying you, your company or service and online contact information.

Would you like to reach more home based businesses? Home based businesses (HBB) are rarely listed in directories and are shy about attracting to much attention from local zoning authority. They can be pretty hard to reach.

Guerrilla Deborah Wilson had trouble reaching home based businesses in her area, so she suggested to her local chamber of commerce that they set up a special committee for HBB's. They liked the idea and appointed her head of the HBB Committee and also let her use chamber resources to organize the community.

If your chamber doesn't have such a committee, start one!

Direct mail, love it or leave it 50,000 Americans a month call the Direct Marketing Association and ask to be put on a not-to-be-mailed list. As of this moment, three million Americans enjoy this freedom from direct mail. Not a guerrilla among them, I'll bet.

Sometimes we avoid silly and obvious promotions but they can get the job done. Guerrilla Terry Stone knows all about the great value of "cheap" things.

Terry gives away all kinds of promotional items with the business name and phone number imprinted on them but rulers are one of the most effective items. Terry uses a corny opening line for the rulers before a presentation, "Use these to measure the effectiveness of my presentation."

It might be silly but Terry laughs all the way to the bank.

The guerrilla mindset is best exemplified by the basic premise of the book, " "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance": If the only reason you ever get under your motorcycle and tinker with it is to fix something that's wrong, so it will run better, your motorcycle will always be breaking down. But if you enjoy the process of tinkering with your motorcycle, and always fool around with it whether it needs fixing or not, your motorcycle will run more dependably.

Multiple sigs for multiple uses

When is the last time you updated your online signature? Smart Guerrillas use different sigs for maximum marketing effect in various situations. If you have several product lines, you should have a sig for each. If you're planning to do an online conference, create a sig that promotes the conference date and time and use that sig on messages you post to that forum in the weeks preceding your appearance. Similarly, if you're promoting a new feature on your Web site, plug that in to your sig for a period of time. You might also want to have a casual sig to use with friends and longtime customers.

The best mail programs will allow you to store an unlimited number of sigs and then choose the preferred one from a menu as you create each message. In case your mail program doesn't support multiple sigs, just create the sigs in an e-mail message, save the message in your outbox, and then copy the appropriate sig from it each time you create a new message.

Influencers: Many sales involve more than one person: the marketing manager, the chief engineer, a supervisor, or a department head. While not directly responsible for making the final decision, they may substantially affect the outcome.

Way of the Guerrilla # 1: The Journey is the goal

As we approach the midpoint of the year, now is an appropriate time to review the 20 characteristics which differentiate Guerrilla Marketers from mere entrepreneurs.

This, and the following dailies, are adapted from Jay's 1998 book, The Way of the Guerrilla, available online (used) and in many libraries.

Guerrilla Marketers place the goal of a pleasant journey ahead of the mere notion of sacrifice. When the journey is the goal, you can begin with work that satisfies you, plus a remarkable freedom from work related stress. Unlike old fashioned enterprises, Guerrilla strategies do not require gigantic sacrifices.

Way of Guerrilla # 2: Balance from the very start.

Guerrillas build free time into their work schedule so that balance is part of enterprise.

Guerrillas respect their leisure time as much as their work time, never allowing too much of one to interfere with the other. Guerrillas respect their freedom as much as their work.

From: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 3: Guerrillas are not in a hurry

Guerrilla Marketers recognize that unnecessary speed frequently undermine even the best-conceived strategies. Accordingly, Guerrillas plan intelligently, to eliminate most emergencies that call for moving fast. Patience is their ally. Haste makes waste and sacrifices quality.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 4: Stress is a benchmark

Guerrilla Marketers do not accept stress as the price of doing business. They feel that stress is a warning sign that they must be doing something wrong. Adjustments are made to eliminate the cause of the stress, causing the stress to disappear.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 5: Looks forward to work

Guerrillas consider themselves blessed to be paid to do the work they do. They are good at their work, which energizes their passion for it and their quest to learn more about it and improve their understanding of it by increasing their skills.

Guerrilla Marketers don't think about retirement, for they never want to stop
doing they work they love.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 6: No weaknesses

Guerrilla Marketers have no weaknesses, because they have filled in the gaps between their strengths and talents with people who abound in the prowess she lacks. Guerrillas ally themselves with other Guerrillas who share a team spirit and possess complementary skills.

Guerrillas value their teammates as much as old-fashioned entrepreneurs valued their independence.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 7: Fusion oriented

Guerrilla Marketers are willing to combine marketing efforts, production skills, information, leads, mailing lists, and anything else to increase their effectiveness and marketing reach while reducing the cost of achieving these goals.

These fusion marketing efforts are intentionally short-term and rarely permanent.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 8: Never kid themselves.

Guerrilla Marketers do not overestimate their abilities, because they run the risk of skimping on the quality they represent to their customers, investors, suppliers, and fusion partners.

Guerrillas face reality on a daily basis, and examine their business practices from the point of what is really happening instead of what should be happening.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 9: Lives in the present

Guerrillas are aware of the past, enticed by the future, but embrace the technologies of the present, leaving future technologies on the horizon where they belong, until they are ripe and ready.

They are alert to the new, wary of the avant-garde, and wooed from the old only when there is improvement, not merely change.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 10: The Precious Nature of Time

Guerrilla Marketers recognize that time is not money; time is more important than money. Time is life. Guerrillas recognize that their customers feel the same way, and will never waste their customers or prospect's time.

Guerrillas are masters of efficiency, but never let it interfere with their effectiveness.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 11: Commitment to a plan

Guerrilla Marketers always operate according to a plan. They know who they are, where they are going, and how they will get their.

Guerrillas can deal with barriers to success because their plan has foreseen them and shown how to surmount them.

Guerrillas reevaluate their plan regularly and do not hesitate to make changes in it, although commitment to the plan is part of their very being.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 12: Guerrilla Marketers are flexible

Guerrillas recognize the difference between a guide and a master. When change is necessary, Guerrillas embrace it, recognizing that service is whatever customers want it to be. Guerrillas understand that inflexible things become brittle and break.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997.

Way of Guerrilla # 13: Guerrillas aim for results more than growth

Guerrilla Marketing focuses on profitability and balance, vitality and improvement, value and quality, more than size and growth. The goal is steadily increasing profits without sacrificing personal time. Bigness is not necessarily related to excellence.

Adapted from: The Way of the Guerrilla, 1997