Vehicles and billboards
Morgan Press is a commercial printer in Manchester, NH, interested in projecting a professional image.

One of the best ways they communicate their professionalism is their truck, which is a white truck with a large red logo. “A white truck in New Hampshire?” That’s asking for trouble, especially during mud-season,(about half the year). But, Morgan Press makes it work by having their truck cleaned every day—often, several times a day.

Wasteful? Not really. For about five dollars a cleaning, Morgan Press is able to project an image that non-verbally communicates their attention to detail and their “clean” image.

Take-away. How can you adapt Morgan Press’s “clean truck” to your business?

Packaging and identity
Guerrilla Marketers know that the best time to make a follow-up sale is immediately following the original sale. The more time that goes by after an initial sale, the less likely a follow-up sale will be.

That’s why Morgan Press, Manchester, NH, delivers printed brochures and newsletters packed in white cartons with a large red logo. The boxes look like they contain fine jewelry from Tiffany’s.

How much would Morgan Press save if they delivered brochures and newsletters in unmarked brown corrugated boxes, or—worse—in the boxes paper often comes in from paper manufacturers?

Initially, they’d lose nothing. But, over time, their reputation would erode because cheap packaging materials fail to deliver a positive or reinforcing message.

When contemplating economies, Guerrillas must be careful not to save money in ways that undermine the identity they want to convey to their clients’ or prospects’ minds.

Take-away. How do you “package” your product or service? Is there a way you can deliver your product or service in a way that makes a positive statement?

“You returned my amplifier better than before!”
Audio Lab was a chain of hi-fi specialty dealers in the Boston area. In a very competitive market, they sold and repaired high-quality stereo components—at high-quality prices.

One of the things that set Audio Lab’s service apart was the fact that every unit brought in for service was cleaned and vacuumed. Finger marks and dust spots on front panels were scrupulously cleaned, and all exposed areas of the components were vacuumed. Then, the unit was wrapped in heavy grade clear plastic and sealed with masking tape.

Often, customers would remark: “You returned my amplifier to like-new condition!”

Removing finger marks from front panels and vacuuming dust off the unit itself may not have contributed to better sound, but it certainly made customers feel better about the unit—and Audio Lab’s service prices. Cleaning and vacuuming didn’t work on an electrical level, it worked on an emotional level—where decisions are really made.

Take-away. What can you do, when delivering your product or service, to add emotional value to the transaction you provided?

Profiting from Scenarios
Information architects make extensive use of scenarios. So do Guerrilla Marketers. Scenarios help you serve your market better by helping you see them as individuals, instead of an undifferentiated mass.

Scenarios are fictional one-page documents that create meaningful stories that reveal a lot about your clients and prospects. A scenario details:

Who is visiting your web site.

Why they’re visiting your web site.

Their location in the buying cycle they’re in—i.e. just looking, ready to buy, already bought, etc.

What specific information they’re after.

What other web sites they’ve visited.

Who the visitor is representative of.

By giving them a name, a work situation, and specific needs, scenarios help you focus on individuals, not market generalizations.

Taking the time to prepare three or four scenarios for each of your marketing documents before you begin writing forces you to focus your of your market’s needs (i.e. buyer benefits) instead of product or service features (which usually mean more to you than to your prospects.)

Take-away. Take the time to prepare three or four scenarios describing visitors to your web site. Then, review your web site. Does the existing web site completely satisfy your visitor’s information needs?

In praise of specificity
Be as specific as possible when making a promise in a headline or in the first paragraph of a sales letter or web site. Don’t just talk about “saving money” or “saving time.” Instead, talk about “Save $30.00 a month on web hosting charges,” or “Complete a Newsletter in Half as Much Time!”

Claims without numbers are like report cards without grades; they don’t tell a complete story. They sound “empty.” As a result, they don’t “sell.”

Always translate your offer into a Return on Investment your market can visualize and immediately relate to their business. Specific dollar amounts or percentages are far more effective than general claims.

Take away. Review your latest marketing materials. Are you making broad, empty promises or describing specific savings and specific returns on investment? How long will it take your prospect to recoup the cost of purchasing from you?

Looking for an easy newsletter topic?
Lists make it easy to identify web site and newsletter content. Lists, according to Guerrilla Roger C. Parker who offers a Content Generator from www.gmarketingdesign.com, helps you overcome the stress of an empty screen.

If you are in need of an immediate topic for a newsletter or web site registration incentive, Roger suggests you write one along the lines of: “The 10 Biggest Mistakes that (YOUR MARKET) Makes.”

Start by simplify identifying 10 keywords that describe frequently-encountered mistakes. In the case of authors, for example, it could be a failure to create a book marketing plan as well as a table of contents. In the case of trade show exhibitors, it could be the failure to promote a “draw”—like exhibit hospitality—and a failure to follow-up with visitors after the trade show. In the case of an oral surgeon, it could be a failure to call patients at home after a difficult extraction and ask how they’re feeling.

Take-away. What mistakes do you observe your market making over and over again? Make a list of those mistakes, and describe them. You don’t have to write a lot. Just two or three paragraphs about each point may be enough to double the size of your e-mail mailing list or establish a dialog with an important prospect.

Print on Demand Marketing
Did you go into debt to print a fancy color brochure when you first started in business?

Weren’t you surprised at how quickly it went out of date? Do you still have boxes of brochures in your basement with your old address or phone number, or lacking your web site address?

Each month, print on demand marketing gains strength, according to Roger C. Parker who wrote about this in a recent Guerrilla Marketing & Design newsletter, www.GmarketingDesign.com. Print on demand eliminates inventory, up-front costs, and offers flexibility. You only print as many as you need, right now, for an important face-to-face meeting or attending a networking event.

Remember: conventional, ink-based printing is an excellent example of economies of scale. The most expensive brochure or newsletter is the first one off the printing press. Costs per brochure or newsletter decline as quantities increase.

There are no economies of scale with print on demand marketing, however. For the most part, each brochure or newsletter costs the same, regardless whether you print 10, 100, or 1,000.

Take away. Check your local classified ads or Yellow Pages to find out who offers low-volume print-on-demand publishing in your area.

E-book design frustrations
More and more Guerrillas are preparing their own e-books, both for sale as a revenue source and for free downloading to promote and prove their competence and expertise.

These e-books are often distributed as Adobe Acrobat .PDF files. Acrobat compresses files for faster downloading and preserves document formatting. Typeface designs are embedded in the document, so even if the reader does not have the typeface installed on their computer the typeface will appear on their screen and when printed.

According to Roger C. Parker, www.gmarketingdesign.com, many e-books fail to take full advantage of Adobe Acrobat’s capabilities.

1) Common typefaces. Acrobat permits publishers to “brand” their e-books by using type more creatively than the typical Arial/Times New Roman combination or Verdana (which looks good on screen, but may present problems when printed). Yet, few documents are published using tried and proven typeface options like Garamond, Minion, or Palatino.
2) Line spacing. Text is easier to read when the white space between lines creates a “rail” which guides the reader’s eyes from word to word, or (more precisely) word-group to word group. Single line spacing is not enough. Double-line spacing is too much.
3) Page numbers. Most frustrating of all, many e-books, White Papers, or “special reports” appear without page numbers. When printed, this can present a major problem if the pages are dropped. It can take a long time to organize the pages of a 30 page e-book in the proper order if page numbers have not been added.

Take-way. Review the PDF documents you provide from your web site. Make sure that page numbers are always included (but, omitted from the first page!) and that you pay as much attention to design niceties as you would preparing a newsletter for a printer.

Repeating questions from the podium
What separates a Guerrilla from a non-Guerrilla is often the simple fact that Guerrillas profit from tips and techniques that may not be new, but are—nevertheless—extremely important.

For example, when delivering a presentation or a speech, always repeat questions from the audience.

Remember that you, looking directly at the questioner, are in a better position to hear what they see as well as “read their lips” as they speak.

Those in the audience do not share this advantage. They are often behind, or to one side, of the individual asking a question. As a result, the questioner is not speaking directly to them and they cannot try to “read” the speaker’s lips.

Taking the time to repeat the questions not only buys you time to formulate a response, it ensures that everyone in the audience can understand the question. In addition, you can often restate the question in a more concise and easily-understood format.

The more know-how you have about the overall marketing process, the more profits you will earn. Great marketing involves both insight into marketing know how and intuition into what tools are likely to succeed in a given situation. Both are needed.

With insight and marketing know-how, you may not be able to create great marketing, but you will be able to know the difference between great and gruesome marketing. Knowing the difference, with dealing with freelancers, advertising and the media will have a potent impact on your profit and loss statement.

Guerrillas know that most of their competitors don't take the time to learn. In an area with 100 businesses invited to a marketing seminar, fewer than 25 are likely to attend. Be one of those that attends, however, and you'll gain a significant advantage.

Besides books like the Guerrilla Marketing series, subscribe to publications like Ad Age, Ad Week, and know how to adapt distant successes to your area. And when in doubt, submit questions to the Guerrilla Marketing Association forum!

Do everything in your power to employ marketing techniques and tactics that are honest beyond reproach.

There is widespread distrust of marketing. This is partly because the line between exaggeration and dishonesty is easily crossed. Once crossed, it is nearly impossible to regain your market's respect. Your market's "BS Detector" is constantly on the lookout for unbelievable or unprovable statements.

Marketing that is 99 percent honest and 1 percent dishonest will have the dishonestly exposed and held up to the spotlight.

As a result, always bend over backward to be believed. Techniques include admitting past failure and acknowledging present limitations. A willingness to share bad, as well as good, news adds credibility to your message.

Better yet, prove-rather than claim--your expertise by distributing newsletters and presenting seminars. Let your market experience your expertise firsthand. And replace adjectives with specifics. Prospects discount adjectives and claims, but respect specific quantities, comparisons, and use names, dates, and places to document your claims.

Everything in your marketing should be designed to increase your profits, not merely your sales, but your profits.

Profits are the only valid measurement of your marketing's success. This requires knowing the true cost of every sale, so every sale generates as much profit as possible. This helps you identify the customers and products or services you should concentrate on.

You must also improve the efficiency of your marketing. This requires tools like:

- Identifying the prime benefit clients enjoy when buying from you.
- Tracking results so you can identify your most efficient marketing tool.
- Testing to choose the best offer and media
- Writing headlines that capture the essence of your offer.
- Asking for the sale in clear and unambiguous terms, and other techniques.

Increased profitability typically comes from constantly improving efficiency rather than "creative breakthroughs."

Blessed with the Guerrilla’s vision, do not seek instant gratification, but find your rewards with farsightedness.

A stonecutter doesn’t expect the first hammer blow to split the rock. Instead, the stonecutter picks a spot on the rock and hammers at it over and over.

In a similar way, a Guerrilla Marketer picks a niche and aims for it. Eventually, “the rock splits” and the niche is occupied and dominated, the marketing goals attained.

It didn’t take genius as much as it took steadfastness.

Don’t allow your entirely understandable desire for immediate results derail your marketing plan. Persistence is the key to success.

The ability to accurately define your precise market or markets dramatically affects your profitability.

No one can be everything to everybody. Success comes from identifying who your customers are, what their problems are, and why they buy from you.

Use customer questionnaires to focus your efforts on your most profitable customers and prospects. First, find out what your most profitable customers want and like. Then, communicate your strengths to an ever-expanding universe of prospects, using the Guerrilla Marketing tools that attracted your original customers.

Change is inevitable. Repeat your customer questionnaire every two to three years.

Gear your marketing to people already in the market, and know what they really buy other than instant gratification.

Fresh from college, I decided that I had to own a business suit. This brought up several questions:
1. Where should I get it?
2. How much should I pay for it?
3. What should I look for in a suit?

Coincidentally, I came across an ad in the newspaper headlined: “How much should a man spend on a suit?”

I read every word in that ad—and brought from the store without even visiting other stores!

Your prospects operate in a similar fashion. Marketing didn’t create my need for a suit—an upcoming job interview did! But, marketing predisposed me to look for information about buying suits—information that the ad provided.

Ask yourself: Do your marketing communications offer the information that prospects ready to buy are looking for?

It is easier to sell a solution to a problem than to sell a positive benefit.

Almost all companies are beset with problems of one sort or another. Your job, as a Guerrilla Marketer, is to spot those problems.

One of the ways you can do this is through networking. Networking is not about tooting your own horn, but about asking questions and listening to the answers. Listen attentively and keep your marketing radar attuned to the presence of problems, problems which your products or services can solve.

Don’t focus on accentuating a positive. Instead, stress the negative that your product or service can eliminate—and explain exactly how it will eliminate the negative.

Pick one problem that you solve particularly well, then find prospects with this problem and present them with your solution.

Your own customer list is the best in the world—but only if it bulges with information about each customer.

Media mega-budgets cannot substitute for the information your customer list should contain. The more you know about your customers, the easier it will be for you to identify others with similar problems. The larger and more detailed your customer list, the less you have to invest in media advertising.

It costs six times more to acquire a new customer than it does to resell a past customer! The money saved when you resell past customers goes directly to your bottom line.

Convert the information in your customer list to action steps you can take to make each customer feel appreciated and special. Each customer is unique. Success comes from showing them you understand their unique needs and want to satisfy them.

Consistently display your reverence for your customers by trying to help them with consistent follow-up.

Customer reverence is necessary because it costs five times as much to sell to a new customer as an existing customer.
You can express customer reverence by thanking customers for their purchase, offering them incentives to repurchase at regular intervals, questionnaires, birthday cards, and keeping them informed with catalogs and newsletters.

Nearly 70% of business lost in America is not due to high prices or poor service, but because of apathy after the sale. Don’t let this happen to you.

Design your business to operate for the convenience of your customers, and make it very easy to do business with you.
People do not like waiting around, do not like difficulty in making a purchase, do not like doing business that waste their time, dawdle with their orders or fail to offer instant service.
Convenience can take many forms; 24/7 availability of information and ordering, credit cards, partial payment plans, toll-free phone numbers, information-filled catalogs/brochures, and clear ordering instructions and invoices.

To give yourself a “convenience check-up,” visit successful businesses of all types and see if they are offering conveniences that you are not ordering. How do the businesses you patronize make them easy to do business with? Ask your customers how you can make your firm easier and more convenience to do business with!

Questions lead to answers, answers lead to customer rapport; customer rapport leads to profits.

“Rapport” can be defined as a “harmonious or sympathetic relationship” which creates feelings of partnership and friendship between you and your customers. The more rapport they feel with you, the less likely your customers to go elsewhere.
One of the easiest ways to gain rapport is to ask your customers questions like:
• What are the three best things about our company?
• What are the three worst things about our company?
• If you could create an ideal company in our industry, how would it differ from ours?
• Which three U.S. companies do you respect the most?
Sending questionnaires like these, with an anonymous, postage-paid return envelopes, make it easy for your customers to tell you the truth they wouldn’t want to tell you in person.

Marketing is more effective if it is looked upon as selltime rather than showtime.

Guerrilla Marketers substitute “selltime” for the siren “showtime.”
Showtime—the use of humor, visual pyrotechnics, and outrageous stunts—can be very seductive. However, attempts to entertain often result in expensive advertising which obscures the marketing message that the entertainment is supposed to support. As a result, the humor is remembered, but the advertiser’s name and message are forgotten.

Guerillas realize that the number one purpose of marketing is to generate profits. They recognize that profits result from compelling and engaging headlines that attract prospects and promise benefits that only the advertiser can deliver. A headline that asks: “Are you suffering from one of these problems?” Or “Do you want to (increase sales, reduce turnover, etc” may not be as creative as a celebrity pratfall, but is far more likely to result in your prospect’s reading the message that follows.

Guerrilla Marketers get their entertainment from reading positive profit and loss statements, not from laughing at their own advertisements.

When introducing new offerings, enthusiastically announce that they’re new and clearly explain why they’re good. When introducing new products, there are three types of prospects:

Yes- to- new prospects, who will buy what’s new just because it’s new.

No- to- new prospects who will never buy anything new until its proven.

Maybe- to- new prospects who are open to new if you provide compelling reasons to switch from their current choice.

Guerrillas market to “maybe to new” prospects with messages that not only stress that the offering is new, but also describe the reasons why the new product or service can better satisfy the prospect’s needs and desires than current offerings.

It doesn’t pay to advertise to the “yes to new” prospects because they’ll buy anyway. It doesn’t pay to advertise to the “no to new” prospects because they’ll be unresponsive to your arguments. That leaves the “maybe to new prospects” who may switch, if you provide compelling arguments.

As your new product gains acceptance, include testimonials and case studies from early adopters, and emphasize your market segment’s switch to your new offering. Strive to build a reputation of “new” but “safe” for your product. Momentum established by a successful product introduction can last for years.

Photography Magazines illustrate the power of niche marketing.
Guerrillas have long appreciated the advantages of specialization. Recent trends in photography magazines reinforce the importance of niche marketing.

As popular, "broadness" magazines become slimmer and slimmer, and subscription costs drop to artificially low values, titles that target market niches within photography are growing in number, size, circulation, and costs.

The best example are the several publications, like B&W, targeting those who love black and white photography. Paradoxically, the more color digital photography grows, the more readers there are for black and white, only, publications.

B&W, for example, is just three years old, but is increasing in size, production value, and costs. They serve a dedicated, intense market. The fact that their back issues are becoming harder and harder to get shows the loyalty a specialty niche can develop among their readers.
The costs of issues of B&W or Lenswork approaches that of paperback books, and yet their circulation keeps growing.

Question. How can YOU differentiate yourself by specializing in a niche, instead of trying to be all things to all people?

Guerrilla Marketers understand that customers and prospects are constantly judging their actions. Your image is constantly on the line. One negative can undermine months of hard work and customer loyalty.

Tonight, at a "neighborhood" type of franchise restaurant, I had an experience that really soured my meal.

Upon arriving at the front entrance, I was pleased to see one of the hostesses come out and hold the door open for my wife and I. She greeted us with a warm and friendly, supposedly sincere, "Hi!"

I was really impressed. "What a nice touch," I thought. I was very flattered that I turned to her and thanked her.

Unfortunately, instead of replying "You're welcome," she responded with an equally enthusiastic "Hi!" that she delivered without even looking me in the eye.

Her thoughtless response undermined the good feelings that her opening the door had generated. Instead of being treated as an "individual," I felt she was simply going through the motions and not even present at the doorway.

Don't allow a "habitual" or insincere comment to undermine your otherwise friendly and sincere way you treat your customers and prospects. They're individuals--each and every one of them!

Today's computers and printers make it easy to create pressure-sensitive labels--but how many Guerrillas use labels as effectively as they could?

Super Guerrilla Roger C. Parker, tells us: “This afternoon I visited a Mercedes-Benz dealership where the salesman created labels for the back of his business card that contained the hours he worked plus his direct cellphone number.

“Car salesman rarely work the same hours each day. By providing this valuable information on the back of his business card, and inviting prospects to call his cell phone to schedule an appointment, the salesman is guaranteeing that he won't miss out on a sale from a returning customer.

“The same salesman also uses pressure-sensitive tags to add his ‘compliments of’ information to each of the brochures he hands out.

“For just pennies a prospect, this enterprising salesman is proving once again that Guerrilla Marketing is based on creativity, not big advertising budgets.”

Experienced Guerrillas know that the best source of future customers comes from past customers. Accordingly, Guerrillas do everything possible to show their customers how much they appreciate their patronage and support.

Taunton Press, publishers of Fine Homebuilding, and several other "Fine" publications, has come up with an ideal customer reward.

Fine Homebuilding subscribers receive their magazine in a protective, heavy cardboard wrap-around. The back of each issue's wrap around is different and contains a illustrated "Professional's Notebook" appropriate for builders and carpenters. The "notebook" idea is reinforced by the instructions which invite subscribers to save each technique in a 3-ring binder.

The idea is great. The wrapper protects each issue and, each month, subtly thanks the subscriber by offering them bonus content that is not available to newsstand buyers.

What can you do to reward your customers?

The vast majority of newsletters and brochures are printed on both sides of a folded-over 11 by 17 piece of paper. A single fold creates four 8 1/2 by 11-inch selling areas.

At low cost, you can multiply the impact of this format by adding a single fold on the left-hand page, approximately 2 and 1/2 inches from the left-hand edge.

This additional fold adds three discrete selling areas to your publication. You can emphasize these additional selling areas by using reverses and screens which contrast with the remainder of
your brochure or newsletter.

Use the additional areas to highlight testimonials, ordering instructions, or to list short features—like products which complement the featured item or letters to the editor.

Many confuse "creativity" with attempts to come up with attempts to attract attention, make your clients and prospects laugh, or summarize your product's benefits in a catchy slogans.

But, true creativity comes from answering the questions that much be answered before your market is ready to buy.

Guerrillas prepare their marketing messages the same way reporters write their stories--answering a 5-question series.

1. Who is the market for this product?
2. What challenges, problems, or threats are they facing?
3. When do the become most obvious?
4. Where can people obtain more information?
5. How will they benefit from the products and services you offer?

True creativity comes from asking the right questions, providing the right answers, and writing as clearly as possible, so your information comes through as easily-understood as possible.

Firms that specialize generally offer superior customer treatment than commodity merchants. Specialization permits more in-depth product knowledge and more informed buying opportunities.

But, specialization--by itself--is not enough. Specialization must be accompanied by superior customer service at every point of contact.

One of my favorite specialty merchants is a bookstore that specializes in photographic books. Each Friday, they send a wonderful HTML e-mail of the latest books to arrive, and they publish a beautifully produced catalog which is sent free to their customers.

The problem? They rely so much on technology that they don't have an "questions or comments" e-mail address on their otherwise excellent web site. And, they do not respond to mail sent to their "webmaster" e-mail address.

Customers are invited to download their catalog from their web site, but whenever I try to do it, I get a "corrupted file" notification. I have called this to their attention several times, but my e-mails have gone unacknowledged.

Ignoring bad news from loyal customers is a serious breach of
Guerrilla etiquette. Each time I'm ignored, I rethink my loyalty to the store and the hundreds of dollars I've spent there. All of my orders have been properly handled--but, if I'm ignored when I can't download their catalog, what will happen when I experience problems with an order?

When attending a networking meeting, avoid the temptation to issue open-ended requests for referrals.

"I'm interested in anyone who wants to buy a new car," or "I'm interested in referrals to people who are going to sell their home."

Instead, go back to your business and marketing plans and structure your referrals around specific clients you want to penetrate.

"I'm interested in an introduction to the Marketing Manager of Heidelberg-Harris," or "the individual in charge of HR or employee training."

You'll get a much higher response to your requests. Often, in fact, others in the room may already know the individual. In other cases, they know others at the firm, and will find out for you. In still other cases, they might not know the HR person at Heidelberg-Harris, but they DO know the HR person at another, similar, firm in the area.