Aah!… Guerrilla marketing is a term used to describe a kind of marketing that The word that makes every CEO in the United States perk up for one reason or another everytime they hear it.

Some people like hearing the word, and if you use it in a marketing meeting, you'll have their entire attention. Others will interrupt whatever they're doing in a meeting to criticize you for even recommending it as a marketing strategy for their company (from my experience, most love it though).

I must admit that I like every part of guerrilla marketing. In fact, the book Startup Guide To Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad and Jeannie Levinson was the one that persuaded me that I could have a career in marketing.

The book spoke to me because it reaffirmed and expanded on what I had always considered to be the fundamental principles of marketing. Creating thoughts to connect with customers is at the heart of these principles. And, of those concepts, creativity is the one that the book focuses on the most.

Guerilla marketing, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, is a marketing theory developed by Jay Conrad Levinson. "Going after conventional goals using unconventional means," Jay Conrad and Jeannie Levinson write in The Startup Guide To Guerilla Marketing. It suggests that in marketing, time, energy, creativity, and knowledge should be prioritized before money." Isn't the Levinson's description rather cool?

But enough about how much I like guerrilla marketing. Here are five guerrilla marketing strategies to help you get the word out about your business. This will lead to brand recognition, which is the most sought-after commodity among marketers.

Make a statement of distinction

Have you ever gone on a job or college interview and been asked, "So, can you tell me something about yourself that sets you apart?" Don't you think it's a bit of a tricky question?

Recruiters ask that question in the hopes that you will assist them in making the best judgment possible about whether or not to hire you. And how you respond to that question will influence whether your candidacy is advanced or rejected.

This means it's a crucial question in the interview process, and you'll want to ace it anytime it comes up. The same rationale applies to companies seeking publicity: there must be something unique about your company.

When it comes to creating attention, I cannot stress enough how crucial it is for a company to stand out from its competitors, and here's why. In order for your brand to be newsworthy, it must be different from every other brand out there.

"How in the hell is declaring distinction a tactic?" I'm sure you're thinking. That is an excellent question. Declaring your differentiation is a technique, according to Oxford's Learner's Dictionaries, since a tactic is defined as "the particular method you use to achieve something." And it's our goal to get your company's name out there (which starts with declaring distinction).

Here are a few ideas on how to make your company stand apart. Once you've figured out what makes your brand unique, let the world know by reaching out to reporters and media "gatekeepers" who determine whether stories are broadcast on their platforms.

When you approach them, make it clear why a feature on your company will be beneficial to them. If you're not sure how to achieve that, it'll all be in your pitch, which I'll go through next.

Pitch a flawless game

When communicating with reporters or media gatekeepers, it's ideal to communicate in a language they'll understand - and that language is views and higher ratings. So, while making your proposal, think about how a prospective inclusion of your brand on their platform may help them get the attention of their audience.

Reach out to the media businesses that are most closely linked with your brand's specialty to offer yourself the greatest chance of landing a feature.

"A good story angle that will grab both a journalist's and an audience's attention will make you stand out," writers and public relations specialists Cameron Herold and Adrian Salamunovic said in their book Free PR. Is up to date and contains fresh or intriguing information.

That content will appeal to a certain group of people. In a nutshell, a good perspective responds to the query "So what?" What does it matter? "What makes you think that?" The single most crucial aspect of gaining media attention is getting your narrative angle correct."

Let's go out how to respond to Cameron and Adrian's three angle questions:

So what? - This question may be addressed simply by explaining what sets your product or brand apart from the competition.

What does it matter? – People who care are always individuals who have a vested interest in a certain result that a product or a brand may provide. And the majority of people are just concerned with what they like or dislike.

So concentrate your presentation on how it will improve the lives of a certain audience by either giving them what they desire (love) or solving a problem they're having (hate). Here's something to keep in mind: the more surprising something is, the more likely it is to be shared. And they have the same opinions and ratings.

Why are you doing this? - The answer to this question explains why I place such a high value on differentiation. The more uncommon something is, the more difficult it is to replace it.

So, instead of asking why you, ask why your business is giving something so unique, significant, fascinating, and better to anything else out there. "Which day is best for you?" will be a better inquiry from reporters.

One of the main elements of Free PR is that it's only your responsibility to come up with an angle and communicate it to the media in order to persuade decision-makers that highlighting your business would be mutually beneficial. "Keep in mind that you are not writing the actual story, but rather packaging it so that the journalist can put their stamp on it and shape it into a final product," Cameron and Adrian said.

Assist a reporter...and yourself

Another strategy to get your brand noticed is to use HARO. The abbreviation HARO stands for "Help a Reporter Out." Because it's a website where reporters go to gather quotations and insights from experts and professionals from numerous sectors to utilize in articles, books, and news segments, HARO is a terrific resource for brand PR. This is not the same as cold pitching reporters. Reporters on HARO depend on you to get in touch with them.

The nicest aspect of HARO is that you may respond to reporter questions for free on the internet, and it's a normal courtesy for reporters to give you full acknowledgment for your contribution to their query if they use it. This implies they'll mention your name, job title, and firm without you having to say anything!

Isn't it too wonderful to be true? That is, without a doubt, correct. And those journalists are waiting to hear from you.

Invoke the use of shares

I'm sure you've heard the saying "sharing is caring." That phrase certainly holds true when it comes to social media. "When we care, we share," said author and marketing professor Jonah Berger in his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Retweeting, sharing on Meta, or just copying and pasting a link to any of your brand's content and emailing it to a friend on any social media platform are all examples of sharing on social media.

Getting others to promote your material or information about your company (particularly social media influencers) is just as crucial as getting a reporter to give you a feature these days. Do you have any doubts?

Look around the next time you're in line at a store to observe how many of your fellow customers are engrossed in their phones. They'll most likely be scrolling through their social media feeds or responding to a text message sent to them from their phone.

Emotion, according to Jonah, is the best method to persuade others to share your material. "Naturally contagious content usually evokes some sort of emotion," he said. It's astonishing how well an iPhone blends. The prospect of a tax rise irritates me. Emotional information is often communicated. Rather of focusing on function, we should concentrate on sensations."

Create material that will make people so happy that they will feel compelled to tell others about it in the hopes that it will assist them as well. Or something so infuriating that people will have to question their pals, "Can you believe this?"

Or something so amusing that they'll feel obliged to post it on their timeline with others in the hopes of boosting their social standing. Whatever strategy is employed, keep in mind that emotion motivates people to take action.

Blitzing of podcasts

Podcasts are an excellent method to promote a business. Because the typical podcast's audience is focused on a single topic, this is the case. And that niche is made up of individuals who are passionate enough about a topic to look for and listen to a podcast about it.

You don't need a marketing degree to develop a very accurate consumer profile for someone who listens to a Rachel Ray podcast about her favorite dishes, for example. You may guess that the individuals who would listen to her podcast are those who like cooking for themselves and preparing meals for others.

Starting your own podcast and including guests who are leaders in your area is one method to use podcasts to create attention for your firm. People who are interested in such leaders will pay attention to what they have to say as a result of this. They'll also learn more about you and your company if they tune in (since you'll shamelessly promote it in each episode).

If you're wondering whether or not industry leaders will feature on your podcast, the majority of them will almost certainly do so. Why?

Because every entrepreneur enjoys promoting their company at every opportunity (myself included). And if your podcast is relevant to their field, they'll leap at the chance to be a guest so they can benefit from the free marketing.

However, if you truly want to use the potential of podcasts to expand your brand's reach, I recommend a podcast blitz. If you haven't heard of a media blitz, Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it as "a large amount of information about something broadcast simultaneously on television, radio, in magazines, etc."

Using the power of your platform (your podcast) to appear on other podcasts is known as a podcast blitz. Assume you wanted to perform a huge marketing for a new product your firm was introducing – and you wanted to do it for free.

You might perform a podcast blitz by contacting individuals who have podcasts connected to your business and offering them a spot on your platform in return for a spot on theirs. Don't you just like it when everyone comes out on top?

Conclusion

The secret to guerrilla marketing is to use imagination rather than money. It has to do with what I consider to be the fundamental meaning of marketing. Which entails coming up with thoughts to engage with customers.

Jay Conrad and Jeannie Levinson's Startup Guide To Guerilla Marketing has a multitude of guerilla marketing weaponry. As a result, I recommend that you get the book as soon as possible.

Your inventiveness is your most powerful weapon as a guerrilla marketer. The wonderful part about creativity is that it is completely unrestricted. As a result, everybody can afford it.

The same may be said about public relations. Indeed, Jay Conrad and Jeannie Levinson described publicity as "an unpaid message prompted by newsworthy activities...typically prepared by the company itself, but with no guarantee of inclusion in the medium due to its unpaid nature."

The aforementioned methods are exactly that: tactics. It's up to you to utilize your imagination to come up with the finest plan for putting those techniques into action. So get accustomed to using your imagination because you'll need it when your brand receives all of that press and you're doing all of those interviews (I hope that last one didn't frighten you).

Thanks to DeJuan Wright at Business 2 Community whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.