Smart Sales People Don't Advertise: 10 Ways To Outsmart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing

SMART SALES PEOPLE : DON’T ADVERTISE 10 Ways To Out Smart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing Tom Richard Co...

Author: Tom Richard

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SMART SALES PEOPLE

:

DON’T ADVERTISE

10 Ways To Out Smart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing

Tom Richard

Copyright © by Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC, 24019 Front Street, Grand Rapids, Ohio, 43522, www.TomRichard.com. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Author Contact Information: Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC, C/O Tom Richard, 24019 Front Street, Grand Rapids, Ohio, 43522, www.TomRichard.com

Table Of Contents

Introduction What Is Guerilla Marketing?

8

What To Expect From This Book

10

Guerilla Marketing Expectations Increased Traffic

13

Increased Brand Awareness 14 Lower Your Average Cost Per Lead 16 Pre-Qualified Traffic 18 Referral Partners -- A Bonus 20 The Grass Roots Company 23 Your Guerilla Network Is Your Customerʼs Resource

Building Your Guerilla Network Partner Only With Those Who “Get It”

29

Must Be Mutual -- Get It In Writing 31 Revaluate On A Regular Basis

33

Quid Pro Quo - “Something For Something” Building Your Resource Team

38

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Recruiting Your Guerilla Partners Think Like Your Customer 41 Do Your Research

44

Reach Out To Them 46

Getting Started The Foundation Of Everything -- The “Thank You” Packet 53 What It Should Look Like Pieces Of Value

55

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Follow The Yellow Brick Road You Paid For It -- Use It

63

Your Website -- The Foundation of Everything Providing Value On Your Website

71

Capture Information At All Costs

72

Guerilla Marketing Ideas Creating Your Guerilla Programs

75

Outdoor Recreation 78 Scuba Diving 78 The Boat Store

81

The Outdoor Retail Specialty Shop 86 The Appliance Store 90 The Casual Dining Restaurant

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68

The Chain of Sandwich Shops The Dry Cleaner

98

106

The Newsletter Idea 108 The Running Club

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Get Active America

116

Summary -- You Get The Point

119

Strength Of The Team Strength In Numbers 121

Your Marketing Calender Set Goals -- Have A Plan

127

Talk To Your Customers

129

Final Word Traditional Marketing

131

Desktop Publishing 134 The Money Is In The Details 136 Make Guerilla Marketing Work For You

Special Thanks About the Author

137

Chapter 1: Introduction Guerilla marketing is both fun and effective. You are reading this book; that means that you have either heard great things about guerilla marketing, or the person who told you to read this book has heard good things about guerilla marketing. Guerilla marketing is perhaps the best way to grow a business, but not every company will embrace the concept because success using it requires some work. Few businesses are prepared to put forth the effort and Tom Richard

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Smart Sales People Don’t Advertise

Introduction

creativity needed to use guerilla marketing successfully. It is much easier to hire a fancy advertising company, than it is to roll your sleeves up and make something happen. To make the ideas presented in this book work for you, it requires some good old fashion work on your part. At the end of the day, when the work is done, your results will justify your effort and the out of pocket cash will be minimal. After all, this is what guerilla marketing is all about.

What Is Guerilla Marketing? Guerilla Marketing is more about out smarting your competition than it is about out spending your competition. With Guerilla Marketing, you will be able to increase the amount of traffic that comes into your business without spending a lot of money. Guerilla Marketing allows small businesses to compete effectively with big businesses. Guerilla Marketing can be defined as the means of getting maximum results from minimum budget. There is no set definition as to what is and what is 8

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Introduction

not categorized as guerilla marketing. This type of marketing can be broadly described as the spirit of working with your friends and neighbors to find ways to help one anotherʼs businesses grow. With guerilla marketing, the possibilities are as endless as your imagination. If you sit back and apply some creativity to your guerilla marketing plan, you will be able to come up with a variety of ways to improve your business, as well as help other businesses in your community. Guerilla Marketing allows you to get your brand and your product in front of your customers at other places they shop have already grown to know and trust. By co-branding with these other companies, your company and your brand will be able to capitalize on their rapport and their relationships. You will also be providing something of value to your customers and to the market that you serve. The key to a successful guerilla marketing program is having the right business partners. The crosspromotional opportunities are endless if everybody in your partner network is working towards the same goal, becoming a valuable resource to your customers. Tom Richard

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Introduction

What To Expect From This Book After you finish reading this book, you will have a thorough understanding of how you can use guerilla marketing to increase your sales in your business. You will also understand that guerilla marketing strengthens your brand, your image in the community, and acts as a catalyst when it comes to growing loyal customers. The ideas that are presented in this book are not for everyone. This book will provide examples that you may not be comfortable with or that you think are just plain silly. However, you will find a handful of ideas that interest you. You need to understand that each reader will find different ideas that they feel are exciting. It is for this reason that we have included a broad range of ideas and concepts. You will also notice in this book that our examples and ideas will be discussed in terms of a particular type of guerilla partner. You are expected to be able to take the ideas presented in this book and adopt them to many different types of businesses in different industries. 10

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Introduction

Guerilla tactics are effective in every business and in every industry. It is for illustrative purposes that we have chosen to discuss them in the context of specific businesses in specific industries. This book is intended to get you thinking about guerilla marketing. By the time you finish this book, you will develop your own unique way of establishing your guerilla network. When you find your mind racing with new ideas, we have accomplished what we have set out to do. Enjoy!

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Chapter 2: Guerilla Marketing Expectations Increased Traffic Guerilla strategies will generate qualified “chatter” about your business in the community, thereby significantly increasing traffic into your business. You will find that some methods will generate more traffic than others. It is important to track which sources are producing the most traffic for you so you can revise

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Guerilla Marketing Expectations

and update your marketing plan. What goes around, comes around; so you will want to make sure that you are reciprocating the referrals to the business that is supplying you with the most amount of traffic. If you are getting the most traffic from a program that you are running with a local restaurant, then you will want to make sure that you are actively promoting his/her business. If your guerilla partner at the restaurant is also keeping track of where their business is coming from, this is a great first step in building a long lasting guerilla relationship with this business. There are no guarantees in guerilla marketing and youʼll need to continually update your partners and the programs that you run with them. The larger your guerilla network becomes, the more traffic you receive, and the stronger your brand becomes.

Increased Brand Awareness Branding the image of you and your company in the community is a precursor to increasing the traffic into the store. By increasing your brand awareness in the 14

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community, you strengthen every step in your sales process. Strong brands increase the amount of mind share, how often people think of you, that you have in the community. This increased mind share will keep the top-of-mind awareness that you need in your future customerʼs minds. With top-of-mind awareness, when a person realizes that they have a need for your product, you will be the first company that they think of. There are many companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars creating top-of-mind awareness and you are going to accomplish it for pennies on the dollar using effective guerilla marketing strategies. Sound to good to be true? Read on... Exactly how well you are doing in the brand strengthening department is an unmeasurable variable in guerilla marketing. Community exposure to your logo and message creates a familiarity with your brand, even to those who are not in the market to buy Tom Richard

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whatever you are selling at the time. With that said, if your brand is stronger and your mind share is greater than your competitionʼs, then you will win in the long run -- every time. For this reason, do not become discouraged if a certain guerilla marketing partner or program is not immediately yielding results. It may be doing wonders at strengthening your brand and this will affect the bottom line at some point in the future, you simply need to be patient.

Lower Your Average Cost Per Lead If you were to take the total amount of money that your store or your company spent on marketing and advertising last year and divide that number by how many people walked into your store, then you would have your average cost per lead. Most businesses average between $20.00 and $60.00 per lead. When you begin to implement guerilla marketing, you will see a significant reduction in your average cost per lead. It is important to calculate this number if you have not been calculating it up to this point. Before you start 16

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implementing guerilla marketing strategies, figure out what your average cost per lead was last year, last quarter, or last month. If you are not tracking your leads, then you should smack yourself in the face and then begin tracking them today. When you calculate your “before guerilla marketing” average cost per lead and compare it with your “after guerilla marketing” average cost per lead, this gives you quantitative data to justify the amount of time that you will be investing in your business with these programs. This quantitative data will also be a fantastic tool when you are trying to recruit your guerilla partners. Guerilla marketing can be taken lightly and often times does not command the respect it deserves. As you begin to run programs with other businesses, it is important to collect quantitative information that will help you ʻsellʼ it to other businesses. These identifiable and measurable results will be your only tool to help you ʻsellʼ the guerilla concept to those whom you so desperately would like to partner up with.

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Pre-Qualified Traffic In addition to a lower average cost per lead, guerilla marketing increases ʻqualifiedʼ traffic as opposed to ʻcoldʼ traffic that more traditional forms of expensive marketing creates. The reason they are more qualified is because they already trust you, and they will walk in with a certain amount of rapport established before they even talk with you. This trust and rapport is a direct result of them having been ‘referred’ to you. Not only have they been referred to you, but they have been referred to you from a business with which they have already grown to trust and have an established relationship. If you are good enough to be associated with their other favorite stores, then you are good enough for them to shop with. Let me give you an example. An avid runner visits her favorite running store to buy a new pair of shoes. She buys every pair of shoes at this store and has done so for the last five years. She is always treated with phenomenal service at this specialty shoe store and 18

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knows the owner personally. She walks into the store and the owner shows her the new pair of shoes that just arrived last week. The owner knows she will like these new shoes because they have all of the zoomzooms and wham-whams that she looks for in shoes. After trying on the shoes, the owner tells her to try them out on the new treadmill he has in the store. This way she can really test the shoes and see how great they feel. The treadmill is prominently displayed in the window. It is from your fitness equipment store and has a classy sign on it that displays your logo and the logo of the running store side-by-side. Beneath the logos, the sign reads “The only treadmill for serious runners.” She tries out the shoes, falls in love with them, and buys them on the spot. The owner of the running store loves having this treadmill in the store because they sell more shoes. The woman who bought the shoes has just had a wonderful experience in her favorite store and on your best treadmill. She has now associated her wonderful experience and her favorite store with your company and your top treadmill. When she is in the market Tom Richard

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for a treadmill, where do you think sheʼll stop first, and what treadmill do you think she will want to buy? When she comes into your store, she will have already come to trust your company and your product. She is a perfect example of pre-qualified traffic. Pre-qualified traffic, combined with a lower average cost per lead, equals real bottom line results. It is because of these results, you are reading this book right now. Guerilla marketing is a force to be reckoned with and can be adopted by any company regardless of size and stature.

Referral Partners -- A Bonus When you establish a guerilla marketing network, in addition to the creation of a smart marketing team, you will have a built-in networking team eager and actively passing referrals. What does this mean? When you establish your team of 5 - 20 partner businesses, these businesses will not only run guerilla

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marketing programs, but they will also actively refer business to one another. This typically would be viewed as a given. However, it deserves a spot in the book because it is more powerful than you would initially believe. If you are a great person to do business with and are worthy of a referral, then your partners will send you, on average, 3 - 10 referrals per month. The larger your referral group, the more referrals that you will receive. If you have ten businesses in your network, then you can expect to receive 30 - 100 referrals per month. This amount of business alone will make a splash on your financial statements and it is not even taking into account the increased traffic that will come from the guerilla marketing programs that you will be running. In order to increase the amount of referrals that you get, you will need to actively refer your customers to your fellow partners as well. There are stand alone networking groups that currently realize this amount of Tom Richard

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referral business, and you will be able to benefit from it simply as a by-product of your guerilla marketing initiative. As you start to receive referrals from your partner businesses, you NEED to treat these customers like they are royalty. Imagine how great you would feel if you referred one of your own customers to a guerilla partner and the customer later thanked you for the help you gave them and was elated at how well they were treated. When you do this for the customers your partner businesses send to you, you are creating this great feeling for them and for their customers. This makes your guerilla partner look like a hero and they will love you for it. They will be eager to refer more and more people to your business, and they will treat the customers that you refer to them with the same level of service and personal attention. In addition to strengthening the relationship between the two businesses, when a customer is treated like royalty, the customer will bring you unsolicited 22

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referrals as well. They will tell their friends and family to stop into your store and to make sure they tell you who they were sent by. It is the fact they want to tell you who they were sent by that proves they felt you went above and beyond in servicing their needs. They almost feel as if they are part of a secret club and have received a gift of celebrity service. This is powerful and is transferable throughout the community. This concept is referred to as grass roots referring, where your community is actively recruiting new customers for your business and the businesses in your guerilla network.

The Grass Roots Company Guerilla marketing is the best way in the world to establish yourself as a grass roots company. A grass roots company is one that is incredibly well established as a community player. They are embraced and celebrated by the community that they serve. Whether you are a national company with one hundred stores or a sole proprietor with one location; with guerilla marketing, each store will establish itself as a grass roots company in their respective communities. Tom Richard

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Grass roots companies are established with guerilla marketing because your brand and your message will be strategically placed in every nook and cranny throughout the community. With the guerilla marketing strategies that incorporate community involvement, you will be establishing your store as “The Most Local” store in town. This distinction bodes well across all the important steps in your unique sales process. It helps establish rapport with, and keeps that top-of-mind awareness amongst your future customers. Moreover, strengthening your brand in the area where it matters most -- locally. There is nothing stronger than being perceived as a true community player. Most companies are under the false impression that throwing money at the community will have the same effect of an established Grass Roots Campaign. It is not that easy; if it were, then everybody would have the perception of being a grass roots company. It takes more finesse and more tact to win over the community at large. It takes combined guerilla marketing initiatives along with earned media to develop this perception. When it happens, you will notice that this 24

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is the strongest differentiator between your store and every other store in your market. By winning the hearts and minds of those in the community, you will take sales from your direct competitors. You will also take sales away from those dreaded Big Box Stores. Big Box stores will always be fighting the image of a heartless, large corporation. With your grass roots mentality, you will be able to get more people to cross over into your store instead of shopping at the mega stores that have been eating away at local retailersʼ businesses.

Your Guerilla Network Is Your Customerʼs Resource When you have properly established your guerilla network, you will have developed a valuable resource of information with worthwhile tools for your customers. It is this valuable resource that will become the underlying reason for the success of your guerilla network.

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As you build this network, you will be bringing together a group of complimentary businesses that, together, will serve your customers in multiple areas of their lives. Customers do not like to have to go around and find reputable and trustworthy businesses when they have a project or a need for something. They find it convenient and valuable when they have the ability to be quickly referred to a business or a person who can solve their problem or help them with their project. To illustrate this point -- When you are looking for something for your home and you have a friend that has recently just done the same thing to his/her home, do you ask them who they used? Do you take their recommendation either for or against the company or the person that they used? Of course you do! The same concept applies to every business! It is this same level of trust that you will be establishing with your guerilla network. It is just like customer sharing. You are going to establish a network of companies and people you trust to whom you will be sending your most valuable customers. The power comes from the fact that there 26

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are 5 - 20 companies doing the same thing for one another. The connectivity between these companies yields big results and happier customers. It is important to note that this entire concept is well received and appreciated by your customers. A client once told me, “I donʼt want to pressure my customers into shopping somewhere.” You will not be doing that at all. You have simply taken the time to select only the finest companies to whom you are comfortable referring people to. Your customer will appreciate the recommendation and so will the business to whom you are referring them. When you add in the fact that these participating guerilla network partners will be teaming up to provide valuable services and information free of charge, then you have a large resource not only for referring, but also for researching and for getting much needed information. Think about it -- a woman just moved into a house Tom Richard

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that needed a little work and comes to you for her home gym, then she will also be in the market for a company that can do home renovations. What else might she consider? Maybe an interior designer? You bet. With your guerilla network in place you will have established some pieces of value that will not only help this woman in solving the needs of her new project, but that will also build up a positive image of the companies that are providing the pieces of value. You may have a packet of information available with design tips and other valuable pieces that will help her get started. The customer perceives this as you going above and beyond to help her with the needs outside of your scope of business. Gee, arenʼt you swell? This concept can be taken to varying levels of complexity depending on your network, but the concept remains the same. Your guerilla network will, as a team, become a valuable resource for customers who are in the market for the products and services your network represents. Being viewed as a resource works wonders for building your brand and differentiating yourself from your competition. It inevitably makes the customer decision on who to do business with an easy one - you. 28

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Chapter 3: Building Your Guerilla Network Partner Only With Those Who “Get It” As great as guerilla marketing is, there are still many people who do not get it. Not a problem. There are plenty of companies that DO understand the power of guerilla marketing. It is your job to find those businesses and recruit them to join your guerilla

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Building Your Guerilla Network

marketing network. It has been my experience that the companies and the people who truly understand guerilla marketing, usually understand it from the git-go. Keep this in mind as you begin talking with businesses. Becoming a successful partner in a guerilla network takes more than just signing up for the job; it takes constant work and active participation. Never coerce or ʻhard-sellʼ a company into becoming a guerilla partner because nine out of ten times, they will not end up putting forth the effort that is necessary to carry their weight. You need to be very selective with the companies that you choose to be a part of your network. This is crucial. Remember that you are going to be sending your best customers to these businesses. Therefore, everything about their business needs to fall in line with the values that you are most proud of in your business. You also should try and recruit companies that have strong brands, as the strength of their brand will be partially transferred to your brand as you co-brand with them.

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Companies that typically make a good addition to a guerilla network are ones that have the ability to decide about their marketing at a local level. We all know about companies that have to run everything through their ʻcorporate officeʼ before they can do anything. Unless you can contact the real decision maker directly, it is best to avoid these types of companies because they tend to slow things down for the entire network. These types of companies usually have a hard time selling the guerilla marketing concept to their ʻhead officeʼ even if they are 100% sold on it at the local level.

Must Be Mutual -- Get It In Writing Everything you and your guerilla partner agree to do needs to be thoroughly discussed and put in writing. You should set up the parameters and the expectations of a marketing program in writing and agree to a specific period of time that the program will run. For example, if both businesses agree to include brochures with each customer receipt, then that agreement should be written out with a starting and ending date.

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This may seem like a bit of overkill; however, having the agreement in writing with a specific ending date will prevent the relationship from becoming uncomfortable. An ending date will also prevent the need to confront each other if things are not working out. You may simply choose not to renew your agreement without having to hurt anybodyʼs feelings or ego. A written agreement will also make it feel more official. Instead of having the agreement a mere favor to one another, the written agreement legitimizes the program and will increase the chances for success. This is especially important when employees are involved. The worst killer of a great guerilla marketing program is the employee who simply does not care. Two owners could spend time and come up with a great program that falls through because of uninformed employees. A default arrangement can be included in the written agreement which would give one or both companies the opportunity to back out if the program becomes one sided due to a lack of follow through.

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It is a good idea to shop your guerilla partnerʼs business from time to time to make sure that they are following through with their end of the agreement. Finding businesses that both talk the talk and walk the walk is the hardest part when it comes to executing and implementing guerilla marketing programs. In the agreement, you may also specify certain terms that allow you to back out of the written agreement; such as a situation where one of your customers complains about the service that they received from your guerilla partnerʼs business. If this happens more than once, you will want to immediately find a replacement company for which to promote and refer your customers to. After all, they are acting as a extension of your business and there is nothing worse than a negative experience.

Revaluate On A Regular Basis When you set up your specific program, you need to schedule a time when both companies will come together and evaluate the progress. This will give you the formal meeting time required to sit down and see if things need to be changed. You increase the chances of a valuable discussion by prearranging this Tom Richard

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date from the beginning. At the meeting, you will review the success of the program and discuss possible changes that can be made to the agreement. You may decide to increase the program, to change the program, or to stop the program altogether. It is recommended that you meet with your guerilla partners at least once every six months, if not sooner. The frequency of the meetings will obviously depend on the complexity and the size of the program. Complacency and apathy will slowly suffocate any guerilla marketing program regardless of the size and the scope of the strategies. A pre-arranged appointment regarding the program overview will prevent this slow suffocation.

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Here are questions that should be asked when you meet with your guerilla partner: 1.

Is it working?

2.

How well is it working?

3.

Do we want to continue this program?

4.

If yes, what changes should be made to the program?

5.

Is the program balanced between both companies?

6.

If no, what changes can be made to balance the program?

7.

Should we add any additional programs?

8.

Can we involve any additional companies in this program or future programs?

These questions will provide both you and your partner with discussion necessary in evaluating the operational scope of your partnership strategies. Write these down. Word for word, this is what must be discussed to properly evaluate the program. To avoid Tom Richard

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an awkwardness, include these discussion questions in the written agreement outlining the scope of the program at its onset.

Quid Pro Quo - “Something For Something” As you are building your guerilla network, please remember the Latin saying quid pro quo. As you have conversations with potential guerilla partner companies, you will come across many companies that are looking for something for nothing. You do not want to involve yourself with these businesses. It will only damage your brand long term and waste your time in the short term. There ARE owners just like yourself who understand this philosophy and who will go out of their way to promote your business; to give something for something -- quid pro quo. It is not terribly difficult to spot the businesses you want to avoid. Their mind-set is, “what am I going to get out of this if I ʻsign upʼ?” These owners do not 36

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understand modern business practices; it is no wonder the small business failure rate is so astronomical. They will typically talk about how YOU can benefit THEM for the entire first five minutes. Those who understand the need to give in order to receive will often come up with one or two ways to help you and your business in that same first five minutes. As you begin these conversations with potential guerilla partners you will want to make sure that the relationship can grow into one that will remain balanced. A balanced relationship is one where both companies are doing an equal amount of work and are reaping an equal reward. The best types of balanced relationships are those where both parties have very little to do, other than agree to some terms. You will come across the opportunities where very little work is required from both companies quite frequently. These types of relationships are obviously the easiest to start with. If you have a guerilla marketing program that requires little more than an agreement between Tom Richard

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the two parties that yields measurable results, then those are the programs that will significantly reduce your cost per lead while giving you the opportunity to reduce your more expensive and inefficient marketing overhead. Once you become comfortable with the concept of guerilla marketing, then you can begin to implement some of the more complex and involved programs that can remarkably reduce your advertising overhead to a fraction of your budget while simultaneously increasing its effectiveness.

Building Your Resource Team Your guerilla network is going to make up your resource team. Companies that will bring an added value to your team are the preferred choice. Ultimately, the businesses you partner with will need to provide a perceived value to your customers. When I shop a business for a perceived value, I ask myself, “Would I refer my mother to this business?” This is a great strategy to use, whomever you think about. Discussed later in the book, you will establish some tangible resources with all of the companies in the guerilla network. Keep this in mind as it will help you make informed selections while searching out guerilla 38

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partners. What other resources can you provide for your customers outside of the products and services that you have available at your company? In other words, what other complimentary products or services could one of your own customers be in the market for? You are the only company representing your product category in your guerilla marketing network. This is the beautiful and powerful aspect of your resource team. You will only have one interior designer, one realtor, one restaurateur, and one builder in your team. This is fantastic because that means that all of the referrals for that product category will go to the same person every time. However, this means that you need to find the best company for your team. As you shop these different companies, make sure you choose the one that will provide the best all around resource for your customers.

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Chapter 4: Recruiting Your Guerilla Partners Think Like Your Customer Once you begin to identify the types of companies that will make good guerilla partners, then you must begin to narrow your search and start the recruitment process. The best way to identify specific companies who would make terrific guerilla partners is to think like your customer. It is quite simple -- put yourself in

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Recruiting Guerilla Partners

their shoes. What else are they buying around the time that they are buying your product? What is usually going on in their life when they are thinking about the product that you sell? When you have the answers to those questions, you will begin to conceptualize companies that would be a valuable resource within your network. For example, if you sold fitness equipment and one of the best types of customers you have are those who move from the big city to the suburbs, then you would need to think of what other major purchases they are making during that transition. Commonalities in suburban relocations include extra household square footage, more backyard space, a bigger back porch/deck, and many other household needs that your local guerilla partners can cash in on. What else will they be buying? Patio Furniture? Maybe they need decorations for the extra space. Do you have an aquarium shop in your town? Use your imagination and you will increase your traffic with little increase in your expenses.

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As you are playing the role of the customer, you should also consider the intangibles in your customerʼs lives. If somebody is moving from the city to the suburbs, then it is likely that they have recently been promoted or at least given a raise. With this information you can narrow down other significant events in their lives. They could be looking for a new car. They may indulge in the lifelong pleasure of travel. How about the arrival of a new family member? Therefore, as you are considering which companies to partner with and which companies may be a valuable resource to this customer, you will want to include these often overlooked areas. A typical fitness specialty industry partnership includes a health club and a personal trainer. These are two great examples of effective guerilla partners, but when you use your imagination, you will come up with dozens of other great companies to partner with as well. By challenging yourself to reach out to these often overlooked companies, you will not only reach a new audience, but you will reach an audience that has been overlooked by your competitors in the local market.

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Do Your Research Are you imagining a variety of businesses that you can partner with? Good! It is time to begin the process of reaching out and recruiting them. The first step is to make a list of the product and service categories that you think will be a good fit in the guerilla network that you are about to create. Once you have that list made, you should start to list the specific companies that you think would be a good fit with your company. Naturally you should start with the companies that you have, in the past, referred customers to, and in turn, have referred customers to you. With some of the guerilla marketing programs that will be covered in this book, you will be able to reach out to them and turn your informal relationship into a calculated partnership with measurable and significant results. So, make sure that this low-bearing fruit is at the top of your list. The second step -- brainstorm and research. This is much easier than you think. The best way to research is by thumbing through your local yellow pages. Start at the beginning and flip all the way through to the end. As you see the different types of businesses listed, 44

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you will begin to have a flood of new ideas. Either circle the companies that you instinctively feel would be a good fit for your network, or simply write them down as they jump out at you. The bigger the list, the better chances you will have at building a powerful network. Once you have your list of companies that you are interested in, you should do some brief research on them. You will want to know if they are a high-end store, and if you would want their customers frequenting your business. You should also see if they have a website. Their website should tell you everything that you need to know about the company. It is recommended that you primarily stick with companies that have websites because of the countless opportunities websites create in terms of marketing. You should also stick with companies that have a website because I generally do not trust companies that have not yet found the need for a website. I mean come on! What type of business does not have a website? During this research phase of recruiting guerilla Tom Richard

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partners, you should constantly update your list. For maximum results, your final list should be no less than 100 different companies crossing many different product categories and industries. If this number seems a bit high, then you should be aware that less than 5% of those companies will actually understand the guerilla marketing concept and be interested in partnering with you. It is your job to find that 5% and clearly communicate your objectives as well as how they will benefit from this type of marketing.

Reach Out To Them You now have a list of local companies that you would feel comfortable promoting within your location of business. You are confident that their customers are the types of customers you would like in your store. You are certain that you would refer your mother to their business. It is now time to reach out to them. Your means of presentation will vary based on what you are comfortable with, and what you feel will be best received based on how you like to represent 46

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yourself and your company. With that being said, you are most likely in sales if you are reading this book. You understand the sales process and the work necessary in selling a cold lead. I recommend simply asking the owner for a few minutes of his or her time. You are not selling anything so this meeting should be relatively easy to set up; either by phone, letter, or simply walking in. I find it easiest to just walk into a business and ask for the owner. When they ask what it is in regards to, I simply explain that I am from ABC down the street and I would like to talk to them. You will find what works best for you after doing this a few times. When you get five minutes with the owner, you will do two things at once. You will evaluate them to determine if they are the type of person with whom you can work. You will also explain who you are and what you will accomplish with a partnership of local companies. Again, you truly are not selling anything, so this is typically well received. If not, you do not Tom Richard

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want them in your guerilla network. They will not be fruitful partners; move on to the next person on your list. The explanation of what you are trying to accomplish with local businesses should cover the guerilla marketing concept and possibly one or two ideas that you have in mind to generate more traffic for their business. It goes unsaid that it will also generate more traffic for your business so make sure that you are speaking in terms of how this can help THEIR business. If they are unfamiliar with the guerilla marketing concept, please be responsive to their needs. Have a packet of information or “piece of value” to present them with after your discussion. The information in this packet can be as generic or as customized as you would like it to be. Many successful recruitments have been done with some articles printed off of the internet and a simple cover letter explaining how this type of concept is being put together in the local market. Never forget everything.”

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the

adage,

“Image

is



A professionally designed and bound brief of your strategic plan will impress the owner if it is simple and valuable. These professional packets include both company logos on a few conceptual pieces that could be used in a guerilla marketing program. These conceptual pieces are effective because the owner that you are trying to recruit will instantly understand what you are talking about when they see a sample piece. Whether you use a generic packet of information or a professionally done custom made presentation booklet, you will want everything that they will need assembled in some sort of folder. If they are new to the concept, they will want to look it over and get back to you. Unlike in your sales career, you can feel comfortable leaving information with them because you are not trying to sell them anything. If they are the right type of business for your guerilla network, they will get back with you. If they do not have the initiative to call you back, do not give it two thoughts. They do not have the initiative to carry out their end of the bargain.

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If the owner you present this concept to is somebody who you desperately want in your guerilla marketing network, it is a smart move to explain to them that you have already noticed some of your customers would be great referrals for their business. This helps hammer home the idea that the two companies have synergies. Another way to reach out to a large number of businesses to gauge the level of interest in guerilla marketing is by sending a well written cover letter to everybody on your list. A letter is obviously not as effective as a personal visit because of the popular “garbage pail” in-box that more and more businesses use these days. However, it is a simple way to cast a wide net and see what you catch. You should use this method if you simply do not have the time to visit these businesses, or if you have enough relationships already established in your community to recruit 3-5 companies into your guerilla network right from the start. Regardless of how many businesses your guerilla network begins with, it will grow as each business begins to see real results.

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Like a professional sports team, this type of marketing creates a buzz only when it is established and is creating measurable results. You will eventually have businesses coming to YOU with ideas to make YOU more money with guerilla marketing, and that is a great position to be in.

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Chapter 5: Getting Started The Foundation Of Everything -- The “Thank You” Packet In every business, the foundation to your guerilla marketing plan is the “Thank You” packet. Every customer who purchases something from your business receives one. In high-end retail, each purchase is accompanied by a receipt and possibly some paperwork regarding delivery. High-end specialty retailers like

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Getting Started

to include a brochure and a business card with the customer service number on it. These are all great, but as you develop your guerilla marketing plan, you will take these and other items and organize them in what we will call the “Thank You” packet. “Thank You” packets can, and should, be used in all businesses and in all industries. Your “Thank You” packet should always consist of more than a brochure and an invoice (or whatever mundane administrative paperwork you give to your customers). You should provide your customers with something of value, something that solidifies your relationship as well as establishes you as a valuable resource for them. We call these additional items, “pieces of value.” These pieces vary depending on the company, however, they all accomplish the same thing -- validation of the buying decision and creation of a favorable after-sale opinion about you and your company. Some of the best pieces of value include small books on how to get the most out of their purchase. In the fitness specialty industry, I have seen a well designed 54

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guide to regular maintenance and care to extend the life of the product (custom branded to the company of course). I have also come across a folder containing a training log with exercise instructions, gift certificates for store accessories, and coupons for an area restaurant. There are more great pieces of value than you would ever think of. I find new ideas every time I go out to shop businesses. The best way to come up with your unique pieces of value is to simply ask your customers what you could offer them to get the most out of their purchase. Your customers will come up with better ideas than you ever will. All you need to do is listen, and the opportunities will present themselves.

What It Should Look Like Your “Thank You” packet needs to be the best looking marketing piece that your company has. This is one area that it is recommended you feel free to spend some money on. You want somebody to embrace this high quality packet as a gift. They will receive it as a gift not because of how well the packet is put together, but because of what is inside the packet. We will discuss the other things that are going to be inside this packet Tom Richard

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a little later in this section. Lets pretend for a minute that your budget is not a concern when it comes to designing your “Thank You” packet. With no budget, this packet will be outstanding. You can do a 6”x9” folder with pockets inside. Both pockets will have the slits punched out so that you can place a business card on one side and business card sized magnet on the other. You will be surprised at how many magnets end up on refrigerators (talk about keeping top-of-mind awareness)! The folder would be printed on high quality material and would have a custom design printed in full color. The folder should be at least 1/4 inch thick so that it will comfortably fit all of the materials that will be included in the packet. The front of the folder should be stylishly designed to capture the attitude and the flavor of your unique company. The inside of the folder will also be professionally designed and printed in full color. Some of the best that I have seen included real pictures of real customers enjoying their products, usually in a family setting. You can also include short testimonials from your customers on the inside or on the back of this packet. 56

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The packet can also be used for customers who have not yet purchased anything from you. Give one to your future customers to hold their brochures. You will, of course, want to include pieces of value along with those brochures. It is a wonderful thing when your customer comes back to finalize their purchase and within the folder you gave them are several brochures from your competitor with their business card stapled to them. You can sit back and imagine your customer putting these brochures in YOUR folder right in front of your competitor. Beautiful! To get these beautiful packets printed you are typically looking at $3.00 - $6.00 per piece. If you are looking to present your customers with the same professional image, but simply cannot afford to have that type of folder printed, there are several other options to keep your costs down. Go to your local office supply store and find a high Tom Richard

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gloss color folder and customize this folder to your business. You will save more money if you can find them online and buy them in bulk. It is not necessary to have a professional printed label to put on the front of the folder, however, I have seen some nice ones done. With that being said, under no circumstances are you to print a label on your ink jet printer and slap it on the front of this folder. Anything printed on an ink jet printer is unprofessional! There is also a middle road when it comes to getting these packets printed. Talk with your local printer to discuss some options that may fit into your budget. You can expect to pay between $1.00 - $3.00 for a nice customized packet printed at your local print shop. If you are really creative you may be able to negotiate a better price by suggesting that you promote their business with some sort of guerilla marketing plan. You need to have a healthy amount of folders preassembled at all times. You want to appear organized and ready to serve your customer with your packet of value when that time comes. Assembling a halfhearted folder in front of your client is about the same 58

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as pulling out a brochure and stapling your card to it.

Pieces Of Value Inside the packets, include only those items that will be perceived as valuable (other than the invoice and necessary paperwork). You should include some pieces of value from you and your company, such as booklets that they will find helpful as they begin to enjoy what they just bought from you. You may even want to include something that compliments the product or an ad specialty item such as a pen, a calculator, or even a T-shirt. These pieces of value not only establish you as a resource, but they also help to validate their buying decision. Nothing creates buyer’s remorse more so than going home with an invoice, a brochure, and a credit card receipt. In addition to the pieces of value from you and your company, you will include pieces of value from those companies that are in your guerilla network. These

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pieces can include, but are certainly not limited to, a free appetizer from a nice restaurant, a free personal training session, a free yoga class at the local yoga studio, a free movie rental, and 50% off a night at the opera, just to name a few. You should not include advertisements in your “Thank You” packets. If you have guerilla programs that include reciprocative advertising, it should be limited to your point of sale or in specified areas of the store. If you include advertising inside your “Thank You” packet, you will be changing the entire feeling of the packet, therefore changing how well it will be received. Your guerilla partners will need to come up with something of value if they are to be included in your “Thank You” packets. These pieces of value that you will include from your guerilla partnerʼs business, should be done professionally and printed on high quality stock. Photocopies of anything inside your “Thank You” packets will cheapen the entire program, which will also change the image of the entire network. When your guerilla partners are considering how to print something for your “Thank You” packets, you 60

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will mention it is quite affordable to have 6”x9” cards printed on high quality card stock in full color. Typically, you will pay about 20 cents per card depending on the quantity ordered. The best way to keep the printing costs down, is to do a co-branded piece with your guerilla partner. When you do a co-branded piece, you will include your piece of value that they will be distributing to their customers on one side of the card, and their piece of value on the other side of the card that you will distribute. You can then split the cost of the printing between the two companies while cashing in on economies of scale by ordering a larger quantity. For the most part, your local printers are not the best source for this type of printing. There are many online print shops who will offer higher quality and much lower prices than your local printer. As you review the contents of your “Thank You” packet, you must once again put yourself in your customersʼ shoes. This packet absolutely must be perceived as valuable to the customer. If you would receive this packet as if it were the package of coupons Tom Richard

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that you receive in your mail box, then you should review its contents. When this “Thank You” packet is successfully completed, you will receive sincere gratitude from the customers to whom you give it. This is the sign that your guerilla network is on the right track.

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Chapter 6: Follow The Yellow Brick Road You Paid For It -- Use It When you put time or money into any marketing plan, your only objective is to get something out of it. In the long run, your only objective is to make a sale. Therefore, I want you to take a step back and look at the entire concept of marketing just for a minute.

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Follow The Yellow Brick Road

When somebody hears your message or sees your logo from some medium you have created, what does the path from that first ʻtouchʼ to your cash register look like? We call this path the yellow brick road. If your yellow brick road is well built, then your customer will follow a developed path from a recognition point to your cash register. If your road is not well built, there is confusion in your message and because of othersʼ more developed avenues, this customer will end up at your competitorsʼs cash register. Therefore, your road must stand out, and it must be designed in a way that will lead the customer through a predetermined path with a transaction being the primary goal. An example of a marketing plan without any such road is one that puts advertising out into the community and does not have a clear actionable next step; or one that has the clear and actionable step, but the step is too big for the customer who is not ready to make an immediate purchase. A person who has been casually contemplating the purchase of your product will not react to a “one day sale” advertisement. She may consider dropping by your store next Friday during your advertised sale, but chances are that will be forgotten after five minutes. This customer has no 64

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path to follow because the timing and the conditions were not yet right for her. Your advertising in this case, has been somewhat wasted. It was received by a woman who will make a purchase in the next six months, but the only option that you gave her was to buy next Friday. You do not know who she is and you have no way of following up with her. Your own aimless advertising yourself a warm lead.

cost

The only way to keep in touch with this person is to continue to run costly advertising, and maybe, just maybe, when she is ready to purchase, she will receive another one of your mailers or hear your radio commercial and she will come right in and buy from you. I would not hold my breath if I were you. Now weʼll run the same example with a message that clearly has a road for this customer to follow. You run an advertisement in the Sunday paper. The advertisement is designed in a way that creates a clear path: a visit to your website. She will visit your Tom Richard

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website because you have an offer that both interests and engages her; something that caught her eye and sparked her interest. This could be anything from a product recommendation tool your website offers, to a free book about how to pick the perfect treadmill. You will intrigue her enough that she will take the first step down this path. This becomes powerful because when she goes to the website or calls you on the phone, you will capture her information. The minute that you capture her information, you have capitalized on your marketing investment. Information, when it is in the right hands, is as good as cash. Therefore, instead of positioning your advertising, or any other marketing program, to go right for the sale, you should instead also create a more comfortable step for people to take that will give them something of value in exchange for their information. When you have their information, this puts them on your road. Once they are on your road, you will have everything choreographed so that you touch these 66

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future customers as often as possible in a systematic way. With these frequent touches you will be keeping that top-of-mind awareness and you will be flying a holding pattern until they are ready to buy. Each piece that you put out into the community will have a specific objective about where you want them to go. You will have to choose the destination (website, phone, or to stop in) based on your chances of success of actually getting them there. This being said, obviously, you want them to come into the store, but this is the hardest objective to achieve. The way that this ties in with guerilla marketing is that before you set out and create a partnership, you must understand the proper objective of marketing. This objective will be one of three things. It will either lead the future customer to click, call, or stop in. It is important that you understand your own path as well as your partnersʼ to deliver a clear message to the customer.

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Your Website -- The Foundation of Everything Your website is the foundation of all the strategies you will take. Not just with guerilla marketing, but will all of your marketing. A website provides an affordable means of delivering your message to more people than you could ever reach without one. Websites present information about the company and information about the products that you carry. If you can engage your future customers on your website, then you will be able to move them along the road towards your cash register. On the other hand, if you just puke data and product information all over their computer screen, you will accomplish nothing more than creating a purchase barrier. Ultimately, the customerʼs decision to take another step along the yellow brick road has been compromised. Their most comfortable next step is one towards doing nothing. When somebody who has no experience buying 68

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your product is bombarded with data about different products and different brands that they have never heard of, they believe they need to do more research before they show up to a retailer to “be sold” on a major investment. This is making the road to your register a long and winding road. Not good. You must create a clear path and a desire to buy; never sell. When you have a website that is both interesting and engaging, it becomes a tool that makes the buying decision easier, not harder. A properly designed website will make the customerʼs buying experience a pleasant one. This is how you are going to grow your company: by making it easier and less confusing to buy what it is you sell -- a solution to a problem. Valuable information is the obvious quality that a resourceful website offers. Then why are there very few that offer pieces of value? By far, the best websites I have come across in the fitness industry are those that offer product recommendation tools. This is an easy to use application where the customer answers several lifestyle and preference questions. The program will then search through the companyʼs inventory and Tom Richard

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return a selection of products that match the criteria according to the customerʼs answers. On the same website the customer could download a series of books that would help them transition into working out at home, or even working out at all if they are new to active health and exercise. Components like these will set you apart from your competition and perpetually grow a foundation of loyal customers. There is a catch. If the customer is going to take advantage of these valuable resources, then they will do so in exchange for their information. The website will capture this information and you will now lower your cost per lead with accurate marketing data. You will be doing the same thing with your guerilla marketing pieces, capturing valuable information in exchange for a way to stay in touch with those who are looking to buy what you sell. A great website, along with targeted traditional and non-traditional marketing pieces, will pack your pipeline with future customers. This refined version 70

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of your marketing plan will end up saving you close to 30% of your marketing budget with guaranteed higher gross receipts. This is the beautiful outcome of targeted marketing pieces with guerilla marketing programs combining to create a clear path.

Providing Value On Your Website Before you send future customers to your website through your guerilla network, you want to make sure that the website, like your “Thank You” packet, is more than an advertisement. Again, you must provide value to your audience, from both yourself and your partners within your network. Remember those downloadable books that I mentioned earlier? This is the best piece of value that I have seen on a website. If you do not have something similar to this right now, then please visit www.TomRichard.com and learn more about how you can add this to your website. We also mentioned the tool that will sort through a companyʼs inventory and make product recommendations for the customer based on how they Tom Richard

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answer a series of lifestyle questions. This is another great example of a buying experience made pleasant. However, please brainstorm other ideas that your customers will find valuable from your website. When you add your guerilla partners to your marketing initiative, you will realize the possibilities are endless when it comes to providing value on your website. As you begin to think of what they can offer on your website, you should also brainstorm what you can offer on their website. When you allow them to add anything to your site, they must reciprocate and allow you to do the same with theirs. When properly developed, these reciprocative links will be the first bridge to customer sharing that you will develop within your guerilla network.

Capture Information At All Costs As you provide these helpful tools and pieces of value on your website, you absolutely have to capture their information at all costs. Information, when in the right hands, is as good as cash. The types of information that you should capture include names and email addresses. If possible, have your web developer set up an email authentication tool so you know which 72

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addresses are valid. There are several other ways to validate an email address. For example, the downloadable book tool will ask for the email address in which to send the file or the link. When someone does this, and you have their information, pat yourself on the back because you now have an extremely warm lead. If possible, you should also try to capture their address and phone number. Input fields requesting this info will usually do the trick as people tend to fill out the form completely without question. If you are willing to incur the postage expense, offer the option to send the book or other give-away via postal service. Though, please offer your piece of value through download as a means of instant gratification.

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Chapter 7: Guerilla Marketing Ideas Creating Your Guerilla Programs The following examples will be discussed from the vantage point of the fitness industry. The fitness industry provides the perfect context in which to illustrate the power of guerilla marketing. As you read the following examples, please actively imagine how these examples will work for your unique business. The fitness industry, like many industries that involve Tom Richard

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personal purchases, gives you the fortunate opportunity to help people transition into a healthy lifestyle. It is extremely difficult for a non-exerciser to walk into a store or a fitness center and admit that they are unhappy with the way they look and feel. This is exactly what this group of customers goes through when they contact you by any means. This is why it is extremely important to establish rapport with them and to truly identify their needs on a personal level. At this point, the customer is seeking understanding and approval with solutions that you can offer them. With this rapport and level of trust that you will develop comes an opportunity to help them in other areas of their life. These other areas in which you can help, you will cover with your guerilla network. The key behind a successful guerilla marketing program is making sure that your program is one that will truly help and will be well received by your customer. Earlier in the book we went over some conceptual guerilla marketing techniques and we briefly touched upon a few businesses that would make excellent guerilla partners with a fitness specialty store. We are 76

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now going to get specific with some guerilla marketing techniques and some guerilla marketing programs that will create tremendous opportunity. As we go over the different examples, you should be aware that they will be discussed in terms of the specific company in the example; however, any of these programs can be used with virtually any company in any industry. As you read the case studies, please do not get hung up on that specific product category or specific type of company. You should us the examples as a way to jog your brain to generate your own unique ideas to use in your specific industry. In guerilla marketing, creativity is the means to an end; the end being increased gross receipts and a lower cost per lead. Instead of finding a reason why it cannot or would not work, you should instead try to find ways that it can and will work for you. Small modifications of these examples will create successful strategies in every industry.

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Outdoor Recreation Customers that shop at your fitness specialty store also frequent outdoor recreation stores. The purpose of guerilla marketing is to get your brand and your message in front of your customers at the other places that they shop, therefore making the outdoor recreation industry a perfect target for your guerilla marketing network. The popularity and effectiveness of this strategy will be based on the location of your store.

Scuba Diving The fitness specialty store is called Tom Richard Fitness and he is looking to partner with a scuba dive shop located in town. After meeting with Jim, the owner of Jimʼs Dive Shop, the two of them come up with a great idea to help both of their businesses. They are going to have a free educational night at Jimʼs Dive Shop sponsored by Tom Richard Fitness. Here is how the educational night will work. Jim is looking to grow his customer base and get more people interested in scuba diving who have never before given the sport a thought. Both stores are located about 40 78

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minutes away from a popular beach where Jim charters a boat and takes people out on dives. However, Jim has a pool in the back of his shop where he certifies his divers prior to taking them out on his charter boat. Jim and Tom come up with the idea of having a special “Introduction to Scuba Diving” night in Jimʼs Pool at Jimʼs Dive Shop. The free class will give people who have never been exposed to scuba diving the opportunity to try it out in the comfort of a pool. As mentioned before, Tom Richard Fitness is the sponsor of the event. Tom Richard Fitness has a fantastic “Thank You” packet that is given to everybody who buys something from his store. In his “Thank You” packet, Tom and Jim will include a nice 6”x 9” printed card detailing the free “Introduction To Scuba Diving” class that will be taking place. To keep their costs in line, they are printing the cards without a date on them. This way the printed cards will not be dated and theyʼll be able to reuse the leftover cards for future classes. A small white square is left open on the back of the card where a local printer will Tom Richard

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design and affix a high-quality label that details the date and the time of the free class. The card that they are using has the Tom Richard Fitness logo prominently displayed on the front of the card right next to the logo for Jimʼs Dive Shop. The back of the card contains a coupon for $100 off of a purchase of $1000 or more at Tom Richard Fitness. Jim will include these cards with his “Thank You” packet that he gives out with every purchase at his store. Jim will also include the information on the cards in his quarterly newsletter that he sends out to all of his customers. Jim has also sought out his friend down at the beach to have the cards displayed at the local surf shops at their point of sale. This way they are also reaching out to those people who frequent the beach and may live near Jim and Tomʼs shops. Jim and Tom had all materials ready for distribution to customers six weeks prior to the class. Jim began to sign people up for the class within two weeks of starting the promotion. One week before the class took place, both Jim and Tom sent out a press release announcing the free class to the local newspaper. The paper ran the story three days before the class. Jimʼs 80

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shop had people calling, as well as stopping in, many of them saying “I never even knew you were here.” The “Introduction To Scuba Diving” class went well and Jim did a significant amount of business that night. Before and after the class Jim had everyone in the class thank Tom Richard for sponsoring the event. Tom was present and mingled with the participants of the class during their breaks and after the class. He also brought with him his most popular elliptical for people to try out while they had the time. The participants loved the elliptical and had a great time. Tom even sold the elliptical that he brought to the class and had his delivery team take it right from the store to the customerʼs house the following day.

The Boat Store With the success of the “Introduction To Scuba Diving” class under his belt, Tom Richard approached his good friend Scott who owned a boat store in town. Scott and Tom went out to lunch to discuss what they could do to help them both promote one anotherʼs businesses. Scott originally suggested that Tom allow Tom Richard

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Scott to purchase a dozen or so treadmills at Tomʼs cost and give one away with every purchase of one his $20,000+ boats. When Scott realized that Tomʼs cost was more than he originally had guessed, they went back to the drawing board. Scottʼs idea of providing a valuable gift from Tomʼs store was on the right path, but needed a little consideration. The concept is to create a path for Scott’s customers that would lead to Tom’s cash register. After brainstorming, they concluded that they should provide Scottʼs customers with something that would promote their healthy outdoor lifestyles while complimenting the boat. They were certain that they would come up with something. Then Tom had an idea. His good friend Mary owned a bike shop in town, and the other day Tom noticed one of the best mountain bikes that he had seen in a long time. When Tom was talking with Mary about the mountain bike, Mary pointed out the mountain 82

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bike actually folded up for compact storage. Tom was shocked at the fact that this bike actually folded because it was quite beefy looking. Tom suggested he and Scott talk to Mary about the promotion they were developing. Scott and Tom took Mary out to lunch the following week. Tom told Mary that they were looking for something that Scott could give away to anybody who bought one of his $20,000+ boats. Tom told her about the initial idea of giving away the treadmill and then about noticing the bike in her shop. Scott said that he would buy a dozen or so of them at Maryʼs cost to give away with boat purchases. They agreed that is was a good idea. The next step was to balance the promotion between the three businesses. Tom, feeling a bit left out, wanted to make sure this promotion was balanced since it did not involve his product. He proposed a logo placement on all of the free bikes by the local vinyl graphic shop. They knew they could get this done for free if they included the vinyl graphic shops logo on the promotional items along with Tom and Maryʼs. Tom agreed to include the promotional card in his Tom Richard

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“Thank You” packets that go out to all of his customers. Mary agreed that she would include the card in her “Thank You” packet, which was quite smaller than the one Tom used, but she would also include the cards on a nice display at her point of sale. Scott prominently displayed the bikes in his store window as well as on the boats that would include the free bike. After talking briefly about the bike with Mary, Scott realized that the bike would be perfect to demonstrate the storage space on this boat. He kept one folded up in the closet below deck to show how once his customer reached their destination, they could pull out this bike and have transportation on land. Scott was smiling with all the ways this little bike would help his sales presentation. Scott realized how powerful this bike became. Not only was it an incentive; it took on a major role in his presentation. With the details in place, Tom still felt like he was getting the short end of the stick. Tom wanted to promote HIS products if he was going to be promoting their products. So Tom came up with an idea about the cards describing the promotion as well as some signage that the three businesses could display in their showrooms.

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The sign would read something like “On The Land (picture of Maryʼs Bike), On The Water (picture of Scottʼs gigantic boat), and In The Home (picture of Tomʼs most popular exercise bike).” Now we were getting somewhere, Tom thought to himself. He proposed that this banner be displayed in each business for the three months before the outdoor season started. The banner would naturally include all three company logos with website addresses. The three of them agreed that this was a good plan. They wrote up a brief summary of their conversation and made sure that they were all comfortable with the scope of the program. They included in their written agreement that the program would run for three months. They hired a professional designer to come up with the promotional items and split the costs three ways. The program worked great and both Mary and Tom heard from a few customers that they came in after hearing about their stores from Scottʼs Boat Shop.

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The Outdoor Retail Specialty Shop Tom Richard Fitness wanted to add some color and some excitement to his store by way of a promotion that was different from the average fitness specialty promotion. Tom sought out a good partner in the outdoor category. He wanted to promote his new cross trainer that was rated number one in a hiking magazine as the best piece of equipment for hikers. He wanted to place his cross trainer in a store that sold hiking equipment so hikers could actually climb on the piece and try it out. Tom thumbed through the yellow pages and found 3 stores in his market. After online research, it was apparent that only two of the stores catered to highend customers. Tom went to these stores the following day to meet with the owners. The first one he went to gave him a hard time when he asked to speak with the owner. Tom told the clerk that he was not trying to sell anything and he owned the fitness equipment store a few miles away, but the clerk 86

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was not hearing it and became quite rude so Tom left. Tom then drove across town to the other outdoor specialty store. Upon entering, he was immediately impressed. After visiting this store, Tom was relieved that he was not able to contact the previous storeʼs owner. This store, Bobʼs Outdoor World, was truly a high-end store. They had some elaborate displays that were visually intriguing. Tom thought to himself, “Wow, I want my cross trainer in this store.” Before Tom could get to the front counter he was approached by an employee who asked if he needed some stuff for his exciting trip. Tom cracked a smile and politely said, “No, I own Tom Richard Fitness a few miles from here and I was wondering if I could speak with the owner.” The gentleman replied, “Yes you may, Iʼm Bob, and I am the owner here.” Impressed, Tom complimented Bob on his beautiful store and asked if they had a place to talk. The two of them went back to Bobʼs office and began to talk about guerilla marketing. Bob was familiar Tom Richard

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with the concept but had never had the opportunity to try it out. Cutting to the chase, Tom told Bob that he would promote this store if Bob would promote Tomʼs new top-rated cross trainer. Bob immediately said he would love to do something and that he would like to promote his new line of kayaks. Tom smiled at the idea because he had never thought of kayaks. Tom suggested that they run some sort of promotion, Tom with Bobʼs kayak, and Bob with Tomʼs cross trainer. This discussion resulted in a contest with two prize winners. The prizes were obviously the kayak and the cross trainer. The details of the contest worked as follows. Tom was going to prominently display Bobʼs kayak in his store front with a professionally designed sign that would read something like “win this kayak.” Next to the kayak would be an entry box where people could come into the store and fill out an entry form to win the kayak and drop it in the box. Tom could not stop smiling with the idea of all of those people who walk by his store regularly coming in because they saw the kayak. 88

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That would instantly increase the traffic into the store. While they were filling out the form, Tom would have the chance to talk with them and get to know them a little bit. Tom continued to think if they were interested in a kayak, then they likely were the type of person who lead an active lifestyle. Therefore they were the exact type of person that he has been trying to get into his store. “Wow, what a good idea,” Tom accidently said out loud. Bob, in turn, would make a storefront display with his hiking apparel and gear around Tomʼs new cross trainer. Bob would also have a sign that would say something to the effect of “win me.” The Tom Richard Fitness Logo would be placed on the elliptical so it was visible both from the store window and from inside the store. There would also be some signage encouraging Bobʼs customers to try the machine out. Next to the cross trainer would be an entry box and entry forms to win the cross trainer. Bob was also excited about the additional walk in traffic that would be generated by the contest and the fact it was something new and different in his window. Tom and Bob agreed after they each drew a winner at the end of the contest, they would combine the information collected from the entry boxes and share Tom Richard

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it with one another. Tom could not stop thinking about how valuable this information would be when combined with his regular direct mail list. These entrants were pre-qualified future customers because they all lead active lifestyles. The contest went off without a hitch and both Tom and Bob had a significant increase in the amount of walk in traffic to their stores. Over 1,000 names, addresses, and emails were collected between the two of them. The new leads are as valuable as the increased traffic and revenues. At the conclusion of the contest, Tom and Bob agreed that they would continue this contest again next year with different products.

The Appliance Store A high-end appliance store was located in the same shopping center as Tom Richard Fitness. Tom and the owner of the appliance store agreed to do some sort of guerilla marketing program. They sat down and talked about which of their customers were usually making appliance purchases and fitness equipment purchases 90

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in the same period of time. After a brief discussion, they agreed that families who were moving to the area were making appliance purchases at the same time as fitness equipment purchases. They agreed these customers would be the focus of their guerilla program. Tom told the owner of the appliance store about some of the other successful guerilla marketing programs he had run with some other areas businesses. The previous guerilla programs that Tom initiated would certainly not work with a major appliance retailer. They had to sit down at the drawing board to come up with a strategy that would make sense for both of their unique industries. One idea was certain -- they needed to target new home buyers in the local market. Some preliminary ideas came of this notion. They thought maybe they could split the cost of doing some sort of cooperative marketing campaign targeting new home buyers. They did not rule that out, but they thought maybe they could bring a mutual friend of theirs into the conversation. Her name was Debbie and she was a local realtor who Tom Richard

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specialized in high-end real estate. They had her meet them for lunch the following week. Debbie was immediately supportive of a cooperative promotion targeting new home owners in the area. Debbie specialized in both high-end real estate as well as corporate relocations. Debbie liked to give each of her prospective buyers a “Welcome To The Area” packet. Her packet was quite similar to Tomʼs “Thank You” packet personally handed to each of his customers. After discussing several different options, the three of them agreed that it would be best to keep this guerilla marketing program low key and cost effective. They decided that they were going to have a special full color card printed with a “Welcome To The Area” special on the front of it. They both offered 25% off any purchase from either store. They recruited a professional designer to come up with the piece. In order to keep the relationship balanced between all three parties, they were going to have Debbie sponsor the promotion and include her name and picture on the card. The cards would be included in every “Welcome To The Area” packet that Debbie handed 92

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out. She handed these out to new home owners while simultaneously using the welcome packet as a recruitment tool for her relocation portion of her business. This would ensure that the cards would be going out to enough people to justify the cost. The piece was designed without an expiration date so again, it could be used continuously until all of the cards were handed out. Debbie guessed that it would take her at least one year to go through all of the cards. The cards were printed and the promotion went on as scheduled. Over the course of one year, Tom Richard Fitness tracked 5 customers who came in after receiving the card and the appliance store tracked a total of 7 customers who came directly from the card. This return covered the cost of printing the card and then some, since the cards were fairly inexpensive to produce. When the cards were depleted, the three of them agreed that the promotion was a profitable one and they printed another batch to continue it.

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The Casual Dining Restaurant Tom Richard was eating lunch at his favorite restaurant, Ritaʼs, one day when he noticed little green logos on the menu. The logos where next to some of the entrées and they read, “Low Calorie.” Instantly Tom had an idea for a new guerilla marketing promotion. Tom came to Ritaʼs several times every week for lunch. Rita knew him as one of her best customers. As Tom was leaving, he asked Rita if he could meet with her tomorrow about a way to improve both of their businesses. Rita smiled and said, “Sure, why not.” The next day Tom and Rita sat down to talk about guerilla marketing. Tom brought with him one of the “Thank You” packets he gave to every customer who bought something in his store. Tom explained to Rita he would like to include something of value in this “Thank You” packet that would help her business.

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He would do so in exchange for a similar gesture on her part. That sounded fair enough to Rita and she quickly replied, “I would love to include some sort of coupon for a free appetizer.” Tom agreed it sounded like a great idea; one that would be appreciated by his customers. Rita asked Tom what she could do to improve Tomʼs business. Tom pulled out one of her menus and said he would love to change her “Low Calorie” logo next to the healthy entrées to a “Tom Richard Fitness Approved” logo. Tom worked up what it would look like on his computer the night before and showed Rita what he had in mind. Rita said it sounded like a good idea, but pointed out it would cost a lot of money to reprint all of the menus. The two of them discussed printing costs. Rita mentioned that printing the menus would cost a significant amount more than printing her coupons for the “Thank You” packets. Tom agreed. The only fair solution was to have Rita pay for what she was going to include in Tomʼs “Thank You” packet, and for Tom to pay for the reprinting of the menus.

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This was a big enough advertising opportunity that Tom immediately agreed to pay for the reprinting of the menus. Rita provided Tom with the name and phone number of the print shop that she used to print the menus, and Tom contacted the print shop to review the new menu design. When the design was complete, Rita approved the design changes and Tom paid the bill for the reprinting. After the menus were printed and had been in use for a few weeks, Rita called Tom to tell him how many customers were asking her about Tom Richard Fitness. She told each customer that the store was located just down the street. Rita was surprised at how many customers did not even know the store was there. Rita then explained the reason for her call was to ask Tom if she could have a stack of his business cards and a small business card holder that she could place by the register. She had enough customers asking about Tom Richard Fitness that it would be convenient for her to just hand them a business card.

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Rita told Tom one day while he was eating his lunch she liked the idea of having another local business represented on her menus; it helped her remind people she too was a local business. Rita went on to explain she felt a large part of her success was because her restaurant was viewed as a local restaurant. Her customers like doing business with local businesses. Tom agreed and mentioned he too enjoyed being associated with her local business for the same reasons. Over the coming months, Tom heard many comments about the logo next to the healthy entrées. Tom was unsure if any of them actually came into the store because they saw the logo, but it certainly was being seen by his customers. Tom figured that even though this was not as measurable as the other guerilla marketing programs he had run, it certainly was doing wonders for his brand and his image in the community.

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The Chain of Sandwich Shops Fresh off of the success with Ritaʼs restaurant, Tom had the idea of placing a coupon in every bag at the local sandwich shop. Tom felt that the local sandwich shop catered to people who were trying to eat healthy. Tom himself had been there many times when he did not have time to sit down and have an actual meal. Tom was not sure if he would have much success with the sandwich shop because they were a national franchise. He assumed they would have to get approval from their main headquarters before allowing any marketing programs to begin. Tom figured it was worth a shot, and he visited the local shop and asked for the owner. He was told the owner actually owned four of these shops in the area and that he was at another location at the moment. Tom then asked if his business card was available. The clerk proceeded to find his business card and gave one to Tom. The ownerʼs name was Terry and Tom called him to introduce himself and explain the nature of why he was calling. Intrigued, Terry agreed to meet him at one of the shops the following week. When the two of them met, Tom explained to Terry what he initiated 98

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with Rita and her restaurant. Terry was interested in getting something in Tomʼs “Thank You” packet similar to Ritaʼs coupon. The two restaurants were not in competition because Ritaʼs restaurant was a casual dining restaurant and Terryʼs restaurants catered to those who were in a hurry. Terry proceeded to ask Tom what he was looking for from him. Tom explained he was not exactly sure what he was looking for but he would like to get something in each of the sandwich bags for Terryʼs customers. Terry quickly exclaimed, “Well that is over 20,000 bags per month if you include all four of my stores.” Tom’s eyes got big as he had no idea there was that amount of traffic going through Terry’s stores. Tom continued to ask Terry what the process for getting something like this approved would be. Terry replied that it was actually quite simple, but that he wasnʼt sure if the amount of extra work required to put something into every bag justified a coupon in Tomʼs low volume “Thank You” packet. Tom agreed that it seemed a bit unbalanced.

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Tom then told Terry that he agreed there were certainly some synergies between what each business could do for one another, but he wanted a few days to think about how he could improve Terryʼs business the way Terry would be able to improve his business. They agreed to meet the following week to see if there would be an opportunity to make the potential relationship a bit more balanced. Now Tom had some thinking to do. He was giddy at the thought of hitting 20,000 health conscious consumers every month. Tom had a flood of ideas in his head. He just needed to figure out which ones made most sense for both parties involved. “Hold on,” Tom said to himself out loud. “I should get more people involved in something this big,” continued Tom as he began to talk to himself. “Who else can I get involved in something like this,” Tom thought. “Who else would be interested in reaching 20,000 health conscious consumers every month,” he thought. Tom immediately grabbed a piece of paper and began to jot down all of the different types of businesses who would be interested in getting involved in something of this magnitude.

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Tom thought to himself, not only would they be reaching 20,000 health conscious people every month, but they would be reaching them through a channel that is typically not used. This meant the message would be received more effectively than the same message communicated through traditional advertising. “Plus,” Tom thought, “regardless of what the cost works out to be; I know that it will be less than traditional advertising.” As Tom brainstormed different businesses that would be interested in this program, he kept thinking that the program would have to be something to significantly improve Terryʼs business. Tom switched his thoughts away from how much this would improve his business, and began to focus on what would improve Terry’s business. Tom realized the only viable way to significantly improve Terryʼs business was to tap into the current traffic going through Terryʼs stores. No matter how many businesses Tom recruited, it would be hard to match 20,000 people per month. Tom thought to himself, “So what does Terry have going for him Tom Richard

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that he could market that would either increase the amount of new customers, increase the amount of his repeat customers, or improve his overall image in the community?” Tom realized that Terryʼs stores, because they were a well-known worldwide franchise, had a great image as the healthy alternative to fast food. That was perhaps the most powerful synergy that their two companies shared. Tom decided that this program was going to have to focus on the healthy image aspect of Terryʼs business. Then Tom had an idea. Tom Richard Fitness could provide health facts for Terryʼs customers. The facts would have to be little known factoids, and they would be both interesting and entertaining. The factoids would be part of an incentive to buy another sandwich from Terryʼs shops, and they piece would be branded with Tom Richard Fitnessʼ logo. Tom thought a “$1.00 off your next sandwich” coupon would work well as an incentive for the customer to buy their next sandwich from one of Terryʼs participating locations. This would also give the customer a reason to hold onto the coupon. Not only will they see the 102

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Tom Richard Fitness logo; they are likely to hold onto the coupon for the next time they visit one of Terryʼs stores. This was a good start to a program which would significantly improve Terryʼs business, however, the program still needed something more. Tom decided to expand the program by reaching out to other fitness and health related businesses (that obviously did not directly compete with Tom Richard Fitness). Tom contacted a local upscale fitness center, a local yoga studio, and a local personal training studio. Tom knew from his many years in the business, that these businesses do not compete with one another. Each business attracts different people. Tom contacted all of the businesses. Each business agreed to promote Terryʼs business, in exchange for representation on the factoid/coupon piece included in each of Terryʼs sandwich bags. Tom realized this promotion could easily become a city-wide campaign to benefit the community. The program would be called “Making Big City Healthier One Sandwich and One Workout At A Time.” Tom liked the sound of that, and he contacted a professional designer to come up with a logo that tied this campaign Tom Richard

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together. The same designer would design the factoid/ coupon piece that would go into the sandwich bags. Tom felt that he had enough ideas to share with Terry. He decided it would be best to wait to develop any of them further until after he talked with Terry. Tom met with Terry the following week. Tom shared his half-baked thoughts with Terry; he was excited and took the ideas the rest of the way. Terry suggested that they run the “Making Big City Healthier One Sandwich and One Workout At A Time” campaign in the newspapers, on their websites, and in all of his sandwich bags. Terry then pointed out he and his other franchisee colleagues, pay a certain percentage of their gross sales into a general marketing fund. The fund is to be used by all 50 sandwich shops, under the same franchise name, in the city. He suggested that his colleagues and himself use the money in the general fund to pay for the newspaper advertisements and to help cover the cost of the 250,000 coupons to be distributed across the entire city. The balance of the marketing costs were to be split between the fitness companies that Tom had contacted. Terry concluded the meeting 104

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saying he will contact the other franchise owners and suggested that Tom contact the fitness businesses. Tom was in shock at how big this program had become in such a short time. The franchise owners and the other fitness businesses all agreed, and the team hired a professional to design all of the materials that would be needed. The group released a combined press release and the story was picked up by the major metro paper and all of the local community papers. In the end, the program was a smashing success. The program cost each of the fitness businesses less than $10,000 each for an incredible amount of press as well as reaching over 250,000 health related consumers. Terry was thrilled at the amount of press that he received, and reported his customers redeemed thousands of the factoid/coupons. Each fitness business noticed an increase in both phone traffic and walk-in traffic. It is impossible to calculate how many customers came directly from the investment in this wildly successful program. Tom sat back, smiled, and wondered why he was initially hesitant to walk into the sandwich shop a few months prior. Tom Richard

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The Dry Cleaner All companies advertise to some degree. Most companies find out where their competition is advertising, and they advertise in the same medium. There are many places to advertise where your competition has not even thought of. The best example is when Tom Richard Fitness stumbled upon the opportunity to advertise with the local dry cleaner. Tom walked in and introduced himself to the owner of a local dry cleaner in an extremely affluent part of the city. Tom was fully prepared to show the dry cleaner how they could improve their business (while also improving Tomʼs business). Tom brought the owner of the dry cleaner one of his “Thank You” packets. Tom offered to include something of value in the “Thank You” packet from the dry cleaner. The dry cleaner was interested and asked what he could do to repay the favor. Tom explained the concept of guerilla marketing, and pointed out the only objective was to grow each otherʼs business. 106

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Tom told the owner he would like to redesign the dry cleanerʼs hangers and plastic garment covers. Both of these items go out with every garment that the dry cleaner cleans. Tom told him he would like to include his logo on both of these items. The dry cleaner politely made reference to the fact that having his coupons in Tomʼs “Thank You” packet did not seem like a fair trade for such an enormous promotion. Tom realized this, and told the owner that in exchange for allowing him to redesign the hangers and the plastic garment covers, he would pick up the total cost of both (not just the printing, the entire cost). The dry cleaner smiled and told Tom he would think about it and would call him the following day. The dry cleaner called Tom back the following day and said that he would agree to have his coupon in the “Thank You” packet. He would also agree to allow Tom to pay for his hangers and his garment covers, but he only wanted to do so on a trial basis. The trial was necessary to see how his customers would react to this type of promotion. The two owners agreed they would start with 10,000 Tom Richard

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of the hangers and 10,000 of the garment covers. As the 10,000 became depleted, they would revaluate the situation and determine whether or not to continue with the promotion. The promotion worked wonders for both businesses; they both had measurable increases in business directly resulting from the program. The program was profitable for both parties, and the two owners continued with the understanding they would revaluate it every six months.

The Newsletter Idea Writing a newsletter somebody will read is a great way to establish yourself as the expert in your field, while simultaneously propagating your name and your brand. Rob, the owner of Unlimited Fitness, was able to successfully write an article that put him in front of a targeted audience. Rob wrote articles on fitness tips on a regular basis.

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One day Rob came up with the idea of trying to get these fitness tips in front of a larger audience. The way that Rob decided to do this actually made his, what became monthly, fitness tip articles grow bigger than he could have imagined. Rob decided that in addition to including his monthly fitness tips in his “Thank You” packets, he would also develop an Unlimited Fitness ezine, or electronic magazine. He allowed his customers the opportunity to sign up for this free ezine as they signed up for their fitness membership. At first, there were only a couple of dozen people who elected to receive the ezine, but Rob felt that justified the time he spent putting everything together each month. As the ezine began to be sent out on a regular basis, the list of ezine subscribers grew and grew. Eventually, Robʼs ezine had over 100 subscribers. One day Rob received a phone call from a local business networking group. The networking group had a monthly newsletter sent out to each member. The woman who had called Rob asked him if he would write a monthly article for their newsletter. The group was trying to cover a broad range of topics in their newsletter.

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Rob quickly agreed and began forwarding his article to the publisher of the networking newsletter. At the end of each article published in this newsletter, Rob included the phrase “for more information about how to get into shape or to learn more about Unlimited Fitness, email Rob,” and it was followed by his email address. One of the readers of the networking newsletter was the publisher of a local paper that promoted health and fitness in the community. The local newspaper was called, “Big City Healthy Living.” This paper was distributed free of charge to all of the local health related businesses. Rob was familiar with this paper because he had them for his customers in his fitness center. The publisher emailed Rob and wondered if she could reprint his article in their publication. Rob, of course, agreed to allowing them to run his articles on a monthly basis. He wondered why he never thought of contacting them earlier. Rob now had his monthly articles being distributed in his “Thank You” packets, being sent to subscribers of his monthly ezine, being printed in a networking 110

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newsletter, and being run in the local “Big City Healthy Living” newspaper. Rob had about 3-5 people per month coming into the fitness center because they read his article. Rob felt these were great results considering that he was writing these articles anyway. Rob recognized in addition to the increase in his walk in traffic, he was also establishing himself as the local fitness expert in his market. Anytime a fitness related news story broke in town, the major metro paper would call him for a quote. There really was no way to determine exactly how much business could be directly attributed to the exposure from these articles, but Rob figured ANY type of publicity HAD to be good for business in the long run. This was a great way to build awareness of the Unlimited Fitness brand and separate his fitness center from his worthy competitors.

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The Running Club Tom Richard Fitness recently sold a treadmill to a woman named Rebecca. Rebecca was a member of the cityʼs running club called “The Roadrunners.” Rebecca was telling Tom all about this running club while they were talking about her treadmill. Rebecca was telling Tom “The Roadrunners” were going to be organizing a charity 5k race the following fall. Tom naturally had an idea about how to get involved in the race. He asked Rebecca who the sponsors were. Rebecca told Tom they did not have any sponsors at the moment, but they would be looking for some in the near future. Rebecca sensed Tomʼs willingness to support the race and asked if Tom was interested in becoming a sponsor for the event. Tom said he might be interested, and Rebecca gave him the name of the event coordinator. He told her he would give the event coordinator a call in a few days to see what a sponsorship would consist of. He would also like to run a few ideas by her. Tom wanted to come up with something that was 112

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different than the traditional sponsorships that he had done in the past before he called the event coordinator. Tomʼs business had always seen a profitable response from past sponsorships of events similar to this one. However, with the recent successes of his guerilla marketing programs, Tom wanted to come up with something special. Who could he get involved with this charity event? Tom thought of everybody he involved in past guerilla marketing programs. If the idea was strong enough, Tom knew he could get support from them. First, Tom wanted a clear idea of the plan; then he would contact them. Tom called the event coordinator a few days later as promised, but only for more information about the event, and to find out how he could possibly help. He asked the event coordinator about the needs they had for this charity 5k. The event coordinator told him the best way to help the race was by making a monetary donation. Being inquisitive, Tom asked the event coordinator what the monetary donations covered. The event coordinator explained the money was used to cover the Tom Richard

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post race awards, the food provided to the participants and the volunteers after the race, the ice needed during and after the race, the sport drinks handed out during the race, the costs of printing the T-shirts, and the overall promotion of the event. Tom told the event coordinator he was interested in helping make the race successful. Now Tom had a better understanding about what went into running a successful charity race, and he was able to figure out how his business and the other businesses in his guerilla network could be of service. Tom wanted to keep the monetary donations to a minimum. Instead he would recruit his guerilla partners to donate the items needed for the race, in exchange for recognition in the marketing materials used before, during, and after the race. Tom contacted every business he had an established relationship with and recruited their support for this charity race. He was able to have the ice donated by the local convenience store chain, the sports drinks donated by the local beverage distributor, and the food was catered by Ritaʼs restaurant. The printing 114

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of the T-shirts and the marketing materials needed to promote the race, were donated by the local print shop Tom had used in previous guerilla programs. Several employees from each business donated their time on race day to help staff the event. In addition to having all of these items donated, each business agreed to promote the race by placing brochures at their point of sale and in their “Thank You” packets. Some companies even had some employees sign up to run the race. With everything in place, Tom called the event coordinator and told her about all of the donations that had been arranged. Tom agreed to pay $3,000 to become the title sponsor of the event. The event coordinator was delighted with the accomplishments that had transpired in such a short amount of time. One week before race day, Tom sent out a combined press release about the community support for this charity race. Several local newspapers and the major metro paper agreed to cover the event. With the combined help from each of these businesses, and their help promoting the race, the charity race received record attendance and record donations. Every article Tom Richard

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that ran about the race included mention of Tom Richard Fitness and how Tomʼs business helped raise a record amount of money for the charity. As Tom thought about the press that he received from helping this charity; he realized this was not free media attention, this was earned media attention and it was worth the hard work.

Get Active America The local upscale fitness center in town was a member of IHRSA, the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, and was getting ready for the fitness industryʼs annual Get Active America campaign. Mark, the owner of the fitness center, contacted Tom at Tom Richard Fitness to talk about an idea he had to promote this campaign as well as their own businesses. Tom and Mark sat down to discuss how they could take this annual promotion and make it a big deal. The idea they came up with was one that would be talked about for years to come, they thought. Tom had 116

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experience dealing with local soft drink distributors and Mark had experience dealing with local grocery stores. With this experience Tom knew that the local beverage distributors were always looking for ways to earn extra shelf space and extra floor space in the local grocery stores. Tom and Mark contacted the regional manager of the local beverage distributor to see if they would be interested in promoting Get Active America with some of their healthier beverages. The beverage distributor was just releasing a new flavored water; they were trying to have local grocery stores put up a large display of the new product. The beverage distributor had a very large budget and usually ran into non-monetary obstacles while promoting their product. The obstacles were contractual problems with competing companies. This program was the perfect opportunity for the beverage company to gain temporary floor space in the large grocery store chain. The three of them worked out the details before contacting the grocery store chain. The details were as follows. Mark, the owner of the fitness center, wanted to increase the traffic into his club during the Get Active America campaign. Tom wanted to Tom Richard

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increase awareness about his fitness equipment store among those who lead a healthy lifestyle and live in the area. The beverage company wanted their product inside the local grocery store chain. They would work together to have a large Get Active America display inside the grocery store. The display would be made of hundreds of cases of this new water, and there would be several banners placed throughout the store. In addition to the display in the store, Mark and Tom would both display banners in their businesses further promoting the grocery store and the new flavored water from the beverage distributor. The promotion benefits the grocery store because the beverage distributor was paying for everything and giving them 50% of the cases in the display for free. The beverage distributor was also paying for a coupon to be placed on the display for customers to take. The coupon was a one week membership at the fitness center. All of the banners and all of the printed materials would include all four businessesʼ logos. The grocery store chain loved the idea and everything worked out famously. Markʼs fitness center received a significant increase in traffic from the promotion. 118

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Tom had his logo prominently displayed in a dozen grocery stores without having to spend one penny. The group also ran a combined press release about the Get Active America campaign and it was picked up by the major metro newspaper. All four businesses were mentioned in the article.

Summary -- You Get The Point By now, you get the point that the possibilities with guerilla marketing are endless. If you have an imagination and the guff to pick up the phone and talk to your fellow businesses, then you have what it takes to run a successful guerilla marketing program. It is important to note, these programs can be run with any business in any industry. Whether you are a financial planner or you sell fur coats, there are programs that you can design using the examples provided in this book. It is up to you to create your own guerilla programs and establish your own

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guerilla network. When you have a strong network, the collective imagination and collective intelligence of the group will generate some incredible programs. Have some fun with it and BE CREATIVE!

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Chapter 8: Strength Of The Team Strength In Numbers In guerilla marketing, the name of the game is teaming up for strength in numbers. You want to team up with businesses who compliment your business. In the fitness specialty industry, there are businesses that are rarely taken advantage of that are direct compliments.

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Strength Of The Team

These businesses include home builders, realtors, architects, interior designers, mirror installers, furniture stores, lighting specialists, window companies, highend kitchen companies, granite/marble counter top retailers, high-end drapery companies, flooring companies, organized closet companies, oriental rug retailers, basement refinishers, deck and patio companies, and many other home improvement specialists. Each of these companies has a service to offer that will make the team stronger. Each of these services can be provided for free to a future customer. When these free services are bundled together in a cooperative folder, then each company on the list can use the folder as a tool for their business. The folder is presented as an “arenʼt we swell” piece and is distributed to potential future customers and existing loyal customers. When any of the customers from those businesses are in the market for any of those services, then they are in the market for ANOTHER product from ANOTHER company on the list. This means it is smart to market 122

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these companies as a bundle. Each company participating in the cooperative program gains credibility from the size and the stature of the group. There is strength in numbers. The cooperative nature of the folder becomes a mutual endorsement of all participating businesses. These mutual endorsements add credibility and strength to your reputation. It saves the customer time and effort when trying to find another reputable company for one of those products or services; this makes the cooperative piece valuable, and they will thank you for it. In addition to enjoying the time saving feature, the collaborative folder also presents the customer with the free services offered by participating companies. For example, if one of your customers was refinishing their basement, then they will enjoy some ʻfree design tipsʼ from the interior designer in the network. When the interior designer packages their free design tips, they will have the opportunity to showcase their Tom Richard

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talents. After seeing these design tips, your customer may discover the need for a professional interior designer as they move forward with their basement project. The interior designer may not be willing to visit each customerʼs home who requests their free design tips (however you may be surprised that they will want to). If the interior designer does not have the time to visit each customer who request the tips from them, then they would most likely be willing to create a predesigned sample of their work. The interior designer can put together a small booklet with design tips for home gyms and/or sample pictures of work that they have done in the home gym environment. This would require a few hours on their part, once, to come up with the booklet. If you and the interior designer want to make this real interesting, then incorporate this interior design booklet into your website. Include pictures of beautiful gyms that you have done together as a team. This showcases your company as the expert in high-end gyms, while simultaneously showcasing the interior designerʼs talent. Take it a step further and have them 124

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enter their name and email address to have the design booklet emailed to them. Their information is then forwarded to both businesses -- a warm lead! This is one example of which there could be hundreds! Use your imagination, look at the list of companies again, and come up with other synergies between the web of companies serving the same pool of clients. The possibilities are endless and each example strengthens your company and strengthens the other companies in the network. Each example also distances you from your competition and justifies and validates buying from you (even if you are not the lowest priced store in town). These synergies are ones that simply are not used in many industries. Most companies focus only on brand and price and forget that their customers just want it to work for them -- on their terms. By focusing on the emotional reasons they are buying and speaking in terms of how you can meet their real needs, you become a true resource for them. You become a resource they WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH for a multitude of reasons.

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Chapter 9: Your Marketing Calender Set Goals -- Have A Plan Any good program or series of initiatives will be more successful if it is planned out. Plan it out with a set of expectations and desired outcomes -- for the lay man that means you need to have goals. Your goals should not simply be, “I want to do guerilla marketing next month.” Nor should they be, “I want to do something with XYZ company next month.” Tom Richard

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Marketing Calendar

Your goals need to be flexible enough that you can listen to the opportunities and roll with them. You will find that even the most detailed plan will change almost instantly when another idea pops up. Your goals should be specific enough to require action on your part to achieve them, but not specific enough that you will be trying to force a square peg through a round hole. Leave yourself enough flexibility to change when a door is opened and to quickly respond when a door is shut. An effective goal is one that focuses on the actions necessary and not on the end results. For example, you would say “next month I would like to contact ten companies regarding some guerilla marketing ideas, and of those ten companies I would like to actually sit down and talk with three of them.” Sitting down with three different companies will likely yield one that works for both parties involved. If you do not get three sit downs from contacting ten companies, then contact more. 128

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Marketing Calendar

The goal, therefore, is three sit downs. If all three sit downs fail, then so be it. Keep plugging along and when the conditions and the opportunities are right, then you will be ready for them. Before you have your guerilla network in place, start with easier programs that still generate positive results. The easier programs to run are ones like organizing a fund raiser or a charity event. You can use this type of program to build bridges with future guerilla partners. Even if the response to this type of program is limited, you will be able to successfully execute it and keep the ball rolling. If you have a plan and are committed to making guerilla marketing work, then good things will happen for you. As mentioned earlier, there are certain companies that will respond well to guerilla marketing, and there are companies that just do not get it. (Hint: You want the ones that respond well.)

Talk To Your Customers Your first guerilla partners are those that are familiar with you and your company -- your customers. Talk Tom Richard

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to them about helping their business and youʼll find that they will be receptive. Starting with your customers is smart because you will be actively building the relationship between yourself and your customers. The customers that have grown to know and love you will be eager to help you improve you business (while also improving their own). While you and your customer are both growing your businesses, you will continue to do business with one another and refer each other business. This is an important part of developing a strong relationship with your customer. Your customers will come up with ideas about guerilla marketing that you would never have thought of. Please feel comfortable asking them questions about their favorite businesses, businesses that compliment your products, and any other relevant questions to help you build your network. This information will determine where your customers shop and where you want to focus your efforts.

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Chapter 10: Final Word Traditional Marketing Guerilla marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing in business today. Yet, guerilla marketing is rarely used by companies in most industries. There are companies that do not respect guerilla marketing because it is outside of their comfort zone. It is apparently more comfortable for business executives to spend tens of thousands of dollars on worthless advertising.

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Final Word

Traditional advertising, depending on the medium, the industry, and the message, can often times be a tantamount way to spend your marketing dollars. There are some companies that like to spend money on traditional advertising because they like to hear or see their company all over the market. Before you, dare I say “invest”, this money in traditional advertising, I encourage you to take a hard look at the measurable return on investment that you will receive from this investment. Business owners and decision makers justify their expenses by telling themselves, “We made more than we spent.” It is not enough to say that you made money on the advertising purchase because revenue not earned is the same as revenue lost. Therefore, if you have $10,000 to spend to generate more traffic into your store, you must look at all of the possible ways to spend that money. If you have three different mediums on which you can spend your $10,000 and you choose the least effective of those three, then you must think that because of your decision, you have just lost money. Then you tell me I am just looking at the glass as half-empty, 132

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Final Word

and that I should look at the bright side of things. I disagree. The reason that you bought this book was to generate a few new ideas to improve your business. Here is an idea that will improve your business; get over your ego when it comes to seeing your name in lights and start focusing on your financial statements. It happens in every business where somebody gets ʻsoldʼ on one particular medium with which to advertise. Often times they are sold on this medium because this is the only medium that the person who sold it to them represents. We advise you to seek out a company that represents several different mediums, and use that company as a way to get advice about which one would be best for your business. Then hold that company accountable for results. If they do not perform for you, get rid of them and find a company that does grow your top line (your bottom line is up to you).

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Final Word

Desktop Publishing If you are designing your own advertising and making your own POS signs and banners, then please stop unless you have professional experience. When you are spending tens of thousands of dollars on advertising and you have a weak design and a weak message, then you are wasting your money. You are propagating the wrong image. Cut back slightly on the volume of marketing you are putting out into the community and use the money you save to hire a local designer to work up some basic designs for you. This money you spend on upgrading your image will come back to you triple-fold. Here is the litmus test on whether or not you have a professional image. Are you ready? If you print your business cards on an ink jet printer, then you are putting out the wrong image. In fact, if you are handing anything to customer printed on an ink jet printer, then you are sending out the wrong image. It is too affordable nowadays to have things professionally printed to ever have an excuse to use an ink jet printer.

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Final Word

Actually, if you add up the number of pages that you can print per ink cartridge with your ink jet printer, then you will find that you are spending more per page on your ink jet than you would be having a professional printer do the job for you. To find low printing rates search the internet for printers. You will usually find the best printers by searching for business cards. Most business card printers also print other items at a fraction of what you would pay at your local self-serve print shop. If you insist on doing your own design, here are a few ways that you can improve your desktop publishing overnight. First, stop using clip art. Cute sucks! Secondly, look into leasing a color laser jet printer. You can lease them for as little as $99 per month (depending on volume). Finally, look into buying some of the Adobe Suite products that the professional designers use. You will be able to learn the basics of these programs by following the tutorials that come with the software. By doing these three things you will be able to produce professional quality marketing pieces. You can use Tom Richard

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these pieces for your guerilla marketing programs, your POS items, and your various signs that you have throughout the store.

The Money Is In The Details Always pay attention to the details. Most businesses spend a great deal of time worrying about the first 90% of a project or program, and then they leave the last 10% unfinished or hastily thrown together. When it comes to your image, it is this last 10% that will determine whether you are an average company or a high-end company. The last 10% does not only refer to your marketing. It also refers to EVERYTHING else that you put your hand to. It includes how well you deliver your product, how well you prepare for your sales presentations, how well you can learn new things, how well you network in a social settings, and how well you follow up with your future customers. Do not neglect the last 10% because the money is in the details.

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Final Word

Make Guerilla Marketing Work For You If you would like guerilla marketing to work for you, then the most important thing you can do is to start thinking. Then start acting on those thoughts. One of the most beautiful parts about running guerilla marketing programs is the relatively low level of risk involved. The biggest investment you will make with guerilla marketing is your time. Even if the program falls through, the time you spent working on the program is transferable to another program. If you are working in the fitness specialty industry, then do not be afraid to partner with complimentary fitness businesses. You truly are not competing with your local fitness centers and your local personal training/yoga studios. Your customers will gravitate towards whichever mode they feel most comfortable with.

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Final Word

These same people will go through periods where they move from the fitness center into their home, or from their home into the gym. These variables are, for the most part, out of your direct control. With these variables outside of your direct control; switch the focus to helping the fitness industry as a whole. There are too many people in this country that still find it too difficult to lead a healthy and active lifestyle. As we as an industry come together and make this type of lifestyle one that appeals to more and more people, we will all benefit. I encourage you to reach out to your complimentary fitness businesses and help raise the tide of acceptance in our industry. I encourage you to do so not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it will make you and your company more profitable.

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Special Thanks

Special Thanks Tom Richard would like to thank his wife, Jan, for supporting him while he puts in the long hours required to do this type of work. Tom would also like to thank his partners in business for all of their long hours and hard work. • Matt Stowell • Travis Jess • Brian Kildow Thanks goes out to those who have inspired Tom and who have constantly supported and encouraged him. These inspirational people include: Malek Mehaouchi: for providing the support necessary to leave the corporate world and believe in my dreams. Tom Lourenso: for providing me with an environment where my talents could mature and grow strong. 140

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Special Thanks

Dr. Judith Washburn: for being my marketing inspiration. You started me in my marketing career and taught me that enthusiasm and creativity are contagious. Dr. Brent Nicholson: for teaching me to love learning and to never settle for the status quo. Jim Sutphin: customer.

for teaching me to think like a

And most of all I would like to thank YOU for purchasing this book and for continuing to support my business. Thank you for being my customer.

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About The Author

About the Author Tom Richard is from Grand Rapids, Ohio (total population 995). Tom began his career managing a chain of convenience stores before building and managing a 24,000 square foot fitness center which he played the key role in developing. Tom then moved to Philadelphia and into the fitness specialty industry where he achieved unprecedented success. While in the fitness specialty industry, Tom Richard noticed a need in the market for more effective marketing and sales training. Fueled by his passion from his own experience of losing 60 pounds, Tom has set out to improve the fitness industry one person and one company at a time. Tom Richard is the owner of Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC which does business as both Tom Richard Marketing and Tom Richard Sales Education.

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About The Author

The company originally set out focused solely on the fitness industry, but due to popular demand, we have begun helping companies of all industries improve the effectiveness of how they interact with their customers. Tom Richard publishes a weekly ezine titled “Sales Muscle.” To subscribe to the ezine and to see the other projects available from Tom Richard, visit his website at http://www.TomRichard.com

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