Vladimir Covic

Guerilla Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses For a small retail business, taking on large competitors head on, using standard marketing tactics is often tantamount to business suicide. They simply have more money to throw on their marketing department and you would have little chance to compete with them on that level. Fortunately, guerilla marketing offers a cost-effective way to compete with not just businesses of your size, but also larger ones. Don’t forget, you can always compensate for your lack of size, manpower and financial power by being more “maneuverable” than big retailers and quicker to adopt new tactics to enhance your retail business. Here are several guerilla marketing tactics that will get people in your store and talking about it: 1. Be creative Large retailers often have the luxury of being less creative than a pile of rocks, but then again they can afford not to be. You, on the other hand, can’t and will often depend on your creativity or the creativity of your web designers, content writers and other folks you employ to turn heads your way. 2. Know your buyers Each one of your buyers is as important as a little water in the middle of the desert. Therefore, it stands to reason that you should know them like the back of your hand. Why they come to you? What are their buying habits? What are their problems that you can solve? One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a retail business owner is to project your own image and the way you think onto what a prospective buyer could be. That being said, take a few hours to do some research on your customers to learn what “buttons” you would have to push to keep your old customers and to get new ones. 3. Use social media extensively Social media, like Facebook, isn’t just for learning what your high school friends from a decade ago are up to and joining random groups, but it can also do wonders for your business. That is, if you use it wisely. Social media is all about connecting people, regardless of their geography. This makes it a powerful tool for those that know how to use it. For starters, you should get on Facebook and create a page there (if you haven’t already). Ask your friends and family to come over, like and share your page and its content, so that others would notice you. Also, join Twitter and start following people in your niche and engage them in some conversation. Be warned, however, not to overly aggressive and annoying with your tweets or comments. It’s one thing to provide useful info and to show people that you know what you’re talking about and completely another to use social media as a medium for bragging about your products and services and bashing on the competition. The later will just drive people away from you. 4. T-shirts! Yep, t-shirts. This marketing tactic is so old that many neglect using it, thinking there is no way it would work in the 21st century, among social media and smartphones. You’d be surprised how effective wearing a plain white T with your company logo and name and strolling around the street can still be, even in our age! Just don’t forget to include your website address, street address, email or a phone number somewhere on the shirt. 5. Hand out and swap flyers Handing out flyers to passersby is another valuable guerilla marketing tactic that you could use. The trick is in knowing where to hand them out and when. The easiest way to do this is in your own retail store, but that sort of defeats the purpose of handing out flyers and that is to interest someone new to check out your business. You can also make a pact with merchants in your neighborhood and swap flyers. This can be mutually beneficial for all included. Bottom Line Using one of these or some other guerilla marketing tactics not listed here is a sure way to make potential customers aware of your retail business, services and products. The trick is to be innovative, bold and not afraid of success. If you use guerilla marketing wisely, before you know it, you will be able to expand your retail business and grow it.