As an author my strength is writing, so I picked up Guerrilla Marketing at the library with the hope of finding something that will set me on the right track of building a marketing campaign for novels. Small business owners would do well to read it. I found that some of the advice didn't apply but could see its usefulness to brick and mortar businesses.
In gleaning the information, this was the advice that seemed most appropriate to an artistic or creative business with regard to marketing.
1) Have a great product.
If you are going to pay for advertising, the author suggests having a great product. Otherwise, the marketing campaigns will only lead to a quicker downfall when people try it and realize they don't like it and spread the word.
2) Stick with the plan.
When creating a marketing plan, the author suggests thinking the strategy through completely and then tying all advertising into that strategy without wavering. He said that many times when stores don't see immediate results, they pull the campaign and end up losing their investment.
3) Be consistent.
When trying to decide what kind of marketing to use, Levinson advised consistency. If your budget is $300, don't spend it on a one-shot ad. Instead, spread it across several smaller ads that are consistently reaching the audience. People are inundated by ads and rarely pay attention to the first, second, or even the third advertisement, but if a business continues a regular campaign, eventually it will sink in.
4) There are two types of advertising, the ads to draw new customers and the ones to remind current customers of new products or releases. Guerrilla Marketing recommends a tight focus on current customers. If you're sacrificing old customers for new, it's bad business. It takes 6 times the effort to entice a new customer than to keep a current one.
Those were the most applicable sections to me, but there were plenty more suggestions that would be more appropriate for a small store.
No comments:
Post a Comment