Guerrilla Marketing On The Internet

The last Guerrilla Marketing Association call featuring Jay Conrad Levinson was "The Truth of Guerrilla Marketing on the Internet" and it was fascinating to hear Jay explain how Guerrilla Marketers can take advantage of the Internet.

Here are a few points that struck home to me although the entire call was packed with high quality content.

First of all to succeed in Internet marketing you must understand the basic marketing principles. Obvious I know when you think about it but I see too many people go along to a website designer and have an attractive website designed but with no consideration to the marketing message and how to monetarise it.

The second item from the call which made me stand back and reflect was when Jay Conrad Levinson said that you don't need a website to market on the Internet.

Now that's an interesting idea isn't it. Doing away with the expensive website that nobody finds and instead concentrating on

1. Marketing to existing customers and leads by email
    
2. Using social networking sites like Facebook and business networking sites like Ecademy
    
3. Article marketing and the content sharing sites like Squidoo and Hubpages
    
4. Having a blog (which is like having your own website) or just becoming a regular commentator on other blogs and making enough of an impression so that people want to follow you
    
5. Using bulletin boards and forums
    
6. Selling on Internet auction sites like eBay

It may not be the best strategy long term but it is difficult to create an effective presence on the Internet and it will become even more difficult.

Just as in magazine advertising, the more clutter there is, the less individual items are noticed. Having a website is only the answer if you are attracting traffic.

But there is a credibility issue.

Often prospective customers will encounter you through another marketing channel and then take a look at your website. The beauty of the Internet is that it is anonymous and you can find out more without having to reveal your interest.

In cases where prospective customers expect you to have a website, then you do need one because otherwise your credibility will be in doubt.

The final idea that I am going to write about from this Guerrilla Marketing Association call is the rule of thirds.

Jay Conrad Levinson is only two aware of what happens with websites and his advice is to split your budget into thirds and spend the first third of developing the website, the second third on promoting it so that prospective customers either know about and look for it or can find it and the final third on maintaining the website.

This last point is important. How often have you visited a website and immediately realised that the website is badly out of date, perhaps promoting an event that happened nine months ago. It immediately creates an impression but not one that you want.

Remember everything a Guerrilla Marketer does is intentional.

If you have a small business and you want to improve your marketing, I strongly recommend the Guerrilla Marketing Association. It is a subscription service but you get a free trial period. The membership website is packed with resources to help you and I believe that the price is a bargain.

Comments

[Ann @ Home Savers]

Nice post - completely agree about the thirds pinciple, building a website is only the very tip of the ice-berg when it comes to online marketing.