Guerrilla Publicity

Hundreds of Sure-Fire Tactics to Get Maximum Sales for Minimum Dollars

Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, Jill Lublin

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781642799309
• Edition: 3rd
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Marketing

Guerrilla Publicity provides expert advice for how to use publicity in the 21st Century, including Blogs, Podcasting and Social Networking. It is the PR bible and sets the foundation for practical PR campaigns.

Within Guerrilla Publicity, PR gurus, Jill Lublin and Rick Frishman, help those in business launch their publicity campaigns into the twenty-first century. This completely updated version of the publicity bible lays out the foundation of practical PR knowledge, while bringing everyone up to date with the latest Web-based publicity strategies. Throughout Guerrilla Publicity, readers learn how to capitalize on low-cost (and sometimes cost free) technologies so they can:

• Offer expert advice over the internet with podcasts
• Send out an e-mail blast to quickly reach consumers
• about the latest products or services
• Connect with their clients on social networking sites
• Conduct effective virtual seminars
• Build out their website in order to build name recognition

CHAPTER 1

PUT YOURSELF ON THE MAP

“A terrible thing happens without publicity … NOTHING!”

—Master showman PT Barnum

A subtle, but important change has taken place in publicity since the first edition of this book was published in 2002. Instead of trying to promote individuals, businesses, and their products and services, the focus has shifted to making connections with smaller communities, building relationships with their members, and using these networks as a base to promote their goods. Although guerrillas have always focused on such relationships—larger, more mainstream businesses have recently followed suit. And the ways in which these relationships form and grow has changed.

At the forefront of this change is the new media, which disseminates information through blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, and other online means. The new media focuses on reaching communities: groups of people with shared values, interests, and beliefs. These communities are built on trust. Their members regularly read blogs, listen to podcasts, direct message, visit social network sites, and participate in other online activities.

In order to relate to these people and develop relationships within their communities, you need to be able to take advantage of the new media. Community members are loyal: they follow bloggers and podcasters’ advice, attend the events they recommend, try the goods and services they endorse, and adopt the positions they advocate. As Internet marketing expert Penny C. Sansevieri points out, “Consumers don’t buy from ads, they buy from other consumers.”

In the new media, information is distributed by viral marketing. That means that when it is introduced into a community, members comment on it, which causes it to spread from person-to-person and to other communities like a medical virus. Some believe that the new media’s viral marketing makes traditional publicity concepts obsolete. We disagree. Although the impact of these new innovations is great and continues to play an increasing role, publicity is still based on established concepts that have withstood the test of time.

Throughout the book, we will give you the whole package: the tried and tested as well as the modern and cutting edge, the traditional along with the new media. We will also tell you how to use some established approaches differently. We want to give you all the options; to arm you with an arsenal of different weapons that you can use to address any situation and conduct any publicity campaign.

Publicity Basics

So as you know, publicity is the art of stirring up interest to promote you or your product or service. It’s convincing others to sing your praises, to blare from the rooftops:

• •Who you are
• •What you do, and
• •Why it’s important.

Publicity will put you on the map because it:

• •Builds your identity.
• •Increases your visibility.
• •Generates name recognition.
• •Gets your message across.
• •Compels people to buy, invest, and do business with you.

Publicity is the art of putting yourself in the spotlight. As you know, spotlights are narrowly focused—they don’t shine on everyone. To capture the spotlight, place yourself in position. Spotlights only illuminate those who work their way onto center stage.

Positioning is an intricate process that takes time, trial and error, endless patience and persistence. It’s more than a one or two-shot effort that produces wonders overnight, it’s a coordinated series of actions that requires explicit planning, devotion to detail, and endless follow up … that’s why they call them publicity campaigns. And in this book, we’ll explain just how they work.

Guerrilla Tactics

In publicity, rule number one is honk your own horn, but do it melodically, musically so you don’t scare people away.

If you don’t let the world know how great you are, no one else will. And if you don’t assert yourself, those who are more aggressive than you will cut in front of you, block your path, and you’ll end up stuck in the same old place … you’ll never get ahead.

So toot, toot, toot to everyone you speak with, write, or meet. Become a one-person advertising agency. Tell them all who you are, exactly what you have to offer, and precisely how it can benefit them.

If the public doesn’t hear about you, your product, or your service, as Barnum pointed out, nothing will happen.

You Are the Product

Guerrillas know that regardless of what product you produce or service you provide, you are the product! You are your own brand and you must always sell yourself. And selling yourself is a full-time job. When you repeatedly sell yourself, you build name recognition, which will increase your business because consumers are drawn to those with familiar names. So, make yourself known; build name recognition and sales.

Become a recognizable brand; it will put you on the map. Brand names have status and prestige. They give you a big edge in business because name recognition translates into hard currency, greenbacks, moolah, lots of money. Publicity is a time-tested method of making you stand out.

People trust the familiar. They find the familiar safer than the unknown, and yearn to be associated with the familiar. When your name first appears in the papers, on TV, or on the Internet, the public starts to take notice and becomes aware of you. It’s the “I’ve Heard of Her Somewhere” syndrome. People become curious. “Who is she? What does she do? Why do I always hear her name?” As they get answers, you become familiar and gain name recognition.

Name recognition isn’t simply people knowing who you are; it’s also their knowing what you do. It’s associating your name with your product or service. When you gain name recognition, the public thinks of you when they want your product or service, they will stand in line to do business with you. For example, if you need to ship a package overnight, companies like FedEx or UPS immediately come to mind because they have created name recognition.

Guerrilla Tactics

To get on the map, start modestly. Don’t immediately think hemispheres! First, start on your street, and when it’s saturated, branch out to your neighborhood, then district, then city, onto the county, then state and country, then continent, and finally the world. Spread the word. Tell everyone you know, everyone you come in contact with, who you are, what you do, and how your goods or services can benefit them.

Don’t overlook anyone, you never know who might help. Approach those closest to you, your immediate family, friends, and neighbors. Then speak with the folks who run the pharmacy, the tailor shop, and the car wash. If they can’t use your product or service, ask them who they know who could.

To expand your contacts, join clubs and organizations. Increase your visibility by volunteering, teaching, coaching, and serving on committees. Write articles or submit items about your business or interests to local publications such as free weekly newspapers, advertisers, newsletters, or Websites. Write and publish a blog or a newsletter, organize and lead a workshop. Discover what the media is covering and cultivate journalists, editors, and radio and TV producers.

Position Yourself as an Expert

You’re an expert, even though you may not think you are. If you operate a business, you’re probably an expert in your field.

Professional expertise simply means that you know what you’re doing. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re the world’s foremost authority. It also doesn’t mean that you know absolutely everything about your field … no one does!

Guerrilla Intelligence

Expertise has a way of sneaking up on us. We start with little and before we realize it, we’ve acquired a storehouse of knowledge and know-how. Mastery of your interests is one of life’s great satisfactions. Think for a moment about how much you know about what you do, how long it has taken you to learn it, and how helpful it is to others. It’s a significant accomplishment, one that not everyone attain. Let’s call this achievement “professional expertise.”

Besides your professional expertise, you’re also an expert in a number of other areas. For example, being a single mother, part of a married couple, or an expert baker; growing roses, researching on the Internet, or canoeing; yodeling, taking photographs, or canning peaches. Whatever it is—it’s your “personal expertise.”

In most cases, professional expertise is what you’re selling; it’s your basic product. However, your personal expertise enhances your professional expertise by adding special flavors that make it unique. Your personal expertise places your special stamp on your work. The combination creates the perspective that makes approaches special, original, and insightful.

Let your personal expertise shine through. That’s what people want. They want your unique vision, your particular understanding, and your distinctive form of expression, creation, and implementation. When you build on your professional expertise with your personal expertise, it distinguishes you and you deliver something special.

Guerrilla Tactics

Let others know you’re an expert. Declare that you have knowledge and/or skills that others can use and tell them why it’s special. Establish your expertise by:

• •Writing articles
• •Giving talks
• •Holding demonstrations
• •Starting a Website
• •Writing a blog
• •Making a podcast
• •Participating in conferences, workshops, panel discussions
• •Creating a presence on social media
• •Volunteering your services

Write or talk about tasks that you’ve performed a thousand times: how to bid at auctions, create word processing shortcuts, or invest in art online. Demonstrate it and teach others, step by step, how to do it.

Guerrilla Tale

When your professional expertise is in a specialized niche, inform the media. A therapist who specialized in issues with people over age forty became a media darling after he submitted an article on midlife crises to a local TV station. The station aired a feature on him and began consulting him when it needed information on the over-forty generation. Soon major TV news organizations came calling; he became a TV fixture and a national authority.

Testimonials

Guerrilla Tale

After hearing a new artist’s recording, a consumer wrote the record company, “This is what my heart would sound like if it was a symphony.” Viola! The company pounced on the phrase and plastered it on all its materials for a promotional campaign that helped the recording go platinum.

Recording and relating how consumers have greeted your product is increasingly important. You can use testimonials to your advantage. They help build your credibility, so compile a testimonial file. Ask everyone you work with for written endorsements; leave no stone unturned!

Guidelines for Securing Testimonials

• •Get in the habit of asking every client or customer for letters of praise.
• •Ask them to state how great your work was and how much they enjoyed working with you. You’ll be surprised how highly they extol you and how wonderfully they express it.
• •Ask for endorsements during the first thirty to sixty days or as soon as short-term projects are complete.
• •Have your client...