Guerrilla marketing strategies are those that are outside the box, creative, and difficult to define. With this type of marketing, the focus is on creating buzz and visibility. Guerrilla marketing tactics are often funny, sometimes shocking, and attention grabbing. When you look at successful guerrilla marketing examples, you see extensive use of humor, lots of visuals, plays on “humanisms” and pop culture references.

The idea is to play on human responses and emotions rather than present a sale, product release, or pitch. While guerrilla marketing is a little risky, it tends to be less expensive than traditional advertising, and also far more rewarding.

As more and more people spend time with their eyes glued to a screen, guerrilla marketing is becoming more relevant and effective in creating significant connections with customers and followers alike. If whatever you are doing goes viral, your potential to be seen and heard is almost boundless. Here are several guerrilla marketing ideas to stimulate your creative thinking.

 1. Associate Your Business with a News Story

You can write a quick blog, then Tweet or comment on social media about the story. Always link back to your post when you do this. Make your writing a funny and entertaining read, but always keep the tone positive, because negativity causes problems down the road.

Another tactic is to market a product that matches a trending news story. A good guerrilla marketing example would be a restaurant naming a sandwich after a celebrity who just did something intriguing, like the “Charlie Sheen Big Mouth Sammich.” On this same thread would be donating proceeds to disaster relief for every purchase of a certain product.

2. Offer Something Free

Everybody loves something free, and effective guerrilla marketing techniques include giving away items - but with a catch. When you are giving away the store, you need to be doing it for a reason! Try asking customers to dress in a costume or style (Hawaiian shirt day, sombrero day, etc.), or ask them to do something like sing a song or tell a joke.

You can expand on this guerrilla marketing tactic by running a contest. Offer a valuable prize and call on the community to pick the winner, which generates even more buzz. Turn the contest into online guerrilla marketing by promoting it on social media in advance. Then broadcast it live on LiveStream or post videos on YouTube afterwards.

3. Sponsor a Community Event

Few things are better at generating buzz than supporting your community. Do not stop at doing something small like settling for an ad in the high school gym or posting flyers at random areas around the community. The most powerful guerrilla marketing tactics think big. Here are some guerrilla marketing ideas around community events.

Try putting on a fundraiser for an organization in your community. Involve as many companies as possible, even your direct competition. Make it as grand and accessible as possible, and be sure that your name is visible in all the marketing materials.

Another fun guerrilla marketing idea is to do something like a client appreciation BBQ or host a potluck to celebrate an accomplishment within the community, like the high school choir winning the state championships. Make sure you invite the whole community to come out and have enough food for everybody. If you feel as though it is appropriate, give away products and samples at the event.

Guerrilla marketing techniques have been around for as long as businesses have been in business.  Everybody wants to get attention and be successful in business. Guerrilla marketing strategies will continue to evolve with technology, but the principles will always remain the same – it is all about generating buzz. So toss your old beliefs about marketing aside and try building your business with guerrilla marketing tactics.

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 Image credit: creativeguerrillamarketing.com