You’ve finally accomplished something and want to tell the world, but there’s one problem. You don’t know how and don’t have a lot of cash to do it with. It sounds like you’re in need of some great ideas for free or cheap guerilla promotion.
Guerilla promotion is also known as guerilla marketing. It is unconventional methods of seeking publicity for free or on a budget. Free or cheap guerilla promotion often utilizes direct marketing, which means person to person.
There are many options for anyone to get started in free or cheap guerilla promotion. The name of the game in promotions is “name recognition”. You want people to know the name of you, your product, or your service. A catchy name, a slogan, or a logo helps greatly as it gives people something to remember.
I’ve listed some ways to get started in free or cheap guerilla marketing below. Consider these methods as a jump start to get your creative juices flowing. Guerilla promotion and marketing is all about thinking creatively and doing what you can with what you’ve got.
Social Networking Sites:
Social Networking sites are sites that allow you to create a profile and interact with other members and are a great way to start with your free or cheap guerilla promotion. They are online communities.One of the biggest social networking sites is Myspace. MySpace accounts are free and have become a must have for the promotion of many films, bands, books and other entities seeking to be known. Members sign up at www.myspace.com and proceed to create a profile that tells all about themselves or the product they are pushing. Spend some time glancing through other myspace profiles to get an idea. Then you can search for members that are interested in your type of service or product and add them as “friends”. It may do you some good to send them a brief message before sending a request. If you don’t have HTML skills and want your page to look pretty, there are many page editors available that just ask you a few questions and generate the HTML code for you. You can use a search engine to find page editors. Another networking site is Mojo. Mojo is a localized networking site. Visit www.metromojo.com to see if there is a mojo site for your city. Other social networking sites include www.gather.com, www.friendster.com, www.tribe.net, A long list of some of the social networking sites available to join can be found by clicking here .
Volunteer:
Getting involved with a nonprofit organization is another way to further your free or cheap guerilla promotion efforts. Find events for charities or nonprofit organizations to perform at, speak at, or donate some of your products for raffles or give aways. Not only will you be performing a service for the organization and their supporters, you’ll further spread your name. If you’ve written a book or put out a CD, you can donate a couple autographed copies of your work for raffle or offer to speak/perform at one of their events. Comedians, performers, authors, businesspeople can all find ways to help make charitable fundraisers and events a success while receiving valuable promotion. Not only will your name be seen and heard at the event, your name will most likely be added to their website and newsletters they send out.
Ask, Share, Display!
You might be surprised at how many people are willing to help you in your free or cheap guerilla promotions. Ask and you shall receive, but don’t forget the value of sharing!
Ask local businesses and venues if it is okay to put up a flier or leave brochures/fliers in their venue. Talk to other local businesses and individuals about splitting costs on advertising and advertising together. For example, to save money on printing fliers, you might ask other local businesses if they’d like to split the cost and information about both of you can be on the fliers. Creating mini fliers can help a great deal as well! Mini fliers are four fliers per 8 ½ by 11 page. This means you can print four for just 8 -10 cents at your local copy center. Concerts, large city events like fireworks shows, sports events, and large gatherings make great places to hand out fliers, coupons or other materials.
Trade is also a great method. For example, a local independent pizza parlour and I have an agreement to help each other promote. I promote his pizza parlour on my website and other places and he will attach my mini fliers to his pizza boxes. That means my information is delivered right into the hands of his customers.
You might even talk to a local business about running a promotion that ties in your product. For example, you can set up a promotion at a book store to do a book signing. Ask a nearby restaurant to offer a discount for anyone who brings a signed copy of your book with them. You can promote the restaurant at your book signing and the restaurant can promote your book by promoting their discount offering.
GET CREATIVE
I hope these have been some thought boosters to help you get started in thinking about free or cheap guerilla promotion methods. You don’t have to spend a fortune to promote yourself and garner the attention you deserve for your project. You just have to be willing to take the extra step to be creative. I think that the most creative publicity method I’ve used came from the need to keep my child entertained during road trips. We were driving back and forth between Kentucky and Virginia quite a bit while working on an independent film. We’d stop at rest stops and such along the way to use the restroom and stretch our legs. I’d haul out the trusty bucket of sidewalk chalk to give him some “outside time” and in the meantime I’d color a nice piece relative to the film with a caption that would tell onlookers to visit the film website to be entered to win a prize. That led to a contest we decided to hold called “chalk bandits” that encouraged others to create chalk ads for us and send in pictures. We chose a winner to have a walk on role in the film.
Think about what you want to promote, who would be most interested in that product and how to get involved or in front of those people. These are the three main things to consider when deciding on how to effectively promote for free or on a budget. Just keep on seeking and you will find all the promotion opportunities you can handle. Now, get out there and do it!
