Jay Conrad Levinson - Guerrilla Marketing for Free: Dozens of No-Cost Tactics to Promote Your Business and Energize Your Profits

Houghton Mifflin Company

Boston New York 2003

Copyright 2003 by Jay Conrad Levinson

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections
from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

Visit our Web site: www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Levinson, Jay Conrad.
Guerrilla marketing for free : 100 no-cost tactics to promote your
business and energize your profits / Jay Conrad Levinson.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-618-27679-3
I. Marketing. I. Title.
HF 054 I 5. L 478 2003
658.8dc21 2003050863

Design by Melissa Lotfy

Printed in the United States of America

QUM 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is for my daughter, Amy,
and her astonishing resourcefulness,
integrity, and work ethic.
No wonder I love her so much!

There's just no way this book could exist without the help of the galaxy of online newletters, e-books, e-zines, and business websites that now so generously contribute to our body of marketing knowledge. These digital inspirations combined with an ocean of paper business books and magazines to assist me in bringing this book to life. To think that they enabled me to do my research from my own home is a mind-boggler.

The people who guided me were the usual suspects: Roger C. Parker, Steve Savage, Wally Bregman, Mark Joyner, Chet Holmes, Jay Abraham, Robert Allen, Michael Stemnock, Bill Shear, David Garfinkel, Will Reed, Stu O'Neil, Mike Larsen, Elizabeth Pomada, Dan Solomon, Jill Lublin, T. Harve Eker, Rick Frishman, Bill McCurry, Orvel Ray Wilson, Mark S. A. Smith, Laura and Marty Higgins, Nancy Griffin, Jeremy Rhoten, James Dillehay, Keith Hanna, Robert Pope, Mitch Meyerson, Mike Lavin, Peter Schofield, and the star of my dedication, Amy Levinson.

My wife, Patsy, approved the title and provided nonstop inspiration along the way.

I've just got to make a special acknowledgment to Jeannie Huffman, who is not only the president of Guerrilla Marketing International, but also a better brainstormer than most angels.

I feel blessed to owe acknowledgment to such a sterling roster of guerrillas.

Being Aggressive and Confident as You Market for Free 1

Before You Market for Free 12

While You Market for Free 32

Allies to Help You Market for Free 50

Where You Market for Free 72

Ways You Can Market for Free 106

Giving for Free to Market for Free 134

Personality Traits You'll Need to Market for Free 148

The Joy of Marketing for Free 168

Index 171

Y OU CAN BE a high-energy marketer, and you can do it for free. Your marketing can propel you to gloriously high profits, and you can do it for free. You can become well known for your nonstop, clearly visible marketing, and you can do it for free.

If you can produce a circular at the cost of a dime, that's not free and has no place in this book. If you can run a newspaper ad for only five bucks, that's not free either. So you won't be reading about it in the upcoming pages.

In fact, the only money you'll have to spend is money you've probably invested already. That means you'll need a telephone, a computer, a printer, a supply of plain paper, access to the Internet, and business cards. If you have those, you can toss away your checks, file away your credit cards, put your cash into a piggy bank, and still market like a tiger. Or rather, a guerrilla.

You're a guerrilla. That means you know what marketing can and cannot do. It means you realize the importance of marketing to your bottom line. It means you understand the vital need to maintain visibility and market with all your might. But not with all your money. Not with any of your money.

Guerrilla marketing for free is powerfully effective even though it costs you nary a cent. It can cause the competition to quake in their Nikes, even if they're spending advertising money as though it's going to expire. It wins customers, maintains their loyalty, builds a business, and increasesnever decreasesyour bank account.

Too good to be true, right? But it is true. Even more remarkable is the fact that the vast majority of your competitors haven't a clue that they can market so formidably without spending money. Even when they become increasingly aware of your marketing and your success, they still won't have a clue that you're doing it all for free. Unless you tell them or they discover this book, they'll remain clueless while you frolic about in clover. Well, not exactly frolic, because you don't really get good stuff without hard work. But your entire opinion, degree of control, and satisfaction with the process of marketing will be transformed once you discoverthen cash in onthe abundance of free marketing options in these pages and in your future.

You're not going to learn any gimmicks or shady ways to attract customers and prospects. You're not going to be given a cornucopia of complex tasks. You're not going to be served up tactics that will make you feel like a pioneer. We all know that pioneers get arrows in the back of the neck, so your selection here of no-cost tactics is limited to those that have proven themselves in battle and can't hurt anyone except those who would dare to compete with a guerrilla.

Because you can rely on tactics that have consistently earned profits in the past, you can feel optimistic about how they'll work for you. Ideally, you'll get into the habit of marketing, making it as much a part of your daily routine as flossing.

Some of the one hundred free tactics you can use are things, such as marketing plans and testimonials. Some are places, such as Internet chat rooms and community bulletin boards. Others are concepts, such as competitive advantages and sales training. Some are attitudes, like aggressiveness and flexibility. Still others are people, such as fusion marketing partners and satisfied customers. Many are hard to categorize, such as viral marketing and speeches for community clubs.

But they all have five things in common:

They take your time.

They must be done right.

They require energymostly, but not exclusively, mental.

They are deceptively simple.

They earn profits for guerrillas. Always have. Always can.

Instead of making money your prime marketing asset, this book is devoted to using your marketing enlightenment, your intensity, your assertiveness, and your resourcefulness. None of those attributes cost you anything. But they give you marketing firepower that money can't buy.

You can and should utilize many of these tactics at the same time. But you never should feel as though you've got too much going on. Guerrillas are rarely in a hurry and proceed at a pace that keeps them in total control even with a lot going on. Because their marketing efforts all follow a plan and a calendar, guerrilla marketing for free makes order out of chaos and profits out of effort.

Guerrillas strive for conventional goals and attain them through unconventional means. Guerrilla marketing sets profits as the goal and provides a plethora of overlooked yet industrial-strength strategies to attain them. You hold in your capitalistic hands an even more unconventional method of marketinggoing at it full bore without spending money.

Be assured, this is not your father's marketing. This is marketing that will enable you to make drastic reductions in your budget while developing a fiery aura as a business owner. I sure hope that all my own fire and enthusiasm is making you eager to get started. Getting started is half the battle. Continuing with it is the other half.