Jay Conrad Levinson, brilliant author of the Guerrilla Marketing book series imparted many words of wisdom at the one day Infusionsoft conference in Orlando last week.  Rather than gloss over his tips, it makes sense to focus on a couple at a time.

The last post focused on making business commitments (particularly to marketing).  This one is going to focus on some key differences that make guerrilla marketing distinct from traditional marketing approaches.

First of all, Mr. Levinson points out that traditional marketing is geared toward the needs and budgets of big business.  This doesn’t meet the needs of small businesses today (which represent the majority of businesses in the U.S. today). Guerrilla marketing fits the special needs of small business because it implements low cost or no cost marketing methods, is based on growing and getting better at what you are doing, and is based on building relationships and using cusomer follow up.  The traditional marketing models that are used by big business typically seek to obliterate the competition.  Guerrilla marketing looks to form strategic alliances.

Strategic alliances are a natural outcome of relationship building.  It is a product of truly listening to your prospects, customers and the businesses that  network with you.  It comes out of recognizing the strengths that these individuals have and finding ways to complement and augment each others’ strengths.  The goal is to create a win/win for all parties involved.  Not a bad idea!

The best part of relationship building and strategic alliances is that it  creates a strong foundation for ever growing your business while giving it the flexibility and innovation to grow in ways that you had never even considered before.  It will ultimately make your business more resilient during tough times and overall more leading edge.  This is a winning combination in a global economy that is ever changing at a very rapid rate.

What is first obvious to anyone listening to Jay Conrad Levinson speak is that he is a no nonsense type of guy.  He talks very freely about what works and what makes sense.  He also genuinely seems to enjoy the people he is addressing.

Here are a few take away gems:

One of the most important points for any small business owner to remember is that you need to make a commitment to marketing your business.  You cannot expect success to happen overnight.

Mr. Levinson told the conference attendees the story of the now famous Marlboro man (which was Levinson’s baby).  He said that when the idea was introduced that Phillip-Morris executives were wild over it but it took more than a year for the campaign to have an impact on sales.  Mr. Levinson gives lots of credit to the Phillip-Morris executive who had the foresight and commitment to let the marketing strategy play out.  The success of that campaign is now legendary.

Small business owners often have misguided expectations about their web sites.  They often think that it is enough to just launch a beautiful site and that it will be found and adored by the millions of people who will  miraculously find it.  It is often a rude shock when nothing at all happens.  It is at this time that many (most) small business owners abandon their commitment to establishing an on line presence.  They think: “It doesn’t work” or that “Some websites are lucky”.  The real answer is that there needs to be a commitment to marketing you web site.  Search engine optimization (SEO) is the gas you put into your on line vehicle (website).  SEO requires a commitment because it is a step by step process that will build results over time.  When it does, your site will be getting free organic traffic.  This is the goal that you must keep in sight as the SEO systematically creates trails all over cyberspace to your website.

Commitment  means sticking to your marketing plan during a recession.  It may be tempting to cut back on your marketing budget, but it will be very costly to your business in the long run.  It is important to remember that effective marketing will more than pay for itself.

Commitment also means trying, measuring and adjusting.  Not everything will work. But if you are  tracking your efforts and results and the are  flexible enough to adjust and tweak you will be making progress.  Commitment means that you do not give up but  rather  learn lessons from the things that can go wrong instead.  Jay Conrad Levinson says, “Don’t abandon marketing”.

Another interesting thing that Mr. Levinson pointed out is that 86% of buyers will decide to buy for some reason other than price.  He noted that you should always sell on value; even during tough times.  Those who are competing by cutting prices will have the hardest time making it through the recession.

You need to be consistent with your messages.  Mr. Levinson says you need to have restraint - which is especially hard during tough times - but that “You don’t change marketing around in a hurry”.

More posts on this conference are forth coming.

Well, I am off to hear Jay Conrad Levinson speak tomorrow in Orlando.  Should be interesting.  I will be listening for small business tips to write on when I get back.