Marketing your services as either a freelance professional or consultant is vital to your success. You will likely spend more time “selling yourself” to prospective clients than you will actually working on paid projects. The key is learning how to market your services effectively, without breaking the bank. That’s why you should consider turning to Guerrilla Marketing.
Definition of “Guerrilla Marketing”:
The art of promoting your products or services in a way that revolves around ingenuity rather than finances. The idea is to make as large of an impact as possible, while spending as little money as possible. The term “guerrilla marketing” was created by Jay Conrad Levinson, author of a series of books on the subject.
Why Guerrilla Marketing is a Good Idea:
- You’ll save financial resources.
- You’ll reach your target market with the same message in various forms and mediums.
- You don’t need a large marketing staff, or outside help, to effectively manage most guerilla marketing efforts.
- Guerrilla Marketing can be adapted to your particular strengths and preferences.
- Guerrilla Marketing, in general, can be applied to any type of business, product or service. There are valuable tactics to cover everything.
Personal Experience With Guerrilla Marketing:
I started a small home-based PR firm in late 2004. I began with a highly specialized target market: independent musicians in southeast Pennsylvania. I didn’t have a lot of money to sink into marketing efforts. Instead, I focused on using the much less expensive forms of marketing, such as PR and publicity, rather than buying advertising space. It wasn’t enough. So, I made the decision to start a major guerilla marketing effort in January 2005. I started a website (in a general e-zine style) to interview, review and promote musicians. The project costs me very little money (practically only domain registration and hosting costs of $10/month), and is more than worth the time. It’s also put me into direct communication with a large number of individuals in my target market. I have the opportunity to work with members of my target market on a regular basis, and the web site is slowly growing in popularity. Every client in that market that I’ve worked with has come into contact with me through that website, and it’s made it possible for me to expand my reach. I even have a few other sites in development to help grow my own Internet guerrilla marketing network. I advertise my firm on my other sites, and vice versa. It’s just one example of how you can make a large impact by spending some time rather than a small fortune, by using guerrilla marketing to your advantage.
