New book from NYT bestselling author Lewis Howes is now available!

New book from NYT bestselling author Lewis Howes is now available!

 

How Hungry Are You?

That’s something I heard Gary Vaynerchuk say back in 2008 when I was in my early stages of understanding online marketing.

Believe me, I was extremely hungry both in a literal sense, and in a business sense.

At the time I was (insert sappy story here) recently laid off from playing arena football after I got injured in a game.

I was in a full arm cast for six months after going through surgery.  I didn’t have a job, zero income coming in, little work experience, no college degree, no influential relationships, no credibility, I was too young, wasn’t connected with the “cool kids” in the industry, and to make things worse I was sleeping on my sister’s couch for a year (which was a big help for my confidence with the ladies… not!)

Move Past The Sob Stories

This isn’t about sharing my sob story, or you sharing yours, for that matter.  This is about how to market your products, services, company, or yourself more effectively to increase whatever it is you want to increase.

However, for those who feel like they aren’t in the place they want to be with their business or career, here are two things you should think about:

1. Passion – If you are passionate about the things you are doing (even if you are in a crappy situation financially, etc.) then the tipping point will come if you:

a. Work your ass off

b. Create powerful relationships in your industry

c. Take massive action towards measurable goals, and

d. Follow up like a mad person.

If you do those things, (plus be willing to adapt, and tweak/test along the journey) then you will be fine in due time.  As in fact, most things take time to be great.

2. Non-Passion – If you are not passionate about the things you are doing while you are in the crappy situation… then fail fast and move on until you are doing something you love!

Online Guerrilla Marketing For Business

Now that we have established that you should be marketing something online that you have a passion for, let’s get to the good stuff.

I’ve been using social media and applying a number of different strategies to market my products and services online for a few years now.  I’d say I have seen tremendous growth in my two businesses and personal brand in a fairly short amount of time.  Before I share some of my strategies, let’s talk more about the concept itself.

What Is Guerrilla Marketing?

Let’s take a look from our old friend Wikipedia where the definition of Guerilla Marketing is this:

“The concept of guerrilla marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget.”

In short, guerrilla marketing means doing something interesting or different to promote your business instead of spending money on marketing or advertising.

Sounds easy and fun right?

If you create the right game plan, then it will be extremely fun as most of the time you will get great results without having to spend much money.  Sounds pretty sexy for someone who wants to bootstrap their business and has little or no cash to start.

7 Online Guerrilla Marketing Tips

You ready to go ape on your competition and feed your business?  Let’s do this then.

Here are 7 unique, free guerrilla online marketing and social media strategies that can drastically boast your business and increase exposure:

1. Create a LinkedIn Group

I love LinkedIn.  It’s the most powerful social networking site on the planet for your business.  The LinkedIn groups feature is probably the most powerful ways to get more exposure, more leads and more sales.  I own a number of LinkedIn groups but one in particular has over 30,000 members, including some of the top sports executives in the world.  I leverage this group to promote not only SportsNetworker.com, but also my paid monthly membership site the Sports Executives Association.  With zero marketing dollars I was able to get close to 300 members in my first week by sending a message to my LinkedIn group.  Don’t have a group yet, make sure you read my post on why you should start a LinkedIn group here as it’s one of the most powerful ways to build an audience of potential customers.

2. Throw A LinkedIn Event

I know I should jump into another site besides LinkedIn, but the reality is that LinkedIn events application is more powerful than any other social networking sites.  I’ve had over 1,000 highly targeted, industry specific, business decision makers RSVP for one of my events I promoted on LinkedIn and over 600 people showed up, and paid to attend.  That was just one event, and I’ve thrown over 20 using LinkedIn events to promote them.  The truth is, you can leverage your group to promote your event, get a ton of people to meet up in person and you get to be the champion behind it all.  Pretty cool huh?

3.  Give Away Your Product For Free

One day I wrote a post asking people what their biggest success story was on LinkedIn. I wasn’t happy with the lack of responses early on in the day, so I tweeted out a message similar to this:

Anyone who shares a comment on my blog in the next 30 minutes with their biggest LinkedIn success story will receive a free copy of my LinkedIn ebook, a $20 value”

The responses were pretty amazing.  I got close to 50 comments in a 60 minute time frame, everyone was retweeting the article for me, and people were rushing to leave comments.  I ended up getting around 10 sales on my ebook that day from those who didn’t get to the party in time, built my list of over 50 new opt ins, plus had 50 new emails from people I sent my ebook to.  They all emailed me back with huge appreciation for getting my product for free, and went on to spread the word online even more after that day.  A number of those winners also have come back to attend my webinars, and to purchase high end products from me.  Needless to say, it got the word out and it worked.

4.  Host A Free Webinar

Although most webinar services do cost a small monthly fee, there are some that are free and others you could start off with a free trial for a month like with GoToWebinar (the platform I promote and use for all of my webinars).  Webinars are huge right now, and they are the easiest way to connect with your audience, build your list, and generate more sales.  Simply put, if you have a product or service and don’t feel like spending money to go to events, then host your own where you can connect with people live from around the world.  Want more webinar marketing tips, then click here.

5.  Create More Videos

Videos are more and more becoming the main thing Internet users consume, and it’s hard to deny this when YouTube is one of the top 5 most trafficked sites in the world.  In a world where people’s attention spans are getting shorter, and clicking “play” is much easier than reading, creating videos is a no-brainer.  Make your videos entertaining, educational, or inspirational and over time you will start to see a notice in the attention you or your business is getting.  Need some ideas for video?  Check out Gary or my man David at The Rise To The Top.

6.  Stand Out or Pop Up

Do something different on your site.  Don’t have the same look or feel that other sites have in your niche.  Be you.  Be unique, and give people a reason to come back each day.  If you want more leads, then you can give away a free gift and use Popup Domination to grab the visitors attention and capture their information.  You want more leads right?  Then you need to create some type of funnel online where people can give you their information.  Giving something away for free gives you this option, just make sure it’s some of your best content possible or they will never come back.

7.  Launch A Contest

I’ve yet to launch a big contest and test this for myself, but a number of my friends have and it’s given them a ton of exposure, increased their numbers, and  helped them launch their company.  Want a good example for how to run a contest?  Check out my friend Travis Campbell who ran one over at Marketing Professor.  If you set up the contest the correct way and get a few people on board to spread the word then it can make a big splash.

More Guerrilla Marketing From The Expert

I don’t have a background in guerrilla marketing by any means, but I’ve been using free tools, sites, resources and my time to create awareness about my products for a while now without ever studying the basics.  I was fortunate to interview one of the leading experts on this topic at the last Blog World.  His name is Mitch Meyerson and he has written countless books on guerrilla marketing including Guerilla Marketing on the Internet with the father of guerrilla marketing Jay Conrad Levinson.

I sat down with Mitch to learn more about how you can get the most out of guerrilla marketing online.  Check it out here:

Now that you know you can generate more leads and sales online without having to spend any money, what are some other creative *free* marketing strategies or tips you could add to this post?

What have you specifically done to create awareness and generate more sales that didn’t cost you a dime?  Who else is doing creative things online as well?  The more you openly share in the comments section below, the more the rest of the viewers can take away from your experiences.  And the first 100 people who leave a comment, will be sent a free copy of my LinkedIn Marketing ebook as well (but only until we reach 100 comments).  How’s that for making you go bananas? 😉

Image Credit: NoIdentity

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