Guerrilla marketing can include any non-traditional marketing strategy that surprises consumers. Many guerrilla marketing techniques confront people in public spaces in ways that they don’t expect. The more creative you can take the concept, the more attention you will get from consumers, media outlets, and marketing experts.
If you own or manage an ecommerce store, you’ve probably tried all of the common approaches to marketing. You have well-written landing pages, advertisements that target your customers, and social media accounts that spread your best content.
Traditional online marketing plays an important role in your company’s success. Utilizing some guerrilla tactics, though, can make your brand even more appealing to consumers. Try these seven guerrilla marketing ideas to see how well they work for your ecommerce store.
1. Set Up a Temporary Offline Store
Ecommerce stores have reshaped how consumers shop. Getting attention online, though, often means competing against hundreds or thousands of sites. Setting up a temporary offline store can expose your brand to consumers who would never find you online.
A pop-up shop will take some planning. In addition to designing a mobile store that represents your brand, you may need to get permission from cities before you open your shop on their sidewalks. The amount of exposure that you can get in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, however, makes the effort worth it.
2. Create Your Own Holiday
There’s a holiday for everything. In July, you have National Bikini Day. In November, you have National Fast Food Day. As you can already tell, many of these holidays were created to promote specific products or industries. Why not create a holiday for your brand or best-selling product?
If your ecommerce store sells coffee, then you may want to start a social media campaign that encourages everyone to tag pictures of their morning brew with #coffeeday. Spend at least a month getting people excited about your holiday. The number of participants may surprise you.
3. Impress Customers After They’ve Bought Products
Marketing doesn’t end when you convince someone to purchase a product from your ecommerce store. In fact, the first purchase is the beginning of an on-going relationship.
Use this opportunity to impress your customers. When you send them their orders, include handwritten notes, gifts, and other goodies that they'll love. You’ll turn a casual shopper into a customer for life. If people are impressed enough to share their surprises online, then you’ll get a lot of free exposure.
4. Find an Artist Who Understands Your Brand
The world is your canvas. Don’t leave it blank!
Find an inventive artist who understands your brand’s identity and can create remarkable images that will get attention in the real world. A lot of companies hire Julian Beever because he has such a great talent for making 3D pavement drawings.
You don’t have to choose a world-renowned artist, though, for successful guerrilla marketing. Talk to experts in your community to find an up-and-coming artist with a fresh style. You’ll get a unique way to market your company without spending too much money.
5. Give Away Stickers to Plaster the World With Your Logo
Public art often has a limited lifespan. Eventually, a storm or the city’s sanitation crew is going to wash away the work. Stickers are protected from the destructiveness of rain and street cleaners, and they're portable marketing for your brand.
If you have a great logo or design idea, then people will put your stickers on their laptops, bikes, binders, and other items. Just think about how many times you’ve seen stickers from brands like Vimeo, Google, Digg, and Apple. Go into any coffee shop, and you’ll find dozens of people working on laptops covered in cool stickers.
6. Connect With Bloggers and YouTube Influencers
Making your own content takes time, money, and talent. Luckily, you can connect with talented bloggers and YouTube influencers to highlight your products. In return, you can give them free items or a portion of the revenue generated from shoppers who come from their websites.
For instance, if you own a health food site, you might want to connect with popular content creators like Buff Dudes, Mic the Vegan or Sarah's Day.
7. Use a Giveaway to Get More Followers
If you find it challenging to get people to sign up for your email list, then you can use a little guerrilla marketing to tempt them. Start a giveaway that requires customers to join your list or follow you on social media.
As long as you don’t go overboard, your giveaway won’t cost much money. Just make sure that you include enough items and services to grab someone’s attention. Once you have their contact information, you can keep connecting with them to spread the word about new products, sales, and events.
Even if you only gain a handful of new sales, you’ll break even on your promotion.
Wrapping it up
Guerrilla marketing can take place online and offline. These seven ideas show you how other companies have used guerrilla marketing techniques to reach new customers and improve their sales. You can use these concepts as jumping off points to develop your own creative marketing strategies. With the right combination of traditional and guerrilla techniques, you should see your ecommerce store grow.