Читать книгу Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing - Jay Levinson Conrad - Страница 13

When you hear that there are 200 guerrilla marketing weapons and that more than half of them are free, if you’re a guerrilla, a smile crosses your face. Somehow, your bank account lights up, and you hear the musical sounds of money jingling. Ka-ching! That’s the sound of this fifth personality characteristic.

This is not to say that guerrillas are money-minded, for they’re not. But it is to say that they know what it takes to obtain money. Not luck. Not a lottery. Not an inheritance, though we badmouth none of those. But aggressiveness. That’s the trait we laud to the skies.

With every business utilizing just a handful of marketing weapons—three, five, ten, or even 15—the opportunity to choose from among 200 is a heady feeling. It takes an aggressive attitude to wrap your ambitions around such a lofty amount. But it’s that aggressiveness that’s going to separate you from the wannabe and wimpy guerrillas, if indeed, there is such a thing as a wimpy guerrilla.

We’re not saying that you’ll need all 200 weapons or even half of them, but you ought to be aggressive enough to want to know of their existence so you can select the ones that seem most appropriate for you. Guerrillas have a large selection. You’ll find the entire list of 200 weapons waiting for you in Chapter 10.

When you learn that the average American business invested 4 percent of gross revenues in marketing in 2006, you’re aggressive again. You think, “Only 4 percent? What if I invested 6 percent? Eight percent? Ten percent? You know that the average business goes out of business within five years. The last kind of company you want as a benchmark is an average business.

The average American business invested 4 percent of gross revenues in marketing in 2006.

You’re aggressive in your thinking and in your investing. Guerrillas save money not by failing to spend it but by not wasting it. Aggressiveness is your hallmark. You’re among the first to use some of the new weapons of marketing. You probably have a blog. You’ve already begun podcasting. You’ve been hard at work compiling your opt-in list. This kind of aggressiveness is the sign of a leader.

Because you’re aggressive in your thinking and your investing, your competitors fear you, respect you, follow you, and acknowledge your leadership. The media come to you for quotes, resulting in your getting the lion’s share of free publicity. Very little goes to the lambs.

At a party or any social function, you may hide behind the foliage, speak in a soft voice, be a practicing wallflower. But when it comes to marketing, you’re a lion. You’re the king or queen of the entrepreneurs. You’re a marketing titan—known for your visible and omnipresent marketing. As you may have heard, size doesn’t matter. It’s all about attitude. And yours is characterized by your aggressiveness.