Advantages & Disadvantages Of Guerilla Marketing

We’ll start with the good stuff: • Guerilla marketing is cheap. At the high end, you may end up investing a few hundred dollars in promotional items or a major, centralized piece that you can build a number of different campaigns around. At the low end, it’s free -- and you can’t beat free! • In addition to growing your business, guerilla marketing involves networking, both with your customers and with other businesses. In the process of executing and maintaining your campaign, you will make a lot of new friends and allies.

• Guerilla marketing is specifically tailored to meet
the needs of small businesses, whereas traditional
advertising venues are complicated and expensive to
the point of exclusion (bordering on snobbishness).

• Many aspects of creative guerilla marketing
campaigns are just plain fun! You get to perform wacky
stunts and engage in unusual activities, all in the
name of working for a living.

• Guerilla marketing works. If you do your research,
plan your campaign, and stick with it, you will more
than likely end up with a better and more profitable
business.


And now, the bad:

• Guerilla marketing works -- but it is not completely
failsafe. It is, after all, advertising; which is far
from an exact science. The number of variables
involved in advertising guarantees that nothing is 100
percent effective.

• As with any advertising campaign, you will not be
able to pinpoint exactly what works and what doesn’t.
Obtaining measurable results is difficult (but not
impossible, unlike other marketing techniques).

• Guerilla marketing requires a greater level of
dedication and energy than traditional advertising
venues, which often consist of throwing large amounts
of money at other people to do the work for you.

• If you’re looking for a quick fix, guerilla
marketing is not your solution. You will not see
instant or overnight results stemming from your
efforts. An investment of time is required in order to
achieve your business sales goals.

• Guerilla marketing is not for the thin-skinned or
faint of heart. At the very least, you will have a few
detractors who find fault in your methods. At worst,
you may be threatened with legal action (which is why
it’s so important to check your local laws before
engaging in a guerilla marketing campaign).