With the economy seemingly stalled, and the vaunted recovery yet to be felt on Main Street, growing businesses continue to scramble for ways to differentiate themselves and stand out. A guerilla marketing strategy — employing nontraditional, sometimes provocative, methods to reach customers and prospects — has earned a lot of attention, though some of the novelty is wearing off. “People barely sneeze at a stunt now, there’s so much going on,” points out Judy Lederman of JSL Publicity and Marketing in Scarsdale, N.Y. “Focusing people has become a challenge.”

FuelNet spoke with some guerilla marketing experts working in the field to find out which techniques actually get results. These four guerilla marketing ideas can help you get through to consumers — online and off — who are looking for the products or solutions your business offers:

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1. Give them something to remember you by. One surefire way for you to get attention is to give away something free. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend big money on giveaway items stamped with your company name. You can place your business firmly in the minds of your target customers by offering a free tutorial or workshop. Whether yours is a service business, such as home contracting or appliance repairs, or a retailer selling specialized items like imported wines and foods, this approach gives you the opportunity to position yourself as a knowledgeable expert in your specialty.

   If you choose this approach, it’s important that you provide a true service and not make the event about selling, says Mary White, training coordinator with the Mobile Technical Institute (MTI), an Alabama company that provides business and computer training. She says her company conducted a free workshop for job seekers to help them get the skills they need. Because MTI’s clients are companies and not job seekers, the event generated positive publicity for providing a public service. White says it also led to increased business, since hiring companies wanted to be involved in the event.

2. Join the discussion. There’s a lot of buzz in business about social networking, via sites like Facebook and Twitter. But Shel Horowitz, owner of FrugalMarketing.com and the author of six books on low-cost, high-impact marketing, is a big proponent of a more old-fashioned online venue: Internet discussion groups. These groups, like those offered through Yahoo! and Google Groups, enable you to reach a highly specific audience for no cost beyond the time you invest. “It’s my number one avenue for new business,” Horowitz says.

   Twitter and Facebook offer limited exposure to those who have opted in, he notes, while discussion groups let anybody get involved in a conversation. Establishing expertise through an active presence in a group like Google’s rec.sport.surfing or Winelover on Yahoo! can be a boon to a niche business serving a highly specialized clientele. “Even people who’ve never used my services but have seen my comments have sent me work,” Horowitz says. “One discussion I took part in brought in $10,000 in business.”

3. Meet the press. You don’t need a big PR budget to get media outlets to help you spread the word about your offerings. Whether the right venue for your business is a neighborhood newspaper or a highly focused industry newsletter, small specialty publications are always looking for a good story related to their area of coverage. Horowitz recommends Help a Reporter Out, a free online service that connects journalists with experts in various topics. “It’s not hard to get coverage,” he says. “I’ve been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor. If you can respond quickly to reporters looking for sources, you’re going to get printed.” Another similar site where you’ll want to sign yourself up as a resource is ExpertClick.com.

4. Be the press. An even more direct way to get your message out there — with guaranteed accuracy — is to write articles yourself. Online directories like ArticlesBase.com and ActiveAuthors.com allow journalists to search for articles on any subject, and writers can add their articles to the database for free. Writing articles that offer helpful advice or explain a complex subject increases the likelihood that people will find your company online, MTI’s White says. “The more you educate people, the more market there is for what you do,” she adds. The article should also be in your voice and not that of a professional copywriter. If you’re not confident in your writing skills, White notes, ask a friend to help. The key is to convey what your business is about.

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