GUERRILLA MARKETING: Secrets for Making Big Profits from Small Businesses

Resourceful, penny-wise marketing techniques from the ex-adman author of Earning Money Without a Job (1979). Levinson surveys three areas. First come the ""mini-media"" possibilities--personal letters (not merely personalized), scripted telephone solicitations, classified ads, displays in the Yellow Pages, even bulletin-board notices. Here, other guerrillas provide the competition. Next are maxi-media outlets: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards, direct mail. Last come non-media opportunities--ranging from seminars and trade shows through contests, printed T-shirts, or do-it-yourself PR campaigns (that can yield valuable third-party endorsements). Among the specific tips: broadcast rate cards are invariably negotiable; remnant space is often available in regional editions of national magazines; reprints of a prestigious ad--in, say, Newsweek--can yield dividends for years. Levinson also reviews the interactive potential of various media-like billboards to back up a radio or newspaper blitz. At the lower end of the scale, he spells out ways to follow up efficiently on mailings that purposely omit response mechanisms, discusses the use of business cards as mini-brochures, and suggests how to go about securing co-op advertising (as well as point-of-purchase displays). Practical guidance for the target, small-business audience.