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Tips & Tricks

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Guerilla Content Marketing

Marketing immunity is a widespread epidemic thanks to a barrage of commercials and online ads that encourage consumers to check out rather than engage. The good news is that there’s a cure: a healthy dose of the unexpected via guerilla content marketing.

Even the most tried-and-true marketing techniques can suffer fatigue once consumers begin to recognize their patterns. And with 84 percent of consumers indicating that it’s important to buy from companies that they feel are innovative, traditional, noticeable marketing strategies may no longer hold sway over savvy customers.
Enter guerilla content marketing. This tactic — which utilizes innovative, low-cost or unconventional content to gain exposure — achieves the same objectives as traditional campaigns, but there’s nothing old-school about its techniques. Marketers can generate buzz even on a tight budget because it gets people talking. Many guerilla techniques are free, such as creating avant-garde social media posts or using chalk to create graffiti-style artwork.
The goal of any guerilla marketing campaign is to captivate the audience and make them need — not just want — to learn more. One effective way to achieve this is by tickling their funny bones, a technique that’s amenable to the unexpected elements of guerilla strategies. When viewers laugh out loud, marketers can reach them on a personal level, offering consumers an experience instead of merely delivering a message.

Laughter is the best medicine and one of the most compelling marketing tools.

Unlike other strategies, guerilla marketing also has the potential to facilitate new connections. Marketers can use guerilla content marketing expertise to barter with other brands by, for example, offering to promote a blog to enhance its online presence but also letting the marketers integrate their own branding on the site. This accesses a whole new target audience.
When it comes to connections, guerilla marketing also helps consumers feel like they can better relate to a brand by utilizing both creativity and logic. Guerilla marketing “includes both sides of the brain and appeals to both sides,” notes Rachel Daley of Creative Guerrilla Marketing, reinforcing concepts faster and deeper in consumers’ minds.

Guerilla marketing clicks with creative thinkers and practical spenders alike.

Psychologically speaking, purchasing decisions are often made in the unconscious mind, with stimulating visuals subconsciously influencing those choices. Colors evoke emotions, and images provoke them in surprising ways. Videos, infographics and pictures, therefore, are valuable guerilla marketing tools when used unexpectedly.
However, even though consumers unconsciously make decisions before they even realize it, note Lisa Held and the American Psychological Association, they may let their conscious minds override the choice. But research shows they still eventually tend to go with their first inclination. Guerilla content marketing appeals to the unconscious brain, making that first impression by connecting with people on an emotional level using powerful, visceral content.
The most successful guerilla marketing strategies are also interactive and tactile. They engage viewers in meaningful ways and make them active participants instead of passive observers. Mini games and clickable objects immerse them in the marketing campaign and make the experience multisensory.

Marketers can reach out and touch their target audience via guerilla marketing.

Perhaps one of the most influential elements of guerilla marketing is that a successful campaign is immediately easy to digest. Consumers might not have time to watch a half-hour video or read a 2,000-word article. Thus, mini guerilla marketing materials — preferably mobile-friendly content they can access on the go — are best. Brief info-packed content offers consumers real, memorable value, and it’s all about making that impression.

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