What if we tell you that you could spark the interest of thousands, and even millions, of consumers through just one strategy?
Hard to believe, isn’t it?
It’s possible. Small and big businesses frequently achieve this through Guerilla Marketing.
What’s Guerilla Marketing?
Guerilla Marketing is a low-cost, high-exposure marketing tactic using unconventional marketing tactics.
The term was first used by Jay Conrad Levinson, in his book ‘Guerilla Advertising’. His concept was inspired by the concept of guerrilla warfare. This warfare technique uses unconventional methods to defeat the enemy.
And since marketing is a clash of the brands, it makes sense to adopt it in competitive markets.
Guerilla Marketing is considered to the best marketing strategy for small businesses, given their limited budget and limited resources.
How?
Guerilla marketing captures the interest of viewers, on the idea is different is exciting. Different gets you attention. That’s why guerilla marketing yields high involvement. The focus is not on promoting your product, but on capturing interest.
Don’t assume that if you put it out there, it will automatically generate interest. In reality, that’s quite rare. With so much advertising content out there, marketers have to do something out-of-the-box. Something that makes the viewers scroll back up to your message. That’s where Guerilla Marketing comes in.
If planned properly, it allows small businesses to reach a high customer base, get noticed and create its mark among big giants in the advertising world. Big companies also use guerilla marketing to complement their main campaigns.
How Guerilla Marketing with social media works
Guerilla Marketing has become even more interesting with social media. There’s a bigger scope for guerilla marketing on social media. That’s because social media tools offer high customers interaction. Even building a social media presence on Facebook or Instagram is a guerilla marketing tactic, and a social media scheduler can be used to stay consistent and create an active presence on these platforms. Brands can and have been using Guerilla Marketing on their social media. Sometimes without consciously realizing the fact.
For small businesses, there’s more good news. Guerilla Marketing on social media is free. Here are some ways to use Guerilla marketing for your beauty brand:
Host a Giveaway
Who doesn’t like to receive free products?
Especially when it’s a beauty brand. Most women never have enough products in our beauty box. Announce a special giveaway for all the fans who like, share, comment and tag other friends to improve reach for your social media page. You can get people to talk about your product on social media. Introduce a special hashtag for the giveaway to easily track the entries. It’s free advertising with just a few of your best products!
And it doesn’t end there. Giving away free stuff increases goodwill for the company and brand. Freebies bring about a fair amount of chatter with them. According to an article uploaded in the Journal of Marketing, offering free stuff increases word of mouth promotion by 20%. By making the giveaway interesting, brands can further increase word of mouth reach of their product.
Host a Free Webinar or Live Facebook Video
Webinars shorten the gap between the brand and people. It’s the best way to connect with your audience. Answer questions, solve problems, offer help and above all be interesting in your webinar. With a webinar, both the brand and the customers can benefit. Webinars not just allow brands to reach customers, it also offers insight into the minds of the customers. Moreover, customers now expect brands to communicate directly with them. For customers, it gives them a chance to learn something helpful, have their questions answered and talk to their favourite brands.
Create Videos
We are all visual creatures. 90% of the information transmitted to our brains is visual. A video contains 3600 images in just two minutes. Because of this, videos grab our attention. They get shared more often. Buzzfeed’s food brand Tasty reaches 500 million viewers per month through just its cooking videos. These videos have quickly become a Facebook sensation, creating thousands of me-too brands in their wake.
PR Stunts on Social Media
Get people to talk about your product. Great a shock value. Get people to take notice of your brand. Facebook users are always looking for interesting shareable posts. That’s why PR stunts are likely to become viral.
Capitalize on Trending Topics
The world of social media is volatile. What’s new today, is old news the next day. If you’re reaching customers on social media, you need to be in the groove. One way is to capitalise trending topics. Seize the moment. Twitter and other social media platforms allow business to track viral topics. Regularly monitor trending topics and when you can, offer your insight and comment. Try to blend in your brand into the message. Bonus point, if you can make it funny.
Support a Good Cause
Spread good in the world and you’ll get a lot of goodwill. Positive, do-good messages are always a win-win on social media. Connect the cause with your brand. The shoe brand, Tom’s is an excellent example of this. They offer to donate one pair of shoes for every shoe that you buy at their shop. This means every time a customer buys a pair of shoes, he leaves with the perceptions that he’s putting shoes on a poor child’s feet.
How Beauty Brands are using Guerilla Marketing with social media
NYX Face Awards
The NYX FACE(Fine Artistry of Cosmetics) awards are one of the best examples of Guerilla Marketing with social media. Initiated in 2016, these awards invite beauty and lifestyle bloggers to submit their entries to earn the title of the ‘Beauty Vlogger of the Year’. Along with the title, the winner receives $50,000, consultations with professional makeup artists and a year worth supply of NYX Cosmetics. Five runner-ups are also selected who win $15,000. With these awards, the company has been able to capitalize on the reach of these beauty vloggers to advertise its product and brand image.
These awards are hosted live at nyxfaceawards.com and on NYX’s YouTube channel. The public is invited to cast their votes for the final nominations and follow the event with hashtag #nyxfaceawards.
NYX has been truly able to capture the interest of its social media followers. These awards not only provide good entertainment but also offer makeup and beauty advice to the followers. They have achieved a cult following amongst beauty geeks. NYX has been hosting these awards for six years, and each time the number of entrants and viewership goes up.
MAC MACnificentme Me Campaign
Another winning guerilla marketing with social media is by MAC Cosmetics. According to the Colour Cosmetics Social Engagement Report, by Campaign Magazine, MAC Cosmetics triumphs social media strategy in the beauty category. In 2014, the company launched its MACnificentme Me competition. Fans were invited to submit their photos along with 100-word mantra about their ‘style, heart and soul’ to be featured in MACnificent Me collection. Six winners were selected and flown to New York to be part of the photo shoot. The beauty giant used this campaign as a grassroot campaign for its main MACnificient Me collection.
L ‘Oreal Beauty Squad Campaign
In L’Oreal’s Beauty Squad Campaign, the brand capitalizes on the power of influencers to grow its brand image and awareness. The brand hired five diverse beauty bloggers to create a five-member beauty squad. Consisting of Emily Canham, Ruth Crilly, Patricia Bright, Victoria Magrath and Kaurshal Modha, the squad helped the brand by creating YouTube videos and blogs on the latest beauty trends using L’Oreal products. These influencers have a social media reach in billions, and in this way, the squad reached a following of 5.5 million fans. Also, using these influencers the brand was able to deliver relatable and useful content.
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