We like to share with you different techniques that can help you to reach your audience in a more efficient manner. This means to invest a minimum amount of your budget with great results. For this reason today we will talk about Guerilla Marketing because we must give you all the details on how to make it work for you.
Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/guerrilla-marketing/
What Is Guerrilla Marketing?
A good start requires a simple definition. Guerrilla marketing is an advertising method different from the classic ones that help you to drive awareness even if you have a small budget. Be careful, because you need to invest a lot of other resources like time, effort and creativity in order to notice the wanted effects. Moreover, you should consider this solution as an additional method to your main strategy not to replace your entire plan with guerrilla marketing. For a better understanding, we will describe some guerrilla marketing examples from the world around us.
Public Art, Graffiti
We see it everywhere. Very often we stop for a second to discover the main message behind the street art. This is a great opportunity for marketing your product. For example, Ikea team paid artists for drawing graffiti in the same place with their classic ads for convincing potential clients to pay attention to their posters.
Image Source: https://www.fundera.com/blog/guerrilla-marketing
Public Areas
Every area can be a great source of future users. Big names use the space around them to build great campaigns for increasing their popularity. For example, King Kong 3D was promoted on the beach with huge footprints that made people talk about the movie.
Image Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/09/22/guerrilla-marketing-examples
Web Campaigns
Guerrilla marketing isn’t visible only in real life. Online is the most cost-effective environment where you can run your campaign. Whether you create a viral creative, a contest with user-generated content, or even an impressive landing page, there are many ways to attract customers over the web. We know that Liechtenstein is a small country but renting it is something possible only on Airbnb.
Image Source: http://mashable.com/2011/04/14/airbnb-xnet/#LRYk2.S1UEq6
Advantages Of Using Guerrilla Marketing For Your App
If you wonder why guerrilla marketing is so effective for creating word of mouth we will enumerate the main benefits provided by this method.
Low Cost: We already mentioned that the low budget is the best benefit of this technique. Who wouldn’t want great results without paying great prices?
High Efficiency: If you manage to catch the momentum you can receive the attention you wanted and your user base can grow considerably.
Memorability: Because of the surprise element your brand will follow your customers and it will convince them to spread the word about your app.
Grows Easily: When you run your campaign in the middle of the street or in crowded places there are big chances to attract a huge number of people.
Drives Local Awareness: If you apply your strategy during local events or in certain areas, you have more targeting options than with other techniques.
Potential Risks
Like with every other strategy for marketing your app, this one can cause disastrous effects if it is not applied in the proper way.
Negative Results Can Grow Easily Too: If you don’t know your users very well they can feel really offended or upset after they notice your campaign. In the same time you need to take all the necessary measures that everything will go well during your campaign. For example, if your strategy is based on graffiti make sure that you are authorized to draw on that wall. Watch the weather channels and use high quality products. Otherwise your campaign will be a disaster.
Hidden Messages Can Lead Misunderstanding: If your message is too mysterious especially for the ones who don’t know your app, then you can create confusion. Keep it simple and comprehensive.
Best Practices Of Guerrilla Marketing
Let’s see how we can avoid the main downsides explained above.
Know Your Audience
Wow, you didn’t see that coming did you? Yes, with absolutely every strategy you apply for the growth of your app it is vital to know your users and in what way you should approach them. In the same time you need to offer them what they want in order to receive the best results.
Be Creative And Unique
If this method worked previously for a certain app, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to copy all the steps made by that app owner. Create your own plan and remember that every app is different. So, adapt this technique to your creation.
Be Unexpected
It is mandatory to be unexpected but in a good mode. Don’t scare your customers with too daring messages or some weird activities. Remember your buyer persona and your app’s style to make this method functional.
Some Successful Examples About Guerilla Marketing
We will present you how popular apps reached success with that method just because it was done in the right way. Some of these apps where discussed previously inside our Mobile App Success Stories series.
Snapchat
We will start with a relatively new example, from the strategy of increasing the popularity for Snapchat. Last year, huge yellow billboards with the white ghost appeared all over the country without any other image or text for describing their purpose. This fact made everyone to talk about the brand because the ones that didn’t know what it means became really curious.
Image Source: https://www.apppartner.com/use-guerrilla-marketing-grow-app-examples/
Foursquare
You probably know that Foursquare was launch during SXSW 2009. A year later, at the same conference, the app owners continued with the promotion of their work in an interesting way. They started to play Four Square, the popular game for kids with a name similar with their app right in the middle of the street. In just 10 days they gathered 100,000 users because of that outdoor competition.
Image Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/playing-four-square-with-foursquare-at-sxsw-2010/
Domino’s App
Imagine that you are walking home from work, starving, and a lot of pizza slices are rising around you. Wouldn’t be great to taste at least one? Sadly, this can’t be possible but you can order them in an instant if you download the Domino’s app.
Image Source: http://www.adstasher.com/2013/07/dominos-on-go-app-ad-campaign.html
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was another strategy from the category How To Market Your App With Almost No Budget. While this is an efficient method to drive awareness for your app you need to be very careful with the way you apply it, because you have to consider your customers and your app for receiving the best results. Well, just like with any other strategies you tried so far.
