Guerrilla Marketing Isn't Just Monkey Business

Make those moments count

If you're one of many in an area, a cheap way of differentiating yourself is making all points of customer contact meaningful. Think of everything from how your front door looks to what your voicemail sounds like, says Terri Langhans, author of "The 7 Marketing Mistakes Every Business Makes and How to Fix Them" (Blah Blah Blah Publishing). "If everyone has horizontal business cards, make yours vertical," Langhans says. "Little things can have a huge impact."

Build a network

Over the years, Jill Lublin, co-author of "Guerrilla Publicity: Hundreds of Sure-Fire Tactics to Get Maximum Sales for Minimum Dollars" (Adams Business), built up a network of 200 people she contacts regularly via email. She calls them her champions or advocates. So whenever she wants to get the word out about a new book, she fires off an email to this group. As a result, she's been able to spend less on marketing and promoting her books. "I spent a lot of money on my first book," she recalls. "By my third book, I spent a couple of thousand dollars max."

Blog it

Another inexpensive, in some cases, free way to develop relationships with potential customers is to have a company blog. But don't let it be a rehash of your company press releases. The blog should provide readers with useful information, insight into the industry or a behind-the-scenes look at the company. "Also get people in different parts of the organization to blog," says Ryan Buchanan, CEO and founder of eROI, an Internet marketing firm. "The most clicked thing on our home page is one of our three blogs. It's dynamic every day and people get a more personal, human take on the company and industry."

Blogs can, in addition, drive traffic to your company Web site by being search engine optimize-able and linkable.