I should have written this post while the sun was out, as today it is a little overcast.

Ok, so I didn't quite make it to the beach...

The thought popped into my head as I was out for afternoon tea (very British!) the other day. The weather was incredible, the sun was shining, and the country pub we visited was packed! A great way to start the weekend!

What popped into my head is how seasonal changes in weather affect business.

We all know how the seasons are likely to change, but how does an anomalous day impact your sales and profits?

This pub was clearly the happy recipient of people wanting to celebrate one of the only days of sun we get in the UK, and they were just about able to deal with the sudden rush of revellers. However, if these people were at the pub, this means that other businesses elsewhere were scratching their heads wondering where everyone had gone!

This got me wondering how businesses deal with these uncontrollable changes?

At the Guerrilla Marketing Intensive, we help businesses create a marketing calendar that creates different campaigns depending on the time of year. But perhaps there are businesses who need to think on a more micro level of daily weather as well as the more macro level of the seasons.

If you have any ideas how to change your marketing according to the weather, do leave a comment below to help other businesses who may be in the same situation.

Are you able to offer cream teas on a sunny day? Do you have the ability to sell umbrellas when the weather turns and the heavens open? How flexible are you to offer people what they want on a day-to-day basis as well as a month-by-month basis?

Consider how micro changes to the weather, or the economy or to any other factor might impact your business and make allowances for such events!

Walking through a market the other day my head was turned by a cheese seller. There was a lot going on in the hustle and bustle but this one stall stood out for me.

Why?

Because of the SMELL that was being given off!

That’s right, the stench that was given off by the grilling of the cheese sandwiches that were being sold drew my attention to the stall. This smell made them stand out from the rest of the market vendors.

There were likely a number of other cheese vendors in the vicinity, but this one did something different, and their product awareness spread way beyond the few square feet that their stall occupied.

What are you doing differently that makes you stand out?

Seth Godin wrote a book called “Purple Cow” which describes marketing messages like cows on a car journey. After a while, you get bored of the cows in the fields, but if you saw a purple cow, that would grab your attention… at least for a while!

Every day, your prospects are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages and they have trained themselves to be great at filtering these out and deleting the vast majority of them.

To grab their attention, you need to do something a little more dramatic and interrupt your prospects regular way of thinking.

You need a cheesy smell (or a purple cow… but I guess they are linked in some strange way!)

How does your marketing make you stand out from the crowd? How is your product or service designed differently to the rest of your competition? Is your mission and vision markedly different to others in your field of expertise?

In psychology, it is called a pattern interrupt. Once you have interrupted a prospect’s filter, they will then be a little more open to your message. Without the interrupt, your message would have been cast aside along with all the rest.

Make a bold claim, offer a unusual extra service or provide a guarantee that makes your service irresistible. Do something to stand out and draw people to you and your business.

GOOD WORK GUERRILLA!

Today has been one of those days which has taken me back in time. Old school television programs like Jerry Springer, music that I grew up listening to and even television adverts that took me right back to my childhood.

There is a good reason that such things are called ‘Classics‘ (ok, well maybe not Jerry Springer!) and that is that they have a certain timeless-ness to them. You can pick them up at any time and any place and they still connect.

Guerrillas know that their marketing efforts may need to be around for a long time before they have the desired impact, and so words like Consistent, Persistent and Patient personify the successful guerrilla marketer.

So the question to ask yourself today is are you a classic or are you a Rick Astley? Remember him, you might do for the undeniable hit 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up” but where is he now? There are so many examples of one-hit-wonders, so I am not singling Rick out, but guerrillas need to be around longer just one campaign.

Do you have a solid Identity, or are you easily swayed by the latest fads? At the moment, it seems to be that all limes come from Mexico and my mangos are called Alphonso. Guerrillas know that they need to stay up to date with their current affairs but to change with each gust of wind is not very guerrilla.

If you looked back at your marketing in 20 years time, would you still be proud to run the same advert or campaign? Is it written in a timeless way, or does it include people that may no longer be involved (or that you do not want to be associated to)? Are your dates and times written such that they have the same message in 20 years as today, for example stating that you have been in business “since 1987” rather than “for 24 years“. Does your marketing deliver the right emotional message that will be consistent in your marketing for the lifespan of your product or service?

One of the things that personify classics is that they all make you feel a certain way or had you associate to them in a particular way. When you listen to or watch something that fits into this idea for you, notice how it makes you feel. I imagine a smile will come over you. How does your marketing make people feel better about themselves, and will it still do that in the future?

So think about how to create classic pieces of marketing from the start that will stand the test of time.

Good work guerrilla!

Guerrilla marketing is all about providing value for the client or prospect so that they understand how your product or service can help them. Its not about you!

Guerrillas make sure that their communication is put forward in a way that it is about the benefit to the client rather than the features of what they offer.

Instead of saying something like ‘our product has 17 widgets‘, they might say something along the lines of ‘our widgets can help you generate 23% more business‘.

Guerrillas know the impact their product or service can have on their clients and they make sure they communicate this clearly.

Lucozade make energy drinks which have a blend of sugars that help prolong exercise. But they do not mention the scientific blend of ingredients in their marketing, instead they say how their products helps you go ‘33% longer‘. If you were an athlete, you would definitely be interested in that!

Florida Hospital currently have a campaign called Healthy 100. Now I have no idea what the difference is that they offer, but if I was considering a hospital to use to keep me in good health, this one would definitely be at the top of the list.

How can you communicate the impact of your offering in a way that expresses the value to your client? Are you doing this already? How can you refine it?

This is also a classic sales mistake so make sure you remember this concept when you are infront of your client too. Remember, guerrillas are consistent and this means in their marketing as well as how they represent themselves too.

Check your marketing and assess how much of your marketing is about YOU, and how much is about your clients and prospects!

Guerrilla marketers realise the importance of serving their customers. They understand that it can cost as much as 10x to find a new customer as it does to keep an existing one, so they allocate their budget appropriately.

10% of a guerrilla marketer’s budget goes to the universe, that is everyone who is not yet a prospect.

Prospects get 30% of the marketing budget, 3 times more than their original connection, and this is where a person might start to recognise how much value the guerrilla is offering.

And if someone becomes the client of a guerrilla, 60% of that guerrilla’s budget will go on re-marketing to those customers.

Guerrilla marketers understand the psychology of their clients. They make their marketing very scientific, removing the guesswork and using key concepts such as influence and persuasion to help prospects to see the benefits of doing business with a guerrilla.

Robert Cialdini wrote a book called “Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion” which every guerrilla should read. In this book, Cialdini discussed what he calls the Weapons of Influence (Cialdini must be a guerrilla!), the first one of which is Reciprocation.

In short, he discovered that when you give something to someone, they feel compelled to give you something back in return. The book gives some great examples on how this is used practically.

This is why guerrillas are generous.

They understand that by giving value upfront to their prospects, they are far more likely to receive in the end. If you have a prospect that you really want to develop into a client, you need to offer more value upfront, and then promise to deliver even greater value once they sign on the dotted line.

What can you give to prospects that will add value to them?

If there is a cost associated to such gifts, then how much are you willing to spend to get them to the point of buying from you. If you know the lifetime value of your clients and your conversion rates, then you will be able to determine a sensible number for this value.

So develop your guerrilla generosity today. Get yourself a copy of Influence and start giving value up front to your prospects.