Coming to you live from New Hampshire!  I am a marketer.  I have worked on projects for everyone from Warner Lambert and Coca Cola to Warner Bros. Pictures.  I have used mainstream, graffitti, viral, ambient and buzz marketing tactics.  By far, my favorite marketing method is Guerrilla Marketing.  According to wikipedia, Guerrilla Marketing is an unconventional way of performing promotional activities on a very low budget. Such promotions are sometimes designed so that the target audience is left unaware they have been marketed to.  Isn't that great?  I use Guerrilla Marketing strategies in every blog.  It helps with lead conversion and building trust.  Learn how to use Guerrilla Marketing tactics in your blog.

Let's see how you can apply them to your blog:

1. Base your blogs on human psychology instead of experience, judgement, and guesswork.
Create community by speaking to your readers as a real person.  Nix the business/real estate jargon and talk to them in plain terms.  Also, humanize yourself, slowly introduce yourself to them through your blog posts.  Give them a small slice of your life or persoanlity with each post.  Be funny.  I can be a ditzy blond sometimes and it comes through in my posts from time to time. 

Read also Humanizing a blog: how blogging is like bodybuilding

2. Be creative and use your imagination. 
Think outside the box.  Remember that real estate is not your only expertise.  You have a depth of knowledge in your local community that you cna leverage on your blog as well.  You may even have a whole other set of skills you can apply to the blog.  Do it.  Be a maverick. 

3. Measure your success by how many new relationships are made each month. 
Quantify your results in terms of traffic, leads and comments on your site each month.  Consider that each of the visitors to you site is a new relationship that you have formed.  Make sure your traffic, leads and comments grow each month. 

Read also:
Plan a blog war for increased traffic
Boost traffic by 40% in one hour/day

4. Create a standard of excellence with an acute focus. 

Write quality informative content that engages readers.  I could go on and on on this topic, but your best bet is to read my Blog Writing 101 article.

5. Forget about the competition and concentrate more on cooperating with other businesses.
Online networking is effective.  Find out if other businesses in town are blogging.  Comment on their blogs and see if they want to exchange "guest blogger" status with you.  The idea is you post a "guest blog" on their blog and they on yours.  It introduces each of you t a new audience of readers and helps form alliances with other local bloggers. 

Read also: Commenting for traffic

The best Guerrilla Blog Methods for Real Estate:

1. Hold a contest to incite people participate.  Sellsius recommends a home holiday decorating contest or look at Teresa's pumpkin contest.  Or check out this SEO contest.  I've also seen Realtors take pictures of various buildings in town and ask people the exact address for the contest.

2. Create a blog war to emotionally engage readers

3. Offer a day where you answer 5 reader questions as your blog post.  This will incite readers to contact you directly to submit thier questions.

4. Hold a weekly local trvia game in a post where you ask a piece of local trivia and see who gets the answer.  It helps people participate and you learn some crazy facts in the process.

5. Hold a town tour of scary places with stories or important places with the historical value through either a vidcast or pictures.  Do it once per week on the same day and you will be suprised how people respond.  It will help you connect with the local community which is exactly what you want to do!
 

13 Comments on GUERRILLA BLOGGING: marketing strategy

NOV
03
2006
330,526 Points 11 Featured Posts Outside Blog
I might need to hire a BLOGGER to do all of this for me and with the slow times I am facing I don't think I can afford to hire a full time blogger.  = (
7:23am • #1
128,713 Points 14 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Thanks Mary,

               My wife and I are new to blogging and I will read your blogs hoping to learn more. Live from NH.

Thanks Jay

7:45am • #2

Damion,

That is a fantastic idea.  There is no better way to showcase SEO in theory and practice than have a true and level playing field in which to test your ideas and measure your success.

  

11:17am • #3
122,709 Points 16 Featured Posts Outside Blog
Ok - so how can we have a blog war if AR limits us to 5 blog posts per day?  I've been posting today about merging my blogger.com blog with my AR blog - but if this limitation remains I'm not going to do that. 
11:24am • #4
122,709 Points 16 Featured Posts Outside Blog

The only reason I think it's not a good idea is because my posts are directly related to what's happening in our industry on a daily basis.

I am bummed that I will not be able to merge the two blogs - what a royal pain to maintain two right now. 

1:42pm • #5
132,263 Points 14 Featured Posts Outside Blog
I think contests are a great idea, that will be something that will have to be incorporated into my marketing.
2:27pm • #6
NOV
04
2006
314,435 Points 45 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Mary, are you still up here in NH?  Where are/were you? 

As always, I love reading your posts - they are so helpful and full of all kinds of great information.  I love the links you include as those provide even more useful information.

Thanks again for all the great posts you provide!

Ann Cummings , Live from New Hampshire!!   ;-)

7:39am • #7

I got started blogging.  Does my blog page have to wait in the sandbox like my new website?

1:48pm • #8
35 Featured Posts

I am posting this on Mary's behalf...

Ann 

Mary was in North Conway, NH and is now heading back to sunny Florida.  Of course she was checking in on ActiveRain through me but I know she can't wait to review these comments!

 

Andrew

A site is typically sandboxed if it is on a new domain or subdomain.  If your blog is on blog.andrewculp.com and your site is on www.andrewculp then you may get sandboxed.  If it is on the same domain/subdomain it probably will not be affected. 

John McKnight

3:09pm • #9
161,484 Points 43 Featured Posts

Mary, thanks for another great post. I'll be back in a while, for now I need to take some time and read the rest of your blog!

I'm a little slow at times and just "discovered" you.

Great job!

6:54pm • #10
18 Featured Posts
Ade HouseMore good McKnight advice: forgetting about the competition is difficult for me but it is necessary to remain constructively productive.
9:49pm • #11
NOV
06
2006
191,054 Points 6 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Once again you amaze me with your the depths of your knowledge and insight.

Ginger

1:29am • #12
132,263 Points 14 Featured Posts Outside Blog
John, are you putting the blog on your main domain, a subdomain, or a new domain? Without knowing that there is no way to know the answer.
9:30am • #13

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Mary McKnight

Orlando, FL

More about me…

Sacrilicious Marketing

Office Phone: (407) 572-4638

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Helping Realtors learn to successfully write and promote their real estate blog. Online success is not magic, it's knowledge and most of time, it’s free. My focus is to give Realtors the tools and knowledge to affordably succeed online through search engine optimization, search engine marketing, blogging and proper RSS implementation.


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