Nitty Gritty: Week 8 – MBA6101 – Guerrilla Marketing

In Guerrilla Marketing's Chapter 8 Research: The Starting Point of a Guerrilla Marketing Campaign, Levinson stresses the importance of Research. In class, we've been hearing about how data (information) is powerful from a marketing perspective because it should inform all marketing activity. This is so very true, even more so now than it was in 2007 when the book was written.

I loved his quote, "Ignorance is more expensive than paid research". My clients over the years placed tremendous value in focus group information. This helped provide assurances to teams and leadership in their respective organizations that they were making informed decisions. In addition, Levinson's emphasis on testing is absolutely critical. Every plan I've ever put together includes A/B testing where possible, tagging copy with tracking codes and terms that are search-engine optimized. We ask folks within the agency to do their own searches to see if the hits are what were expected or if the user is taken in a different direction. We take these insights and further tighten the plans.

This runs counter to what Levinson proposes on pages 88-90; however, one of the learnings I've had is to make surveys short. Ask 2-3 questions tops. If you survey again, ask 2-3 different questions, gathering info in bite-sized chunks may seem laborious but the easier you make it for the user to complete, the higher the response rate.

Another thing not mentioned by Levinson, likely because it wasn't as big a thing as it is today: ratings and reviews. Consumers might run the gamut on the spectrum, loving or hating them, but this is the swiftest way to get an idea of the experience others have had with a brand, product or service. I am guilty of always going to the worst review and the best review before taking the "average" number of stars or thumbs up that a business or product has received. Yelp, Google and proprietary sites use ratings and reviews and no small business owner should disregard it.

Here are a few articles worth checking out!