Grassroots - Guerrilla Marketing

Conveying a message with a call to action can be time-consuming and more importantly costly.  Every month I wonder about the advertisement in the yellow pages and am driven to distraction by tele-marketers with their irritating recorded messages.  Worrying about my web page not having a premium spot on the mega-search engine is not high on my list.

However, this past week a national conservation group sent  an email.  It was concise and included three topics that had talking points for each action item.  As an illustration for this blog posting, I have bundled portions of the conservation group's email to show the positive points and effectiveness of their lobbying campaign.

From my perspective, it would certainly be handy if more national organizations facilitated and actively supported a similar campaign for a variety of functions:

• Alert members to issues show the pros and cons without taking a stand.  Let the reader decide.
  
  
• Call for individual action in regional or state-specific matters.  It does not have to be the first tier reader taking action, but it can be a resource document for re-distribution to a second or third tier readers.  Service providers can circulate the material to their banker, lawyer, or accountant. The campaign may generate referral business from one of the down-stream recipients.
  
  
• Offer timely webcasts or email blasts that can be re-packaged for individual clients - cut & paste.
  
  
• Inform reader/clients with a couple or paragraphs or a two to five minute webcast a snippet of continuing education. It is an opportunity to set the hook for future business and possibly connect with others having a similar professional interest.
  
  

Pushing the name-recognition, without paying a fee to an advertising agency, seems to be a worthy goal for a guerrilla marketing campaign.