A summary of things you should know about Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days according to Al Lautenslager

Introduction

As a business owner you know you need marketing but you don’t know where to start. Al Lautenslager and Jay Conrad Levinson give you that starting point in Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days. It’s really common sense types of things but not necessarily common practice. Wade interviews Al in this episode to discuss that path, one step in front of the other, that road map, for the marketing that you need to do for business.

The Book’s Unique Quality

What makes the book different is the fresh examples. At the end of each chapter there is an action plan that helps with the implementation, the number one problem with businesses today is implementation. Other businesses know they have to market but they don’t know where to start. I give you that starting point in this book. It’s really common sense types of things but not necessarily common practice. It helps businesses get started, gives them that path, one step in front of the other, that road map, for the marketing that they need to do for business.

The Reader’s Takeaway

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is that they know they have to market but they don’t. The take away is you have your starting point and your step by step plan. You don’t have to be intimidated or fearful anymore because you don’t know anything about marketing. You don’t have to be afraid to start with something.

A Deep Dive Into The Book

The book is organized into days which are just another name for a chapter. Day one is the Guerrilla Marketing mindset. Every single day, no matter what I am doing, I think about the question how am I building the awareness with my prospects and clients through all the marketing that I am doing? I consciously think about that, which gets me in the proper mindset to start my day.

I meet a lot of people in my travels and people tell me what their job is to which I tell them to change that mindset, you are all marketers of the business that you work for. Am I biased with that mindset? Absolutely, but I have seen successful businesses become successful because of that mindset. So day one takes you through that mindset and how to develop the mindset.

In day four I talk about the target market and one of the things I suggest to people is that your best prospect is a current client. I tell businesses all the time to spend over half of your time and over half of your marketing dollars on current customers. That typically surprises and astounds a lot of businesses. A current customer already knows you, already trusts you and already likes you and that is much easier to market to rather than starting fresh with someone that doesn’t know you and doesn’t trust you yet. I also say that your second best prospect is a past customer and I give examples as to why this is true.

Day five I talk about positioning and it is probably my favorite day of all the days I talk about in this book. One very important concept in this day is that everybody is an expert in something. People like to buy from experts, people trust experts, people have confidence in experts work and that’s positioning. My second favorite day in this book is day eight.
In day eight we talk about benefits, competitive advantages and things like that. When I start talking about this day in the book I say that I probably got a little bit of bad news for you. The bad news is your customers and prospects don’t care about you. They don’t care about you, what they care about is what is in it for them. Every time they take a look at marketing they are looking for the benefits, not the features. I suggest that you make a list of what the benefits are that you offer to all your customers and prospects. After that I suggest that you make a list of what your competition offers. If these two lists are identical neither company has a competitive advantage. These are just some of the examples of some of the days in Guerrilla Marketing in 30 days.

Notable Quotes From The Book

“Spend over half your marketing time and half your marketing dollars on current customers.” – Al Lautenslager

“Put your message where your target market can see it.” – Al Lautenslager

“You’re an expert.” – Al Lautenslager

“Features tell and benefits sell” – Al Lautenslager

The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author

I’m an author, speaker and marketing consultant. I travel the world talking about various marketing strategies for those that are interested in growing a business to do so with low and no cost marketing tactics. I’ve been a business owner for fifteen years; I owned a printing and mailing business in the city of Chicago and spent time in corporate America before that. Parallel to my business ownership I started doing a lot of marketing consulting with small businesses. I sold that business in 2009 and focus today on consulting. I’m an author of six marketing books and am really passionate about fulfilling my mission of helping businesses grow with low and no cost marketing.

I’m a former business owner and coming out of the corporate world with a marketing background I had to enter the trenches and start marketing from my boot straps on day one. I did that based on my corporate marketing experience and based on my education, very successfully. I started helping other businesses do that because they saw my success and wanted to know what I was doing and how I could help them. I was asked to speak to their chamber of commerce, their franchise or their organizations and come to find out I really enjoyed that. People were walking away with immediately actionable tactics that they could use the same day they heard about it. I asked someone I knew in the speaking business how to leverage this speaking thing that I’ve just been asked to do. How do you make money doing that? He said I have to position myself in such a way that you are the absolute go to person and that means writing a book. I decided to get an endorsement from Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla marketing. That is when we came up with the idea of Guerrilla Marketing in 30 days. I asked Jay if he would co-author it with me and he agreed to.

Other Books Recommended By The Author

The Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

More Information About This Book and The Author

Buy Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days by Jay Conrad Levinson and Al Lautenslager on Amazon

Visit Market-For-Profits.com for more information on Al and his book

More Information About This Episode

Download the full transcript here

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud

Related books: Market Like You Mean It by Al Lautenslager | Do It! Marketing by David Newman | Guerrilla Social Media Marketing by Jay Levinson

Relevant advice and tips:5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Marketing and Branding | 3 Advantages of Guerrilla Marketing Every Owner Should Know

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Wade Danielson

Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.