7 Guerrilla Marketing Plays I’d Run Today if I Were Starting Over With $0

Founders who survive bad years don’t outspend their problems. They outthink them.  According to the author, if he ha to start over today with nothing in the bank, here are the seven plays he would run in this order. 

Write a seven-sentence plan.  Most founders he meets have a marketing strategy that’s too long to remember. According to the author his fits on one index card. He answered seven questions in order:  What is the goal of my marketing?  What’s the number-one problem my business solves?   What benefits do I provide?  Who am I marketing to, specifically?  Which guerrilla marketing tactics will I use?  What percentage of projected revenue will I commit in year one?  How will I measure success?    If you can’t say it in seven sentences, you don’t have a plan yet.

Build a 90-day calendar.  According to the author the plan gave him direction. The calendar created motion. One row per tactic, with seven columns: date, tactic, message, budget, tracking, notes, and grade. A campaign earned an A if it made money, and an F if it didn’t. Marketing is a slow burn, so he revisited grades 60 to 90 days later, once the leads actually closed.

Build your Dream 100.  Other businesses already had his ideal customers in their database. His job was to build the relationships. He picked 100 companies that served the same buyer he did but didn’t compete with him, and he committed to spending six months getting to know them: two coffees, one LinkedIn comment, one introduction at a time.  The mistake most founders make is asking for referrals before they have earned the relationship. The Dream 100 works because it turns cold-calling into warm, authority-building outreach.

Make them the star of your podcast or webinar.  He invited his Dream 100 onto a webinar series he hosted, one by one. Each session was about them; he made them the star. After every recording, he sent a thank-you gift with a handwritten card.  In 2008, that single play produced nearly $2 million in referred business from nine relationships. The cost was a USB microphone and a stack of stationery.

Turn one episode into a year of content.  Each session became his content engine. He sliced every recording into clips, quote graphics, and audiograms for LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Today, the same work takes minutes with CapCut, Descript, and Opus Clip.  His stealth move: For a full year after each session aired, he posted a fresh clip every other week and tagged the guest. That kept him in front of their network for free, and gave them content their audience expected them to share. By month 12, social was driving steady inbound, and the only cost was editing time.

Send lumpy mail.  Lumpy mail is an odd-shaped package or envelope that stands out from the rest. It gets opened.  In 2008, he targeted credit unions. He sent 200 envelopes filled with shredded money and a note: “You’re shredding money working with the wrong agency. Call us instead.” The campaign drove 19 phone calls and closed six deals worth over $25,000 in business — total cost: under $1,000.

Become a walking billboard.  He started thinking about every place he went each day — coffee shops, the gym, my kid’s soccer games — and turned himself into a free attention magnet. He ordered shirts with one line: “Do you need marketing? Scan me.” The QR code sent people to his booking page. In the first quarter, it produced dozens of conversations a month and three new clients.

show less