Seven steps to successful guerilla marketing in rough times

More than 99 percent of black-owned businesses can be described as small businesses. They are literally the backbone of our community. Their success means job creation, more ownership and dollars that circulate and stay in our communities, critical elements for creating black wealth on a widespread level.

Unfortunately, most of these businesses lack crucial information on what it means to be a black business in America. For instance, there is talk now of a word that economists hate to use: Recession.

Nobody has confirmed that we are in a recession, but if you are a small, black-owned business, the economic downturn is having a dramatic effect on your bottom line.

Black businesses are usually the first to feel the effects of economic downturn. They feel it worse than others, and they feel it longer.

Here are seven steps about the “Guerilla Marketing’’ approach that allows small businesses to succeed in the midst of crisis:

1. Reality-based knowledge.
Base all your marketing decisions on the reality of the situation in which you find yourself, and not on wishful thinking. Always be open to learning more about your market.

2. Go against the current.
When things start going slowly in the business world, conventional wisdom says you should cut back on the marketing. This will only speed up your demise. If business is slowing down, and marketing is how you make money, then now is the time to focus not just on marketing, but on outstanding marketing. Your business should not die just because other people’s ventures will. Businesses that market aggressively and consistently usually survive the downturns. Sometimes, they even flourish during the downturns.
 

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