Guerrilla Marketing Online: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Earning Profits on the Internet

Note: While this review was of the 1995 edition, a revised 1997 edition is now available.

Guerrilla Marketing Online: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Earning Profits on the Internet by Jay Conrad Levinson and Charles Rubin (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995, 1997, 303 pages, softcover)

"Marketing is war," write Levinson and Rubin. "It is a war against a host of competitors in the same business as yours who are competing with you for the same customers and the same sales dollars."

Of course, war has been Levinson's theme since his phenomenally-successful Guerrilla Marketing. Levinson is the champion of the small, but smart player, who can move faster, more deftly, than his more ponderous opponents. In this book he teams up with Charles Rubin, a computer veteran. Together they produce an outstanding contribution which all small business on-line marketers need: a $12.95 guide to Internet marketing which contains a wealth of strategies and ideas.

One of my pet peeves about Internet marketing books is that they spend half the book explaining the basics of the Internet, and little time discussing marketing strategies. Levinson and Rubin spend a few pages describing the marketing climate on the Internet, but quickly delve into how-to ideas.

Characteristically, they focus on lower budget strategies of advertising, such as keeping a presence on mailing lists and news groups. For example, spanning both the Internet and on- line commercial services, with an occasional nod to BBSs, they explain how to use classified ads (and their equivalent in certain newsgroups), offering details on the most effective way to title an ad, how to make it stand out from others, wording the message, and keeping the ad near the top of the list so it will be seen first. Their chapter on electronic storefronts is one of the best I've seen. They weigh the pros and cons of setting up your own server vs. carefully choosing rental space on an Internet Service Provider's server. Their seven strategies for electronic storefronts include: (1) choose the right location, (2) make the store attractive, fun, and easy to navigate, (3) make the store an information source, (4) reassure customers about your permanence, (5) pay attention, (6) tell the world, and (7) follow up.

After looking at some of the basic forms of Internet marketing, they outline several other approaches to boosting one's on-line reputation: initiating and participating in on-line conferences and becoming an information provider. "Seventy-five Online Guerrilla Marketing Weapons" is the distillation of the entire volume in a single chapter, providing a useful checklist for the Web marketer who wants to cover all the bases. As I read through the list, I found several ideas which weren't new, but which I wasn't using: testimonials, lists of customer e-mail addresses, and publishing an on-line newsletter to keep my name and business before potential customers. You'll find strategy ideas here that fit your own gifts and market.

"Online guerrillas recognize that information is the major drawing card for their business," the authors write. "... Teach people something new, and you'll distinguish your store from your competition. Information is what people seek, and the more of it you provide and the better you are at providing it, the more customers you'll have."

A chapter on "Planning the Attack" focuses on the mission statement, too often forgotten in the rush to get on-line. Standard business advice, of course, but here applied to the on-line arena.

Here's an insight on the types of Internet marketing: "Active battlegrounds require your constant attention. These include discussion groups and bulletin boards. Passive battlegrounds hang around in cyberspace delivering your message. These include storefronts, billboards, and classified ads." The authors then offer guidelines for what is a reasonable on-going approach for each of these battlefields. The book concludes with a glossary to get novices up-to- speed with an entirely new vocabulary, and an appendix listing important resources: books and magazines, as well as a careful selection of on-line resources.

My advice: buy the book. You'll earn back your small investment very rapidly if you apply only a few of the authors' insights.

You may purchase a copy at a substantial discount through Amazon.com Books or for regular price at your local bookstore.