What is Grassroots Marketing?
Grassroots marketing is a strategy in which brands create highly targeted content for a niche or specific audience. It aims at reaching out to a specific audience with content that inspires them to spread and amplify your message. It’s like word-of-mouth marketing multiplied by ten. The goal of grassroots marketing is similar to that of viral marketing. The goal is to create content that your target audience wants to share. However, because you’re creating a campaign for a smaller, more specific audience, this may be more cost-effective. These campaigns will be distinct from your typical marketing campaigns. This is because your goal is to compel a small group of people to take action. You’re probably hoping to reach a large number of people with other marketing campaigns. However, with grassroots marketing, you create highly targeted content, hoping that your target audience will spread your message about your business.The Advantages
Before you begin planning your first grassroots marketing campaign for your business, take a moment to remind yourself of what you should hope to gain from the experience. Here are some of the advantages of this marketing strategy.#1. Low-Cost Marketing Strategy
When you own a company, you must make every dollar of your budget count. You please investors with your frugal spending habits, and you’re on track to repay the loans you’ve obtained. However, to make money, you must first invest money. One way you’ll make money is by selling your company using digital and conventional marketing strategies suggested by professionals. A grassroots marketing program, on the other hand, has the ability to pull in a large number of consumers while not draining the business resources.#2. Rapidly Amass Large Groups of Loyal Customers
It’s unusual to come across a marketing plan that has the potential to attract significant numbers of loyal customers in such a short period of time. However, many businesses have shown how it’s possible with the help of a grassroots marketing campaign. Major businesses have built interactions with customers through grassroots marketing without necessarily being the voice appealing to the customer. This method employs a popular medium to which customers can listen.#3. For the Love of Being Local
One of the most enticing aspects of launching a grassroots marketing initiative is the desire to partner with local communities where your business will have the greatest effect. Volunteering with non-profits is a perfect way to get active in the community. You can also connect with members of the business community who can spread the word about your cause. Community activities are an entertaining and engaging way to engage with customers. The cost of participating in local events is also low.#4. Spreading the Word Through Others’ Voices
The fact that you are dependent on the brilliance of those around you is the key reason why this approach is such a good marketing technique. Influential individuals and companies already exist. They have large followings who return to them for further product and service recommendations. Influencers exist in politics, culture, athletics, medicine, and other fields. These individuals continue to influence their audiences through their works. Having one of their voices speak for your company would put your brand on the tip of their fans’ tongues. Read Also: Law 15 MarkettingGrassroots Marketing vs. Guerrilla Marketing
What is guerrilla marketing?
One of the most popular myths about grassroots marketing is that people often refer to it as guerrilla marketing. Although grassroots marketing entails appealing to a small group of customers to market to a wider group, guerrilla marketing takes a different approach. Guerrilla marketing entails communicating directly to customers in an innovative manner to generate interest in a brand. Guerrilla marketing is typically a tactic, whereas grassroots marketing is a technique. One can incorporate the marketing strategies into a grassroots campaign. However, the grassroots campaign may not have to be entirely guerrilla tactics.What Is the Relationship Between Guerrilla Marketing and Grassroots Marketing?
The key explanation why so many marketing professionals mix up guerrilla marketing and grassroots marketing is because both entail communicating directly to customers in an innovative way that seems unconventional to outsiders. People can see a grassroots campaign at a local event to talk to powerful moderators. It is an effective guerrilla strategy because it is highly innovative. But the campaign is simply a grassroots strategy because the aim is to make the targeted audience spread the word about the brand. The main distinction is that one can use guerrilla tactics for a variety of marketing strategies, while you can’t grassroots marketing tactics for a variety of marketing strategies. A grassroots campaign, for example, that relies on local sponsors to spread the word about a brand is not using guerrilla marketing strategies.What Is the Best Way to Begin a Grassroots Marketing Campaign?
Each of your marketing strategies necessitates a solid strategy to achieve the objectives that will attract customers to your establishment. It’s impossible to put together a worthwhile grassroots campaign without taking notes about how you can achieve it. Work with experienced marketing experts. Also, read tips about how big brands create their marketing strategies to get inspired to create your own grassroots campaign.- Conduct research on your target population to identify trends.
- Learn about your audience’s needs, pains, and personas.
- Create informative content that appeals to your audience’s emotions.
- Distribute this information to your target audiences by asking them to share your content with their social circles.
How to Make a Grassroots Marketing Campaign More Effective
According to SEO experts, anything on the internet should be optimized to function properly. If you want your brand to be recognized as a result of your efforts to coordinate a grassroots marketing campaign, you should pay careful attention to what marketing experts have to say about using SEO to attract more people to your content. When you start your first grassroots initiative, you’ll want to ensure that your content reaches a sufficient number of people. If you do not spend time optimizing your web pages, photos, and videos, the results of the marketing campaign you worked so hard to perfect may disappoint you.Step 1: Create Grassroots Campaign Websites
Any time you post anything about your grassroots campaign on the internet, you must ensure that those web pages are treated the same way you would every other page of content for your company. Don’t be afraid to publicize the company’s efforts to participate in festivals and collaborate with local community groups. If it is important enough for your company to make an effort to communicate with consumers, you should provide details on your website to help create buzz for your company.Step 2: Make Pages Responsive to Mobile Devices
Making sure that mobile users are not left out of the experience is one of the most critical SEO strategies that you can include in any grassroots webpage. Many of the people the brand is attempting to attract prefer handheld devices to desktop computers.Step 3: Incorporate Additional SEO Techniques
Other SEO strategies for the grassroots campaign you’re launching, such as using location-based keywords and producing compelling content, should be implemented on your web pages.Examples & Ideas for The Next Grassroots Marketing Campaign Big and Small Businesses
Now that we’ve established what grassroots marketing is and why you should consider using it. Let’s look at some examples and ideas for incorporating them into your next grassroots marketing campaign.#1. Spread the Word Using Emotional Triggers
We know that appealing to the audience’s feelings is one of the most effective ways to persuade them to share a message. So using emotional stimuli is an excellent way to get the message out there. A perfect example of this grassroots marketing idea in action is a grassroots initiative used to great effect by Canadian budget airline WestJet. So, they polled passengers on social media to see what they wanted as a Christmas gift. The airline then rushed out while the plane was in the air, purchased several of the gifts listed by passengers, and gave them to them when they landed by putting them on the baggage carousel. The campaign’s YouTube video earned more than 33 million views at the time (and an additional 11 million views since), demonstrating the impact of positive emotional grassroots marketing examples and the opportunities provided by timely or seasonal campaigns.#2. Make a splash of a public relations stunt.
It can be difficult to get people talking about your product or service these days, which is why guerilla-style PR stunts can be so successful.
In a PR stunt held outside a cathedral in Brazil, online storage provider Mandic Cloud Solutions demonstrated this by holding mock funerals for obsolete and outdated technology. Small caskets were set up, each containing an aging computer server, to represent the pace at which technology becomes obsolete and “dies,” as well as the need for more modern storage solutions.
Given the religious symbolism of the stunt and where it was performed. Although this tactic was a little risky, it did get people talking, which is the main idea of any grassroots marketing campaign. Also, don’t forget that a true grassroots campaign starts with identifying and engaging a highly targeted audience that can organically spread the message.
#3. Be Prepared to Profit from Trending Topics
When the Ebola scare hit the United States in 2015, few medical institutions – including big, well-funded medical facilities – were equipped to deal with the surge of patients showing symptoms of the deadly disease and the ensuing panic. Fortunately, the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) had put in place a social media preparedness response plan not long before the outbreak began.
The ENA was able to disseminate critical health and safety information in real-time as the situation unfolded. Thanks to this crisis management strategy. It was able to disseminate potentially life-saving information about how to detect and react to Ebola-like symptoms. They also gave out safety information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The campaign was also a valuable resource for the news media, which helped spread the message even further.
The campaign generated over 125 million impressions across all major social media channels. Thus, it positioned the ENA as an important resource at a critical juncture.
#4. Experiment with Ambient Advertising
Ambient advertisements are advertisements that appear in odd places or unusual ways. These advertisements have the ability to literally stop people in their tracks. Thus, it makes them one of the most powerful forms of grassroots marketing. There are literally hundreds of examples of ambient ads in action, and the subject deserves its own article. The grassroots marketing examples below demonstrate how being creative with ambient ads can help spread the word about your company.
However, one of the few disadvantages of ambient advertising is that it can be costly, depending on the form, pricing of available advertising inventory, and the size of the campaign. Any of these problems are beyond the reach of this article. However, ambient ads might be worth investigating if you really want to catch people’s attention.
#5. Make use of tear-off flyers
Many marketers ignore the idea of tear-off flyers in grassroots marketing campaigns. They believe that this type of advertisement is better suited to people offering guitar lessons and yard sales. Many big brands, on the other hand, have used tear-off flyer promotions to great effect.
Consider the global weight-loss brand Weight Watchers. It’s a basic concept, but it’s extremely successful. The use of colored ink (if applicable) and special perforation are the primary costs of tear-off flyers. Aside from that, it’s a cheap and effective way to spread the word about your company.
#6. Social Media Flirt with Controversy
As previously mentioned, grassroots marketing shares several characteristics with viral content providers such as BuzzFeed and Upworthy. Social media is such an important part of an effective grassroots marketing strategy. If done correctly, flirting with controversy will help propel the content to far larger audiences. There are many examples of this grassroots marketing idea at work. Unfortunately, the majority of them are tone-deaf, crass, or overtly rude (think branded cereal tie-ins to “honor” 9/11 victims and other similarly ill-conceived ideas- especially in grassroots marketing). Also, well-intended promotions, such as Dove’s “true beauty” project, which aimed to emphasize the beauty of ordinary people, were met with criticism. Be extremely cautious if you want to capitalize on a contentious or sensitive subject. Yes, divisive marketing can perform spectacularly well and bring the company to a whole new world of prospective buyers. But even the world’s largest and most savvy brands have gotten this wrong countless times. If you decide to try this method, proceed with caution.#7. Contribute to a Good Cause
For many individuals, philanthropy and charitable contributions can be important motivators. The desire to help – and be seen helping – a noble cause can give grassroots marketing campaigns a significant boost. So rallying behind a charity or advocacy organization can be an excellent way to spread the word about your business. Also, you are providing critical support to charities and organizations that rely on donations to help those who need it the most.
Again, there are numerous examples of this grassroots marketing idea in action. One of the most powerful in recent memory was the incredible generosity witnessed shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing and the #BostonStrong hashtag. This decentralized campaign (an important distinction because it began organically) greatly benefited the One Fund. It raised more than $72 million in donations. Thus, it allows the organization to distribute more than $2 million to the families of each of the victims.
Conclusion
Grassroots marketing can help you build your brand and reach new customers. However, not all of these ideas will necessarily apply to your business and campaign objectives. Hopefully, you’ve come up with some creative ways to use grassroots marketing to grow your business and reach new audiences. As always, please share your own grassroots marketing success stories in the comments. Now get out there and make a statement!
