Welcome to our August issue!  As I continue to present what I consider to be the essential guiding principles for business owners who want to market themselves effectively, based on The 16 Monumental Secrets of Guerilla Marketing presented by Jay Conrad Levinson in his national bestseller Guerilla Marketing, the next principle is CONSENT.

One of the best things about Levinson’s books defining the concept of guerilla marketing (today there are 58 volumes in 62 languages and more than 21 million copies have been sold worldwide), including the one we’ve been sourcing over the past year, is that it’s not only still spot on as far as the foundation is concerned but it also gives us a valuable glimpse into how marketing strategy has evolved over the past few decades.

Gaining consent to establish further contact and pursue a relationship as opposed to using advertising exclusively to make a direct sale is precisely one of those fluctuations in strategy.

In expanding on the principle of consent, Levinson asserts, “At this point, I want to call your attention again to that relatively new phrase in the dictionary. That term is opt in, and it means voluntarily open to receiving new information about a topic or a company. These days, it is almost impossible to make a sale with an ad. So the best ads and the best marketing simply attempt to gain people’s consent to hear from you. Your job is to broaden that consent and then to make the sale…Websites around the globe are aiming to gain consent, to widen that consent until it paves the way to a completed sale. The more you realize that, the less frustrated you will be with marketing, and the better it will work for you.”

While it’s certainly a point of contention that a well-designed ad won’t potentially make you a sale itself with no other effort put forth on behalf of the business, that’s not nor ever has it been the sole mission of an effective marketing campaign. It’s all about influencing your target audience with your call to action, which is the first step of several (or many) towards the end goal of the sale – not just the step directly before a sale, but rather, the first step towards building a relationship that leads toward many future sales and referrals. With a current market that’s saturated with competition, it is equally crucial for people to be acquainted with your brand and to be open to learning more if you’re willing to deliver the information (which, of course, you are!).

Consider an iceberg as an example. Advertising is the top that attracts attention initially by alerting prospects to your presence, but there is MUCH more that can’t be seen unless they delve deeper and you, as the expert with the appropriate industry knowledge, technology, and resources, are able to give them a better idea of the whole picture. Furthermore, consider its shape as a funnel. Your goal with your advertising is broad reach that pulls potential clients directly to you as the resource. The bottom line is that while advertising lays the necessary (and powerful) groundwork, it’s not wise to consider it as a magical one-way ticket to the bank with no other investment than what you are spending on your campaign. Rather, the mission of your advertising campaign is to attract people who need what you have to offer—and choose you out of all of the other options available—so that you can establish a partnership with them that will greatly benefit you both in the short AND long run.

With an established presence, you are then considered to be a “known brand” and building upon that, you are affording yourself future opportunities to make contact, share your expertise, keep the person in-the-know about what’s going on with your business that could potentially benefit them, stay connected across various media channels, and keep the door open for sales to come through when the time is right.


Paige Zutavern, Lincoln/Omaha President

402-730-0096 | Paige@StrictlyBusinessOmaha.com