One of my favorite business books of all time is “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson. I’ve learned so many valuable business and marketing lessons from the book that have really helped me in my business.
I’ve probably read the book at least 10 times now and there are so many tips that I have applied in my business which led to increased profits and saved time.
What I want to do in today’s post is share 15 valuable quotes and lessons from the book. You should know upfront that it’s hard to pick just 15 lessons.
If you were to look at my personal copy of the book, you would literally see HUNDREDS of passages underlined and highlighted. That being said, the 15 quotes I’m going to share with you today are some of my personal favorites.
Top Jay Conrad Levinson Quotes
The quotes below are listed below in no particular order. Each quote is in bold and italics. At the end of each quote, I will provide my own thoughts about the quote. Let’s get started.
# 1: Mediocre marketing with commitment works better than brilliant marketing without commitment.
You can’t do marketing one time and expect big results. It is an ongoing process. Your goal is to get your name out there and keep your name out there. You must be consistent, for a period of months or years to make it big. Being committed is more than half the battle. Fancy marketing used one time will rarely produce a positive return on your investment, but even bad marketing done consistently can work well.
# 2: Creativity in marketing has everything to do with profitability and nothing to do with awards or competitions.
With your marketing efforts, your only purpose is to make sales. Having the fanciest or prettiest or sexiest ad is completely irrelevant if it isn’t making the cash register ring.
# 3: If you don’t produce instant results it’s because most marketing doesn’t.
Good marketing takes time to produce a positive ROI. You can’t expect to place one ad and get huge, immediate results. You have to be consistent and do things over and over (typically) before it really pays off. Remember that most people need to see a message at least seven to twenty times before they take action.
# 4: Be creative in the use of newspaper advertising by running six smaller ads in one issue rather than one large one.
This is a really neat idea. Smaller, but more ads means there is a better chance that people will actually find your ads. I’ve never tried this myself, but it sounds like a great idea.
# 5: When you mention a feature follow it with a benefit.
People rarely buy something because of its features. Instead, they buy benefits. Don’t spend so much time on the technical features of your product. Teach your prospect how your product can help them solve their problems (the benefits). And don’t forget that people are emotional creatures. Appeal to people’s emotions in your advertising, and forget the logic!
# 6: The cost of all advertising is measured not in dollars but in response.
Don’t focus on how much one type of advertising costs. Cost is irrelevant. What is most important is your return on investment. As long as you have a positive return on investment who cares how much it costs?
# 7: Unless you really keep track of all your media responses, you are not a guerrilla.
To be a savvy marketer, you must track ALL of your marketing campaigns. That is truly the only way to know how your marketing is working (or not working). Use tracking codes to see where your leads, calls and sales are coming from. Ditch the losing ads and keep the winners.
# 8: Direct mail success comes with the cumulative effect of repeat mailings. Make them repetitive yet different from one another.
Mailing 10 letters to 1,000 people is much smarter than mailing one letter to 10,000 people. People need to see your message over and over again before they respond. Mix up your message and direct mail a little bit, but keep your message in front of your audience frequently.
# 9: Ask for email opt-ins on every page of your website.
On your business website, make sure you have an email sign up form on every single page. Give away something for free, such as a free report, to encourage people to opt in. Make it a top priority to build up your email list.
# 10: Maximum exposure at minimum cost is the name of the game.
Your ultimate goal with marketing and advertising is to reach the largest amount of qualified prospects in the cheapest way possible.
# 11: When you automate daily tasks, you gain more time to focus on the essential strategic growth of your company.
You want systems and procedures in place that free up your time so you can focus on the money producing activities in your business. Don’t spend your $100 per hour time on $10 per hour tasks. Do the most important things first and outsource everything else. If you don’t have the luxury of outsourcing, do your non productive tasks AFTER you do your money producing activities.
# 12: Never forget that geometric growth comes from larger transactions, repeat business and referral customers.
To make more money in your business you don’t need more customers. What you do need is lots of referrals, a good up-sell and cross-sell program, and a good follow-up system to get repeat business. Taking care of your current customers and staying in touch with them almost always produces better results than just looking for new customers.
# 13: People must buy you before they will buy what you are selling.
People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. Focus on building relationships with your leads, customers and prospects and everything else should fall into place.
# 14: Networking success isn’t determined by the number of business cards you pass out but on how many you collect.
When you attend networking events, focus your efforts on meeting people and getting THEIR contact information. If you get someone’s business card, you can contact them whenever you want. If you just give them your business card, there’s a high likelihood they will never contact you.
# 15: The main reason to have contests and sweepstakes is to get names for your mailing list.
Raffles and contests are a great way to get leads. Even if you have to fork over some money to buy a good prize to give away it’s money well spent. A good raffle or contest can literally generate HUNDREDS, maybe even thousands of leads for your business. That is worth a lot of money to you.
About Jay Conrad Levinson
Jay Conrad Levinson is the Godfather of Guerrilla Marketing. He has authored more than 20 books that have been translated into more than 40 languages. He is a respected author, consultant, and trainer.
About Guerrilla Marketing
The current 4th edition was published in 2007 by Houghton Mifflin Publishing. The book has 384 pages. The ISBN is 978-0618785919. As of August 2015 the book has 149 reviews on Amazon with an average 4.3 star rating. Order a copy on Amazon.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading my post covering 15 valuable quotes and lessons from the book “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson. Once again, I really love this book. If you’ve never read it before, you should get a copy and study it.
In addition, I would love to hear what your favorite quote on this post is and what you like about it. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. Have a nice day!
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I love quote # 1, thanks for sharing. I’m sure this advice will help me accomplish what I’m trying to accomplish in my business. Regardless of how great your strategy is or how creative your idea seems to be, if you won’t keep at it, your idea will always stay being just that, an idea.
It all comes down to how many consistent hours that you put in, and how effective you are in managing your time.
Also, I agree with #5. It’s very true in copywriting. You have to make sure that your copy answers the question of “what is in it for the reader”.
You must persist until you succeed.
So true that a product’s benefits speak much louder to the consumer than the product’s features. People are far more interested in how a product is going to help them, improve their life, or is better compared to something they already have than hearing about its technicalities. Once you show a person why a product is beneficial to them you’ve pretty much sold them.
Features tell. Benefits sell. People buy a drill because they want a hole, not because they want a drill.
I have never read this book, nor have I even heard of it, but after reading this review, I am very interested in reading the book. I really like #4 because it makes so much sense. The people who actually read newspaper ads will read both the large and small ads. By having several smaller ads versus 1 large ad, you have better odds of it being read.
#12 also resonates with me. So often we are busy looking for new customers that we forget about the ones we already have.It is repeat customers that make businesses succeed.
Yes, I believe i will put this book on my list of future reading. Thanks for sharing it.
Guerrilla Marketing is a great book for any small business owner looking for new ways to creatively advertise and grow their business.
One of the best quote of Jay Conard which i like so much is “Knowledge is the currency of the twenty-first century.”
Chuck Holmes, Thank you for adding to my knowledge….
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Glad you liked it Gabriella. Thanks.