Customer Reviews

Guerrilla Publicity: Hundreds of Sure-Fire Tactics to Get Maximum Sales for Minimum Dollars

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The whole Guerrilla Marketing paradigm is based on using non-financial resources to do your marketing especially when you are strapped for cash as a small business. Read 'Guerrilla Marketing' by this author before reading this book on publicity as it is a precursor to any of the books in this best selling series.

Since the Guerrilla Marketing plans are all based on a lot of imagination, intellect, and effort, Guerrilla Publicity is probably one of the best tools to use (it's free!). Publicity is defined by the author as 'the art of building favorable interest in your product or service. It's creating a buzz, an identity, name recognition, and getting your message across. Publicity is a part of public relations'.

The hundreds of publicity ideas are summarized in about thirty three 2-3 page chapters that pull together related ideas. As with all of this author's books, this book is very easy to understand and implement. The only complaint I have is that the sections on Internet related publicity are a little weak. Even though there is no perfect book on the subject of Internet publicity, there are better books out there than this one. But even so, the Internet related sections are very good, just not at the same level as the rest of the book.

Publicity as a marketing tool is probably one of the hardest things for a small business to master as most small businesses are formed out of technical competence before being forced to learn all the other skills needed for a successful business - marketing, sales, management, etc. After reading this book, I became even more committed to mastering the art and science of publicity as a marketing tool. No small business can avoid this tool on the path to success.

Go ahead and invest in this inexpensive book. You won't regret it. Good luck!

Jay Conrad Levinson has developed a reputation as a "guerrilla marketer," doing non-traditional things-along with the proven-to grab and hold the attention of the prospective buyer. Guerrillas are defined as "business operators who substitute time, energy, and imagination for money . . . small businesses who have big dreams rather than big bankrolls."

Although his name as shown as the primary author, I don't think Levinson had much to do with writing this book. And that's OK. It's OK because the other co-authors are well-known and respected publicists who have achieved results for their clients for many years. They know what they're talking about. Personally, I don't think they had to hitch their wagon to Levinson's star; but the name and theme do add something to the book.

Frishman and Lublin have written a book that addresses fundamentals. You'll read things like "Publicity never sleeps. It's an ongoing, 24/7 process that never stops. Since you're the product, you're also your own best marketing tool." Beginners who use this book (note my word "use," not just "read") will find a wealth of advice and technique in these pages. People who have built some experience over the years, promoting themselves or their product or service, will find refreshing reminders and some things they haven't thought about before. This "new stuff" aspect applies particularly to some of the ideas about using e-mail and the internet. There's even more that Frishman and Lublin didn't cover in this area, but once you get started, you'll find those new approaches. Their writing will stimulate your creative juices to develop more strategies. Their resource guide at the end of the book will give you more places to go for learning.

Most of the book consists of over 30 short chapters, each addressing a particular aspect of publicity. Ideas and concepts are presented, developed, then summarized in a "Remember" paragraph at the end of the chapter. This pattern makes the book easy to follow and use as a tool to enhance your ongoing publicity campaign. The index will help you go back to find particular topics, so this book will remain on your shelf as a long-time reference tool. The easy-to-read title on the spine will make it easy to spot and retrieve.

Appendix A provides almost fifty pages of sample promotional materials for books. Understandably, Adams Media, the publisher, is dominant. In this section, the authors could have included samples of promotional materials for other products and/or recognized materials from other publishers or publicists. The book also includes the obligatory worksheet, quotations at the beginning of each chapter, and a few proofreading errors.

This is a book that you can read cover-to-cover, marking pages and highlighting. Take notes as you develop your publicity plan. It's a great tool for catapulting yourself to fame and fortune-if your product is worthy and you follow the publicity principles presented here.

The creator of the guerrilla marketing concept stroke back once again in 2002 with a slight twist of his idea, focusing on publicity this time around. The book is packed with tips on how to obtain publicity the guerrilla way, sometimes at a minimal expense to your business, although Levinson does acknowledge the importance of devoting "a good chunk" of your marketing expense to this critical component. At times it could use more examples: it feels like a five-minute guide to all publicity topics (in fact, you WILL be able to complete the whole book in less than a weekend). However, some key ideas are still there: the importance of going slow, taking the time to do things right and planning ahead, to ensure effectiveness of your publicity initiatives. Overall, I found it useful, since I am not a PR person myself, but I don't see it being too useful to PR professionals.

Although I was a big fan of Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, Guerilla Publicity is even stronger. It has more lessons for a broader range of readers and does an excellent job of integrating its subject area into a firm's day-to-day business activities. It also is more entrepreneurially-oriented.

Guerrilla Publicity's success lies in repositioning public relations from a "patched on" or "exploitative" function to one that is intrinsic to the way the business owner thinks of, and manages, their business. Instead of the frequently encountered "how to manipulate the media" approach, Guerrilla Publicity emphasizes that public relations activities that are not based on a firm's philosophy and day-to-day operations, are both deceitful and doomed to fail.

Guerrilla Publicity teaches you not only how to run a business that's worthy of promotion but also how to become a valued resource to the media that impacts your market. You'll learn not only the basics orf crafting and formatting a press release that
will be read as well as how far to go with following-up by phone.

Choose Guerrilla Publicity when you want to earn your public's attention instead of buying it through inflated media purchases. Choose it when you want to rethink not just your firm's public relations, but also your firm's total marketing program and how you appear to your customers and prospects. Half-way through Guerrilla Publicity, late one night, for example, I stopped reading and wrote out an outline of an entirely new business plan on the inside back cover. The book sparked my thinking and provided me with a framework for rethinking my marketing and customer service objects which are at the basis of publicity. Guerrilla Publicity is that good.Congratulations to Jay, Rick and Jill on a job well done, plus numerous samples of completed press materials.

I read this book cover to cover in no time and found it extremely well-organized and packed with useful information. I run a small marketing agency--and with more and more clients asking me to get them media attention and PR--this book has invaluable to me to get up and running without ever having necessarily worked in the PR business. Before, I was sort of feeling my way blindly; now I feel like I know what I'm doing and I'm seeing some great success--for both myself and my clients. Great info, great stories, great techniques. A must-read for anyone who's serious about the business.

If you have read some other PR books you know they are 80% fluff and 20% content.... well, this one is 100% content and an easy read. Before you know it you'll be giving it a second read to make sure you didn't miss any of the juicy tactics provided. I bought it using a coupon from UnderTag.com, so it was almost free for me.

I couldn't put this book down. Read it all in 2-days. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who has no idea how to get publicity or for small businesses that can't afford to hire a publicist.

An overall publicity plan is key and this book provides tips on how to build this plan as well as a media kit. This book also gives excellent tips on how to write a release depending on the media outlet you're going to target. Also, the authors recommend that persistence is key to becoming a media darling. It's not enough to fax or email a press release and wait for the media to call you. Unless you're Oprah or J. Lo, you'll need to follow up with the journalist in order to get attention.

One piece of advice that I really liked in this book - even if the journalist or media outlet is rude to you or mispells your name in the article, take it with a grain of salt. The authors advise that you need to have thick skin because the media will hardly ever say thanks to you for a story lead, nor will they apologize to you when they make a mistake. Because the media control the means of distributing information to the masses, the book provides advice on how to bite your tongue when the going gets rough.

"Guerrilla Publicity" is essential reading for everyone in business, and that includes those of you who don't work in P.R. because it will show you what those guys have to do to keep your business in the public eye. For you who are in P.R. this an invaluable addition to your library because it covers everything.
"Guerrilla Publicity" is destined to become one of the classic business books.
As a soon-to-publish author (The Reluctant Cook) I keep Guerrilla Publicity on my desk at all times.

It doesn't matter what your industry, product or service may be, the rules of PR are still the same and Guerilla Publicity does a fabulous job of starting at the very beginning and taking you step by step through everything you need to know; from writing outstanding press releases, to managing media lists to the absolute importance of following up once you have sent your kit out. I use this book as my PR bible, just last night I picked it up and flicked through for a refresher course. Not only does it provide the information but also the enthusiasm needed to launch a PR campaign and is a wonderful resource to keep on your shelf.

Notice how many of the blurbs here on Amazon.com are from other authors. In part that's because this book offers terrific, very detailed advice for book authors trying to promote books. However, if you're a non-profit organization, an event impresario, a small business owner, a corporate PR executive looking for fresh ideas, you should get a different book. This one has very few examples outside of the literary world.