The Marketing Huddle Podcast #13 How to Use Grassroots Marketing
for Your Business
www.themarketinghuddle.com/how-to-use-grassroots-marketing
LAURA CLICK: This is the Marketing Huddle episode number 13.
[Intro Music]
STAN SMITH: Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Marketing
Huddle where we give you proven advice to help you up your marketing game. This is
Stan Smith and I'm here with my co-host Laura Click. What's going on Laura?
LAURA CLICK: You know it's Friday and I couldn't be gladder so, I get to talk to you so
it's a good day all around.
STAN SMITH: I know. I know. I think summer is a very hard time to do Fridays.
Especially when you run your business.
LAURA CLICK: True, it's true. it's like you get to that you know two or three o'clock in
the afternoon, it's like I'm done. I'm spent.
STAN SMITH: I'm done.
LAURA CLICK: I'm ready go sit on the patio; grab a drink you know, all that kind of good
stuff. So.
STAN SMITH: I know, I know. Well, we'll get to that.
LAURA CLICK: Only a few hours away.
STAN SMITH: Only a few hours away.
LAURA CLICK: Awesome, well I guess we ought to dive into our topic for the day.
STAN SMITH: I know since we're on the clock we have to get into it.
LAURA CLICK: That's true. That's true. So I think we're going to talk about grassroots
marketing today. Which, you know, maybe it's a term that some of our listeners may not
be familiar with, and I think it kind of is disguised as other things. So, I think the concept
maybe something people are familiar with but maybe haven't heard the term grassroots
marketing or they're not sure what it is. So we're going to try and tackle that today. What
do you say?
STAN SMITH: Yeah. That's good. That's good. So what do you think is the definition—
I'm just going to put this one right on you, right from the beginning.
LAURA CLICK: Put it on me. Now when I think of grassroots marketing, or maybe gorilla
marketing as another one you hear about, it's really -- it's about the ground game. It's
going really, super tactical. Super laser focused. So, a lot of times you think of it as
being very local marketing. So before the Internet, it was the person to person, the
shaking the hands at the events. It's the door knocking; it's the things that are very, very
focused on a small group of people. So, instead of trying to target women who are
between the ages of 18 and 35, you may be saying, "I'm looking to connect with the
certain population in this particular neighborhood." So it's a lot more specific and a lot of
times it's local. It's very local marketing. What do you think Stan? Does that...
STAN SMITH: Yeah, you know, I'm trying to get my head wrapped around it, too,
because I think it's really morphed into a lot of different things right now. I'm looking at
the term itself, and I've done "grassroots marketing" when I used to work on political
campaigns, for example. Now they call it having a good "ground game." And I think
President Barack Obama's two elections, he really -- his organization really embraced
this whole concept of grassroots. I get the impression and I get the feel that it's more
about not sitting behind a computer and kind of directing this from command central, but
really involving your customers, the people you're talking to in the process, as well. You
know, so they have a role in your marketing versus being talked to.
LAURA CLICK: Totally agree and that's actually a great kind of segue. Actually, last
night here in Nashville, or yesterday in Nashville, was our mayoral election. So we have
been in election season here, and what you're talking about is what I think is -- the
political example is a great one, because what has to happen in a political campaign,
and especially on a local level -- so when you're looking at a mayoral race, those folks
did have some money but also this was our metro council, right? So these are your
representatives from a neighborhood. I mean, these folks are going to neighborhood
association meetings. They're hosting events in the community. They're going to the
churches, they're going to the ball games, you know, the little league team. That kind of
stuff is very much grassroots marketing. They rely on volunteers or their biggest fans,
their biggest advocates. So they're tapping influential people in those neighborhoods, or
in the town and saying, "Can you go out and use your influence to help get the word out
about me?" And when you don't have a lot of funds, especially when you're running for
something like a council position, you really have to rely on that and get very creative.
So, it's kind of actually interesting the mayoral election there were seven candidates
and...
STAN SMITH: That's a cattle call.
LAURA CLICK: It so was and so now actually we have to have a run-off between the
top two candidates. And what was fascinating is the one that everyone expected to be in
the run-off, he was the most well-financed of the group, had the most money both
personally and I think he raised quite a bit of money. He didn't make it. And so one of
the two finalists, so to speak, she talked a lot in her victory speech last night about her
ground game. You know they made thousands of phone calls, knocked on thousands of
doors and had a lot of influential support, and I think that pushed her over the edge. So,
that's proof that sometimes money doesn't win.
STAN SMITH: Yeah, yeah and I mean like in kind of continuing with the political
anecdote, I think that that was, especially in 2008, that was one of the things that
Barack Obama's team did well. Which was, that they didn't have a lot of money at first,
and then they just had to really go school gym to school gym and barbershop to
barbershop. Yeah, the hands on approach, I think, is key. You know what I think? I think
it's -- it will make sense if we try to talk a little bit more specifically about how a company
could do grassroots marketing. I guess I'll lead off first since I threw you under the bus
on the first question! I think the one thing that I'm really noticing is that in the community
that you're in, and I'm thinking more local business at this point, is look for all the
opportunities where it is important to be seen. So, you mentioned little league, and
every community always has their high school teams or little league teams, soccer
teams, things like that. Even though, me being the digital guy, I kind of go, "Oh, do I
really have to buy real world advertising?" Supporting these organizations with your
sponsorship dollars does start the conversation. So whenever I see my ten-year-old
running on the soccer field with somebody's logo on the back of their shirt, I do give that
some thought. I think about, "Who are they? What do they do? How are they
important?" So I think that looking for those opportunities at your local chamber of
commerce -- I know our local chamber of commerce does a lot of education events. So
being an influencer in that area, I think, is key. This is some of the things that kind of
popped to mind for me, what do you think?
LAURA CLICK: Yeah, for sure. Well I think another kind of example that I take—we
talked about politics. Another one you think a lot about is music. I'm, of course, in music
city and bands use street teams a lot of times to get the word out. If you're not familiar
with that, it's kind of -- I look at it almost like an ambassador program. Or, if you're
looking at the political example, it's your volunteers or your key supporters, kind of thing.
LAURA CLICK: But street teams go out and they're the ones posting flyers in relevant
places about where the band is playing next. They're the ones, maybe, sharing stuff on
social media. Now, a lot of really savvy bands are using this kind of fan-based
ambassador program to get the word about where they're playing, and really involving
them in the promotion of the band. I think businesses can take that cue as well. How
can you find -- who are your most influential customers? Who are your most
enthusiastic customers? How can you take that enthusiasm and use that to your
advantage? So, maybe it is on social media or maybe it is on your website or maybe
you can use a referral campaign, which we talked about in last week's episode. But, I
think there are a lot of ways you can take your enthusiastic fans and use them to help
spread the word about your business.
STAN SMITH: Yeah, yeah. Detroit right now is hosting the ASAE Organization. It's a
trade association for association executives. It's very meta.
LAURA CLICK: Yeah.
STAN SMITH: So, right now, I think, one of the key things they did from a grassroots
standpoint is reach out to local influencers that really care a lot about Detroit, really care
about Detroit being viewed as a comeback city and provided them with almost
advanced information about what was going on with this huge conference. To Detroit,
it's almost like getting the Olympics or getting the Super Bowl to the city. So when I was
thinking about grassroots, it's literally the president of the organization talking to a
blogger that has demonstrated that they have a lot of content to share. They have
quality -- they have a quality product. So, talking with that specific person really is paying dividends because that person is talking about Detroit and using the information to get the word out. So, that's another situation.
LAURA CLICK: Yeah, you know, so you mentioned -- we're talking a lot about
influencers and events and that made me think of another good example, and this might
help get people's juices flowing. I thought this was really creative. South by Southwest is
really kind of the geek conference where all the folks like us gather once a year in
Austin. Mophie is a cell phone battery recharger and they had this really cool program
this year where they had St. Bernard rescue dogs that provided emergency battery
power for your phone at South by Southwest. So it is genius because all these techies
are on their phone all day, and if you don't have a backup battery or you're not close to a
charger, you're -- you need help! You can tweet to them and they would send these St.
Bernard dogs, who are adorable, with this kit to help you charge your phone back up.
And then it was really neat too, it tied in with -- they donated funds to St. Bernard
Rescue as part of that, too. So there's this warm and fuzzy component. But that is
again, I think, another great example of going incredibly grassroots, but also using
influencers to help get the word out. So, here it was something very clever. It was
targeted to people who are going to be very likely to use their product, and if they get
the chance to experience that, they're going to talk about it, and maybe go out and use
it, and who knows? You know a lot of folks, they are bloggers or social media
influencers. They might write about their experience or show photos about that online.
So, very powerful opportunity there.
STAN SMITH: I think it's important also, when you think about grassroots -- and I'm
trying to think about it, not just from a local point of view, but kind of going national with
it, for example, or even global. I think the key thing here is that these types of tactics,
when you're thinking about grassroots, may not be the most efficient tactics. Right? So,
doing an advertisement on Facebook is efficient. You can reach a lot of people at once,
but a lot of people will ignore it too. Grassroots is about really getting belly to belly, you
know, face to face with people. So, a way to do that digitally, I believe, is to really invest
in a community of people. I have worked with clients who, for example, really wanted to speak to the Etsy group, you know, the tribe that makes their own stuff and they're artisans and they sell it on Etsy. And they just really put a lot of time and energy in cultivating a relationship in that community, and so I really think that when you think grassroots, it can be local. But I also think it's about this intense focus on a very defined, probably small, group of people that you're hoping to leverage to get a 10x return, so to speak.
LAURA CLICK: 100%, you know, when you say that I kind of think that -- it makes me
wonder if grassroots marketing today has really evolved, really, to more of an influence
marketing idea. So, before it was the roll up your sleeves and you're pounding the
pavement kind of thing, and now it's maybe you could be tweeting or emailing someone
on the other side of the globe that may have influence in that area, and maybe can
spread the word that way. So, I mean, the internet's a powerful thing and I think the
whole idea of grassroots marketing is definitely involved. But I wonder now, like, maybe
that term will go away and maybe we're just talking about influence marketing really.
STAN SMITH: Yeah.
LAURA CLICK: I don't know.
STAN SMITH: Definitely.
LAURA CLICK: Kind of interesting.
STAN SMITH: Definitely.
LAURA CLICK: So do we need—how much time do we have? Are we hitting up on our
time Stan?
STAN SMITH: I think we're hitting up against our time. We promised everybody fifteen
minutes, but I mean we could go on forever!
LAURA CLICK: We could, we could. We'll tie it up this time, but if there are more
questions about that, certainly leave a comment on the blog, on the show notes. We'll
be happy to address it there or, who knows? Maybe this could turn into another episode
of the show. So I think that wraps us up for today. We want to thank our sponsor S2N
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how to get yours. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with another
short and sweet episode of the Marketing Huddle.
[Outro Music]
Links & Resources:
✦ Obama’s Edge: The Ground Game That Could Put Him Over the Top – The Atlantic
✦ Nashville Mayoral Election: Five takeaways – The Tennessean
✦ Mophie’s St. Bernard Rescue Dogs provided emergency battery power at SXSW – Adweek