Grassroots Marketing 101: The Basics, Benefits, and Best Practices of Creating Grassroots Campaigns

You may think the best way to market your product or service is to get the word out to as many people as you can, as quickly as you can. However, that isn’t always the case. You might benefit more by marketing your product to a particular group of people through a strategy called grassroots marketing.

In this article, we’ll go through examples of grassroots marketing, tips for starting your campaign, and how to know if a grassroots marketing strategy is right for you.

Grassroots marketing basics and benefits

With a grassroots marketing strategy, your company purposely targets a niche group of people who would be interested in your product or service. This strategy aims to help customers spread your message to more people, naturally attracting more leads for your business.

Benefits of grassroots marketing

Some benefits of using a grassroots marketing strategy include:

• Cost-effectiveness: Save money by targeting a small group of people rather than as many as possible.
• Ability to capitalize on trends: Many brands follow social media trends to engage with their target audience, and you can match trends to the niche group you’re targeting.
• Build a dedicated audience: By engaging with a select group of people, you’re building a more loyal audience who’s likely to keep up to date with your business.
• Perfect for small businesses: The cost savings and emphasis on the local community make a grassroots marketing campaign especially effective for small businesses to start growing.
• More organic: People might be more inclined to engage with your website or purchase your products and services when they hear about it from someone they trust.

Drawbacks of grassroots marketing

Despite the numerous benefits associated with grassroots marketing, there are some cons you should consider:

• Unpredictability: Once you’ve launched a grassroots marketing campaign, there’s really no guarantee of its success. You have little control since you’re relying on word of mouth from your intended niche audience.
• Trends don’t last forever: Capitalizing on social media trends can be a great way to garner attention for your business, but it’s essential to remember these trends will come and go.

Grassroots marketing vs. guerilla marketing

Both guerilla marketing and grassroots marketing might involve techniques such as attempting to go viral, but the difference between the two ultimately comes down to the intended audience.

Guerilla marketing targets a large audience, while grassroots marketing targets a much smaller, niche group. This is not the most striking difference, but it is an important distinction nonetheless.

Grassroots marketing best practices

If you decide to start a grassroots marketing campaign, keep these tips in mind:

1. Use social media: A grassroots marketing campaign relies heavily on social media to meet its intended audience. Use the platforms your niche audience uses to help your business connect with them.
2. Research your target audience: Targeting a niche audience will only be effective if you know them front and back. They can’t share your products and services if you don’t connect with them. First impressions are incredibly important!
3. Start local: With your initial strategy, focus on a community in your local area. Even though your ultimate goal might be to go viral or gain national attention, you’ve got to start small with grassroots marketing. If effective, your audience will help your message gain more traction.
4. Support a good cause: You can connect with the local community or a specific group of people when you support a cause that means a lot to them. You can spread the word about your business while supporting a worthy cause.
5. Engage with your audience: Whether through social media, SMS messaging, email newsletters, or something else, make an effort to connect with your customers. Since they’re the ones who will be disseminating your messaging, it’s essential to try and cultivate a relationship with them.
6. Make it easy for people to share: People will be able to spread the word about your business if you give them options, such as using a hashtag to share their experience with you or leaving a review on your website.

Who should use grassroots marketing strategies?

Anyone can implement a grassroots marketing strategy, but it may be especially useful for small businesses. Focusing first on your local community helps build a loyal customer base, and you can branch out from there. However, as you’ll see from the examples below, even bigger companies that have been established for some time can benefit from grassroots marketing.

2 examples of grassroots marketing campaigns to inspire you

To get some more inspiration, check out these notable examples of successful grassroots marketing campaigns:

1. Dropbox

Dropbox used a simple grassroots marketing strategy when it started. To help get the word out into the world, it offered its clients extra storage space rewards on its platform with every referral they made. In a short space of time, Dropbox increased its user growth, organically nonetheless.

2. Barnes & Noble

The bookstore took advantage of the rise of “BookTok” — or users sharing book-related content on TikTok. Different Barnes & Noble locations create content for the social media platform, and many stores have also created “BookTok Tables” with popular titles from the app.

This strategy caters to a specific demographic — readers, especially young readers, on TikTok — and relies on that group to spread the word.

Start your grassroots marketing campaign with WebFX

Don’t want to limit yourself to grassroots marketing on social media? No problem!

WebFX’s social media services can help you drive more traffic to your social media channels and drive more revenue for your company. Our plans are scalable and customized to fit the specific needs of your company, so they’re perfect whether you engage in grassroots marketing or want to build a social media presence.

To get started, contact us online or speak with a strategist at 888-601-5359!