Grassroots Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing: What’s the Difference?

We’ve been hearing a lot about some popular terms in marketing, ‘Grassroots Marketing’ and Guerrilla Marketing’.

We decide to ask 9 marketing experts on their opinion on what distinguishes the two, and how to implement each marketing tactic.

Credit: Elevate Event Staff (Gameday Campaign)

Build Community with Grassroots Marketing

The key difference between grassroots marketing and guerrilla marketing lies in the approach and the audience-engagement focus.

Grassroots marketing is all about starting small and focusing on building a strong community base. It aims to reach niche audiences by leveraging personal connections and word-of-mouth to naturally grow a message. The idea is to inspire customers to become advocates, thereby growing reach organically from the bottom up.

Guerrilla marketing, on the other hand, uses unconventional and often surprising tactics to generate buzz. It's about capturing attention in unexpected ways, often through street-level, experiential events or stunts designed to create a strong impact quickly. Guerrilla marketing relies more on shock value and creativity to capture attention, whereas grassroots marketing emphasizes slow, organic growth through personal engagement.

Andrew Lee Jenkins, Owner, Andrew Lee Jenkins

Create Buzz with Guerrilla Marketing

The key difference between grassroots marketing and guerrilla marketing lies in their approach and focus.

Grassroots marketing is about building momentum organically from the ground up, often starting with a small, highly-targeted group of people who are likely to be brand advocates. The goal is to create strong, personal connections and let word-of-mouth marketing spread naturally. It's a long-term, relationship-focused approach that aims to empower early adopters or passionate customers to spread the word. For example, this could involve hosting local events or engaging deeply with a niche community, fostering genuine support that gradually grows into a larger movement. The focus is on authenticity and cultivating loyal, grassroots supporters who believe in the brand's message and are motivated to share it.

On the other hand, guerrilla marketing is typically more unconventional, often designed to create a big impact in a short amount of time with a small budget. It relies on surprise, creativity, and sometimes shock value to grab attention quickly. Guerrilla marketing often involves unexpected or out-of-the-box tactics like flash mobs, street art, or viral stunts that generate buzz and create memorable impressions. The focus here is less on slowly building relationships and more on creating an immediate and widespread reaction, often using public spaces or social media for maximum exposure.

In short, grassroots marketing focuses on building a loyal, growing community from a small group over time, while guerrilla marketing is about creating high-impact, memorable campaigns designed to generate quick attention with unconventional tactics. Both approaches can be highly effective but are suited for different marketing goals and timelines.

Sandra Stoughton, Director, Marketing Operations, TruBridge

Focus on Authentic Connections

Grassroots marketing and guerrilla marketing are often confused, but they have distinct differences. Grassroots marketing focuses on building relationships and engaging the community. It relies on authentic connections and word-of-mouth tactics to create a loyal customer base. For example, a local business might sponsor community events or collaborate with local influencers to foster a sense of belonging and trust.

On the other hand, guerrilla marketing takes a more unconventional approach. It aims to generate buzz through surprising and memorable tactics. This could include street art, flash mobs, or unexpected promotions that capture attention quickly. While guerrilla marketing is creative and often low-cost, it can sometimes walk a fine line with ethical considerations.

In contrast to both, traditional SEO focuses on optimizing your website and content for search engines. This might include keyword research, technical SEO, and improving site speed to rank higher in search results. Local SEO specifically targets optimizing your Google Business Profile, ensuring that your business appears in local searches. This method emphasizes consistent information and local relevance, driving foot traffic and online visibility.

While grassroots marketing builds community connections, guerrilla marketing seeks to shock and engage. Traditional and local SEO strategies, meanwhile, establish an online presence through tried-and-true optimization practices. Understanding these differences can help marketers choose the best approach for their specific goals and audience.

Ramzy Humsi, Founder & CEO, Vortex Ranker

Generate Buzz with Unconventional Tactics

Grassroots marketing and guerrilla marketing are both unconventional approaches, but they differ in focus and execution.

Grassroots marketing is about building trust and engagement at a local level, often relying on word-of-mouth and personal connections. It aims to create a loyal community by starting small, with the hope that the message will grow organically. It's slower and more relationship-driven, focusing on long-term influence.

Guerrilla marketing is about making a big impact with a small budget through creative, often surprising, tactics. It is meant to capture immediate attention, generate buzz, and create memorable experiences that spread quickly, often through social media or public stunts.

Both can be highly effective, but grassroots is more subtle and community-focused, while guerrilla is about grabbing attention with bold, unconventional moves.

Ronald Osborne, Founder, Ronald Osborne Business Coach

Spark User-Generated Content

Both grassroots and guerrilla marketing rely on unconventional marketing techniques to grab attention outside of traditional marketing channels. There is also an element of subterfuge, or at least out-of-the-box thinking, to both.

However, grassroots marketing is more oriented towards sparking user-generated content or conversations. This marketing targets a small group of people with the hope that they will post on social media on their own. Guerrilla marketing tends to target larger groups of people, and the goal is for the stunt to be very visible.

David Holman, CMO, Textun

Start Small and Build Trust

Grassroots marketing is all about starting small, building trust, and growing a loyal audience from the ground up. It's more about authentic, one-on-one connections, often through local communities or niche groups. Guerrilla marketing, though, goes for the shock factor. It's creative, bold, and designed to grab attention quickly, usually in a way people aren't expecting.

For example, a grassroots marketing effort by an independent gym might include hosting free local fitness classes or personal-training sessions to entice people. On the other hand, a guerrilla marketing tactic would be to hold a public workout session in a busy city square or park to grab attention.

John Butterworth, Founder, Mint SEO

Combine Strategies for Maximum Impact

I've leveraged both grassroots and guerrilla marketing strategies to help clients achieve their business goals. Grassroots marketing is all about community-building and word of mouth. For example, when working with local businesses, we partner with community organizations like schools, churches, and neighborhood associations to spread brand awareness in an authentic way. We engage directly with customers on social media by sharing behind-the-scenes photos and hosting giveaways. This helps build real loyalty and turns customers into brand advocates.

Guerrilla marketing, on the other hand, uses unconventional tactics to gain exposure. For product launches or grand openings, we've organized pop-up events, stunts, and street marketing to create buzz. At one retail client, we wrapped their entire storefront in branded messaging, which generated thousands of social shares and media coverage. While grassroots marketing cultivates relationships over time, guerrilla marketing makes a big splash.

Using both strategies together is key. Guerrilla campaigns rapidly raise awareness while grassroots efforts turn interested customers into lifelong supporters. One of our clients combined these techniques and saw an over-30% increase in sales year over year as a result. The exposure from guerrilla marketing brought in new customers, and the authentic grassroots interactions built loyalty to keep them coming back.

Dan OKeeffe, Owner, SPX Marketing LLC

Use the Element of Surprise

Think of grassroots marketing and guerrilla marketing like this: grassroots is the slow-cooked, homegrown recipe, while guerrilla is more like throwing a surprise party in the middle of the street. Both get attention, but they're coming from totally different vibes!

Grassroots marketing is all about starting small and letting things grow naturally. It's like planting a garden—you nurture a community, one person at a time, hoping they spread the word for you. It's great for building deep trust with niche audiences. For instance, a local brand might partner with a neighborhood group or create events that get people talking over time.

Key vibe: Slow and steady, focusing on organic growth and word-of-mouth.

Guerrilla marketing is your go-big-or-go-home strategy. It's all about the element of surprise, grabbing attention with bold, often unconventional stunts that people can't help but notice. Picture a flash mob in a busy city square promoting a new product. It's loud, in-your-face, and designed to generate quick buzz that gets people talking (and sharing).

Key vibe: Bold, disruptive, and designed to make instant noise.

Grassroots is your friendly-neighborhood strategy, while guerrilla is the street performer pulling a crowd. Both are effective; just depends on whether you're in it for the long game or a quick impact!

Thomas Moussafer, Co-Founder, Jimo

Cultivate Relationships and Gain Quick Exposure

As someone who built and grew an ad agency for over a decade, I've relied heavily on grassroots and guerrilla marketing. Grassroots marketing is all about building real relationships and word-of-mouth. We hosted live events, built partnerships with nonprofits, and found ways to genuinely engage with our local community. For example, we once donated design services to help a school fundraiser, which led to new clients and goodwill.

Guerrilla marketing, on the other hand, uses surprise to gain attention. When launching in a new city, we wrapped downtown parking meters with ads for our agency. We also had mascots dance at busy intersections to spark interest in an unconventional way. These tactics created quick exposure and new leads.

While grassroots marketing cultivates loyalty over time, guerrilla marketing creates quick exposure. Combining both grew our agency over 50% year over year. Grassroots turned customers into advocates, and guerrilla stunts brought in new clients who spread our message. Unconventional and community-focused techniques together drive real results.

Josh Cremer, Founder & CEO, The Rohg Agency