Do you want to generate marketing buzz for your new product or service? Are you launching a new product, or have an existing offer and wish to use buzz marketing to increase adoption and sales?
This article will discuss the definition of buzz marketing, its importance – and the best growth hacks for creating efficient buzz marketing campaigns. Nonetheless, buzz marketing occurs when people talk about your new offer, an event, plus other activities that include a celebrity.
For instance, when Google rolled out the Google Caffeine update in 2010 as its new indexing system, SEO professionals, developers and marketing experts began talking about it on all platforms.
Source graphic: Google
It was a huge update that generated so much buzz. Hence, the search engine giant offered several months of “Developer Preview.” In other words, they gave developers and SEO experts early-bird access for their feedback ─ to inform Google of any issues they may encounter.
Yes, Google is a mega-brand, and you don’t have to be a big company to create buzz for your offerings. With the right marketing strategies and applications, you can make buzz marketing work for your business.
What Is Buzz Marketing?
Buzz marketing is a marketing strategy used to grab consumers, influencers and expert marketers’ attention to intensify your brand message so much that it creates a buzz, becomes newsworthy – and meets your business goal.
The tactics involve using word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing to strengthen your product launch or services and to incite consumers and marketers to start discussing your offers – and sharing them across marketing channels. For some marketers, driving sales may be their top objective, which requires time and effort to convince customers to buy.
However, buzz marketing gets people excited about your business, thereby:
- Creating buzz for your brand
- Building brand awareness
- Generating leads
- Increasing product adoption and
- Maximizing sales
However, you may not see these results immediately. But buzz marketing has long-term benefits. Note that it is notviral marketing, where a single campaign can go viral overnight. Instead, buzz marketing generates hype and discussion around your products or services, or whatever your undertaking might be.
Why Does Buzz Marketing Matter to Your Business?
It would help if you cared about buzz marketing because it gets people chatting about your brand, and lets them choose whether to purchase your products or pay for the services you offer. More importantly, the buzz you create makes consumers more interested in your business.
Here are three reasons why buzz marketing should be part of your marketing toolbox:
- Multipurpose content: While some marketing tactics concentrate on a single marketing channel for business growth, buzz marketing can leverage a piece of content to drive results from several platforms.
- Frequency illusion or Baader-Meinhof phenomenon: After noticing something new (a product or service), the excitement makes your brain adjust to it and you start seeing it everywhere. The more you encounter the brand, the more interactions may occur – and you embed it further into your mind. Thus, it makes you believe that the merchandise is a high-rated commodity that’s worth buying.
- Fear of missing out (FOMO): As more people talk about your offer, buzz marketing exploits or uses your fear of missing out and brings you into the conversation. Usually, people like to be part of a conversation that is generating buzz. Therefore, when consumers talk about your new offer, it creates buzz across platforms. As a result, customers’ FOMO kicks in ─ stimulating their urge to buy.
How to Create Successful Buzz Marketing Campaigns
As mentioned earlier, I’m sharing the best buzz marketing strategies to growth-hack your business quickly.
1. Build Anticipation to Create Buzz for Your Product or Service
If you want to launch a new product, the best way to get people talking about it is to build anticipation for the material. But how can you create a buzz? Give consumers a basis for interacting with your digital product.
It means that the content you post on all platforms must provide value to the reader. That way, you stimulate consumers’ desire to learn more about your offerings, share the content with their friends – and eventually convert into leads and paying customers.
So ask yourself, why do people pay for a service? Because they want it for a need. It helps them solve their problems. Therefore, since you already know your target market, let them see that your offer is the solution to their needs.
Then provide discounts for early adopters (more on that in a moment). You can also offer to give free products to anyone who shares the material. As a result, you will build awareness and expectations for the product launch.
2. Encourage Early Adopters
How can you encourage early adopters for your launch? By making consumers feel special. How? Give potential customers early access to try out your new or upgraded product or service before rolling it out into the market. That’s how you make them feel unique.
Humans have the character to enjoy feeling special, and when you give them first-time access, they become so excited that they start telling others about it. Consequently, leverage your community; grant fellow bloggers and content marketers early access to encouraging adoption. Also, provide early adopter access to influencers in your niche to urge them to support your campaign. They will be happy to write reviews and create other content types to promote your brand across marketing channels. In the end, you will receive excellent exposure.
3. Partner With Marketing Influencers
Why should you work with influencers? Because they have the marketing persona that will pay for your products or services, and they will help you reach a wider audience faster. Moreover, as the name suggests, influencers can influence consumers’ buying decisions.
Did you know? Influencer marketing is one of the best digital marketing assets for generating ROIs. Research shows that companies make almost $6 ($5.78) ROIs for every one dollar spent on influencer marketing. Given this, over 90% of marketers say that influencer marketing (IM) is the best marketing type.
However, remember that you can use about a dozen types of influencers to create buzz for your campaign. But you need to find the right match for the task.
Hence, I’m sharing the four primary types of influencers based on follower counts:
- Nano-influencers: 1,000─10,000 followers
- Micro-influencers: 10,000─100,000 followers
- Macro-influencers: 100k─one million followers
- Mega-influencers: One million+ followers
Therefore, depending on your marketing budget, you may want to start with Nano- or Micro-influencers. These categories have the most engaged audience and are more relatable with their followers. Thus, if you’re a small business owner, I suggest you work with either of these influencers to produce buzz for your marketing campaign.
Reach out to them with special offers (free or discount) and conclude deals in return for your desired objective. Don’t forget to work with influential bloggers, as they have more credibility with their readers.
4. Email Subscribers to Create a Marketing Buzz
I’m sure you have a list of email subscribers consisting of loyal customers. Please email them to grow their interest in your new project. But before you send out your message, examine your list and segment active users. These are consumers who are most likely to read your email and tell others about your project.
In the message, ensure to offer them discounts, free trials, or coupons. Use call-to-action (CTA) in your email to encourage recipients to become advocates by forwarding the message to friends and other people who may find it exciting. That’s how to create buzz marketing with email newsletters.
5. Create Buzz Marketing With Automated Text Messages
Why should you care about automated text messages that have been around for ages? Because they’re cost-effective and have the potential to generate huge ROIs. A study reveals that automated text messages generate a 98% open rate and 30% engagement rate, more than any other marketing strategy.
But what are automated text messages? Similar to email campaigns, automated text messages, also known as scheduled text messages, are pre-written text materials prepared to go out automatically at specific times. Again, the automated SMS can go out to your target market when triggered by the user’s behavior or an event.
As a result, you’re able to reach consumers at the best times with your message and get results. Besides, SMS automation allows you to send personalized notifications that prompt immediate response and increased exposure. It is an underused marketing tactic that lets you create buzz around your business.
6. Take Advantage of Referral Programs
Referral marketing programs are useful since they help you pinpoint your ideal customer (people who are loyal to your business). Since they regularly interact with your brand, reward them for their loyalty. How? Offer them points, discounts, or other incentives.
Promise more incentives if they refer their friends and more consumers to your business.
With the incentives in mind, they feel special and will gladly share your content on social media, tell people about your product – and write reviews and testimonials to create a buzz about your brand.
It helps you reach more people faster and increase awareness for your brand. But ensure that your offer is appealing enough to entice people to join your referral program. Nonetheless, to help you make gains with referral marketing, I advise you to use the best referral marketing tools to ease the workload. Hence, Shane Barker published the top 13 software tools for referral marketing recently.
7. Leverage Facebook Ads and PPC Campaigns
Facebook advertising is one of the most lucrative digital marketing assets around. Why? Because it has the most targeted form of digital advertising that gives you the ability to reach your target market. If done right, your Facebook ad campaigns will engage your audience and turn them into brand ambassadors and loyal clients.
Did you know that Facebook advertising is the most cost-effective compared to other advertising platforms? You can invest $5 in FB ads and reach 1,000 people within a targeted audience. Nevertheless, just like FB ads, PPC campaigns also enable you to scale your reach quickly. However, the number of people you reach will depend on your marketing budget.
The beauty of these marketing channels is that you can reach an audience that has never heard of you and convert them. Thus, use these platforms to create buzz and improve your business growth.
Building Up a Buzz Is Critical for Marketing Today
Marketing your business is fantastic, but creating buzz for your brand can be challenging, particularly if you don’t know where to start. You need people talking about your new product or service to build awareness and attract the right customers.
So consumers may be waiting for your product, but they might not see it without you taking it to them. Promoting your business through various channels, including giving out special offers, are remarkable ways to get people talking and create buzz for your business.
Also, don’t forget to create blog posts and other types of content around your product or services. Blogging is one of the best ways to drive awareness and get others to share your content on all channels, including social media. And tell us what we missed. We would like to hear your thoughts!
