What is buzz marketing

It takes us by surprise and shocks us , whether positively or negatively, and, therefore, generates a buzz. You can find plenty of examples of brands that bet on the outrageous to make sure customers hear about their most recent news.

But beware: sometimes this type of marketing can generate a negative buzz for your brand if not done carefully. It is understandably one of the most popular ways of doing Buzz Marketing as people are always looking for a reason to laugh and have fun.

Last but not least, there is yet another way to make sure people are interested in and talking about your brand: relying on secrets to get their attention. Well-kept secrets or even messages that present clues to something bigger than what we are seeing before us are a sure way to generate buzz. A good example is the beginning of Facebook, when you needed an invitation from another member, to join the social media. There are plenty of reasons to include Buzz Marketing in your Digital Marketing plan , such as:.

Before marketing any product, whether through a regular acquisition campaign or a Buzz Marketing effort, your brand needs to know who it is trying to reach. While Buzz Marketing will give you a bigger audience to work with, in the interest of converting, you will need to know who is your buyer persona. You should build your content thinking of the people who are most likely to be impacted by your brand and let the magic happen.

Teasers will help make sure your prospective customers are as excited about your new release as you are. They will get attention, build anticipation and help you grow your reach. You can use teasers as an opportunity to sign people up for your newsletter too — a great opportunity to start building leads.

If you truly want to think ahead, you should probably create your own hashtag. A hashtag will make it easier to follow-up on consumer feedback after the release of a new campaign. Because of it, it will be easier to generate data about your Buzz Marketing campaign. Make sure the pieces for your campaign feature the hashtag, so your audience knows how to reach your brand to talk about what they saw. A good Content Marketing strategy will be your biggest ally when it comes to building successful Buzz Marketing.

Pay attention to your copy and make sure it is enticing and gets people going. The goal for any Buzz Marketing campaign should be to deliver value to the customer. Use the triggers you just learned about in your favor. So, try to think of ideas that can easily be turned into visual content. Videos create a bigger impact, are easier to share, and are highly engaging.

Keep that in mind when building your campaign. If you really want your Buzz Marketing to reach people, you will need it to be shared amongst a big audience. Select influencers that can help you do just that. Well-respected influencers already have a relationship with your target audience, and their posts will have a high chance of being well-received. Use tools like Google Analytics to find out how many people visited your website or viewed your YouTube video during the campaign.

People were stranded on an island with limited if any shelter and food after being promised the biggest music festival experience ever. They were sorely disappointed :. Super Bowl commercials are the ultimate example of effective buzz marketing campaigns. They have plenty of visibility, which certainly helps, but they leverage creativity, humor and emotional appeal to spark interest in their audience and hopefully generate discussion.

Substance is going to be the biggest factor in whether or not your campaign has buzz potential. They want something new and interesting and that genuinely engages them in some way. This can be a contest or a new product or even just a great blog post that offers value in information or opinion. Before you start creating your campaign, think about what makes you want to talk about something and feel like you need to send it to your friends, colleagues or family.

Buzz marketing campaigns can take all shapes and forms, especially if they're combined with guerilla-marketing strategies. Everyone loves a little feel-good action, so campaigns that involve some aspect of motivation or inspiration can take off quickly and be shared again and again. Last year, for example, Nike signed a three-year running contract with Justin Gallegos , who happens to have cerebral palsy. Nike got a ton of press and attention, with users praising the brand.

Bra company ThirdLove has made major waves and was able to generate enormous word-of-mouth marketing by running campaigns focusing on inclusivity.

They were not only one of the first companies to offer products for people of all shapes, skin tones and sizes, but also one of the first to openly celebrate those differences. This can be a fine line, because you should never use people with disabilities as a prop for your brand, but celebrating inclusivity can work well for you if it feels authentic. You have to be careful with this one, but it can work.

Offering a hot take in the form of an opinionated article or blog post can generate buzz around your brand or you specifically, which can help establish thought leadership. It got backlinks like crazy and I saw it shared so many times I probably could have recited some of it from memory. People want to talk about what naturally excites them, because excitement gets the blood pumping and keeps something relevant and at the forefront of our minds.

The introduction of the internet effectively changed the face of marketing. Brands are now looking to 'go viral' by generating excitement online and boosting engagement via social media platforms.

This is called buzz marketing, and its purpose is to leverage social audiences to generate a lot of conversation around the newest product or service. In this article, we define buzz marketing, outline how to create a successful buzz marketing campaign and provide some helpful tips to enhance your marketing efforts. Buzz marketing is the practice of leveraging word-of-mouth advertising and digital advertising strategies to create anticipation among consumers about a new product, service or business.

Buzz marketing generates viral excitement by cleverly getting consumers to promote a product or service through conversations with family, friends or social media networks, with the former and the latter often being connected. This helps companies develop awareness around their business and create a 'buzz' or excitement.

Unlike other marketing tactics, this marketing strategy is driven primarily by influencers who receive the product to try for themselves before the general public has access to them. These individuals then share their experiences to garner interest and get their followers excited. Influencers' opinions tend to have a wide reach, which can have a huge impact on sales as news of new products travels among their follower base more rapidly.

For these reasons, marketers are eager to partner with these influencers to build anticipation. The major difference between buzz marketing and conventional marketing is that buzz marketing is rooted entirely in the use of the modern social media consumer to create excitement around and awareness of an anticipated product.

Meanwhile, conventional marketing strategies focus solely on using available marketing channels to gradually attract the attention of new customers to make them aware of a product, service or business they've yet to hear about. To summarize, buzz marketing differentiates itself from conventional marketing by:. With that being said, consumers have grown accustomed to buzz marketing, making it easy for them to spot a campaign that sounds inauthentic or too much like a sales pitch.

Therefore, it's important to control the narrative and leverage influencers who truly believe in the product or service when using a buzz marketing strategy. Buzz marketing has become a popular marketing strategy in today's world due to its speed and efficacy. Some of the key benefits of launching a buzz marketing campaign include:. As with any marketing technique, this strategy works best when applying best practices commonly associated with the tactic.

Follow these crucial steps to successfully use buzz marketing for short-term and long-term success:. The timing of social media buzz plays a crucial role in its efficacy.

If you employ a buzz marketing strategy before your company has conceptualized the product, users may lose interest waiting for the product's release. Make sure to conduct buzz marketing once your company has a strong brand and a product that's almost ready to distribute. Buzz marketing relies on a narrative that resonates with today's audiences in a specific industry.

Consider both your company's voice and the voice of the consumers who intend on sharing the message to create an interesting and immersive story. This way, you can excite prospective customers and prepare them to buy your product. Teasing new products can help build anticipation and make launches more effective.

Putting hints about your product online can keep audiences excited about new developments and ready to buy as the release date nears. Once the 'buzz' takes hold, however, engagement is of the utmost importance. Two-way communication builds trust with users, creating the feeling in the consumer of being actively invested in the brand's success and involved in the release of the final product.

Buzz marketing shouldn't be confined to just one social media platform. Rather, diversify platforms to keep users engaged and boost reach.

Then, analyze that data to determine which tactics seem to be most effective to improve engagement and further your buzz marketing campaign. Reach out to social media users who are well known and respected to build a mutually beneficial relationship with them.

Their existing popularity helps ensure that the content they post has a wide, relevant reach. Their opinions about a new product can improve your company's reputation and visibility.