What if there was a way to get people talking about your brand? We don’t mean a couple of customers reaching out on social media.
No, we’re talking about something bigger, like getting your business to the top of Twitter’s Trending Topics.
Wouldn’t that be awesome? If you’re looking for results like that, Buzz Marketing is the answer.
But how does this strategy make sure campaigns reach as many people as possible and get talked about everywhere?
If you want to understand all the aspects of Buzz Marketing, stay with us! In this article, you will see:
- What is Buzz Marketing?
- What are the types of Buzz Marketing?
- How to generate Buzz Marketing?
- What are the examples of brands doing Buzz Marketing?
- What is the difference between Buzz and Viral Marketing?
Eager to find out more about this subject? Keep reading!
What is Buzz Marketing?
Buzz Marketing is a strategy that thrives in social contagion. This marketing trick is used to maximize the popularity of campaigns using the world’s oldest way to share information: word-of-mouth. Buzz Marketing campaigns place their bets on unusual content to make sure everyone will be talking about it — with little to no extra cost for a company.
Among its benefits, Buzz Marketing is known for:
- creating a positive buzz around a brand or product;
- targeting bigger audiences that go beyond a company’s buyer persona;
- generating free publicity for brands.
What are the types of Buzz Marketing?
Buzz Marketing usually starts with a concept or idea that gets people excited, curious, or intrigued by your brand.
Many companies worldwide use this technique, and, though not always long-lasting, a Digital Marketing campaign that includes a Buzz Marketing strategy is an inexpensive way to get people to notice your business.
According to Mark Hughes, the man who invented the term Buzz Marketing, there are six different ways to build Buzz Marketing campaigns.
That means a good campaign must rely on one of these “wow” factors as its building block to become widely known on the internet.
Below, we will look into each one of those building blocks and try to understand why they make such great marketing campaigns!
Taboo
Taboos are triggers that can easily be activated on our brains when we hear messages that go beyond the ordinary and into the forbidden.
Think, for example, about your reaction whenever someone talks about cannibalism or any such topic. Whether disgusted or surprised, the truth is we always have a response (and often an opinion) on such topics.
The taboo trigger in a Digital Marketing campaign can be used to make it more popular.
Controversial topics will give your audience a reason to pick a side and debate, making it a great tool to use in Buzz Marketing campaigns.
Unusual
The unusual is a different trigger, activated once we see something that is out of the usual.
This is a technique used by popular brands, like Apple, to make sure the release of a new product, such as an iPad, becomes a conversation topic.
The unusual can be something entirely new and never before seen or just something that is much better than what is usually offered in a given product category.
Remarkable
The remarkable trigger is activated once we see something that goes above and beyond what brands are used to doing for their customers.
Like when a brand makes a surprise for a special client or tells an impressive story to explain its values.
The remarkable is easy to perceive because it relies on the consumer’s satisfaction to happen — humans, as a group, are eager to hear stories with a happy ending.
Outrageous
The outrageous, on the other hand, is probably the most popular trigger of all.
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.
Hilarious
The hilarious type of Buzz Marketing is the one that relies on laughter to get the audience’s attention.
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.
That’s why this is the bet of many companies when trying to build a Buzz Marketing campaign.
Secret
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.
Humans are naturally curious, and when something spikes our interest, we want to know everything there’s to it.
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.
How to generate Buzz Marketing?
Now that you know the triggers most commonly used for Buzz Marketing campaigns, it’s time to learn how to get people talking about your brand.
There are plenty of reasons to include Buzz Marketing in your Digital Marketing plan, such as:
- Buzz Marketing is an effective way to get people talking about your brand;
- Buzz Marketing is among one of the cheapest forms of advertising as it relies on word-of-mouth to get popular;
- Buzz Marketing is a great way to build a fan base and a positive reputation for your brand.
In the following topics, you will see how to get benefits like these with Buzz Marketing.
Step 1: get to know your audience
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.
Step 2: tease your campaign beforehand
Want to test the waters for your campaign? Use teasers to do just that.
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.
Step 3: create a branded hashtag
How are people going to talk about your brand after you’ve released your Buzz Marketing campaign? 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.
Step 4: give your customers a reason to engage
Now that you’ve done all the groundwork is time you start building the campaign itself.
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.
Step 5: go for a video marketing campaign
You’re much more likely to be successful with video marketing than with other advertising forms. 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.
Step 6: find the right influencers
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.
Step 7: monitor and learn
After pushing your campaign, it’s time to look into its results.
Use tools like Google Analytics to find out how many people visited your website or viewed your YouTube video during the campaign. Follow up with the usual marketing KPIs to understand if you’ve fared better than when not using Buzz Marketing.
Every campaign is an opportunity to learn and grow, and it shouldn’t be different when you’re trying to reach a bigger audience. Document every step of the way to make sure future campaigns will be even better.
What are the examples of brands doing Buzz Marketing?
Buzz Marketing is a strategy that is built to make people talk about your brand.
Its goal is to generate engagement for your company through word-of-mouth, getting people so impressed with your product or campaign they just can’t stop themselves from talking about it.
You probably know an example or two of Buzz Marketing. Below, we will look into cases where brands were able to leverage stories into buzz for their brands.
Old Spice
Old Spice is a well-known brand, but many younger customers don’t know it hasn’t always been like that.
Sure, in the 1930s, the brand was a big pioneer in its field, but through the years, it was forgotten along with other prestige symbols of that era.
Jumping to the 2010s, what we see is a whole rebranding of Old Spice, based on campaigns that have become well-known memes by now.
The first video, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” was the brand’s first successful Buzz Marketing campaign.
It isn’t hard to understand what buttons this advertising pushes. After all, it is the hilarious interpretation given by former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa the biggest win.
The brand didn’t stop there and kept going with the same concept, generating buzz week after week. Look at the video and tell us you don’t want to share it.
Apple
It’s impossible to talk about Buzz Marketing without referring back to Apple, one of the biggest brands when it comes to generating a buzz.
One way the company used to do that, in the Steve Jobs era, was to use the “One more thing…” trigger after corporate presentations.
Whenever the sentence was used, people just knew something big was coming up. The “wow factor” itself was enough to make everybody talk about their products for weeks, ever since the first time Steve Jobs did this, in 1998.
The trigger, first used to tell Apple was back being profitable, was used again to release products such as the iMac G4, the iPod Mini, and the MacBook Pro.
What is the difference between Buzz and Viral Marketing?
Now that you know all about Buzz Marketing, it is very likely that you’re asking yourself the following question: how is this strategy any different from Viral Marketing campaigns?
There are a couple of factors that play into this equation. The main one being that Buzz Marketing and Viral Marketing messages hit audiences a different way.
While a viral campaign is built one day at a time, reaching people gradually and building momentum online from each share it gains, ironically, Buzz Marketing campaigns go viral much faster.
One day nobody is talking about them, and next, they’re all audiences everywhere care about.
While Buzz Marketing and Viral Marketing can have similar consequences, they are built differently.
A Viral campaign is meant to make people talk about the campaign itself, whether in the form of video marketing, interactive content, or through the release of a fresh new tool.
On the other hand, Buzz Marketing has as its main objective the goal of making people talk about a brand. That’s what makes those two types of campaigns be built differently.
Buzz Marketing is a great way to get people talking about your brand. That’s why companies like Apple have relied on the technique for as long as we can remember.
Ready to get your brand talked about? Unlock the power of Buzz Marketing for your brand with WritersAccess!
Start your free trial today and discover how to create captivating content that generates a positive buzz. Maximize the popularity of your campaigns, reach bigger audiences, and generate free publicity effortlessly.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to get people talking about your brand – sign up for WritersAccess now!
