MARKETING TIPS

Making Buzz Marketing Work For You

High-Touch in a High-Tech 

World We live in a TiVo world. Television watchers fast-forward through commercials. Radio listeners skip up and down the dial. Online news readers click on what's interesting to them - and not a lot more. According to recent marketing research, 42% of home products ads are ignored and the same thing with 45% of fast-food ads.

So, how do you reach people these days? How to do you get people talking about your business?

Enter Buzz Marketing 

Think of buzz marketing as "micro-marketing" as opposed to classic "mass marketing." Traditional advertising - while certainly valuable and appropriate in many cases - is based on the idea of broadcasting a message to reach the largest possible number of interested consumers. Buzz marketing, on the other hand, relies on person-to-person communication.

Generating a buzz means giving people a reason to talk about particular products or services and making it easier for that conversation to take place between consumers. You're creating a way for people to enjoy sharing information or experiences with others in order to entertain or to sound smart or in the know. You're creating brand evangelists.

Basically, you're augmenting your traditional marketing efforts - such as advertising, promotions, public relations - with interpersonal communication among your customers or potential customers.

Need More Proof? 

The way your customers and your potential customers are communicating is changing. You want to change with them. Consumers have embraced the Internet and e-mail because they empower consumers in these ways:

• Mass participation: Information is gained from everyday users and fellow consumers, not just "experts" such as journalists, critics, and others.

• Mass dissemination:  Internet users read and use blogs. They visit chat rooms and websites. They read, write and forward emails. They use RSS*.

• Permanence: The Internet allows for a permanent record of virtually everything published. No one keeps files of old articles, because now everything's just a Google search away.

Buzz marketing allows your consumers and potential consumers to engage with your business in a personal way. Using e-communication is a great, personal, interactive way to get people to connect with your business. Do something that allows your customers and potential customers to engage in your brand. Here are a few ideas:

• Viral Marketing: Create entertaining or informative messages designed to be passed along by email. The Department's Fish Wisconsin game is an example of viral marketing. It's purpose is to entertain with the idea that consumers would "share the fun" with other potential consumers. 

• Product Seeding: Place the right product into the right hands at the right time; provide information or samples to influential individuals.

• Conversation Creation: Create tools - maybe small giveaways or gift cards - that enable satisfied customers to refer their friends.

For Example … 

Let's say a restaurant wanted to announce that it would be offering a curbside pick-up service. How could it use buzz marketing? Here's what they did.

A group of runners clad in track jackets bearing the restaurant's logo were sent running through a busy downtown at peak travel times distributing information about the new service - as well as a certificate to experience it. It caught people's attention. In addition, two cameras from local news stations shot footage, and the restaurant landed on the evening news. The media coverage was just icing on the cake!

Let's break down that example so you can re-create something like it for your own purposes.

First, analyze 

Think about what you want your communication effort to say. What do you want your audience to think? In the example of the restaurant, the notion of "speedy" curbside pick-up was conveyed with the use of runners.

Brainstorm 

Get several people involved. Rarely do great ideas come from one person sitting alone in an office. If possible, involve your target audience in the brainstorming. Perhaps there are "regulars" of your restaurant, lounge, or attraction who would be flattered to get behind-the-scenes. They'll likely have some great insights about what would resonate with them and people like them!

Don't limit yourself when engaging in buzz marketing brainstorming. Your ideas should be larger than life - especially initially. That's how you'll come up with the best stuff. You can always scale back based on budget, time and staffing to arrive at something that's truly doable.

Think it through 

With buzz marketing, you really need to pay attention to detail. If your buzz marketing idea involves some sort of splashy event or product seeding, think about any supplies and props you'll need. Secure them well in advance and test them for the idea you have in mind to make sure they'll work.

If you're enlisting volunteers or other people who aren't typically involved in your business, get everyone on the same page with a face-to-face meeting or through e-mails. Thank your volunteers with certificates so they can experience your product or service for themselves. Ahh…more brand evangelists.

Keep it legal 

As you might guess, the most common errors in buzz marketing can involve trespassing, defacing private or public property and not getting permission where and when you need to. In the case of the runners, each signed a waiver approved by the marketer's legal department.

Start Today 

Start training yourself to think in terms of "buzz" by constantly asking yourself an important question when working on any and all of your marketing communications: Would anyone talk about this? Will your plan, your materials, or your tactics get people talking? If the answer is "no," tweak your plan until the answer becomes "yes."

* RSS is an acronym for a family of web feed formats standards (Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary). It is a system that allows Internet users to subscribe to their favorite websites and receive updates.

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