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In your quest to find more effective ways to reach your target audience and grow your business, you are bound to come across the term “buzz marketing.”
But you may be scratching your head and asking yourself “Exactly what is buzz marketing?”
The purpose of buzz marketing is to get people talking about your brand, or to create buzz. That’s it.
Of course, your ultimate goal is to create buzz and make a sale, but buzz marketing does not always include direct sales material. Sometimes, you are just sharing other people’s stories or sharing something your audience would find funny. You are engaging them and getting them to talk about what you shared, so that lays the groundwork for your other sales strategies later.
Buzz marketing content falls into six primary categories. They are:
Taboo
Nothing gets people talking more than the subjects they aren’t supposed to talk about.
When someone tells you not to do something, you just want to do it more. Think about how tempting it would be to press a button over and over again that someone put in front of you and told you not to push.
The same is true for content. If people see you talking about something that is taboo — like sex — they are going to take notice.
“Taboo” can also be synonymous with “controversial.” So if you can’t find ways of including taboo subjects into your topic area, you can find stories in which to take a controversial stance.
For example, if you write about finance, you can take a controversial stance like that you shouldn’t save for retirement or that real estate is a bad investment. Of course, you need to follow up with good information or else your readers will see through your attempts to grab clicks without offering value.
The Unusual or Unique
A house with a nearly all glass exterior is quite unusual and unique. So is a dog that has markings to look like a cheetah.
These are the kinds of things that will grab users’ attention, whether they are scrolling their news feed or are visiting your blog. They are also the kinds of things that they will want to tell other people about on their own social networks and blogs.
Try to find these stories yourself so that you are the source. That way, when these stories are shared, you are given the credit. If you are only curating the content, the original source will show up when the stories are shared.
The Remarkable
There are inspiring stories all around us. Find them and share them with your audience.
Tell your audience about the single mother who became a successful entrepreneur or the elderly woman who became a body builder after she started lifting weights at 60.
Find stories about the remarkable in your niche to inspire your audience to do something similar — by using your products and services, of course.
The Outrageous
Remember when Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs to say that Beyonce should have won instead of her? So does everyone else in the world.
Outrageous stories like these get people talking. “Can you believe it?!”
What are the outrageous stories happening in your niche? What about the outrageous stories that are relevant to your audience? Find them and share them.
The Hilarious
Make people laugh and you will get them telling all their friends about it.
Here’s the perfect place where you can make your own content instead of relying on what other people are doing. Create funny videos. Put together some funny memes. Tell funny stories.
Even if your product isn’t especially fun or exciting, you can still find ways to make it funny. Just look at how the lawyer dog meme made the law funny. Do something similar for your brand.
Secrets
Every business should be able to share secrets that will improve the lives of their customers. What are yours?
Do you have a secret for making money faster? For quitting smoking with ease? For looking like a celebrity?
Promise to share a secret and then follow through. If you share something effective, you will get people talking.
Creating buzz-worthy content is just part of the equation. You then need to market it effectively to make sure that people see it so they can talk about it and share it.
CodeFuel offers tools that position your content on the right channels and in the right format so that you get more traffic and more sales. With the right placement, you can engage more customers, which will encourage them to share your content and spread your reach. The more customers are talking about you, the better a position you will be in to engage customers and increase your sales, ensuring your long-term success.