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[B1177]Buzz Marketing With Blogs

by Jerome Boykin Jr, Jer

For any webmaster or person who continuously works on the Internet for any amount of time, the term buzz marketing comes up a lot. Buzz marketing is most commonly known as a marketing technique used to get a webmaster or advertisers product or service well known to the public. When this type of marketing is used effectively, it can deliver a marketing strategy to the general public quite quickly. Getting your product or service known quickly in the market place is one of the things that webmasters strive for.

Buzz marketing can be one of the cheapest forms of advertising. Because it is essentially a word of mouth advertising campaign, the webmaster saves a lot of money on advertising costs. By giving the details of your campaign to a few experts in your field, you can generally drive other traffic to your sites because other's will trust the opinion of the experts. The more knowledgeable the select few you chose initially are, the better chance of the general public getting the message and wanting to try out your product or service.

Although buzz marketing is not a new concept, the way in which it is being delivered these days is fairly new. Because of the popularity of the Internet, buzz marketing techniques can be used more efficiently and at less cost to the webmaster. And because they will be able to cut their costs using this technique, they can then pass down their savings on to the consumers.

There are several venues in which a webmaster can use to execute their buzz marketing efforts. The most common places for these campaigns would be in chat rooms, Internet forums, and blogs. By targeting these specific areas which are closely related to the marketing campaign, the webmaster will be able to target the audience that would be most interested in his product or service. You would not use buzz marketing for a car in a jewellery chat forum but would need to find car forums, car chat rooms or car blogs to get your message across.

By using buzz marketing along with other marketing campaigns a webmaster can tailor their entire marketing campaigns to suit their needs as well as suiting the needs of their potential customers. For some reason most people will trust and respect the opinion of the common man a lot faster than they will trust any words coming from the company itself. So by using intelligent, knowledgeable, and well informed individuals the company will essentially be targeting a larger audience at a lower cost to themselves.

Copyright (c) 2008 Jerome Boykin Jr

Properly executed, buzz marketing is a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal, because the message is usually coming from a trusted source. The main ingredients of any effective buzz marketing campaign are:

1. Providing consumers with a story to tell about you.

2. Making it easy for people to share information about you.

3. Engaging and energizing those people to spread the good word.

Here are six steps to help you generate positive word-of-mouth:

1. It starts with customer satisfaction

A happy customer is a potential advocate and an influencer. An unhappy customer is even more powerful ? one survey of "customer rage" found that 85% of unhappy customers share their bad experiences with others. You've got to have a positive story to tell, or there's nothing to buzz about.

Measure your customer satisfaction by asking your clients whether they would recommend you. This "customer loyalty" metric can be the most important number you can track. Learn how to apply it to your business with The Ultimate Question by Fred Reichheld.

2. Give your customers a voice

Make it easy for customers to recommend your product or service. Facilitate communication. Establish user groups, fan clubs, message boards ? anything that encourages positive conversation about your business. Start by adding a "tell-a-friend" component to your website with companies like Tell-a-Friend Wizard or free services like bpath.com.

3. Find and equip your customer evangelists

These are the "sneezers," or influential customers who will tell their friends about you. Think of them as your superfans. Give them inside information and reward their evangelism with recognition and support.

You can look for ideas and inspiration at the Viral & Buzz Marketing Association. Learn more about "tech-fluentials" and "mom-fluentials" at Burson-Marsteller's E-fluentials site.

4. Join the blogosphere

Obviously, abusiness blog creates a two-way dialogue with your customers and facilitates active discussion among your fans. Blogs are the perfect tool to encourage open communication and information sharing. If you haven't already, you can build your own blog in minutes with Blogger or TypePad, among others.

5. Listen and respond to feedback

Your blog also provides instant feedback from your customers. Participate in the online conversation and take the pulse of your supporters ? and your detractors. Use sites like FeedBurner to track and analyze your blog traffic.

6. Keep it honest

Good word-of-mouth marketing is honest, transparent and real. Stealth marketing, "shilling" and spam tactics are unethical and should be avoided at all costs! The Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association leads the way when it comes to word of mouth ethics. Before you begin your efforts, refer to the WOMMA Code of Ethics.

Don't limit your word-of-mouth efforts. Adjust your buzz marketing plan by using alternate strategies such as product seeding or cause marketing. The most important thing to remember is to turn your message into a story that is easy to pass along. People don't repeat ad messages, they share experiences. Go forth and spread the word!

Article Source : Pg. 135

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Both Jerome Boykin Jr & Lou Bortone are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Jerome Boykin Jr has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Online Marketing. If You Would Like To Learn More About Buzz Marketing Visit . Jerome Boykin Jr's top article generates over 480 views. to your Favourites.

Lou Bortone has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing and Video Marketing. Marketing mavel and online video expert Lou Bortone is an award-winning writer, producer and editor who spent more than 20 years in the TV business, including several years as Senior VP of Marketing & Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide in Los Angeles.. Lou Bortone's top article generates over 110000 views. to your Favourites.