Having the best product or service in your niche is great, but if no one knows about it, your business can’t flourish and grow. This is where marketing comes in, and why this plays such a crucial role in the running of any business.
The perception of marketing is that it can often be very costly, requiring great investment to get any traction. PR for example can be very expensive in persuading publications to talk about you. Online digital advertising can also be expensive in the form of paid ads. Radio spots and print media can also be costly.
However, it is possible to garner huge success without having to spend large budgets on big campaigns by employing buzz marketing. Also known as campaigning by word-of-mouth, buzz marketing is often free, effective, and good at drawing qualified leads to your brand or business.
But how do you get people to talk about your business? Well, the following 5 strategies can help you generate buzz for your new business:
1) Be remarkable
In a recent study by Nielsen, over 80% of consumer actions are inspired by personal recommendations. If your customers love your products or services, they’re going to tell others. Therefore, it pays to deliver remarkable services that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Be charming to your clients and treat them with respect. Most importantly, be patient with them. Spare time to listen to and understand their concerns. Go above and beyond to ensure you are delivering something that meets their needs or solves their concerns.
While small touches in addition to the standard customer service may seem negligible, they count for a lot. This can take the form of a demonstration of commitment, goodwill, and care for your business and clients.
This can often be difficult to achieve, especially when you are busy trying to service lots of customers. Being organized with your internal processes, systems and procedures will help you deliver exemplary customer service. Business technology can help to make this a reality on a practical level.
Industry-specific management apps such as this one from Jobber are highly effective at organizing your administrative tasks, facilitating internal and external communications, streamlining project management, speeding up payments and invoicing, etc. This frees you up to focus on delivering the highest standard of service to your customers. Look around to find the service that compliments your business niche the best and takes advantage of how it can benefit your productivity.
2) Become Innovative
It’s also worth trying unconventional strategies to draw the attention of clients to your new business. Consider designing eye-catching ads that tell a compelling story and posting them on sites where you know your audience can be found.
One idea might be to host a contest and use a prize draw to bring attention to your product or service. Social media is a good place to run such events. When choosing a prize, ensure it’s something that your existing or prospective clients will want to win. In the process, ensure to include in your execution of the campaign some means of capturing contact email addresses or other information that you can use to offer further discounts or free trials later down the line,
Note: Brainstorm innovative and creative ideas with your team members to come up with the best approach for your business.
3) Encourage Reviews
There’s a great opportunity for your business to enjoy exposure all thanks to online reviews. Research has shown that about 60% of purchases are made based on online reviews which just goes to show how important it is to have people talking positively about you online.
Google-Plus and Yelp are among the best free lead generation websites you can utilize to showcase your business to prospective customers looking for your product or service. Each one has a huge community made up of a large number of different audiences, meaning your brand can achieve a significantly higher reach if your profile has been entered correctly.
First, get your business listed, thereafter build a profile, and then encourage your clients to share their reviews there. In addition, you may also want to ask your clients to review you through other channels so that you can use the best ones as testimonials on your website and marketing material. Search engines are increasingly rewarding sites with more reviews by giving them a higher ranking on the search engine results pages.
Conversely, be sure not to neglect negative reviews. People will be looking to see how you respond to them. More often than not, people just want to feel heard and empathized with.
Reviews for your site don’t just happen. You have to ask for them. It’s a good way of gauging if your customers are happy or not and if any of your processes, products, or services need to be addressed and improved.
4) Pricing
Don’t start doing business until you are clear on your pricing strategy. It pays to get this right as this will ultimately be the difference between success or failure. But, do you know how much to charge for the service or commodities you’re selling?
Research what your competitors are doing. Calculate how much your overheads are – don’t forget to include things like office rental, wages, business taxes, and expenses. Then decide on an appropriate profit margin. You must ensure the price guarantees good returns for your business so that you can operate profitably and successfully into the future.
5) Online Engagement
Online platforms offer tons of opportunities for client engagement. Through such engagements, you can identify what matters to them, fulfill their needs, and get referrals as a reward. And if you’re looking for ways to build a buzz through online engagements, here are some tips:
- Find your niche forums in the digital space and then offer your expertise freely through contributions. You can answer questions that relate to your business and even provide links for more insight from your site.
- Be part of the buzz daily. Through consistent presence, your brand will become familiar among prospects, and this will make you a trustworthy source.
- Guest blogger approach – look for influential people in your niche whose work complements your business. Thereafter, contribute insightful comments to all their posts to make sure they start recognizing your name. Beyond that, they will also start to think of you as a valuable source of information. When you pitch well-written articles to them, they will be more likely to accept and publish them.
Final Words
Finally, the key purpose of generating a buzz is to elevate your business, generate greater awareness and reach a wider audience. It all depends on the momentum of discussion around your business. As mentioned earlier, great customer service will help significantly if you’re considering this type of marketing strategy.