I could tell you about what tools will enhance Viral Marketing, but let me begin by telling you what people do not like to hear.

Viral Marketing is often natural and an outcome from a really great product or service that people want to talk about.

You cannot easily do viral marketing with something that does not have a wow factor.

If something does have a wow factor, it can be enhanced in a number of ways.

• Social Media makes it easier for people to tell other people.
• A good article can generate millions of readers
• A simple email can spread via forwarding
• Widgets and embedding – if you post something like a YouTube video and it is great, people will embed the script in their website and their visitors will see you.  Call this viral embedding.
• Simple word of mouth – don’t assume it has to be online.  Word of mouth is very powerful.

1. Buzz Marketing creates curiosity, but may not easily draw people into the sales funnel the way you hope.  Inbound Marketing is usually going to be more focused and lead people into a relationship.
2. Buzz Marketing depends on word of mouth and social media to spread the buzz.  Inbound Marketing is more strategic in publishing and search engines, although it also can benefit from social media and Word of Mouth.
3. Inbound Marketing is more likely to produce leads that are further along in the sale cycle.  With Inbound Marketing you are trying to help people that are looking for your product or service find you and learn from you.  Buzz Marketing will reach more people, but because it is buzz they may not be likely to purchase anything.  It is more of a welcome distraction.
4. Buzz Marketing (generally speaking) has more ups and downs.  Inbound Marketing is more strategic, measurable and gets better over time.

These are just some of the differences between Buzz and Inbound Marketing.  If you want to see what makes Inbound Marketing different, sign up for our Inbound Marketing Demo.

I have an intimate email list.  It is entirely separate from my main email list and it is called FoR: Friends of Ron.  Please click on that link and go see what it says.  Don’t sign up – unless you REALLY want to after reading that.

You see, that list is my friends list.  I write that email periodically just like I would write to a good friend.  I send links people might be interested in, I let them know about events, and I may just tell them how my latest trip was.

While we all want to cultivate new clients, consider how much stronger your “friends” would be at telling people about you if they simply heard from you a little more regularly.

Here are your 7 reasons to have a friends list.

• Over 200% open rate – Everyone reads these emails multiple times
• Over 30% clicks – they spend time with the email and check out the resources
• Easy to write – If you want to be my friend, you have to be forgiving.  I write these emails quickly like a personal email.
• A “Go to” resource – I do not think twice about asking this list for a favor.  They are my friends!
• 50% of the list wants to be your friend.  -  I know about 50% of the people that sign up.  The other group, I assume, would like to get to know me.
• Replies directly to me – People always reply to these emails as if I’d sent the message to them personally. “I am sorry I can’t make it….”
• Word of Mouth – The fresher you stay in the minds of people that know you, the more word of mouth you will create.  Plus, these people want to hear about what is new with you, so you can send them stories and updates.

This list is too new for me to know the impact it will have on the business, but I do know it is strengthening relationships and I enjoy the connections.

Short of writing a best seller, blogging is one of the best ways to build up your credibility and get in front of more people. In the next eight weeks, I have ten paid speaking engagements, which is more than all of last year.

What else can help you get speaking opportunities?

• Have a new approach to a common problem.
• Have a good story to tell.
• Have enthusiasm and believe what you tell people.
• Practice speaking regularly
• Let people know that you speak, want speaking opportunities and what you speak about.
• Write a best seller. (OK, I am padding my list with the obvious now)
• Know what your speaking fees are in advance so you are professional if you get an inquiry. I was not expecting some of the opportunities that have come up within 10 miles of my office, and was unsure of how to price them.
• Repackage the obvious. Is there anything older than word of mouth? No, it is just going through a renaissance currently.

And did I mention blog?

Luckily, she did not hurt my reputation too much with the people I sent her way. Of course, I stopped referring people to her.

That got me thinking though. What would it take for her to win me back as an advocate?

• Positive Word of Mouth from multiple people.
• Clear successes that are above and beyond what I think her every day job is.
• A solid understanding of how she has improved her business processes.
• A Business Referral to me.
• Being sure she delivers and follows up on anything she promises.
• Not to give me any BS. Tell me what the problems were and how you fixed them.

Winning back an advocate is much harder than winning them in the first place. Even though you may be good at what you do, if you are not good at running a company and managing expectations it can lead to wide spread dissatisfaction.

If you spend time thinking about word of mouth and buzz, you probably spend time thinking about how to create a story people will tell their friends about. It could be all boiled down to great product or service that you actively tell people about, but lets think about the steps involve in getting someone to the end result of talking about you.

The Strategic Steps to Recruiting Advocates and Fans

Set One: Entice People to Notice You

How do you get noticed? Without this step, the rest matters not a drop.

• People skim for interesting things, how do you stand out?
• How many new ways are you getting your message out?
• What % of people stop on your message vs. skim over it?

Step Two: Entice People to Pay Attention

Are you paying attention? This must interest you just a bit then.

Having people notice you does not guarantee that you have gotten them to pay attention.

• Have they forgotten what they were doing and are they focusing on you?
• Will they feel incomplete if they do not get more information?
• Are they open to finding out more?

Step Three: Entice People to Exploration

Hmmm, this is interesting. Let me take a look around, kick the tires or Google it.

At this step you have created enough interest that some people will begin exploration. It might be picking up and shaking your product, it might be later on the Internet.

• Is your product or service easy to explore?
• Can people quickly grasp the concept and benefit?
• Can they imagine themselves using it?

Each person has a different tolerance for how long they will explore something. That time varies based on the product and on their comfort level with your mode of exploration.

Step Four: Entice People to Make a Commitment

Play time is over and it is time to commit. Ideally, they buy 3 of everything you have to offer, but what is going on in their head?

• That was mildly interesting – maybe I will get one some day….
• I must have one. Here is my charge card.
• Well, it might be OK to try.
• That’s great! – I have to tell someone about this. (Takes out cell phone)
• I am confused – Time to move on.
• That sucks – Who would buy that.
• That sucks – I have to tell someone about this train wreck of a product.

You will get more favorable results at this point if you have created high level of interest, trust and a strong understanding of the benefit. They may make a purchase, but they may also go out and tell others about you. Both options are good a good outcome.

Set Five: Impress People with More

This step assumes they have engaged with you in some way. Deliver a great customer experience, even if they do not buy. Freely give some value and positive energy to anyone that has gotten this far in your highly complex and intricate dance of advocate courtship. How do you leave them feeling?

• That was dazzling
• Just what I expected (Not bad if they had high expectation already.)
• Didn’t live up to the hype
• Ouch, I hurt myself

Step Six: Win People as Life Long Fans

Assuming you keep in touch and keep delivering great value, you may have created a life long fan. This is better than the temporary buzz of step 4. This is a new sales person that will work for free, train themselves and get in line dressed as your CEO to be the first to buy your next new product.

All of these steps are important to be truly successful at creating word of mouth and buzz. While sales people can play the role of guide, each of these steps is as dependant on the product and the services of the non-sales staff, if not more.

By the way, if anyone out there needs to know how I dress, let me know. I am happy to provide photos.

There is so much overlap, that some people think that it is all just word of mouth marketing. Some people think Viral Marketing takes place only on the internet. Some people think Buzz Marketing is when you go out and pay people to fake buzz.

WOM – Word of Mouth – Word of mouth is really people recommending something to someone they know or writing about something in a public place, like the internet. Referrals from a friend are very likely to trigger a purchase, and this is the goal.

Viral Marketing – Making something viral does not necessarily mean someone is willfully recommending the product or service, as in word of mouth marketing. It could be that the message attaches itself to something that someone does, such as an email footer for hotmail, and spreads. Or it could be something that is easy to spread and people enjoy spreading it. Viral marketing spreads very quickly and with little effort once the marketing virus is released.

Buzz Marketing – Buzz Marketing I refer to as word of mouth marketing with the volume turned up. It is the art of getting more people to talk about you more often. Word of Mouth Marketing experts are often trying to do the same thing, but buzz has a stronger focus on increasing volume and passion about the topic.

Good Internet Marketers will use all of these to be successful on the web. Their Internet Marketing Strategy will include:

• Word of Mouth Internet Strategies such as a Refer a Friend website feature
• Viral Marketing Internet Strategies such as a video that is funny or options to easily Digg a page.
• Buzz Marketing Internet Strategies such as creating more content and connections that get people to link to them, write about them, reference them and email about them. One way is to be controversial or exciting, another way to achieve this is with volume of smaller buzz efforts.

With Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing, we prefer a disciplined approach to creating consistently more buzz over the long term with your existing advocates. My  book will address how to do this on a limited budget.

To increase sales leads with buzz marketing:

• Make sure your website has clear, easy to find information about the product or service.
• Make sure it is easy to purchase online or request to request more information.
• Make sure your product or service name is memorable and you are ranked high on search engines when people start investigating.
• Have every staff member know how to handle a call from a sales lead.
• Make the purchase an easy to understand decision with multiple ways to find out about it.
  Acknowledge and reward people that do a referral and generate a sales lead for you.
• Be ready for a sudden increase in sales.
• Don’t let your buzz die. Keep generating a steady stream of buzz and word of mouth. When people hear about something from multiple sources they are more likely to investigate.
• Follow up with your sales leads quickly and multiple times. More than likely the buzz has made your lead curious, but you are not their top priority.

If you take the Buzzoodle approach and keep generating a steady stream of buzz, you will generate more sales leads. Be prepared to educate and handle the leads well, or you may be wasting your time.

- And yes, this is one of those many things I have learned the hard way.

Sales leads can be generated with buzz marketing only if you are prepared. Buzz Marketing is not going to make people come and get in line to buy your service. It is going to create curiosity that will cause an investigation. If you are trying to generate sales leads with buzz and word of mouth marketing, consider the process a prospect will go through for your particular product or service.

What does the management team need to do to increase buzz and employee morale?

• Identify which employees will enjoy creating buzz.
• Create some easy to repeat stories that employees know that they can spread.
• Let them know why creating buzz is good for them too.
• Get participating employees each a copy of Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing to give them ideas and inspiration to create more buzz.
• Celebrate success and keep employees moral and involvement high.
• Help employees feed off of one another person’s enthusiasm.

Challenge employees to make a difference in all aspects of the company.  This will help management improve buzz, improve employee morale for those that are willing to participate and make the sales guys job easier by generating more leads.

Here is a brief summary of some of the other employee buzz creation incentives.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #1: Successful companies can give bigger raises.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #2: Job Security. Companies will be less likely to outsource the jobs of employees that are creating positive word of mouth and buzz.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #3: When employees become better connected and create more word of mouth, they are going to know more people and be recognized as a valuable resource. This may lead to other opportunities in the future.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #4: Secure company future by helping build it’s reputation and visibility.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #5: Become a more influential person by learning how to create buzz and word of mouth about the organization as well as about other things they care about.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #6: Increase friendships and industry connections as they reach out to create more buzz and build their personal network.

Employee Buzz Creation Incentive #7: Stand out in the eyes of peers and managers as someone who goes beyond the normal scope of a job and is dedicated to the success of the organization.

This is an incomplete list of employee incentives and benefits for creating buzz for their place of employment. The truth is that each employee will have a different experience that will have a different set of benefits to that person. Employers must keep positive, illustrate the benefits and continue to create buzz about creating buzz by recognizing top employee buzz performers.