Mark Hughes - Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk about Your Stuff

Fasten your seat belt. Youre about to experience some turbulence, because thats what happens when you leave the solid ground of convention behind.

Youre about to dive into the world of buzzmarketing.

Theres a lot of controversy being churned up about buzzmarketing. Most of what you hear or read on the subject is way off base. Critics say buzz is random, merely serendipitous, and cant be corralled, but those attacks come mainly from people who have never had their asses on the linenot as entrepreneurs, and not as people with something to lose. Ive faced the gut-wrenching fear of knowing that forty people could be jobless if my marketing didnt work.

So this book isnt from a sideline player whos never really had skin in the game. I succeeded by harnessing the power of buzzmarketing. And I did it despite the warnings from traditional types who said it couldnt be done that way.

When I spent $40 million a year on advertising in previous years, I marketed the way most everyone else doesby using major ad agencies and spending lavishly. The campaigns won some national awards, but they werent buzzmarketing. Then I launched a start-up, and thats when I got buzz. Only when youve got everything to lose do you really understand the need to think differently. Without the fear of God, you tend to tread the familiar paths.

After playing the game both waysbig brands with big budgets and start-ups with cash-starved budgetsI found out the hard way that buzzmarketing works. It demands that you out-think instead of out-spend.

In this book youll discover how some exciting but unfamiliar brands and some familiar ones (like Apple Computer, Pepsi, and Britney Spears) have used buzzmarketing to grow faster and expand further, and do it for one-tenth of what it costs by more traditional means.

Ill also share with you the Six Secrets of Buzzmarketing that will make it possible for you, too, if you want to grow faster, expand further, and do it smarter.

Thats what youll find in the following pages: the hands-on why, and the hands-on how, from someone whos succeeded by breathing it and doing it.

Fasten your seat belt, youre about to get buzzed.

When I worked in the corporate world of big brands, I spent millions of dollars on conventional advertising. And guess what I got?

I got conventional results.

As a big swingin marketer with a big swingin budget, I didnt incorporate much buzz into my marketing. I also didnt achieve breakaway growth. Yes, I won national awards and accolades, but a marketer with a big budget generally thinks he doesnt need buzz and misses out on possibilities for the kind of growth that makes executives and stockholders smile.

Only later, in the unleashed, dazzling world of hot start-ups, did I experience the newfound power to reinvent the wheel. In place of a big-bucks marketing budget, I used my creative instincts and had a blast doing it. The start-up world put me on stage and in the spotlight. My creative brain went full tilt into action. It was a great feeling, one shared by many savvy folks in those days before the bubble burst.

In the world of big marketing budgets, the pressures simply arent the same. Sure, the marketing folks in a major company worrybut their worries have a different twist. Hey, theres always another marketing budget next year. In a start-up, everyone worries if there will be a next year. In a start-up, fear is built into the company DNA. For months I would go to sleep scared and wake up scared. We had to out-think versus out-spend. We had no choice. The only way we could grow profitably was with buzzmarketing.

Translation: Our marketing had to start conversations. Why? Because word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing on earth. Period. Firms like Euro RSCG have documented the impact of word of mouth: ten times more effective than TV or print advertising. Ten times more effective. Yet many have no earthly idea how to trigger it.

I didnt, at first. Only by experiencing the two extremes of marketing budgetsbig brands with big budgets, and start-ups with minibudgetsdid I come to appreciate the value of buzz, and how it magnifies every marketing dollar. I saw firsthand how millions can be wasted by treading the path of conventional marketing, and I saw how marketing dollars can be stretched and multiplied by following the out-of-the-box route called buzzmarketing.

A big-time consulting firm might charge you $500,000 for a glimpse into the secrets of buzzmarketing. But you dont have to pay a ridiculous sum for someone else to get buzz going for your product or service. You can do it yourself. Keep reading.

What Is Buzzmarketing?

DEFINITION: Buzzmarketing captures the attention of consumers and the media to the point where talking about your brand or company becomes entertaining, fascinating, and newsworthy.