You have a new product or service. You want to get people talking up how cool it is and recommend it to their family and friends. You want to create some buzz.

So what can you do to start positive chatter? How do you get people e-mailing and blogging about why they like your product?

Three things you need to understand about buzz.

Before you have visions of rivaling Hotmail’s buzz success of 0 to 12 million subscribers in 18 months, there are three things you need to understand:

1. Your product must have an inherent value to get people talking. Whether you’re introducing a cure for cancer or a widget that cuts assembly costs by 10%, your product has to excite your customers or prospects before they’ll talk about it. Prior to your product launch, take time as a team to identify your product’s inherent value.

   If there are different values to different market segments, keep your messages simple and targeted. Don’t try to save money by combining them into one mega-message. Too much information will garble the message and fizzle the buzz the further out it travels.

2. Be realistic about how fast buzz spreads. The Internet moves information along faster and less expensively than traditional marketing methods. But Hotmail’s wildfire success doesn’t happen often. That’s because you and I are usually willing to listen to our friends’ or trusted colleagues’ recommendations, but we don’t often act on them right away. And there’s no guarantee that as “cool” as this new product sounds, you will push the “Forward” icon on your e-mail to spread the word to additional friends.

   Another reason buzz slows down is that most of us operate within small circles. An engineer may share a “great find” with members of her project team. But if your product also has value to the marketing guys down the hall, don’t expect that engineer to tell them about it. And, unless she’s actively connected through a professional or trade association, it’s not likely word about your “cool product” will spread outside her department.

   Realistically, overnight buzz success is more often over-five-years success. But there are ways to jump start it and keep it moving…

3. Create activities that accelerate the process. Buzz is a game of strategy and the most successful word-of-mouth marketing is approached from multiple fronts.
   

   Work with your influencers.

   Early adopters, opinion leaders and evangelists in your industry/market are important to word-of-mouth marketing. But don’t count on them to do all the work for you. For one thing, not everyone who falls into those categories is an influencer.

   Many companies assume that happy customers are influential in their networks. While you should include satisfied customers in your referral programs and special events, everyone doesn’t have marketing pull within his or her circle. Those who do have pull may prefer to keep your new product to themselves so they can maintain a competitive edge. Similarly, early adopters may be too “out there” to have credibility among the average members in their networks.

   The best use of your buzz time and energy is to identify the opinion leaders within your industry. You’ll find them in your trade media and associations or market analyst firms. Be sure to tap the influence of the “cool people” within your company, too. Next, strategize how you’ll introduce your product to the opinion leaders. Print, direct mail, e-mail, broadcast, out-of-home media, Web advertising, the opinion leader’s blog, special events, activities at trade shows and carefully orchestrated PowerPoint presentations all are potential ways to reach these key influencers. But remember, opinion leaders don’t automatically adopt every new product they come across. They can be early rejecters as easily as early adopters. So strategically prepare every communication with them and know when offering exclusivity will give you the most buzz leverage.

   Buzz online. Offline.

   Online technology is a powerful tool to spread buzz beyond your key influencers, but it’s not an isolated medium. How many times have you read something online, then mentioned it to someone face-to-face or over the phone and promised, “I’ll e-mail you that link”? Or you’ve read something in a magazine and e-mailed a friend to check out the publication? Successful buzz comes from conversations generated by a combination of traditional and non-traditional communication tools. When strategizing your buzz, create those combinations. Hotmail’s success wasn’t just a word-of-mouth strategy. Their success was fueled by ads strategically placed in college newspapers around the country.

   Product testing.

   Once you’re confident that you’ve worked out most of the bugs from your beta version, give it to select opinion leaders and industry journalists who review products for testing or a sneek peak. Send a personalized letter to these key influencers to invite them to try the product before it goes public. This works especially well with a journalist working on a story about new technology in your industry or an opinion leader blogging about the same. Make sure the journalist or opinion leader understands when your product will be released. After they test it, invite them to the launch and then send them the final product. This can lead to timely follow-up endorsements in future stories or on their blogs.

   Coin a phrase.

   One way to get people talking is to interject a new phrase into influential people’s lexicon. For instance, when you are searching the Internet, you “Google” it (see sidebar for a story about how many actually do). “Googling” entered every day phraseology when hip writers at New York magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the Observer caught on that influencers in the single dating scene were using Google to check out their dates’ online histories. The writers called the practice “Googling” which helped to rocket the search engine to its popular status.

   Fun=Buzz

   Most cities have celebratory/commemorative/charity events that draw key influencers. The same can be said within industrial circles where must-attend trade shows or gala events attract decision makers and media that stimulate buzz. If your product ties to the event, call the organizers and offer to help. Include your product in a show bag or as part of the decorations.

   Another show technique is to add a watermark to the sleeves of hot coffee cups or on your product give-away. Show visitors can read the watermark at kiosks which link them to your Web site and special show coupons, instant prizes, discounts or offers. People will buzz about this “cool” technology if the value of the reward is worth the effort to get it.

   If you plan a separate event to launch your product, keep three things in mind. First, strategically choose your product launch location. People are much more likely to go to trendy or must-visit places. Even if you don’t have a “cool place” nearby or within your travel budget, brainstorm places that have quirky tie-ins to your product or sites that locals and area journalists don’t normally get a chance to see inside.

   Second, make the event fun and exciting, otherwise no one, including you, will want to come. The most successful events are creative, visual and unique. In a fun atmosphere, hold a contest pitting yesterday’s technology with your new technology. Take video of your launch highlights and post it on your Web site or circulate it on the Internet to your customers. If it’s entertaining and has value they’ll pass it along.

   Third, pick the day and time of your event wisely. Tuesday evenings are often your best bet. Most journalists who write for weeklies have Wednesday deadlines. Mondays are tough to get people to attend events. Later in the week, you compete with fast-filling social calendars. Before finalizing the date, research what other newsworthy events are happening the same time as yours. The chances of your event getting coverage increase if you pick a slow media day.

Expect the importance of buzz to increase

As we post this, people are inventing easier ways for people to communicate with each other throughout the world. That means buzz marketing will keep increasing in importance. At Perry Ballard Incorporated we track those trends and marketing opportunities and develop our own fun and cost-effective ways to create buzz for our clients. To explore some innovative ways to reach your audience, e-mail Matt Harlow or call 800-800-9547.