One of the best ways to save money in marketing is by creating a buzz. Buzz marketing gets people talking about you. The more people talk about you, the more they learn about you. However, you have to have control over what people say about you. You want them saying good things about your company. Last time we talked about the six buttons for creating buzz. These six things push people’s buttons and work repeatedly to get conversations started. The six areas include the taboo, (sex, lies, and bathroom humor), the unusual, the outrageous, the hilarious, the remarkable, and the secrets, both revealed and unrevealed.

So now that you know about the six buttons, how do you make them work for you? How do you capitalize on the buzz you have created? That’s what we’re going to discuss next. In order to make this buzz marketing take off we need to get the attention of the media. With media attention, you can see a six-fold increase in the traffic to your website, or to your phone. Would you like to have your phone ring six times as often as it does now?

In the past when I’ve written about PR, I wrote the kind of stories that the media picks up. The most frequently written about stories include: • The weak battling the strong story

• The outrageous story

• The big controversy story

• The celebrity story

• Hot topic stories.

So how do you use this to your advantage? Are you the little guy in town trying to make a name for yourself? Is the big company in town doing its best to take you down? If so, you have your David and Goliath angle to play. Have you done something outrageous like paint all of your trucks pink with purple polka dots? If you have, you may have an angle for a story. Do you have a celebrity angle? WaterFurnace finally got around to making its Jeff Gordon TV commercials. Have you done installs for celebrities in your town? What about the hottest stories in your town, is there any way for you to capitalize on it and use it to get recognition for your company?

If you are creating a good word of mouth buzz and you can capture the attention of the local media, and you can get them to write about you, your recognition will go through the roof! Ultimately, if the media starts telling your story, more people will listen, because it’s the local newsperson talking about you and it is not an advertisement. The local news people lend their credibility to your story, creating an even greater interest in your company. We’ve all seen the story of the homeless alcoholic with the fantastic radio voice, once the media picked up his story; he almost instantly received job offers and a place to live. That’s the power of the media, when they are on your side.

It takes intestinal fortitude to try something different. You have to be willing to take a risk in order to stand out from the crowd. If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over, and over, and over again and expecting different results. Here’s the challenge; move out of your comfort zone and try something different. Appear controversial, appear spontaneous, but plan it all out, then work your plan. Few things happen by accident.

We will continue this topic next time and discuss ways to use advertising to generate maximum attention. We’ll also talk about ways to avoid the ever-increasing clutter in advertising media. In addition, we’ll discuss locating uncluttered media to use to help drive your message for greatest impact. If done correctly buzz marketing can generate huge amounts of interest for your company.

I’ll answer your marketing questions here. Email your questions to andy@fracicaenterprises.com.

My website contains links to all the articles I’ve written for the HVAC-Talk Newsletter. If you want your marketing efforts pay big dividends, contact a marketing professional. I’m available to assist you in all of your marketing efforts. If you need a branding consultation, a complete strategic marketing plan, or help with lead generation, call or send an email to discuss your needs.

Andy Fracica is president and CEO of Fracica Enterprises, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in marketing, PR, social media, and lead generation strategy. He has over 30 years of sales, marketing, and product management experience in the heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) industry. He concentrates on helping manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and startup companies deliver their message in an ever increasingly crowded market by showing them how to do more with less($). Contact him at 260-338-4554, andy@fracicaenterprises.com or visit the website www.fracicaenterprises.com.