Corporate Writing Sample: Five Insanely Effective Ways to Build Better Business Buzz

Subject: Marketing
Keywords: buzz, brand, business

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Every business hopes to build a little bit a LOT of excitement and activity around their brand. You want people talking, and you want your clients and potential clients energetically engaged with and excited about your products and services.

Online buzz and inbound links not only give your brand social proof, they drive traffic to your site and have the potential to increase your conversion rates, and ultimately, your revenue.

So how do you build that buzz? How do you win those links?

You may already have solid foundational practices like publishing regular content on a business blog, article marketing, pay-per-click, a high-value newsletter, and so on. But there is a secret to cranking up the volume on good business buzz. Several secrets, in fact! Check out the following ideas and see how your business can begin to take advantage of these buzz builders as you generate marketing content.

1. Share A Secret

Who doesn’t love knowing a secret? And the truth of the matter is that most business owners really do have lots of “insider information” about their industry. Deliver a secret to your web visitors! Make it authentic, inside knowledge that brings value to your customer. They will love being in the know, and they’ll be much more likely to return for more of your product, service, and knowledge.

2. Be Outrageous

Go look at the tabloids in the grocery store or newsstand for ideas on this point. How can you create a headline that grabs people’s attention while still being relevant to your business goal? Don’t forget: being crazy for the sake of being crazy isn’t enough; your job is to connect the crazy to relevance. It can be a challenge, but it’s worth the effort.

3. Be Funny

Think of all the viral YouTube videos you’ve laughed over and passed along. I still love “Will it Blend” (see video below) and when I’m in the market for a blender I will know and look for that brand name. If you can loosen your conservative business tie enough to do something really funny, your company stands to benefit. Once again, make it relevant!

4. Use the Weird

Think Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Baby Lap Giraffes! We love the weird, and have for generations. We even love the word weird. Think of all the sidebar adds for weight loss tips and tooth whitening (“Weird tip for…”) you’ve seen. It’s used because it works.

5. Open Up the Taboo

Is there something your target market thinks you should never say or do? Find a way to break that open and use it to generate interest. Say the opposite of what people are expecting. Write a post that “debunks” a popular or closely-held belief in your industry. You don’t have to compromise your beliefs at all: a post from a social media maven called “Why I Despise Twitter” can include the things you love as well.

The trick with all these insanely effective ways of building buzz is that you have to do it all-out (don’t use half measures!) and stay relevant to your business. Give it a whirl and let us know what you discover. Who knew business could be so fun?