Creating a Marketing Buzz Around Your Product, Service or Website

Creating a marketing buzz around your product, service, or website is essential if you wish to have any level of success in business. Think about all the successful companies that have experienced rapid growth and you can easily see they all burst onto the scene with a significant amount of buzz driving their marketing efforts.

Tip: A well–known example is Dropbox, which initially grew through referral buzz rather than paid ads — users invited friends because it felt exclusive and rewarding.

While it’s relatively simple to just perform SEO and generate traffic from search engines, most of the time you’ll be getting sterile traffic that really doesn’t help build your brand. Word of mouth is the most important form of advertising. While you do want any potential customers to use or buy your products and services, what you really want is for people to be talking about you, telling their friends about you, and spreading your message.

Tip: A case study from Zomato India showed that humorous social media posts increased mentions by 10X within 48 hours without paid media.

Sounds great… but… how do you create a marketing buzz?

Here are 8 tried and true tactics that can be employed when trying to create a marketing buzz around a product, service, or website.

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1. Write a Press Release

Using the internet, it’s possible to maximize low-cost PR campaigns using press release services from websites like PRWeb and Free Press Release. A well-received press release can be one of the easiest ways to get your marketing campaign going viral. Be sure to check out Writing an Effective Press Release if you’re going to use this method.

Tip: Startups like UrbanClap (now Urban Company) used press releases during funding announcements to attract media coverage and early customers.

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2. Engage Bloggers

Bloggers are a critical part of creating a marketing buzz. What could be better when trying to get people to spread the word than having bloggers write about your brand? The downside is that bloggers often only write about what they feel like writing about. One thing you can do is contact bloggers who have written about products or services similar to yours in the past and see if you can arrange a review.

Tip: Indian skincare brand Mamaearth used micro-influencer blogs to reach moms; this was a major driver of their early adoption.

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3. Use Social Media

Trying to create a buzz about your product or service without using social media spells certain disaster these days. Over the last half decade, social media has grown to epic proportions with nearly all internet users using one social site or another. It’s important to identify your brand using social media and keep your fans and followers engaged. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube can enhance your branding with a personal touch that keeps your customer base close at hand.

Tip: Small cafés in Delhi used reels during COVID to promote takeout; several reported 30–50% sales increase in 2 months.

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4. Advertise on Websites

Tried and true, advertising always plays a key role in brand recognition as well as creating a buzz. It’s important to identify potential advertising opportunities that are tailored to your brand. One good place to begin is Google Ads where you can review different sites based on various criteria to select a match that’s right for you.

Tip: A classic case is Myntra, which used retargeting ads to comeback from cart abandonment, boosting sales dramatically.

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5. Mobile Marketing

If you’re not using mobile devices as part of a successful marketing strategy, you’re missing out on one of the fastest-growing segments of internet activity. Two ways to exploit this emerging market are by creating a mobile version of your website and/or creating a specialized app for your brand.

Tip: Domino’s India shifted focus from web orders to app-based orders and grew revenue 70% from mobile alone.

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6. Contests and Sweepstakes

Nothing works better to reach potential customers than holding a contest or sweepstakes. While they can be very effective, the downside is that a majority of the people who sign up will have no other interest in your brand other than what they might be able to get for free. This is why it’s important to subscribe entrants into an opt-in email list for future marketing efforts.

Tip: Local D2C brands often giveaway sample packs; many later convert 5–15% of participants into paying customers.

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7. Email Marketing

If you’re not building an email marketing list for your brand, you might as well forget ever creating real buzz. Email marketing has proven very effective and the potential to reach customers is unparalleled. If you’re doing any type of email marketing, you’ll want to make sure you respect your recipients and allow them to opt-out. It is also recommended to use a service such as Aweber to maximize receipt rate and help track campaigns.

Tip: SaaS brand Freshworks scaled from 50K to 7M users using email nurturing + free trials.

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8. Affiliate Marketing

Creating a buzz for your brand has never been easier than starting an affiliate program around products or services. Think about it — affiliates who are promoting your offers will blog about it, spread it on social media, take out PPC ads, and do all types of marketing to earn a commission. Companies like Amazon, eBay, Overstock, and many more have turned their affiliate programs into a cornerstone for internet-based marketing.

Tip: Indian EdTech platforms like Unacademy grew rapidly by offering influencers referral commissions.

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Final Thoughts

Creating a marketing buzz using the methods listed above might not be the simplest approach, but if you’re diligent and follow through on your efforts, chances are you will generate sufficient buzz to get your brand some recognition.

Tip: In early-stage startups, a combination of PR + influencer outreach + email often delivers the fastest ROI.