Often, people want to use Buzz Marketing techniques and they think that if there is a lot of buzz, things will just happen.

Sometimes that may be true – but more likely you will generate some interest that will quickly fade and result in little actual ROI.  However, if you craft a lead generation technique and then use Buzz Marketing to increase the exposure of your lead capture tool, you can show a huge ROI.

What this means is that you are not doing a Buzz Marketing Campaign unless it is part of a well crafted sales process.  Buzz Marketing, Social Media and Content Marketing are great for getting people to come to the top of your sales funnel and take a look.  But unless your sales process is good at generating leads and following the sales process through to a transaction, you are going to be spinning your wheels trying to grow your business on casual interest and no clear outcome.

To counter this problem, work first on perfecting your lead capture and sales process.  You can use something like aWeber to capture information and build a list.  You can get a CRM package and build a better sales process.  There are many, including SalesForce, Zoho, vTiger and SugarCRM.  I personally have used all of these and currently use SugarCRM on Bluehost and used oDesk to hire a programmer to set it up for me.

Set up was under $210 and monthly is less than $9.  Not too much to get a tool that is enabling me to grow my business very fast.

Lead Generation and Sales must be your first focus if you are looking for ways to increase revenue.  Get those processes well defined and proven, and then invest in Buzz Marketing, Viral Marketing or any other interest creating technique you want.

First, what is Buzz Marketing?

Buzz Marketing is the intentional creation of heightened visibility via media, social networks and word of mouth by doing something different and worth talking about.  Buzz Marketing has been used by companies for lead generation, membership in groups and even to increase the perceived value of the company before a purchase.

To be effective at creating leads with Buzz Marketing, you first need a clean and clear lead capture strategy.  This means that your website or blog has a clear call to action and captures the information from interested visitors.

Your sales funnel starts to get more serious when you capture that information.  Buzz Marketing is primarily used to drive people to the top of that funnel and let them decide to participate.  Depending on the buzz, the product and the offer, Buzz Marketing can be very good for client acquisition.  However, it can also be a complete waste of time if you are creating buzz and your offer does not interest the people that are coming to the website or blog.

For this reason, Buzz Marketing must be designed with the lead generation strategies in mind – so the entire thing works together wih clarity and great ROI.

Consider this.  I know someone that filled out a survey where it promised a free Wii.  Of course, it was a complete gimmick and her name and phone number was sold over and over and over, generating a huge number of phone calls for things she was not at all interested in.

Now, she will not give anyone her information on the web.

I am sure many people have had this experience.  That is why if you are doing lead generation for a company and only you will have access to the person’s contact information , it is well worth letting them know that their information will not be sold or distributed to third parties.