About BuzzStream
Influencer outreach and marketing can definitely be important when it comes to the digital marketing space. There are a lot of tools out there that claim to help with this, such as NinjaOutreach and the one we’re focusing on today, Buzzstream. Whether you’re a newly self-labeled entrepreneur just getting their feet wet in the digital marketing space, or managing an established brand, BuzzStream is a worthy web-based tool offering support for contact discovery, contact organization, mass outreach, and analytical reporting. Co-founded by current CEO Paul May, BuzzStream seeks to offer an all in one solution for public relations and marketing strategy. The goal is to minimize time spent doing the dull research and maximize time spent investing in worthy relationships and building your repertoire of backlinks.
BuzzStream Pricing
The Starter package offers services for up to two users, starting at $24 a month and increasing to $48 a month for the additional user, if needed. This level stores information for up to 1000 contacts. However, take note that this selection does not offer the ability to send bulk outreach emails or provide reporting for project and team. This package would ideally be for a single entrepreneurially minded person just beginning their digital marketing journey and in search of a service to give them a starting point while also storing their contact information for them. This isn’t quite the virtual assistant, but if organization isn’t a strong suit, this could be a justifiable monthly expense.
The Group package, also the most selected, offers service for 3 users at $99 a month. Additional users each add $33 to the monthly cost. This level stores information for up to 25,000 contacts. Note that this selection does not include team performance reporting.
The Professional package comes in at $299 a month with support for 6 users included. Each additional user adds $50 per user per month. This level offers four times the amount of contact information stored as compared to the previous plan with a total capacity for 100,000 contacts. This package does include both team performance and project reporting. With extensive reporting solutions available with this package, if executed well, this could bring in a substantial return on investment that potentially covers the cost of the service itself.
The Custom package offers a total solution for your company including all the previous features as well as a customized implementation plan and onboarding support for new team members. This package starts at $999 a month with support for 15+ partners and 300,000 contacts.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that BuzzStream offers a 14-day trial period for top tiers of the plan, up to the Professional level. The Professional plan would be a serious investment for a small company and with this feature, you’re able to try out virtually every aspect of the service and see what you can use and what would be money wasted.
Buzzstream Research
You know the well-meaning inspirational phrase “everyone starts with zero followers?” The same is true of contacts. No matter the size of your enterprise, at one point or another you stood before the metaphorical drawing board and balked at where to start. BuzzStream eliminates the need for this awkward moment and gives you the tools you need to initialize your very first contact list or add to a growing one.
Import Data
Remove the clutter and condense; BuzzStream allows users to import contact information from existing files as well as offers a space to paste collected URLs if already stored in external file such as a PDF or spreadsheet. There’s also an option to import from CSV, whether custom or a popular used site, like Moz.
Buzzmarker Browser Extension
The Buzzmarker is essentially a high-tech virtual bookmark rendered to keep track of potential contacts, easily downloaded and installed as a browser extension. To use it, simply navigate to the site of an influencer you had your sights on and deploy it to do its thing. The Buzzmarker will automatically pull all relevant information it can find from the current page and input into the info boxes on the virtual bookmark. This includes information such as website name, email addresses, and social media handles for the contact. There are additional areas that can be manually filled as well, such as website type, tags, relationship stage with prospect, overall rating of prospect, and team member assigned to prospect. The key words to note here are “current page.” The information input into the Buzzmarker is from the page you are sitting on and not indicative of all available contact information. This is a bit disappointing for me, as it would be a more efficient tool if it had the capability to sift through all related pages on a site.
Buzzmarker will stay in place as you navigate to different landing pages within a site and even if you navigate away from the site. One downside to the Buzzmarker is that while it will shift content of some (not all) sites marginally to the left to account for its presence, it does ultimately end up obscuring information while in place.
Users can also input data into their Buzzmarker by doing a quick search on Google. Easily pull data from the top returns on a SERP and navigate through each page one page at a time or if you’re feeling particularly brave, immediately add to your project contacts without in-depth review.
Discovery Influencer Database
The Discovery database is a separate service provided by BuzzStream that puts potential at your fingertips. This feature is especially useful if you want a more detailed set of results as compared to a SERP. Navigating the Discovery database is simple. Choose a niche, input it into the search bar, and hundreds of thousands (or more) of results are returned within seconds. I find the efficiency worth noting, as BuzzStream stays true to its goal of minimizing your time spent doing research and maximizing your time building relationships.
The hundreds of thousands and potentially more list of results doesn’t have to be daunting. Easily sort through the results based off factors such as Twitter followers, recent activity, domain authority, categories, or location.
Now, the evolution of influencers has really made its mark predominantly on the Instagram platform, and truth be told I’m more interested in follower from the ‘gram than I am from Twitter. BuzzStream has the opportunity to add more Instagram transparency in the future. The recent activity factor can help you filter out the inactive accounts or choose prospects based on who has specifically contributed within the past year, month, or week. Location allows you to filter results based off …from a broad search of region down to a specific city. The ability to focus on a relatively limited geographical area is useful for a marketing company aiming to home in on those relationships with local entrepreneurs and those they can potentially build a face-to-face relationship with.
One of the biggest advantages of the Discovery database is the ability to take in a quick profile of prospective influencers and their digital footprint so you can choose influencers with established followings. The quick view of the profile gives you a concise description of the influencer or website as well as immediate access to data such as number of Twitter followers and average shares per post per platform for each Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. You can add prospects directly from this quick view, or you can expand the profile for more information. When you expand the profile to long view, a sidebar appears featuring level of engagement and activity level.
Outreach
Now that you’ve collected your prospects, it’s time to start building those invaluable relationships!
Email Capability
When you set up BuzzStream, you’ll be given the opportunity to use an email address you already have in place, or you will have the option to send and receive email using an automated email alias through BuzzStream that can be connected with your personal email account.
Within your inbox, you can view sent emails, upcoming emails to be sent, paused emails, and send failures. You can narrow down the view of your inbox by selecting a specific project by which to view prospect communication, which again proves BuzzStream’s commitment to streamlining the process.
Can view inbox, sent, upcoming, paused, send failures, unmatched, as well as let you set follow-up reminders and tasks. You can easily search your inbox based off project, allowing you a streamlined visual for focusing on one project at a time versus risking distraction by other needs.
Tracking
BuzzStream offers you the ability to maximize your marketing efforts by providing a tracking service for your emails.
If you’re looking to establish which links included in your communications are effective, and which seem to fall short of attracting your prospect’s attention, you can employ tracking within communications. While creating a new email, Tracking button in the bottom left corner. You will see options to track opens and link clicks.
To see a summarized history of effective communication with a prospect, select history and review which links and emails garnered the most attention for that prospect. This ability to tailor communication based on past success allows to stop wasting your time with ineffective email campaigns and start giving the people what they really want.
BuzzStream offers the capability to track your outreach. Once you send outreach, BuzzStream will automatically update the status of the contact from “Not Started” to “Attempting to Reach.” This gives you an instant visual on who you still need to create dialogue with, and who has already been contacted.
Easy To Create Templates
Templates offer an efficient way to send mass outreach while still maintaining a touch of personal flair. When creating a template, you have the option to share with your team, to receive follow-up reminders, to be notified upon reply, and to provide a link to unsubscribe within the email.
While crafting your template, you’ll be able to choose dynamic fields that will automatically be filled in with information you have stored for each contact. If you have a contact that does not have the proper information stored to fill a dynamic field, BuzzStream will notify you and allow you to edit an email before it is sent.
Reporting With BuzzStream
Email performance reports allow you to analyze the success of your email outreach campaigns and create plans for action as needed.
Within the reports tab, you will find default reports such as Message Insights, Team Insights, Project Insights, and Projects leaderboard. Within each report are widgets. Widgets allow you view or create customized charts, as well as team performance and engagement. You have the freedom to add customized reports and customized widgets depending on your need.
Reports can be filtered by project and team member, allowing you to home in on progress and performance and create a plan of adjustment as necessary.
Uses Of BuzzStream
Scope Out The Competition
If you’re in the mood for a little secret agent work to check out the competition and identify potential performance gaps, the Buzzmarker is an efficient way to add a competitor to your list of contact information and regularly check in on their activity. The discovery feature gives you the top performers in your niche, allowing you to make a quick list of who should be in your radar, and who might just be the person to go to for business advice.
Become A Digital Marketing Entrepreneur
With the shear amount of data available to us today, having a business that involves cataloguing potentially limitless data is sure to cause a nightmare or two. And if creating effective spreadsheets isn’t exactly something you’d list on your resume, then BuzzStream offers a user-friendly solution to mass storage and organization of information.
Create Outreach To Build Effective Links And Relationships
Once you’ve collected your contacts, you can crank out mass emails in a short time period that sound both professional and individualized. With the Buzzbar employed, you can sound like you spent quality time on an influencer’s site and stand out from the mill-junkie marketing techniques. Manage successful link-building campaigns by searching contacts who have been tagged with a relevant niche for your content.
BuzzStream Alternatives
The easiest alternative to BuzzStream is simply creating a plan using your own resources to manage prospects and communications. Spreadsheets can hold contact information, and team management sites like Monday can provide a visual representation of work assigned to your delegates for a much more accessible price point, with $49 a month being the mid-range option.
Ahrefs, SEMRush, and Moz are all notable backlinking resources in the market today that also provide support with crafting effective SEO content by employing their various keyword research tools. But, while each of these will help you churn out some serious organic content, they don’t provide tools comparable to BuzzStream’s for finding influencers and managing communication.
Is BuzzStream Worth The Investment?
Overall, BuzzStream achieves what it sets out to do, which is save you time that you can apply towards what really matters for your business, creating connections. Whether the service is worth the money is up to the dedication you and your team are willing to put into it. It’s not a cheap price tag, at $299 a month for a group, that’s quite the expenditure for a service that isn’t necessary. However, if you regularly employ the services of BuzzStream to maximize time spent connecting with prospects, the sky’s the limit.
The reporting feature gives you a clear-cut way to analyze whether or not you are running an effective business and allows you the transparency to home in on aspects that are not providing the expected success, be it link placement or team members.
I wouldn’t recommend this service for a business just starting out and looking to gain traction. Save yourself the monthly cost and start learning how to use Excel. Establish expectations and follow-up procedures for your team and start building those monetary gains before you’re ready to financially join the game.
Once your business gains traction, BuzzStream can be employed to maximize your efforts in finding out what is most effective for your targets and adjust your marketing strategy from there.
Pros
- Discovery feature provides more relevant results for finding influencers versus SERP
- Buzzmarker provides useful browser extension that efficiently collects contact information
- Team performance reports allow visual charts to immediately pinpoint opportunities and achievements
- Templates and dynamic fields make for efficient email batching
- Outreach templates featuring dynamic fields streamline mass outreach
Cons
- Reports of Buzzmarker freezing some users’ pages
- Buzzmarker pulls from current page versus entire site
- Buzzmarker obscures marginal amount of content on a page while in use
- Not always a justifiable expense for just-launched small businesses
- Would need comprehensive training for team members to effectively use tool
- Reporting available only on higher tier packages
BuzzStream Review
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Buzzmarker
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Discovery Tool
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Mass Outreach
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Reporting
Summary
Have you been considering giving BuzzStream your business? BuzzStream is an influencer marketing tool whose aim is to offer an all-in-one solution to marketing strategy and public relations. With features like the Buzzmarker browser extension and more, could BuzzStream be for you? Read our review of BuzzStream now and learn the truth.