Internet, Software & Tools

BuzzSumo Review, Pricing & Coupon

Have you ever been searching for content to share on your social media platforms or in your email newsletter? Perhaps you want to share curated content for the benefit of your followers instead of only sharing your own blog posts.

Or, are you looking for influential content creators you can collaborate with? Whether you are looking for social media influencers or bloggers who you can write guest blogs for in order to get backlinks that can boost your SEO, BuzzSumo might be for you.

BuzzSumo is one of the best content research and influencer marketing platforms. Today, we’ll be reviewing BuzzSumo, its features, the cost of using the platform, and current discounts.

What Is Buzzsumo?

BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool for researching the best content and finding the best influencers on the internet.

BuzzSumo is a tool for finding influencers you can work with and content you can share. According to their website, they work with some of the most well-known bloggers and brands in the digital marketing industry, including Expedia, Hubspot, Buzzfeed, and The Telegraph.

BuzzSumo is a reliable tool for competitor intelligence, content strategizing, digital PR, influencer marketing, video marketing, and crisis alerting.

You can use BuzzSumo via the website, and it also features a Chrome extension and an API.

It’s a freemium platform with a limited – 10 searches per month – free plan. Nevertheless, you can also try the premium plans for free, for 30 days without any commitment. You don’t need to provide credit card details.

Let’s go through some of BuzzSumo’s best features.

Finding Content

BuzzSumo makes it easy to discover the most popular trending content on the internet. There are a number of things you can do with this information.

For example, imagine you want to create blog posts but have run out of ideas. Sometimes, your mind just goes blank and you experience something known as writer’s block.

By looking at the trending blog posts, you can come up with ideas related to that content.

The same goes for social media posts – just look at the social media posts that have the most engagement to come up with ideas for what to post on social media.

Another reason why you might want to find out what is currently trending on social media or what the most popular blog posts are is to find out what content people are interested in.

If you want your social media posts to get shared or your blog posts to rank high on Google, they need to be intriguing to people.

If you monitor posts that are currently trending or getting a lot of engagement, you can quickly jump onto viral content and social media trends before others do. This can help you go viral, get more followers on social media, and increase your engagement rates.

To start searching for content, simply type a keyword or term into BuzzSumo’s search engine. You will get a list of the top blog posts, as well as information such as how many shares and how much engagement they each got on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, and more – including their total shares across the entire web and an overall score.

You can then save any blog post to a list or project.

Results can be filtered by different metrics or by periods of time – for example, you can search only for results from the past week, past 24 hours, or only those in a certain language. You can also export the entire results list.

Click on the Analysis tab to get more detailed statistics and reports about your results.

The analysis section also lets you compare different topics and niches. For example, you can compare the topic “human resources” with “employee engagement” – BuzzSumo will analyze thousands of articles related to each topic and show you how much engagement each topic got.

Your searches can be further filtered by narrowing down your search phrases. You can search for several keywords at once, search for content that contains an exact phrase, exclude content that contains certain negative keywords, and more.

You can search not only for web content and blogs but also for Facebook posts. This is in a separate tab on the search page – just search for any keyword to unlock content and posts on Facebook.

There is even a backlinks search section. Type in any URL or domain and you will get a list of backlinks for this domain.

This is useful for your link-building campaigns. If you want to get backlinks, what better way to find good backlink sources than to find out who has given backlinks to your competitors?

Type in a competitor’s website and see which websites (or types of websites/blogs) they have backlinks from. Then, you can reach out to those websites and see if you can get backlinks from them as well (through guest posts, for example).

Topics

The topics section makes it easy to find new topics and content ideas. If you ever find it difficult to find ideas to talk about, this makes it easy for you by giving you instant access to thousands of topic ideas.

You can also gather in-depth insights from existing content to see which ideas are worthwhile and can bring engagement.

All you have to do is type in a keyword into the search bar. This can even be a single word, such as “content.”

You will instantly get content ideas pulled from articles and sites around the web. You can also quickly view a list of article titles and questions.

Each topic will come with relevant sub-topics. This way, you can write highly niche-related content.

If you find your industry to be already saturated with the same kind of content, you can try narrowing down the topics you talk about so that you can target long-tail keywords and topics that aren’t talked about that much.

For example, if you type in a topic such as content marketing, you might get recommended related topics or subtopics such as Google Analytics, content strategy, and content writing.

Here are more examples of “niching down,” from the BuzzSumo blog:

Social media marketing
Facebook marketing
Facebook Live
Facebook Advertising
AB testing Facebook ads
Average Facebook ad spend for an SMB
Saving money on Facebook ads as an SMB
Which type of ad goal is the best value for an SMB
Creating a lead gen ad for an SMB

You might find the Question section useful as well. A tried-and-true method of figuring out which content people are interested in is looking at what is being asked on question-and-answer sites such as Quora, Reddit, Ask.com, and Yahoo Answers.

If you know what people are asking, you can find out what is bothering them. You can discover what problems consumers are facing and the solutions they would like to see, as well as what kind of content stirs people up and catches their attention.

The Question section will show you relevant questions for any keyword or topic. This is also a great way to get content ideas. For example, if you see many people asking similar questions, you can write a blog post about that question and present answers.

You can even use the questions as your blog post titles – this can help you get better rankings and increase your organic traffic.

Finding Influencers

Finding influencers you can work with is also easy with BuzzSumo. You can find influencers on several platforms.

Use the Twitter tab to search for influential Twitter accounts. Type in keywords to find profiles that include those keywords or talk about those topics – you can search for profiles that shared content about a topic or from a certain news source or website.

As before, keyword searches can be narrowed down to exclude negative keywords or include only exact phrases. Results can also be filtered based on time, location, and more.

Once you complete your search, you will get a list of Twitter accounts, along with their complete profiles.

You will see stats such as each influencer’s website’s domain authority and page rank, their follower count, how many times they have been retweeted, how many times their tweets get shared on average, how often their tweets get replies, and more.

You can follow accounts on Twitter straight from your dashboard. You can also add them to your Twitter lists – Twitter allows you to add people to lists without following them to organize your feeds.

You can then message Twitter influencers and focus on building relationships with them.

There is also a Facebook tab. Here, you can find people and pages that are influential on Facebook, as well as insights into their follower count, reach, and engagement rates.

However, BuzzSumo doesn’t just help you find influential social media users. You can also find influential bloggers.

Type in any keyword to find influential people. Their profiles will show information such as how many articles they have published on their blog and around the web and their total engagement rates.

Monitoring

The monitoring section lets you track a lot of things in real-time.

For example, you can set it up so that you get a list of the most recent instances when you or your brand was mentioned online. This way, you can see bad reviews or reports and respond to them in real-time; it is important to have a proactive reputation management strategy.

If you see that you were mentioned online but were not linked to, consider reaching out to the blogger who mentioned you and gently asking for a backlink. You may be surprised by how many times your request will be granted (after all, it doesn’t cost them anything).

You can also see when your competitors have been mentioned or linked to. This can help give you ideas for where to get backlinks from or who to write blog posts for.

It can also help you stay on top of your competitors’ PR campaigns.

You can also follow authors or topics you are interested in. You will get notified whenever they produce new articles.

This can help you get content ideas, as well as simply learn new information and discover new trends as they come out.

Finally, you can keep an eye out for any backlinks. This not only helps you track your good backlinks, but it helps you find bad backlinks – you can discover when competitors are trying to set up a lot of low-quality backlinks to ruin your SEO scores and get your website penalized.

Projects

The Projects section makes it easy to manage your projects. If you want to save a lot of content but find it difficult to organize them, this tool can help.

You can save content to different projects and lists so you never lose them again. You can also export your data into different workstreams.

Competitor Intelligence

BuzzSumo is a great tool for analyzing your competitors and spying on their content marketing strategies. You can analyze their content to figure out which content works best, which content gets the most shares, who is sharing their content, and more.

By typing in your competitors’ domains, you can get a lot of information, such as who is writing for them, which blogs are linking to them, who is working for them, and much more.

You can even set up alerts so that you get notified right away if a competitor of yours is mentioned online.

You will get charts and a central dashboard to see your competitors’ performance over time quickly.

Reputation Management

BuzzSumo’s alerts can also help you manage and protect your brand’s reputation. Set up alerts so that you get notified whenever you, your brand, or your competitors are mentioned.

You will be the first to know of any news updates, crises, or anything else, such as a bad blog review.

You can then track new developments and see if any news update is going viral, how many hits an article or search term is getting, and more.

Whether there is an executive scandal breaking, company drama leaking out, critical industry news coming out that could affect your business, or anything else, you will never be in the dark.

You can even use this as a way to find out when your competitors are having a bad day. If they are getting negative reviews or there is negative press about them, you can use that to your advantage.

Public Relations

BuzzSumo makes your PR campaigns much easier and simpler. You can find out who is writing the big headlines for the largest news sources so you can reach out to them.

You can also share reports with team members.

Resources

BuzzSumo has a blog with tips and advice on how to use their tools effectively and how to boost your content marketing campaigns. There is also a help center with help articles for different categories related to using their tools.

Developers will find the API Docs useful for setting up APIs.

There is also a Webinars section, with webinars covering everything from getting started with BuzzSumo to expert advice on how to be more successful in your influencer marketing campaigns.

BuzzSumo Pricing

BuzzSumo has four pricing plans. The plans are as follows:

Free

With a free account, you can conduct only 10 free searches every month just to get a feel for how the tools work. However, you can not use all of the search tools – only some of them; in addition, your results will be limited and you will only be able to see the first few results.

However, you can try out all of the tools for free by signing up for a free trial.

Pro

$99 per month for monthly subscription, or $79 per month for annual subscription

Unlimited searches, five alerts, one year of data, up to five users, up to fifty monthly exports, unlimited projects, 10 trending feeds, content analysis reports, and domain reports

Plus

$179 per month for monthly subscription, or $139 per month for annual subscription

10 alerts, up to 10 users, up to 150 monthly exports, unlimited projects, up to 20 trending feeds, and access to the question analyzer search tool and the top author search tool

Large

$299 per month for monthly subscription, or $239 per month for annual subscription

30 alerts, up to two years of data, up to 15 users, up to 200 monthly exports, up to 30 projects, up to 50 trending feeds, and access to the Facebook analyzer tool and the advanced trending filters

Note: BuzzSumo has an enterprise plan starting at $499/month. This custom plan is designed for your business, with up to five years of data

BuzzSumo Discount Codes And Coupons

The following are discounts you can get on BuzzSumo plans.

30-day Free Trial

You can get a 30-day free trial on any plan. Just go to the pricing page and click the “Start Trial” button under any plan.

You don’t need any credit card information to sign up.

20 Percent Discount on Yearly Plans

If you sign up for yearly billing, you can get a 20 percent discount on any plan. Pricing will be as follows:

$79/month instead of $99/month for the Pro plan
$139/month instead of $179/month for the Plus plan
$239/month instead of $299/month for the Large Plan

Again, just go to the pricing page to sign up.

40 Percent Discount for NGOs and Charities

If you are a legally registered NGO or charity, you can get a 40 percent discount on any plan. Using BuzzSumo, you can find trending content to share with potential donors, discover influencers who can promote your cause, and get alerts about important news updates.

To get a coupon code that you can use when inputting your payment information, contact the BuzzSumo team.

30 percent Discount for Educational Institutions

If you operate an educational institution, such as an elementary school or university, and you want to use BuzzSumo to promote your school or to promote education, you can get a 30 percent discount.

Again, contact BuzzSumo for a special coupon code you can use at checkout.

Other Discount Codes

These are all the discount codes that we have been able to find that are current and working. However, BuzzSumo sometimes has other discounts and promotions.

Keep your eye out for any other possible promotions and codes that may come out during holiday seasons or other special occasions.

BuzzSumo Pros

Simple to use
Multiple filter options
Vast database
Multiple customization options
Monitoring and updates
Exporting
Free plan
30-day free trial

BuzzSumo Cons

Expensive
Influencer research focuses more on Twitter

BuzzSumo Ratings

1. Ease of use

BuzzSumo is a simple tool to use. New users can sign up using their email address or Facebook. Also, anyone can also perform free searches on the website without signing up.

Furthermore, the dashboard is intuitive with quick-reach tools. With all these, I rate BuzzSumo 4.5/5 stars for ease of use.

2. Features

BuzzSumo has the primary features that a content marketing tool should have. It features a content discovery tool, a content research tool, an influencer research tool, and a monitoring tool.

In addition, there’s a Chrome extension and an API. Hence, I rate BuzzSumo 4.3/5 stars for its features.

3. Pricing

Unlike other free BuzzSumo alternatives, BuzzSumo offers a free account, but it doesn’t support much. Premium plans start at $99 per month, which is relatively expensive.

Users can save 20 percent and pay $948 per year ($79 per month). However, the price is still high. Therefore, I give the platform 3.5/5 for its price.

4. Customer Support

BuzzSumo features a help center, a blog, webinars, in-depth research and insights. Users can reach the support team directly using the contact form, by sending an email, or by using LiveChat when logged in. I rate the platform 4.0/5 for customer support.

Is BuzzSumo Legit?

BuzzSumo was launched in 2014 and has now become a widely used content marketing tool. Many digital marketers and agencies attest to it as a reliable platform for brand monitoring, content creation, and growth.

In numbers, over 3 million influencers use BuzzSumo, and the platform archives millions of new articles per day.

Furthermore, BuzzSumo is currently a part of Cision. With all of these, there’s substantial evidence that BuzzSumo is a legit platform.

Wrapping It Up

BuzzSumo is a great software to stay on top of the most popular content around the web. It’s a great tool to have in your content marketing strategy arsenal.

If you want to get ahead of your competitors, you need to have a content marketing strategy. By always being on top of the latest trending content, you can stay one step ahead in your industry.

With BuzzSumo, you can also build relationships with various influencers who can help you reach new people who would otherwise never have heard of you. The more mentions and backlinks you get, the more brand recognition you will have (not to mention a stronger SEO ranking).

Go to BuzzSumo today to try out some of their tools by creating a free account, or log in to start your free trial. If you are a non-profit, don’t forget to ask for a special discount code before your trial is up.

Tom Clayton

Tom loves to write on technology, e-commerce & internet marketing. I started my first e-commerce company in college, designing and selling t-shirts for my campus bar crawl using print-on-demand. Having successfully established multiple 6 & 7-figure e-commerce businesses (in women’s fashion and hiking gear), I think I can share a tip or 2 to help you succeed.

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