With brands vying for attention, standing out can take work. Humor in social media marketing is a great way to capture people’s interest.
Digital marketing in the Philippines is a tough competition. With several businesses vying for attention, standing out can take much work. However, humor in social media marketing is a great way to capture people’s interest.
If you want your biz to get noticed, memes can help you show your humorous side. Gone are the days when brands are overly formal when delivering their messaging. Today, businesses are using memes as one of their social media marketing techniques to capture their target customers’ attention, hearts, and, of course, money.
But should your business really adapt to the trend of using memes in your marketing efforts? Let’s find out!
What Are Memes?
Memes are funny texts, images, or videos frequently shared on social media and the internet. These types of content often generate virality because of their humorous nature. Memes generate 10x more engagement than other marketing visuals.
While memes usually get shared, some still flop. For a meme to be successful, it should be relatable, witty, and entertaining. If your meme lacks any of these key elements, people won’t share it.
7 Benefits of Using Memes and Humor in Marketing
Before, brands that used humor in social media marketing were frowned upon—saying it was cheesy and unprofessional. However, as the digital marketing landscape changes, memes have become the norm. If you’re wondering how memes can help leverage your biz, here are its benefits:
1. Memes Help Humanize Your Brand
If you have noticed, digital marketing in the Philippines is almost often so serious. But the truth is that 91% of people worldwide prefer brands to be funny. Businesses know it, but most are not delivering. Memes can help break the ice and humanize your brand, resulting in deeper connections with your target audience.
2. Memes Increase Brand Visibility
Do you have difficulty boosting your brand’s visibility? Then, create funny and entertaining posts! The effectiveness of social media marketing lies in how you adeptly engage with your audience, and memes are highly effective tools for that. Memes are highly shareable forms of content, allowing them to increase your brand’s exposure.
3. Memes Boost Engagement
Have you checked the stats of your social media content? Which types of posts have the most engagement? Most often, memes get all the love because they’re entertaining and relatable. Moreover, they’re easier to consume than long, plain texts and detailed video posts, thanks to their witty captions and bold text overlays on funny images.
4. Memes Offer a Cost-Effective Means of Marketing Your Biz
If your marketing budget is limited, you can use humor in social media marketing to reach your target audience. Based on statistics, a meme campaign delivers a higher click-through rate (CTR) than the usual forms of marketing. The average CTR in an ordinary marketing campaign is only 6%, while meme marketing is around 19%. So, if you want to maximize your reach and CTRs, strategically use memes in your social media marketing techniques.
5. Memes Help Keep Your Business Relevant
We’re not saying your business won’t stay relevant if you don’t use memes. But memes are often tied to current events and issues, the latest trends, and pop culture references. If you incorporate memes in your social media marketing techniques, your business can stay current and have the chance to capitalize on trending topics to drive more engagement.
6. Memes Make Your Brand More Memorable
People say a funny man is more attractive than a handsome guy. We also think that’s true when brands use humor in social media marketing. Statistics show that people remember a brand’s ad more if it’s funny. Adding humor to your content creates a more enjoyable experience for your target audience.
7. Memes Bring More Business
How does social media affect consumer behavior? If you show your business’s fun and creative side with the help of memes, people are more likely to patronize your products and services. And here’s the proof—according to a report, 63% of people are more likely to spend money on a brand with a humorous appeal compared to those who aren’t.
Tips for Using Memes in Your Business
If you’re now ready to use memes in your business, here are a few tips to avoid meme marketing fails:
Know Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience is always one of the first steps in creating content, memes or not. You can generate more relatable memes once you determine your audience’s demographics and interests. Most of your audience is Gen X, so avoid using millennial or Gen Z language and humor.
Keep Up with the Current Trends
Always be on the lookout for trends to make your memes timely and relevant. If you’re too late creating memes on a trending issue or pop culture, your memes won’t gain enough traction as they already missed out on the peak engagement and visibility. Moreover, if you’re too late to the trend, your audience may perceive your brand as outdated or write negative feedback.
Use Memes Sparingly
Memes are fun and powerful tools for your social media marketing techniques, but remember to use them sparingly. You might deviate from your brand’s original purpose and overwhelm your audience if you always use memes. Also, if your business is within the following sectors, such as health, legal, funeral, government, and education, it is recommended that you tone down your usage of memes.
Avoid Creating Controversial and Offensive Memes
Memes are supposed to generate fun and business, not hate. As much as possible, avoid producing memes that cover these topics even if they’re trending issues: politics, religion, cyberbullying, memes that show prejudice against LGBTQ+ communities, and other issues that may elicit insensitive humor.
Track Your Meme Performance
While we laid out the benefits of memes for a business, they might not always work. So, tracking your meme performance on your social media analytics is always important. If it doesn’t gain much traction, you may need to redevise your meme strategy or change your marketing focus.
Don’t force it
If you think using humor in social media marketing is not for you, don’t force your business to include memes in your content strategy. Forcing yourself to utilize meme marketing campaigns you know nothing about can backfire. Instead of generating laughs, you’ll be causing backlash. And instead of gaining more followers, your business will be canceled or boycotted.
Laugh a Little, Learn a Handful
Using humor in social media marketing can definitely help boost your brand’s visibility, engagement, and even sales. However, humor is entirely subjective. What’s funny to you may not be funny to others. So, don’t lose heart if your memes don’t make the waves, especially on your first try! Of course, it’s also essential to maintain your brand’s professional image while incorporating humor in your messaging.
If you want to transform your business into a fun brand but don’t know how Eight Media can help. We are a team of professional digital marketing experts specializing in content and social media marketing techniques, digital ads management, digital design creation, and web development. Please contact us if you have any queries about digital marketing in the Philippines. Visit this link and book a free consultation with us today.
