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There’s hardly anyone who can resist funny images, which is why memes are so engaging to audiences, especially the Millenials. Social media channels are used by over 3.6 billion people, and around 60% of them are used for funny memes.
Memes do not just speak to the Millenials but people of all ages. Since there are different types of people represented on social media platforms, memes are considered a good way of engaging these audiences. So, what was once a trend for Gen Z and the Millenials has now evolved as an effective way for brands to inform about their business.
Let us now have a look at how you can use memes for marketing your products and services:
Always Try Creating Original Memes:
It is difficult to create original memes because you will have to source the right material for your meme, come up with a format, and put in a relatable commentary. This will take a lot of creativity, time, and energy. But the result of this hard work is you will create shareable content that brings brand recognition.
For example, you can transform a hilarious clip into a looping video or a GIF. If you are dealing in physical products, display the product in unexpected use cases. If you have a product that the customers can click photos with, you can get permission from the community to use their videos and photos. Conversely, you can even shoot the entire content on your own.
Take inspiration from Tooth & Honey, a pet accessory brand that used original memes for business marketing. And yes, it gets the scope to be original with its meme because dog memes are pretty popular.
Animals are well-known meme subjects. Therefore, dog-related brands like Tooth & Honey find it easier to engage with that specific meme community without any controversy. Since dog owners like following dog-related social content, the shareable and funny memes by Tooth & Honey attracted the pet owners organically.
Have the Basics Right
Getting the basics of creating memes right means understanding what goes into making the perfect memes. First of all, be clear about the different types of memes you can create.
There are different ways of creating memes, whether with screenshots, videos, GIFs, or photos. Try experimenting with them to see what the users are reacting to most strongly.
Then comes the crucial part of choosing fonts for your meme. It is best to use Helvetica Neue or Montserrat as they are the standard meme fonts used these days. However, creators also use Comic Sans, Arial, and other meme fonts in varied contexts.
When choosing the right style for your meme, consider rounded corners, embedded text, and emojis. People who watch memes a lot are used to these visual elements; hence they will instantly recognize your meme. Just use the right meme templates to create memes that take your brand marketing to the next level.
Stay Relevant with Your Memes:
If you find an opportunity that you can make relevant to your brand, just go for it. Remember, you cannot force-fit the opportunity if it does not work for your brand’s voice or the audience.
Take the example of Kai Collective, a clothing brand in London that created its version of the Black Wojak meme that spread throughout the internet like wildfire in 2020. The main concept of this meme was one black girl meeting another black girl and the two bonding over something.
Kai Collective used the meme concept to highlight one of its products- a printed top. They took the meme game one step ahead by not just adding text to the already-popular meme but by also adding its clothing to the meme and making it truly relevant.
Try Staying Right on Brand:
Creating a consistent brand persona and sticking to it is crucial to succeeding with meme marketing. Regardless of what you are trying to do with your business memes, always remain consistent. Failing to do so you might risk confusing the audience. Here’s a perfect, consistent meme marketing example from Purity Coffee, an organic coffee brand from Greenville, South Carolina.
Since memes provide a good scope of highlighting problems that a brand can address or resolve, the coffee brand used its memes to educate its target audience on problems its products could solve. The brand thus enhanced the value of its product in the process.
Repost Appropriate User-Generated Memes:
Since memes are created to be shared, the meme makers accept and encourage others to repost their content. In other words, marketers can re-share and re-gram memes directly. However, double-checking the memes before re-sharing them is vital to ensure you are re-sharing them legally.
Runner’s World, a globally circulated magazine for runners, reposted a swear jar meme from the smaller runner accounts with proper credits in the caption. Thus, this meme re-sharing idea brought the publishers more exposure and good content.
Make a Joke but Avoid Being a Joke:
You can make a funny meme but only to the extent that the fun does not get lost, and you become a joke yourself. Memes are jokes for sure. And that’s the reason why they do not make perfect marketing content for all businesses.
If you are a fun and jokey brand, use memes for your product marketing to make the audience laugh and engage with you. But you must be very careful; otherwise, you will find the audience laughing at you.
The key here is being self-aware when using memes in your marketing design. If your products and services allow you to include memes in your design, well and good. But if the fun element of a meme has nothing to do with your products and services, better not to use meme marketing.
Final Thoughts:
Memes can serve as useful marketing tools for businesses, but only if they are done right. They will not only help you in reaching new audiences but will also give your brand a face through their humor element. You can use memes to connect with the audiences without worrying about content frameworks and keywords.
