4 Best Uses of Memes in Marketing

If you have spent some time of amount on the internet, then you must have seen memes being used for fun or memes in marketing. Memes are the images that you see repeatedly over the internet. They are the captioned images that make jokes, express opinions, make comparisons, and illustrate ironies. The word meme was actually coined by an evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who defines it as “an idea, style, or something like behavior that spreads from one person to another within a culture”. Before the use of the internet, memes were used in the form of art, graffiti, and even in architecture.

It is understood that the era in which you are living in the era of technology. In this time, when the audience can skip the advertisements whenever they can, marketing with humor and jokes can engage them. Across industries, more marketers are trying to use memes in marketing to get a great number of followers. The best platform to advertise your brand in the market with the help of memes is social media.  Nowadays, memes in marketing is a trend that is becoming popular very rapidly. Following are the four reasons you must have to include memes in marketing while promoting your brand:

1. Memes are Inexpensive Content:

Memes play off of content that is created by other people so you do not need to create an original photo or video yourself. Memes in marketing actually save the time of digital marketers, small businesses, or entrepreneurs which they use in creating some original content. On the other hand, you can change the already existing meme by changing the caption or background and use it for your own benefit.  Moreover, meme-makers value the low-resolution content so you should not have to worry if you got only limited design skills.

2. Memes support a Sense of Community:

As you know, memes are meant to be funny which in turn helps to advance and increase the number of your followers. Memes in marketing can create a sense of relevance among your audience as they relate themselves to the situation which you are trying to refer to.

The rule of this is quite simple: “If you are able to make your audience laugh, then you will attract the followers and help the viewers relate to your brand”.

3. Memes based content speeds up shares:

By definition, memes are supposed to be shared so the content is often reposted across the internet to reach an even wider audience.  When people send those memes to each other or share them on social media for the laugh, they automatically express a sense of association which as a result advocates your brand.

4. Memes create or support Brand Relevancy:

Most of the time, memes are related to any current trend, situation, or event, they can make your brand more real, modern, and catchy. Memes are targeted to the present or past events, in other words, modern or cultural, that your audience knows about. It gives a feeling of authenticity and freshness. All this content makes sure to bring the community together around a common goal and makes your brand seems more relatable. You just have to check that the meme matches your brand voice.

How to use memes in marketing:

You can use memes everywhere like you can use them in email templates, social media banners, T-Shirts, flyers, greeting cards, advertisements, presentations, and the list goes on and on.  There is also a place in which you can add your meme, which is the logo of your brand. But this is not generally done by common folks as it requires a great deal of attention to creating such kind of meme. Using memes in marketing can be a little bit risky but you can use them to drive sales.

1. Know your audience:

Just like any other marketing strategy, the first step to create a good meme is to know about your audience.  For example, your brand is focusing on millennials, you should make the memes around the things they are interested in. Similarly, while marketing with memes, brands should have to create a balance between their promotions and their engagements.

2. Add originality to popular memes:

You want to engage your audience with memes but do not forget that you are using memes in marketing for the sake of marketing. You have to focus on brand awareness and you have to try hard to increase it.  It is a digital world and everyone is sharing memes on the internet. So instead of just reposting, you have to be creative with them.  You should try to understand what meme implies and then relate it with your brand or product. You should not just incorporate your brand’s name, picture, or slogan to that meme for branding purposes.

3. Use memes in the right place:

Another tip is to make sure that you use the meme in the right spot. This too is understood that for the sake of the right place, social media is an obvious choice. But you can also choose your website graphics and even blogs as meme sharing points. You should know that meme works only because the ideal audience is internet marketers who spend a lot of time online and consume a lot of memes.

4. Timing is everything

Memes in marketing come and go very quickly. One of the perks of adding memes into your designs is that you are choosing to work with a vocabulary that has got only a limited kind of shelf life. Use a declined meme and your brand looks way too odd. You have to pay very close attention to which memes are trending up and down. In short, you can say that everything is based on timings. Timelessness is a crucial factor when you are marketing with memes.

Memes in marketing can be a great way to promote your brand. They are relatable, cheap to produce, and can easily increase your brand visibility. All you need is to follow the latest trends and keep in view your targeted audience. You can also use design tools to add your brand’s name or product or slogan in the trending memes.  Use your best judgment and know that the more memes you consume, the better you will be at creating them. Go forth and meme!