Memes are the strongest language on the internet and can be a very useful tool in your digital marketing campaign. They are very relatable and easy to understand and are often used by marketers to engage with their audience on social media. There’s a good reason for this. A YPulse study found that 75% of millennials share memes and 38% follow meme accounts on social media.
What are memes?
A meme is a catchphrase, puns, or concept derived from popular cultures, such as a TV show or movie. In fact, the oldest “meme” dates back to 1839. This meme began in Boston among the elite society of students and later spread like wild fire throughout America. Even till today, this “meme” is one of the most common word uses in any place in the world. That “meme” is the word “OK”, which was used to mean “All Correct” in the 1830s (back then, written as Oll-Korrekt). The new word becomes popular through the newspaper, allowing newspapers to save ink and paper.
Now, you can go to any country in the world and use the word “OK”, the meaning will remain unchanged, and it is literally an international “meme” that we still use until today. None of us has specifically learned it. We just “picked it up.” Nobody had to explain what it meant to us. We somehow know through natural means. So, what if your marketing materials can have the same effect? You would no longer need to explain how your product is supposed to make the customer feel. You could reduce the use of words like “cutting-edge” and “cost-effective.” That is the marketing power of memes.
Marketing with Memes
Today, marketing with memes has become a fast-growing trend on social media platforms, as they are funny, entertaining, and easy to consume. Furthermore, memes are highly visual, making them an excellent tool for creating social media content.
This is an example of a well-known digital marketing meme to demonstrate how memes are used in digital marketing.
How can you use memes for your marketing campaign?
As mention memes are extremely relatable and effectively communicate feelings, attitudes, and situations. Here, we will discuss how you can leverage memes for your marketing plan.
Although there are no rules in marketing memes, here are some guides to keep in mind while marketing with memes.
The Memes Reflect Your Brand Identity
Memes should reflect your brand identity and core values like any marketing strategy.
If your brand is all about friendliness and warmth, a crudely humorous meme is likely to confuse and alienate your audience members. Thus, you have to understand your audience and customise the memes to suit your brand identity.
Gucci, for example, used a Renaissance painting to create this viral meme, which also embodied the luxury and good taste that Gucci stands for.
Make Relatable Memes
Connect your memes to current events that your audience is interested in to make your meme more relatable. As an example, Dominos Pizza uses the popularity of Squid Game to create meme content that is relatable and timely, which resonate well with their audience.
You should consider the purpose of your meme and how frequent you use memes for your social media marketing. Try not to overdo it; if you want your meme to be highly effective, you should use it sparingly so that the content remains relatable and fresh.
Make Your Memes Visually Appealing
Make your memes image centre rather than words to grab your audience’s attention. A good meme does not require a long text explanation. Memes stick in people’s minds for one simple reason: they need no brainpower. When you look at any meme that has gone viral, you will notice that most of the images used are not elaborate. It has one (or no more than two) objects in the image and a simple background. There isn’t a lot going on. That is why such an image can be stored in the viewer’s memory for an extended period of time.
Personalise the Trending Memes
One of the best ways to use memes in your marketing is to use memes of a current event that people are interested in (also known as meme jacking). KFC, for example, jumped on the famous “Bird Box” meme bandwagon around the time of the film’s Netflix release by depicting Sandra Bullock fighting for survival with a bucket of chicken.
“The only #BirdBox you need,” it said in the caption. It is the level of personalisation you should aim for with your memes. Likewise, you can use custom memes to personalise your sales emails or other internal communications.
Final Take Away
Memes is a powerful digital marketing tool for you to utilise to increase your engagement with your audience that improves traffic to your site and your SEO ranking. We at Big Domain also use memes in our marketing. We also provide free SEO audit (worth RM499) to our clients.
SEO can help your business reach a larger audience, rank higher in search engines, increase visibility to potential audiences, improve user experience, boost trust, and put you ahead of your competitors.
What are you waiting for? Start meme marketing today!
For further enquires contact us at go.bigdomain.my/marketing
We are more than happy to help.
