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The Marketing Power of Memes During COVID-19

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Memes are many things, they make us laugh, induce outrage, and cause us to share them incessantly. As luck would have it, they can also inspire us to buy things. Engineering memes for marketing purposes is an underappreciated art form worthy of further study. Here’s everything you need to know about marketing with memes.

The Power of Imagery

Before delving into the deeper intricacies of meme marketing, it’s important to understand the power of imagery. You will also benefit from a more developed appreciation for how humans learn.

Imagery is one of the single most powerful learning tools when it comes to teaching humans. Back in the 1800s when comparatively few people in the United States could read, cartoons were often used to inform the populace on political matters rather than lengthy articles. One of the most famous cases of this is that of Thomas Nast who used cartoons to reach the people and expose the corruption of Tammany Hall.

Curiously, after a relatively brief period of high literacy, in a somewhat darkly ironic shift, the majority has moved back to learning about politics from comedic memes.

Many of these memes are shared on social media. This trend is putting an incredible, almost inconceivable amount of power in simple images paired with a handful of words. The power to shape public perception is one not to be taken for granted or overlooked. Marketing professionals would do well to harness the persuasive powers of memes to sway the minds of thousands in their favor.

If we were writing a treatise on how memes ought to be used, we’d be obliged to pepper it with cautionary warnings and doll on with sensible drivel about how to use the power of memes responsibly. However, this isn’t one of those pieces, it’s about marketing, so you’re allowed to be a little naughty. As long as you don’t use anything that would implicate deceptive advertising you’ve got a tremendous amount of creative freedom. You can and should use that freedom to generate marketing memes that convert viewers into customers.

Don’t underestimate the Persuasive Powers of Memes

Memes might sound like the silly things you get sent to you 10 times a day, but they can be much more than that. They have enormous potential to influence people and sway their decisions.

One of the most recent and most first most legitimizing use cases of memes in marketing is one posted by Gucci. The meme outlined the relationship between aesthetic taste and desire and featured an image of a woman with an array of temporary tattoos. The meme outperformed the brand’s previous post featuring the Obamas which means that it got more than 150,000 likes. The fact that a brand like Gucci got more attention from a clever meme than an Instagram post with the Obamas speaks volumes. Another one of Gucci’s Instagram memes designed to sell their watches came in close at nearly 79,000 likes.

Politicians have also locked onto how to use memes to their advantage, but here we are focusing on using memes to market brands and businesses.

Engineering Marketing Memes for Short Term and Long Term Customers

The ultimate gold mine for any business is the lifelong customer. That ideal archetype that connects with one brand and sticks with it to the grave. Yeah, we know they’re hard to find, but you can make a lot more of them relatively easily when you leverage the psychological power behind marketing memes.

If it’s Not Funny, it’s Not Effective, At Least Most of the Time

For the most part, the most effective marketing memes are ones that are funny and authentic while tying the brand in with an authentic feel. Believe it or not, this is easier said than done which is why many successful brands turn to professional digital marketing agencies to get the best results.

In the past, way back before memes officially existed, you could sell almost anything if you paired it with an image of an attractive woman. Today, for better or worse, that’s still largely true, but it’s not enough. If you want to reach a wide audience that appeals to a huge range of demographics, you’re going to need more than pretty pictures of scantily clothed women with a brief bit of text about your product.

If you think it’s going to be difficult to find a link between humor and your business, for example, if you are marketing the services of a funeral home, remember that where there’s a will there’s a way. However, it may be difficult for you to come up with ways to work in a comedic meme on your own. That’s where digital marketing agencies come in. They can take almost anything and put a comedic spin on it that will resonate with customers and drive engagement with your brand.

Now, there are also ways around comedy. After all, there are some brands that should simply can’t be taken seriously when using comedic memes. That doesn’t mean that you can’t still use them to reach your customers and increase conversions to your brand. While comedy is typically the most effective element in marketing memes, you can still get attention and be taken seriously. That’s right, when it comes to marketing memes, you can have your cake and eat it too. However, when using non-comedic memes, it is imperative to enlist the help of a digital marketing agency to get it right.

Whether you’re marketing memes employ the use of comedy or not, professional digital marketing agencies know how to maximize the impact.

Things to Consider When Planning Marketing Memes

When planning a marketing campaign involving memes you have two major options to pick from, to use pre-existing memes and tweak them to your own purposes or create new ones. When using pre-existing memes, you will have the advantage of familiarity in that people are readily familiar with it and can relate to it, but therein also lies the disadvantage. Being familiar enough to be recognized is a good thing, but it can be detrimental if it all it does is serve to make your brand and its message to blend in.

If you make a new meme, you need to be meticulous in order for it to become popular and take hold. Designing a meme might seem incredibly simple as opposed to planning a more traditional advertisement like a TV commercial. Keep in mind however, memes are more than a subtle form of advertising, they’re conversation starters. It is essential that you think of marketing memes in this way if you want to connect and resonate with customers.

Challenges aside, there is one particularly compelling advantage to crafting an entirely new meme. If successful, your meme will not only go viral but also set a new standard. It will become iconic in its own way. Successful memes can typically be reduced to a formula that consists of a catchy phrase as a base. That means that successful memes can be reverse engineered to your advantage. Want to be the one to make the most iconic meme since “Got milk”? You do if you want to take your brand to the top and experience real success.

When you harness the right combination and make a truly unique and effective marketing meme, the world is your oyster and customers will come to you in droves.

Also, be sure to stay abreast of meme culture, it is as fluid as the internet itself and changes quite rapidly. It’s important to keep up on the trends and lingo to stay relevant. Another thing that you’ll need to keep in mind is that your memes have to appeal to your niche.

Meme marketing is a form of niche marketing which means you need to know their interests inside and out. Not only do you need to know their interests, but you’ll also need to have an understanding of their sense of humor. For many business owners, attaining that level of knowledge on your niche market is impractical which is another reason why it’s vital to have a professional digital marketing firm on your team.

Why You Need a Digital Marketing Firm to Create Memes that Engage

Having the services of a talented digital marketing firm at your disposal is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity, one that you can’t afford to neglect. Businesses without a digital marketing plan won’t grow. That said, the quality and talent of the firm you work with are paramount.

Partner with a Winner, Partner with AlchemyLeads

Crafting marketing memes is an art form that takes both skill and dedication as well as a great deal of intuition and creativity. The brilliant marketing minds at AlchemyLeads have those qualities in spades. If you want it done right, you want AlchemyLeads. We know how to generate marketing memes that succeed.

Drive Growth with Marketing Memes Designed by AlchemyLeads

AlchemyLeads has the talent, creativity, and expertise to design marketing memes that will get results. If you’re looking for concierge service from a world-class digital marketing agency you’re on the right track with our company.

Connect with us today, we’ll bring the customers to you!

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