What do you expect from your social media strategy?
Social media strategy aims to generate more engagement and drive conversations around your brand, get more followers and convert your existing ones into your customers, and to have a strong digital presence.
The objective and expectations from our social media accounts for the brands are universal. The trends and the content help us achieve them! One such trend is meme marketing and we can say with utmost surety that this is NOT a passing trend.
Today memes have become a part of our daily lives. For better or for worse, a lot of people get their daily dose of ‘funny’ from scrolling through and engaging with and sharing memes on the internet.
Moreover, it has become a part of our culture and is sometimes even used to convey an impactful or thoughtful message or even by activists to make a point. ‘Memes’ is a language, no kidding!
But did you know that memes first came into existence 25 years ago?
YES! The first meme that got viral was in the mid-90s, for some people it was before the internet came into existence for them.
At that time too people loved sharing the memes with their friends and colleagues via emails and messages. The first meme to go viral was the Dancing Baby in 1996 and everyone was going gaga over it.
Now let us talk about how to leverage this ‘never dying, always growing’ trend to grow your brand or business online.
We know that even big brands like Netflix, Tinder, Zomato, and many more are including meme marketing as a part of their social media strategy to generate engaging and interactive content, in some cases meme marketing is the whole strategy.
Why do you need Meme Marketing?
Because everyone is doing it. ❌
Because that is what your audience is interested in, this is what your audience inhales and exhales; when they are on social media.
Here are 9 reasons for you to leverage meme marketing to grow on social media.
Memes give your brand more visibility
Memes are like pizza; everyone loves them and they are super easy to share! When they share your content with friends, they basically help you to leverage their network, in getting more engagement and traffic, in gaining more followers and in getting more reach and visibility.
Hence, Meme marketing should be a part of your strategy, without any doubt.
All you need to do is understand how much weight memes should have in your all-over content and social media strategy. Here are some stats to help you with a better strategic approach to memes marketing.
MEME STATISTICS
- Over 60% of people say they would be more likely to buy from a company that uses memes in their marketing
- The click-through-rate (CTR) of a meme campaign is 14% higher than email marketing
- CTRs in an average marketing campaign are approx. 6%, whereas in meme marketing is roughly 19%
- Memes have about ten times more reach with 60% per cent organic engagement than regular marketing graphics
- The average millennial looks at 20-30 memes every day
- In 2020, the global meme industry was valued at $2.3 billion and is projected to grow to $6.1 billion by 2025
Source: https://www.amraandelma.com/meme-statistics/
Memes can be used to incite the desired emotions
In marketing, emotions are a powerful tool. Memes give your brand an opportunity to create a connection with the audience by tapping into their emotions in a humorous, light-hearted, and relatable way.
For example, let’s say you are promoting a new product and wants to create a sense of excitement and anticipation while communicating its purpose.
You could create a meme that shows someone eagerly waiting for something to arrive, with the text “When you’re waiting for your new product to arrive like…” or show how the arrival of the product solves a problem.
On the other hand, if you want to create a sense of empathy and understanding, you could use a meme that shows someone feeling overwhelmed or stressed out. This will make your audience feel heard and seen.
In conclusion, memes are a universal tool for articulating emotions in a way that is relatable, engaging and fun. By using memes brands can tap into their audience’s emotions and create a strong connection with them.
So, let your emotions run wild and free; embrace the power of memes!
Memes can be used to create a community
Memes have become a cornerstone of the Internet, and have the power to bring people together and create a sense of community. By using memes in your marketing strategy, you can induce a sense of community and create a loyal audience that relates to and engage with your content.
One of the ways that memes create a sense of community is through shared experiences.
Memes often reflect common experiences or trends. When people see a meme that they can relate to, it creates a sense of camaraderie, and are more likely to share ahead with their friends who would also relate to the experience.
This creates a sense of belongingness. This helps create a positive association with your brand and make your audience more likely to engage with your content.
In summary, memes are a powerful tool for creating a community.
By tapping into shared experiences, using humor, and creating meme content that reflects the experiences, values, and beliefs of your target audience, you can create a sense of alignment and shared identity.
Memes increase engagement and reach.
Memes are like the class clown of the internet – they are funny, entertaining, and always grabbing people’s attention. This is why they are an incredibly powerful tool for increasing engagement and being sharable content, it is increasing your reach too.
Memes help to humanize your brand. By using memes that reflect your brand’s personality and values, you can create a more relatable and approachable image for your brand. This builds trust with your audience and make them more likely to engage with your content.
Memes can be used to drive traffic to your website or the landing page.
By creating a meme that includes a call-to-action or a link to your website, you can encourage your audience to visit your website or follow your social media channels. This can help to increase your online presence and generate more business.
Memes can help you get ahead of the competition.
Social media platforms are crowded, and if your brand is a startup or in not that popular in the digital space, creating good content will not cut it. You need to roll out GREAT content pieces and be consistent with it.
Define your brand’s personality and if humorous and witty are one of the traits, put your trust into memes to establish that via your content.
If your brand targets genZ and/or millennials talk to them through memes to get their attention!
Memes can be used to create a brand identity and build brand awareness.
By using memes that reflect your brand’s personality and values, you can create a more memorable and recognizable image for your brand, building more trust with the audience. Trust and connection is what make them prefer your brand to your competition.
Another way that memes can help you stand out from the competition is through creativity.
Memes are a versatile form of content that can be customized to suit your brand’s personality and style.
By creating unique and creative memes that reflect your brand’s values and messaging, you can create a distinct image for your brand that sets you apart from the competition.
Memes help to create a more personal connection with your audience.
By using memes that reflect the interests and values of your target audience, you create a more relatable and approachable image for your brand.
This help to build trust with your audience and make them more likely to choose your brand over the competition.
Finally, memes can also be used to reinforce your brand’s identity and make it more recognizable to your audience. This can help to create a lasting impression and set your brand apart from the competition.
Memes can be used to promote products and services.
Memes are not just about making people laugh, they can also be used as a powerful marketing tool to promote products and services. Memes catch people’s attention and quickly convey messages, making them an effective way to promote your brand’s offerings.
One way that memes can be used to promote products and services is by using them to highlight the benefits or features of the product.
By creating a meme that showcases the unique selling points of your product and how it solves a problem for your consumers, you can quickly and easily communicate why someone should choose your product over the competition.
Another way that memes can be used for promotion is by using them to announce new products or services.
Memes can create excitement and buzz around your new offering, making it more likely that people will want to learn more about it and ultimately purchase it. You can use memes to create a sense of urgency around your product or service to drive sales.
By using memes that convey a limited-time offer or promotion, you encourage your audience to act quickly.
Memes are easy to create.
What do you need to create memes? Well, you need to consume meme content to begin with, this helps you to understand what kind of content you target audience is engaging with and what meme is going viral or the trend.
You would need a graphic designer or a graphic design tool like Canva to make the memes.
The best part is that you have a vast pool of images, gifs, video snippets, etc available on the internet for you to download and use in your meme content. If you have a knack for sarcasm, funny one-liners or pjs then creating relatable witty texts should not be difficult and you can always look up to the AI tools to assist you.
Memes usually have a very simple template, it is the magic of the image or gifs you use with witty text that does the magic by adding text to gifs. You can roll out more content in a short span of time and keep your audience engaged.
Memes are cost-effective.
In marketing, one of the biggest challenges any business face is to target their audience drilling a hole in their pockets. Memes can be a great solution to this problem. Not only are memes easy to create, but they are also cost-effective, making them a great option for businesses of all sizes.
One of the reasons that memes are so cost-effective is that they require minimal resources to create. Unlike traditional marketing campaigns that may require a team of designers, copywriters, and marketers, all you need to create a meme is a little bit of creativity and a
smartphone or computer.
This makes memes an accessible and affordable way for businesses to promote their products or services. Another reason that memes are cost-effective is that they have the potential to go viral. When a meme resonates with your audience, they are more likely to share it with their friends and followers. This means that businesses can target a larger number of people with minimal investment.
In addition to being cost-effective to create, you can use memes to repurpose your existing content. By adding a humorous take on the existing content, businesses can create a meme that is both funny and relevant to their audience. This can save time and resources while still creating engaging content.
Finally, memes can be a great way to generate user-generated content. By encouraging your audience to create and share their memes related to your brand, you can increase engagement and generate buzz around your products or services.
Memes can turn your audience into your fans.
Scrolling on social media gives a dopamine boost to most of people; it an escape. They stumble upon some content that gets them or their situation, they are more likely to engage. Taking a humorous take on life has become a way of expression. Memes aren’t just about making people laugh – they give them an opportunity to articulate their emotions and express them.
How you leverage it comes from having a brand identity and personality in place. People do not follow brands on social media for their products or for their services, they follow them for the content. Once they start following you, they become your audience and now
it is your responsibility to keep generating the content that will turn your audience into your fans.
Social media platforms’ algorithms push your content in your audience’s feed only if they engage with your content or else you become an account that they follow but do not see or hear from and eventually forget about, just like our relatives!
Hence, use the power of Memes to turn your audience into your fans, you keep entertaining them with good memes and they will keep engaging with you.
NOTE: Stay Relevant
It is important that you do not wander off from your brand’s purpose while creating memes. Because at the end of the day, the idea is to create a brand recall and to distinguish the brand in consumers’ minds. Memes are a way to woo the target audience to get interested in your brand and get them interested in your brand and eventually to convert them into your customers.
The Memes should stay relevant to your brand and the target audience, and subtly create the desired brand image.
Final words
In conclusion, memes are not a passing trend – they are a powerful tool for businesses looking to connect with their audience in a fun, light-hearted and relatable way.
Use memes to turn your audience into your fans, increase engagement and reach, beat the competition and get your target audience interested in the brand. But it’s not just about jumping on the meme bandwagon – it’s about using memes in a way that is relevant and contributes to our brand strategy.
Hence, while drafting your social media strategy, you need to analyze the weightage to be given to your meme strategy and how to incorporate that.
Having a clear objective and expectations from your meme content helps you to keep a track and stay relevant. Establishing your brand on social media could be a task so have a little fun with the content and entertain your audience while you do that.
Why not give meme marketing a try?
With a little bit of creativity and a willingness to have some fun, you could be on your way to creating a viral content that puts your brand on the map