Have you ever attempted to inject humor into a marketing campaign? If so, would you recommend this strategy?
Humor can be and has been used successfully by a variety of brands to boost engagement and sales. However, it can be tricky to determine the right type of humor that will appeal to your customers. Pairing humor with poor judgment or jokes that are too extreme can also result in some ghastly damage.
Companies that know how to make their customers laugh are often hugely successful at breaking down resistance and building trust. While there are many types of humor that can be employed to achieve this, it all starts with one of the basic marketing principles: Understanding Your Customers.
Who are your customers? The humor you use for the late-night informercial enthusiast is probably going to differ from the type directed at the daytime soap opera aficionado. Think about your audience and craft your material to suit their tastes.
As long as the humor is appropriate, it can be an excellent way to connect with your customers and humanize your brand. Even the driest industries can tap into these benefits with a little creativity that projects the right tone. This may require expert assistance but keep in mind that no matter how perfect the final product is it will not appeal to everyone. There will always be those audience members that fail to grasp the hilarity you are sharing either because they enjoy a different style of comedic relief or belong to a select group of people that are eternally humorless.
Once you have established the best style of humor for your target audience you can begin to consider the direction you’d like to take with this venture.
The funniest lines and stories are often products of real-life events. Sometimes the best place to start looking for inspiration is to think back to past events that helped build your company, the employees who make up your business or even your customers.
Zeroing in on your customer’s pain points or problems that your company can solve are also a good place to explore. Comedy is often tied to the little headaches we experience in our day-to-day lives and the resulting agony that we so bravely endure.
The following points outline a few other areas you can look into to develop amusing content that aligns itself with your brand:
– Simplicity: Humor not only provides an opportunity to connect with your audience but also to convey information. Sharing simple messages about product features, services, and cautions can be conveyed with the use of entertaining tactics.
– Mishaps: Company errors and blunders can be a large source of customer frustration but they are sometimes unavoidable. In certain cases, using humor can work well to defuse the negative response. However, it is important to evaluate the appropriateness of this tactic on a case-by-case basis.
– Emotional Appeal: The success of many humorous devices is based on their ability to elicit a positive emotional response. Utilizing humor to appeal to the emotions of your consumers can be a powerful way to influence buying behavior and build relationships.
Humor can be a potent marketing tool but it should also be used with caution. It give us the chance to connect with our customers by showing the more laid back side of our brand but if it is used improperly it can have a devastating impact on a company. Getting your customers to laugh along with you is one thing but ending up as an industry joke is another entirely.
Consider the timing and context of any comical content you put out and make sure to stay in line with the theme of your brand. The ability to incorporate humor into your marketing messages may be a challenge but it’s an effective way to project an authentic image and demonstrate an understanding of your customers.
