Memes are the ultimate, overlooked marketing method you need to consider for your business or brand. It is dirt cheap compared to the impact it can have. A single one can go viral in a matter of minutes, being shared, downloaded, uploaded, and viewed by literally tens of millions of people. They last for years on the internet, constantly reminding people about something.
Let that something be your business.
Do this test: Find a popular meme on social media that you have seen before. Do a reverse image search. You'll see it on hundreds or more websites, including big ones like Pinterest. How many people in total saw that one meme, you think? Experts say, up to half a billion people.
Creating a successful meme with real viral potential isn't as easy as just popping text onto a photo. Ask me, I've been making memes since 2015. (I lost count at 2000 memes.) And when I do a reverse image search on some, I'm always flabbergasted to see how wide and far it traveled.
Creating memes—the real viral ones—is a specialized art form. Every tiny detail needs to be considered, from colors and the amount of them to font sizes and types, the number of words (often the fewer, the better), the target market, the message to be conveyed, and more.
And… it really becomes difficult when you want to promote a brand on there, without it looking like a spammy advertisement. Nobody shares advertisements. How many advertisement banners from a website have you shared lately? Exactly. It's nothing to drum up a meme about a politician, but try it yourself while covertly promoting an unknown hair saloon in town in the same meme.
Big companies 'secretly' employ creators just to make memes. Small businesses are now jumping on the bandwagon too. Why? Because it's evergreen marketing material that keeps on reminding new and existing customers about them for years. You'll see memes poking fun at, or with, Walmart everywhere. Now, I'm not saying Walmart is behind those memes, but…
Social media platforms tend to show people in the same geographic region content from others living there too. That means a meme you upload on social media will circulate at first in those circles. Your brand, which is unknown in the Sahara, may be known to people in your town. Let your name become etched into their subconscious minds. They'll share your name with their friends in a neighboring town that you're eyeing to open up another branch.
A meme needs to evoke emotion. That's crucial, and being funny only does not always cut it anymore. Generally, a successful meme also needs to be thought-provoking, controversial, or informative, and relevant to the current climate.
Some memes that went viral years ago and then 'died down' are now resurfacing again. Why? Because people love memes. They download it so much that most people have thousands on their phones and laptops. Every once in a while, they browse through it looking for a particular one, stopping a brief moment to see one that might be about your brand before surfing on. Subconsciously, your brand just made its mark again.
You need a Managing Meme Creator
So what exactly is a 'Managing Meme Creator'? Heck, I don't know, I made it up as I started typing this. LOL. But it sounds important, and you want important people to do jobs for you, right. (Which is also why I'm available as a content writer, and I do not use AI that may get Google to penalize your SEO.)
Here is why I came up with the title: There are many paid meme creators everywhere, and some are quite good. They charge you a few dollars for a few memes that may or may not hit your target market. I, however, do what they don't: I scope out your business too. This is an indispensable point.
Sure, I'll create stellar memes for you too, that is my main goal. But unlike most meme creators, I actually visit your website and social media to get a 'feel' for what your business is about. That takes some time, of course. And only then do I start creating memes.
Ultimately, I'm aiming to get you as a long-term client, with me creating a number of memes over the course of each month—and here comes the important part—that are extremely relevant to your target market.
That means I'll be browsing your local newspaper and social media groups about your region and creating memes about events that took place locally, that will also appeal to a broader audience across the internet. People in your town may recognize a place, for example. That's when they are statistically more likely to share the meme. See, I know what I'm doing.
If you are serious about exploding your marketing and utilizing meme marketing to its fullest potential, then I'm the guy.
Let's kick off this work-together adventure like this: Let me create
five memes for you for a lousy ten dollars. Seriously, if maybe a
million people get to see just one meme or all five of them over a year,
isn't ten dollars a bargain then? Paying for ads, no matter where, just
won't give you that ROI.
After this, we'll talk if you're
willing to pay me a hundred dollars a month, on a month-to-month basis,
for 40 memes. Sounds more expensive than the ten USD for 5 memes deal?
Not exactly. A month will give me more time to scope out your business,
to understand your marketing on a much deeper level, to really get to
know your goals and whom you want to reach. This increases the odds of
every meme hitting the mark and more people sharing it.
I don't
want to hunt around daily for clients, and you don't want to hunt around
regularly to keep your marketing campaign consistent. That's why I'm
fishing for a long term relationship with you, as Managing Meme Creator,
and that's why you should give me a chance. Obviously, I'll do my best
to keep you happy, and my memes will deliver results for you.
By
getting to know your business—something that most meme creators don't
bother to do—I can deliver better, more targeted results. I've seen some
memes that cost a big movie streaming service five dollars each, and
those memes are bad. Man, they are bad. That's what got me thinking I
should switch my hobby to a paid gig.
Look at the Polk County
Police Department on Facebook; they are employing a graphic artist to create cartoon
memes about how criminals got caught. Their FB page blew through the
roof and is now the most popular police page on Facebook. They
accomplished their goal of cultivating a feeling of goodwill towards the
police in their community, and they actually spread it to other
departments too.
Other well-known FB pages became so popular
pretty much only because of the memes they posted. Instead of
downloading, people hit the 'share' button. That lured their friends to
the page, who then also followed it. Meme marketing is incredibly
powerful. Memes power social media!
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video,
Walmart, Target, Disney, Xiaomi, and many more giants employ dedicated
creators for five to fifty dollars per meme. They know that no
advertisement will give them more bang for their buck than a great meme.
How
do you measure the success of a particular meme? Wait three months
(sometimes less), then do a reverse image search. The more websites it
appeared on, the more successful it was.
How do you get the ball
rolling to get a meme to go viral? There are many methods, but here are
the two most important ones that work:
- Post it on all your social
media, at the right times (even schedule it with Buffer)
- then use a 'fake account' (one not bearing the brand name as in the meme) to post it on groups related to the topic.
- Get a freelance marketer on Fiverr to blast your memes across the internet just to get it to gain initial traction, five bucks often do it. (I'm willing to work with such a person, also with your social media manager if you have one, which should free up your time and allow you to focus on your business itself.)
Ask yourself:
Where, in what groups, are the people that are most likely to share this
meme? The more relevant, the better. But a restaurant meme will go well
with a dieting group too, it just depends on what the meme says. Once a
meme gains traction, there's no stopping it.
So find the little contact form on my blog (it should be on the home page), send me a message, and let us get your customers' attention.
