Why is your best friend, your best friend? It’s because you have a close relationship built on:
- Fun
- Shared experiences
- Vulnerability
- Trust
Marketing today is not about your product or service. It’s about your relationships with your loyal pack of friends who believe in the same things that your company stands for – it is value based.
However, having shared values alone will not make you build a relationship with potential customers. Yes, you have to stand for something, yes you need to be transparent, and authentic…
But, you also need to be FUN!
The best marketing makes us feel happy, connected, and alive. It’s fun!
So, how do you bring fun back into your marketing to help you build relationships?
Here are four tips to make your marketing fun:
- Be timely & relevant
A major component of humor is timing.
In order to be fun and funny, you have to be relevant. Conversations are a back and forth about things that are happening right now. That’s why Twitter is known as the platform for wit and humor – it’s spur of the moment and conversation based.
If you want to have fun marketing that makes people want to connect with you, you can’t have everything scheduled. Leave room in your posting schedule to create content that happens that day.
Be flexible enough that if something happens significant, you can hop on and create something quickly to post while it’s trending. We all remember the iconic Oreo ad that happened during the Superbowl power outage in 2013:
Being relevant brings a lot of fun back into your marketing. It’s what connects us.
2. Be clever and witty, but respectful in your responses (and yes, you should absolutely respond to everything!)
Like I mentioned in number 1, having fun is being part of something – it’s conversation based! So, when you get comments and shares, RESPOND! Even just a like or a “thank you, glad you enjoyed” is better than nothing. The difference this will make in your marketing is substantial. And if you don’t have enough time to respond to everything yourself, then grow your team! Give others access to your social media accounts and ask that they help you respond.
The best method is if you can be clever when you respond. One of the best social media accounts that does this regularly is Wendy’s fast food chain. They actively look for conversations to join, too.
The trick here is to be clever and witty, but to not go too far. Yes, you can poke fun, but don’t be offensive, and don’t be defensive. Pretend you’re talking to a friend (because, hopefully, you are!)
3. Share personal info about the people in your company that is relatable
If your team has got a case of “the Mondays,” share it! It’s ok to post some relatable photos where you talk about how you wish there was another day of the weekend, or that your team is ready to go out and celebrate a win that you’ve shared online during happy hour.
Sharing the people and experiences behind your brand is a great way to bring likable human experience and connection to what might be an unrelatable brand without it.
Just make sure you don’t go overboard or overshare when it’s not appropriate. Not everyone needs to know that Jeremy in accounting has a foot fungus or that Sharon in sales feels like her boss is a jerk.
4. Stand for something, even when it’s controversial
The thing about real fun and humor is that everyone is a little unique. We don’t all get along. We don’t all think the same things are funny. So, when you post something meant to be funny that aligns with your brand’s values, it’s bound to ruffle some feathers.
That’s OK!!
You want the people who believe what you stand for to connect with you! A great way to do that is to make them laugh.
The people who are offended by your humor probably don’t really align with your brand’s values anyway. So don’t sweat it. (And don’t go into defense mode, like we talked about in #2.)
Here’s an example of a video I made for the SPCA of Northern Nevada who believes that there is a person for every pet and wanted to help those pets and people find each other…
The response to that video, which was posted on Instagram and Facebook, was outstanding. People laughed and commented and shared.
But, not all the comments were good. Some people were offended by the language “grown-ass” and said it wasn’t necessary. That’s OK. They didn’t have to love it. They weren’t the target audience. But guess what? The people who loved it…defended it! They came to the aid of the SPCA of NN and responded back so that the brand account didn’t have to. The people who found it funny found it valuable enough to stay engaged with the conversation and help others see the humor in it, too. It brought those people closer than ever to the brand.
Fun and funny marketing does a great job connecting the people who align with your brand. Yes, sometimes it’s divisive, but more than that, it’s relatable and brings you closer with those who will become great brand advocates.
Do you know of a brand that generally makes you laugh? Let me know who it is in the comments! I’m always looking for inspiration.
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you found this post useful!
Angela Rudolph - Connective Marketing Through Storytelling 
One Comment Add yours