Warning: Read This Before You Ever Attempt To Use Humor In Your Marketing

Whether it’s written, spoken, or observed making someone laugh is an extremely powerful tool. Having the ability to captivate an audience and bring people closer to your world can not be understated.

However, get it wrong and your good intentions can backfire harder than a modified street scooter.

Now, I am going to be sharing with you some do and don’t when it comes to using humor in your marketing. 

Let’s start with the evil side first.

The Risk of Falling Flat and All the Money Walks Out 

It almost goes without saying that it is a very dangerous and risky game because humor is subjective.

What one person finds hilarious, another might find offensive or confusing.

Making it a high-stakes game. So, tread carefully it's a lot more difficult than people think.

Just about anybody can get a laugh with a halfway decent joke however that does not necessarily translate into your ability to work humor into an ad and make it sell.

Not Falling Flat and The Money Still Walks Out

Even if you’re a professional who makes everyone laugh, this leads to a new, unintended problem: distracting from actually making a sale.

In traditional advertising, even successful humor can backfire. People might remember the comedy but forget the product.

It sometimes takes months before anyone realizes their ads are gaining attention and their catchphrases are popular, all the while their market share has actually declined.

Funny ads are only funny if they work, which is really hard to do. And even if you can make them work, it’s still an enormous risk.

Yes, humor gets attention and maybe keeps it for a bit longer, but what sells stuff? Selling sells stuff.

Funny is Funny Selling is Selling

In a society where grabbing attention is increasingly difficult due to the overwhelming number of messages people receive daily, you have to cut through the clutter.

Humor is one of the best ways to do that if done correctly.

But I always tell people that humor alone is not enough to get the result. You have to combine humor with direct response marketing, which is the strategy I use for my clients.

Using Humor Effectively

The risks are extremely high, but the payoffs are too.

Stepping into the battle for attention and interest, using humor is almost necessary.

It puts people in a receptive and responsive mood, which then enhances your ability to sell to them in any media or format.

Biggest Shortcut to Developing Humor

There has never been a forced intelligent thought. You have to start conditioning your thinking so that humor comes naturally and organically from your subconscious rather than being forced. 

Here’s how:

• Read and watch great comedians. Pay attention to what makes their humor work.

• Think of it like cooking. The more you expose yourself to great chefs, the more you’ll start cooking like them.

• Practice and test out your humor to the market
  

This way, humor becomes a natural part of your messaging, increasing your ability to connect with and sell to your audience.

If you want to start using humor in your marketing be sure to keep selling at the forefront of your advertising.

If you want us to take a look at your marketing to see how we could / would incorporate humor into your messaging click the button below and fill out the form

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