The future of digital marketing that no one’s talking about

It’s a real thing already & there will be an official position in the near future

Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash

I’m from India, a nation with 1.37 billion people & nearly 50% of us have access to the internet.

I remember back in the days when Facebook was a social networking site & it was booming. I hate to admit but Facebook is on a downfall, but that’s a different story altogether.

The most underrated digital marketing strategy that nobody is talking about is meme culture, or as they call it, memejacking.

Memes are welcomed with open arms on social media. Memes are gasoline & social media is a burning matchstick.

Your sense of humor can land you in a serious job at one of the biggest brands. No brand is denying not to leverage the power of memes. Even the most sophisticated & traditional marketing believers are into memeculture, I’ll just call it memejacking, I like the sound of it ;)

If you’re an Indian, you’d be aware of how JCB & ‘Binod’ became an internet sensation in 2019 & 2020 respectively. Social media was flooded with memes in this context & brands like Netflix_India (and other brands too) enjoyed a surplus amount of attention because of hilarious content around Binod.

Let me tell you something that will blow your mind, Binod has an official Wikipedia page.

Why memes are the future (& already the present) of digital marketing?

I don’t know if you’ve already know, but an Instagram page named daquan was acquired by Warner Music Group. Guess how much was the deal worth?

A whooping $110 million.

Even though it’s against the policy to sell pages like this, but I’m sure dude at Warner Music Group would’ve found a way to make it legal. Since this has got a lot of press, it was wise to do that.

I don’t want to give you any more examples, in my research I have found a bunch much, but this one is enough, I guess.

$100M for meme page? If this isn’t the present of digital marketing (& the future), I don’t what is.

You didn’t get a question what will Warner Music Group do of this page? Promote its music via memes, on this page. In this multi-year contract, Calgary simply has to create whatever he usually does, but the music he uses in his meme will be of Warner Music Group. How cute is this deal?

Apart from this, here are some other reasons why I think memes are the future of digital marketing.

• Memes speak to everyone: Potentially everyone on the web is your target audience (if you don’t have already) but even those who aren’t can relate to them & engage, that’s where you win.
• Sense of humor pays off: There’s just one difference between guerilla marketing & meme marketing — the cost. Guerilla involves real money for billboard, paper ads, or any such media for that matter. Agencies charge a bomb of money to come up with such campaigns. On the other hand, memes are free and equally powerful.
• Brand awareness: Memes are extremely powerful when it comes to brand awareness. Bewakoof.com & RVCJ media are two such brand that has got an insane amount of brand awareness just by posting memes on Facebook & Instagram.
• Memes are viral already: You’d be sailing in the virality. Memes are viral by default. Even if you get a nickel of whole attention, your efforts aren’t in vain.
• You don’t have to create from scratch: Simply find the source template, make it contextual for your audience with same aura as the original one and you’re done. People are already liking it, you’re just taking a cup full of attention from the ocean. Simple!
• Best part: People share memes without a second thought. Sells like hot cakes.

Memejacking best practices — How to ‘not’ waste the trend?

• Since memes are a fad, you have to spontaneous and not wait for perfect design with a golden ratio & perfectly blended colors. Unless you’re starting the meme, you don’t have to worry about the design & stuff. Just create whatever you can, spontaneously.
• Memes are based on current affairs/events. Make sure you’re aware of it. The last thing you want is the meme backfires in a bad way because you weren’t rightly aware.
• Know Your Meme is a great platform to know global trends & stories behind pretty much all memes. They even do round ups. Chance of landing a space if you have what they’re looking for.
• The ultimate aim of memes is to create a share worthy content so that you reach in front of more people. A small fraction of those people will visit your profile, & even smaller fraction will follow you. More people you reach, bigger the number of people follow you. Simple!
• Don’t take your eyes off the ball. Sure, you’re bidding your chance to trend with the meme, but don’t forget your values, mission & vision. It should reflect in any piece of content you create or any emotion you’re tickling. Don’t forget the aura of your brand.
• We live in an era of infotainment. People use social media to keep in touch with their friends & family, but they also need information & entertainment at the same time. Find a sweet spot between the two & serve infotainment, memes should be the medium. Since memes are highly shareable content by default, your voice will be heard by many.
• Don’t ignore the business aspect of this content format. Since you’re memejacking, chances you’re selling something or simply building an audience for now, later sell something. Either ways, have a clear objective. It can be lead generation, it can be brand awareness, downloads, sign up to your course or simply an engagement where you get to know your existing audience, even if you have just 205 followers.

Best platforms to create & publish your memes

While memes are a visual content format, it would work pretty much on any social media platform. However, you should consider where your target audience spend most of their time.

Since you’ll only be using the trend, but the context will be only relevant for specific group of people. Ideally, Instagram will be the best platform for people of almost all walks of life. However, Reddit is very tough nut to crack, but if you do it, it’s a gold mine.

Facebook is optional. I don’t see any value in Facebook anymore. What you share on Instagram can go directly to Facebook. You don’t want to avoid over 2.7 billion people on the platform. However, It’s good for directly running ads, but with memes by your side, you don’t need ads on any platform.

Pinterest is yet another platform you can rely on. Sow the seeds of memes & you will have better output in no time. Twitter is cool, but memes don’t work that well. Not fruitful in terms of business aspects.

So there you have it, Instagram & Reddit stands tall in this case. Totally reliable platform to promote your brand & voice.

Tools to create memes for free

• Android users can install meme generator or or Video & GIF meme. If you’re into video memes, install vivacut (amazing for vfx), kinemaster & Inshot for video editing. Use savefrom.net to download videos & gif from pretty much all social platforms.
• iPhone users have meme generator as well. Though options are limited, this is more than enough to begin with. You can always find source images on Google and edit it in any photo editing app. InShot is available on iOS as well.
• Sense of humor & a brain.

TL;DR — Final thoughts

Not sure if you’ve been attention or not, but if you’re reading this, I’ll assume you did.

But the point I wanted to make here is if you’re just starting out as a beginner and have no idea about what to pursue in the space of digital marketing, I’d recommend meme marketing.

I kid you you not, meme marketing is already a thing, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a designated position by the name ‘meme associate’, heck I wouldn’t even be surprised if there’s a position by the name ‘chief memeing officer’,

Memes are already a present of digital marketing, it’s just matter of time that it becomes officially a part of it in the future. Memes are like what blogging was a couple of years ago. No body considered it a thing back then, see what blogging has become right now.

This thing is getting real. This is actually one of the most influential futures of digital marketing.

Sounds ‘funny’, how this content that costs pretty much nothing is taking the digital world by storm. This is the time to make a fortune, at least take the first few steps. It won’t take much time to see your efforts snow ball.

So there you have it. Forecast of the future of digital marketing in 2021 & beyond. I have started a newsletter, where I share my experience of building a personal brand & also talk about digital marketing. I invite you join the newsletter, it’s free forever.

I hope I’ve helped & add value to your time. I’ll see you in the next one.