Humor in B2B Marketing: Finding the Funny
IDK about you, but I’d honestly rather chew off my own arm than go through life without a sense of humor. And while it’s benefitted so many areas of my life, one of my favorite applications has been leveraging it for my marketing clients. In fact, my first job in marketing was given to me ( in part) because of funny posts I wrote on my personal Facebook account. So I’m here to share the ins and outs of using humor in business-to-business marketing and why it’s a good idea, even for more corporate clients!
The Benefits of Funny
Look, I’m not just saying this for the fun of it, laughter has some serious benefits, especially when leveraged in B2B content. In addition to making me want to swan dive into a wood chipper like 48% less while I’m working, humor in business-to-business marketing means:
More accessibility for your target market!
Even though your clients are in the B2B space, ultimately we’re all just humans selling to other humans. So it’s hugely valuable to create content that, while informative, is also somewhat interesting and entertaining for the viewer.
Better information retention.
Consumers retain funny ads up to 30% better than their… dryer… counterparts. I bet if you try to think of an ad right this second, the one that pops into your head will be a funny one. The same is true for videos and social media/sales content that has a bit of a sense of humor.
It makes clients like your business more.
Think about some of your favorite people, both in real life and celebrities. I bet you most of them are funny to some degree. The same is true for your clients’ businesses. People who have a good sense of humor are much easier to work with, and remember that we buy from people we know, like and trust.
Where to InCORPORATE a Sense of Humor
See what I did there? There are many ways to leverage humorous content and how much you implement will largely depend on how comfortable your client is with it in general. Some clients will let you throw a pun or two into a social post, and some will send out an email about a fake new product on April Fool’s.
Here are just a few ideas to add funny into your clients’ content marketing:
1. Add it to the website
Nothing makes me happier than when I see a humorous 404 page or a wry call to action.
Throw a few jokes into things you want your clients’ target markets to pay attention to and remember. This is one of the easiest ways to drive maximum engagement to the vital aspects of your marketing.
2. Throw it into your content marketing
True story: I once made a whole eBook into a joke. The punchline was that people don’t have time to read an eBook and should let me manage their social media. That’s like level 10 humor. A level 2 might be a play on words in an email campaign or a tiny bit of good-natured sarcasm in a white paper.
3. Incorporate it into videos
Even the most buttoned up businesses can have a little fun on video. It won’t even necessarily require ANYONE to learn TikTok dances, either. You can even just include a blooper at the end of a video and voila! It’s so much more fun!
In the next blog in this series, we’ll explore what makes content fun and some concrete examples you can take to your clients to win the war on boring ish! Stay tuned!
