Meme Power: How to Get Traffic to a Site Using Memes?

2 December 2020 10 min Read

This year has made the whole world shift to a new normal. The basic daily routine has changed, and many things are happening online by leveraging digital mediums. This has made way for a large number of businesses to shift online and make competition fierce. Tough competition has led to the discovery and the invention of numerous creative marketing strategies and techniques. Memes are one of these striking marketing tactics.

You need to adopt different and appealing ways to the target audiences as they have become smarter. Being at the receiving end of an avalanche of content has made people choosy. You need to serve their expectations as a wise marketer. Also, consider SEO and other technical factors that help your website appear in more organic searches. This will help your website rank high by bringing in more traffic. Memes have become a crucial part of a lot of brands’ marketing strategies, be it new or old.

This is because memes are powerful and in trend. It is a great opportunity for all website owners to leverage memes to bring traffic to their site.
See below to know what memes are and their great marketing potential.

Memes: A Brief Overview

Google will tell you that memes are nothing but a form of media that is funny. A meme can be an image, a text, or even a small video clip. Internet users copy memes, create versions of it, and spread it very rapidly. This nature of memes makes it very viable for all websites to use them in their marketing campaigns.

All social media platforms are flooded with a variety of memes today. People of all age groups find it interesting to use memes in their conversations to express their emotions.

Have you ever wondered about the origin of these funny images while sharing it with your friends regularly? If yes, here is the answer. The word meme was coined and used for the first time by Richard Dawkins in 1976. He used the word in his book named ‘The Selfish Gene’ to depict how ideas replicate, mutate, and evolve. This is a bit geeky, isn’t it? So, when was the first time the internet was introduced to memes? It was when Mike Godwin proposed the internet meme in the June 1993 issue of Wired. Memes have been around the internet since then and have reached another level in recent days.

Memes have certain qualities that make them a lucrative choice for all marketers. Some traits are addressed below.

The Power of Memes

Why do you think memes are all around? Why is everyone in your vicinity aware of all the trending memes? It is because memes make people laugh. It gives people a reason to smile amidst loads of work.

The following qualities of a meme have made it widespread:

  • It gets viral: The internet has millions of users who have got multiple options to spend time online. People mostly go to the internet to get entertained and to watch something refreshing. Memes are just perfect as they make their viewers laugh and demand minimal attention span.
  • People relate easily to memes: Work from home schedules have overburdened people with a lot of work. They do not want to spend much time and energy getting entertained. Memes are quite easily understood and relatable to people as it picks up daily life concepts. This nature of memes is liked by the audience present online.
  • People share it vigorously: A website grows only when more and more people visit it. The reach is one of the major defining factors of any website’s success. Using a meme to direct people to your website is a wise and feasible option as people tend to share it a lot with their family and friends. It is funny and interesting, which is why people like to open it and not skip it, unlike some boring and lengthy articles.
  • It is easy to create: You do not need to be a master of graphics or software to create memes that people like. Try meme templates to help you leverage them. You can learn to create memes by watching some simple YouTube videos too. Your smartphone can also be used to create perfect memes.

Memes: A Major Part of the Social Media Communication

Social media was a platform for entertainment but today it is not a platform just for entertainment. It has become diverse and has a very powerful role to play in different life situations. It affects society, the culture, the beliefs, politics, and the thought process of people worldwide. Memes have become the right-hand of social media as they empower these platforms with a wide variety of content as well as context.

A website is a social media platform too as it involves communication with the online audience. Memes today are so capable that they can turn an election upside down. They have the power to make or break a superstar, a celebrity, or a great political leader. Memers (one who creates memes) are the ones who realize what is happening in society and try to portray that by incorporating some humor.

Related: Is Your Content Not Performing On Social Media? Strategies To Get Your Social Media Game Going!

Various Types of Memes You Can Try

In a world where survival without an internet connection has become difficult, it is almost impossible for a large chunk of the masses to be untouched from memes. School children, working professionals, homemakers, or be it any other individual, the meme is known to one and all. You can be a great creator of memes or a constant follower, but to know the different types of memes you can generate to make your website more engaging, read below:

  • The Classics: These are the ones that will never go out of trend. Or, the ones that have been instilled in each meme lover’s mind forever. There are some images and taglines that have become synonymous with memes. These are the ones you can use for your website’s promotion without any risk. The risk associated with the classic memes is minimal as people have already accepted that concept before you.
  • The Fads: These are the memes that are based on themes that trend at the given moment. These memes see the peak for a certain amount of time and then become nonrelevant. For example, if a movie launches and a scene from the movie gets viral, there will be tons of memes created based on that scene. But, these memes will have negligible importance afterward.
  • One with the Series: Why do people binge-watch shows at a go? Why do you think some series are divided into episodes? A series brings curiosity. When a viewer gets to see the first clip of a show or a story, he gets hooked and eagerly awaits the upcoming content. You can launch a series of memes on your website and market it on other social media channels. This will create a buzz around your site and people will constantly come to your site in hope of the next meme.
  • The Comics: Usually, memes utilize images and media that already exist. It can be the expression of a celebrity (artist, actor, politician, etc.), a still from a movie or series, screenshots of viral videos, etc. But, if you have a creative instinct, you can go ahead and create your own graphics and visuals. These unique memes will have the essence of your brand and will differentiate your content from the rest of the world. The online audience appreciates uniqueness and creativity.
  • GIFs: Experimentation is the best way to discover what works best for you. Instead of posting memes only as images, try posting some GIFs. They will bring variety to your content and will give your website a refreshing vibe. Try capturing some real activities or your favorite cartoon characters to create small memes in the form of GIFs.
  • Your Niche: Your website might be relevant for a particular section of people. You should focus on retaining frequent visitors rather than always hunting the new ones. You can create memes that are very specific to your offerings. These memes will be understood by just your customers and will make them feel special. You may not be able to attract a random audience this way, but the ones you already have will not leave you.

Tips to Create Memes That Attract Traffic to Your Site

  • Know your audience well: Not all websites are the same. They offer different products/services and are meant for different segments of the audience. Before you decide upon the meme that you will use, research about your existing audience, track their online behavior, and consider their likes and preferences while you create a meme for your website. Your site will encounter better traffic only when people who visit your site find interesting content. Create memes that your audience will understand, appreciate, and enjoy. This will help you build a deeper connection with the audience and will help you bring more traffic to the website in return.
  • Know your subject well: A better understanding of your niche will enable you to create memes that are funnier and appropriate. Pick a concept or idea that you would like to move forward with. Read about it and brainstorm certain keywords and related concepts to come up with the best content for your meme. Carrying out proper research around your subject will enable you with creative ideas. It will also make you feel confident about what you deliver to the audience through your website.
  • Do secondary research: Once you are sure about the keywords, concept, and subject, for your next meme, you need to carry out the secondary research. Secondary research implies a minute study of the already existing resources online as well as offline. The internet is brimming with content. There are chances that your newly curated idea already exists in some hidden corner. Try to find out all memes already published in the same arena and then come up with something better if possible. This will help your website be authentic. You will also eliminate baseless charges of plagiarism.
  • Enjoy the process: The main aim of a meme is to make people laugh and happy. You need to be happy yourself if you want to spread happiness in the form of a meme you create. If you want to come up with the wonderful cat meme, watch some hilarious ones that are already on the internet. This will amp up your mood and will also inject some creative ideas in your brain. You will be able to produce better and productive ideas when you are in a happy and relaxed state of mind.
  • Make it interesting: What is the main aim of a simple meme? It is fun and laughter that measures the success of a meme. Traffic and profit are the factors that follow. Simple and boring images won’t work well for memes. You can try your hands on nice GIFs and small video clips as mentioned above in the blog, to add an edge to your memes. People always like things that have motion in it. You can use online video editing software like InVideo to create such memes.
  • Do not skip feedback: Communication is a two-way process. And, effective communication always includes proper feedback. Once you have created your final meme, share it with your close friends and the employees. They will give you honest feedback and the insights will help you iterate further to improve your meme before it goes live.

Related: 10 Top Social Media Content Marketing Tips

Wrapping It Up

This year is all about being at home and enjoying services available online. If you want people to like your website and share it with their loved ones, create content, and promote it on possible platforms you can. Memes are suitable as they can be shared easily on different platforms, they can be saved in various formats and uploaded using any device.

Research, create, and iterate, to create memes that help your website reach a wider audience.

The Author

Anna Wattson is a content strategist and an outreach expert working with various brands and agencies such as GetDevDone, a white label web development agency. She holds a bachelor's degree in Marketing from San Diego State University and loves to work with cooperate leaders and business owners.