If you’re on the internet in any capacity, you’ve probably seen a meme. Whether it’s the classic Kermit the Frog ‘that’s none of my business’ meme or the ‘Bernie Sanders sitting at Joe Biden’s inauguration’ meme, our days are made a little more entertaining with a bit of internet humour. Believe it or not, crypto marketing can also be made more entertaining with memes.
You might have also noticed that corporations are trying to be more relatable online. Official social media accounts of everything from record labels to NASA try to release content or marketing materials that incorporate these memes.
This is a way of signalling to consumers that they are relating and thus, should be patronized. Crypto companies looking to do some marketing can benefit from memes based on this very premise. This is because the crypto scene is an online one that is very versed in pop culture and loves memes. After all, there is an entire category of cryptos called meme coins that are based on every meme you can imagine.
If there is any group of people you can market to using memes, it’s crypto consumers. But how do you go about making the best of memes and coming off as relatable rather than overbearing to your audience? We break it down in this guide:
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Know Your Memes
If you’re going to engage in crypto marketing with memes, you actually need to know the memes that are relevant and trending. As simple as it sounds, you’re going to have to be terminally online to a certain degree so that you can engage properly with your audience.
Internet users (including crypto fans) are quite adept at spotting inauthentic efforts from corporations to seem relatable and this means you have to be quite careful. You don’t, for example, want to use a meme that has been irrelevant for years to one that makes no sense in the context of your crypto marketing message. To avoid this, make sure that the team in charge of your marketing is well verse in internet culture and memes before you try to leverage them.
If your team is unsure of whether a meme is being used correctly or is relevant, it would be best to seek the opinion of a well-versed person or shelve it for the time being.
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Be Timely With Crypto Marketing
When it comes to crypto marketing, timing is everything and this is doubly so when it comes to using memes. While there are a few memes that are considered evergreen, many trending memes have a shelf life of a few days or weeks.
This is why you need to incorporate the meme early enough to ride its wave of attention but not so late that people have forgotten about it. Consider 2023 when many brands were using memes and messaging tied to the Barbie movie for marketing.
At the time, it was a very relevant piece of popular culture that could endear a brand to its user base. Now, it might feel a bit late and dated to use such messaging in a crypto marketing campaign. This is why you need to find the sweet spot between fresh and current and stale and overdone.
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Be Appropriate
While memes are mostly fun and games, there is still a certain etiquette to using them that will not only endear you to your target audience but will also avoid your crypto marketing efforts being criticized.
One of the first things to note is that not every meme trend needs to be hopped on. Sometimes, memes and pop culture moments are based on very serious matters or use crude humour that would be inappropriate for a brand. While you should be aware of the origins of a meme if you are tapped into the online space, still make sure that the meme steers clear of any racist, overtly sexual, homophobic, or sexist content.
You also need to make sure it is being incorporated into your content in a relevant way. There can be the temptation to shoehorn in any trending meme but it could end up not making sense to your target audience. Another thing to note is that the meme should be used as sparingly as possible.
Unless it is a meme that is directly tied to your crypto project (for example, if you are promoting a meme coin), make reference to it once or twice at most. Beyond that, your audience might get tired.
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Know Your Platforms
While ‘memes’ are traditionally in the form of pictures, pop culture moments can take on many different formats. This includes viral audio recordings, viral videos, or even written phrases. If you’re going to incorporate these into your crypto marketing, you need to keep both formats and platforms in mind.
Say the meme in question first took off on Twitter/X and sees most of its engagement there. You should, in that case, launch your crypto marketing efforts on Twitter/X to tap into the audience. At the same time, some memes translate across several different platforms and this means that your marketing campaign will translate and make sense to people on several different platforms.
You also want to create your crypto marketing campaign in the same format that the meme first took off in. If it is a video, try to reference it in the form of a video. The same applies to pictures, audio, and so on. Doing this means that your message will not get lost in translation and reach the people most likely to appreciate it.
Conclusion
Memes have become a shorthand language of the internet and a way for brands to build rapport with their audiences. If you are looking to leverage these memes for crypto marketing, however, you have to keep certain rules of engagement in mind.
Make sure you know which memes are trending and engage with them at the right time in the right format using the right platforms. In all this, make sure you are being appropriate and respectful of both your business and your audience.
