How to use humour in email marketing

Category: Email Marketing

Humour is a cultural and very personal thing. It has different types and there are many levels that determine whether a situation or phrase will make us smile or laugh. That is why it is important to know your subscribers well to make sure that they will understand your sense of humour and accept it. In addition, the touches we introduce in email marketing campaigns must be aligned with the brand's personality because otherwise, instead of sympathy, they will arouse suspicion.

However, the ultimate goal of the message is not to make them laugh: humour is a way to positively influence contacts to get more opens, more clicks and fewer unsubscribes. Whatever the level of humour, it should be tailored to the audience as well as the industry so that it does not confuse or distract the user from what you want to achieve. 

 

Attention-grabbing humour in the inbox

The subject line is the first place to introduce some element of humour that grabs attention enough to make people want to open the message and read on. Arousing curiosity is possible with a gibberish or a phrase with a double intention that is seen as an accomplice wink between sender and recipient.

Source: Really Good Emails

 

Keep in mind that the subject matter sets the tone, so you need to establish what level of humour you want to use throughout your campaign. For example: witty, transgressive, absurd, ironic, grotesque... there is also white humour, which everyone likes because it is simple, clean and without negative connotations.

 

Humour to stand out from the competition

Once inside the message, humour can be included everywhere: surreal headers, images created expressly to make an impact by being irreverent, popular memes interspersed with the text that give a twist to current events, even emojis to indicate sarcasm or references to non-verbal language. For the user experience to be fun, everything must have the same humorous tone, both the visuals and the copy. 

Source: Really Good Emails

 

In this way, a good memory is generated in the user's mind. If the brand is associated with a relaxed moment, in which the user has had a good time, we will manage to be different from the competition, as well as reducing the number of unsubscribes on the list.

 

Humour to connect emotionally

Laughing with other people creates a bond. They become closer to each other because they discover that they share points of view. This can also happen with companies if they show a sense of humour and are able to bring a smile to the recipients' faces. You don't always have to be funny and have jokes in every message, perhaps a few well-delivered touches are enough.

Source: Really Good Emails

 

To make it more authentic, don't force the situation to be funny because you may achieve the opposite. The idea is to surprise with a topic or with your approach if it is done in a different way than expected, preferably with respect so as not to offend anyone.

 

Humour to generate engagement

If the campaign generates smiles, it will be more likely to be interacted with and shared on social media. This can be through the use of unexpected images, a headline that breaks the mould or a call-to-action button that asks not to be clicked. Any humorous option can be used to make subscribers react to the content of the campaign.

Source: Really Good Emails

 

Knowing how to laugh at oneself requires a special talent, not everyone is able to do it, and not all companies are able to do it either. This type of humour is the most difficult, but it is also the one that most attracts subscribers and builds loyalty because it entertains them in a special way by making the brand more human. 

A final note: if the brand is aware of its sense of humour from the beginning, it will have an easier time because it will be very natural to incorporate it into its campaigns. If not, it can try small winks to evaluate the result statistically. Humour goes with everyone's personality; it cannot be forced!

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