Branding

Humor in Marketing: Five Types to Use in Your Strategy

date posted

01/27/23

read time

6 Mins

On Hook Agency's website, two cats in yellow construction helmets and denim overalls exude a playful approach to marketing. The cat on the left confidently wields a level while wearing goggles, and the one on the right holds a blueprint with precision. Both are equipped with tool belts, embodying their dedication to feline engineering.

Adding humor to your marketing is one surefire, effortless way to reach your audiences. No one forgets a hilarious joke that easily, right? It’s incredible how your brand name registers in people’s minds when they can associate it with a fun experience.

To win in your marketing, you must sound nothing less than humorous, memorable, and, most importantly, shareable. Especially today, when your content competes for your audience’s eyes against thousands of others. 

This is why we brought on Michael Stean — to discuss five types of humor we’ve found to be effective in marketing anytime you use them. Keep reading to learn more!

5 Hilarious Types of Humor to Use in Your Marketing Strategy

1. Ironic Humor

Irony is an event or statement that contrasts expectations with reality, often in a hilarious way. For example, a newly replaced roof ravaged by a storm might be painful, but you can still cruise around and make jokes about the ironic situation.

In the popular animation Ratatouille, you find a rat leading the kitchen as the master chef! That’s good irony right there. Ironic humor in roofing marketing is an excellent hook to grab customers’ attention while conveying your message simultaneously. 

It would help to note that irony can sometimes come off as hurtful; hence, you should use it with caution in public.

2. Hyperbole

Hyperbolic humor in marketing is everywhere! TV commercials promise to bestow men with superhuman strength by using a product (like the Red Bull energy drink, promising wings to fly above lethargy ). 

Or it might be a promise of an unmatched ability to attract the opposite sex. Hyperbole involves exaggerating facts and being dramatic to grab customers’ attention. 

Old Spice also used this in promoting its products, including body sprays and deodorant. Their commercials featured well-built men wearing only a bath towel or pants and acting to grab the attention of any viewer.

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3. Situational Humor

In situational humor, you tweak a situation to sound awkward and funny. It can be in the form of a long pause or a well-timed punchline. Most importantly, this kind of humor must come up in those awkward moments where you can’t just escape. 

Dog memes, for example, have always worked for roofing company pages and social profiles. So if you’ve got a dog in your office, featuring it in one of your memes might not be a bad idea.

4. Dry Humor

You’ve probably heard it said to someone, “You have dry humor!” But how’s that even possible? Dry humor depends on a lack of emotion and facial expression, contrasting the straightforward delivery against its rib-cracking result. 

It’s hard to define because you’re not usually sure whether it’s something serious or not on the spot (but you’re chuckling). You’ve probably met someone like that sometimes; they crack a hilarious joke and don’t laugh themself. 

Stand-up comedian, Steven Wright, is known as the king of dry humor. With no body language, facial expression, and a monotonous sound whatsoever, his jokes still put people off their chairs! Matt Mulholland of Statesville Roofing also personifies a combo of dry and sarcastic humor.

5. Topical Humor

Topical humor is simply leveraging current events into a meme or funny content. You can get ideas for topical humor from your news feed. The humor hits harder when it’s based on a well-known recent event. It could also be something that’s happened in your industry or city. 

It works better because the content is about what’s currently on people’s minds, and you just said it out loud. 

However, be careful when working with a polar topic. That’s because just as you can attract people with such humor, you can also alienate a good percentage of your audience if it’s a topic with polarized views. 

Why is Humor Crucial to Your Roofing Marketing?

You may find the concept of humor in roofing marketing great but still wonder about its importance to your business. It’s okay, especially when you’re not a natural comedian. Nonetheless, your temperament shouldn’t hinder you from success in your marketing if you can learn the skill you don’t naturally possess. 

Here are three main reasons we’ve found that humor in roofing marketing is essential.

  • Memory
  • Reliability 
  • Shareability 

Memory

People have a higher recall when something is funny. So using humor in your roofing marketing makes your company stick to more minds. A study showed that humor in advertising would likely enhance purchase intention and recall when you integrate the humorous message well with the ad’s objectives.

Relatability

Humor makes anyone approachable and relatable, and it’s not any different for your company. It’s no rocket marketing science that more customers will naturally gravitate towards a company that creates a fun-filled experience rather than those that take them as walking money machines! 

So you want to do more than being just transactional when interacting with your customers; leave them with smiling faces!

Shareability

People will always share funny content with their friends and family. How much more when it’s funny plus informational content? And shareability is crucial in getting more eyes and ears on your business. 

Two Proven Tools You Can Include in Your Humor-making

Finally, you should have specific examples of what factors to consider when trying to add humor to your roof marketing. Thankfully, they aren’t far-fetched:

Pain

You need to know your homeowners’ pain points if you’re a contractor. Follow homeowner memes on Instagram. The goal is to empathize with them by zooming in on their pain or things that suck and making light of those situations through memes and funny content. You’ll find that such content hits home faster. 

Local Market Events

Using your local market or current happenings to create humor increases your shareability. Do something about what’s happening in your city – news, local, and the like. 

Fortunately, the roofing industry isn’t naturally the funny type of place; everyone is serious about business. So most people will find a meme on roofing as good, relatable humor.

Conclusion

Humor in marketing has proven, over and again, to create an emotional connection with customers, helping to boost brand awareness and, consequently, your revenue. It’s a free marketing strategy anyone can take advantage of because everyone loves a good laugh. If you appreciate more strategic marketing content for contractors like this, follow Hook agency or sign up for our contractor course below!

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