Top Ways to Use Humor in Marketing
If you’re in sales, then I think you need to use humor. Comedy is a great way to connect with your clients and make you APPROACHABLE. Don’t you feel like you can chat with someone, even a stranger, if they say something funny? Humor makes you an instant friend, so using it in your marketing just makes sense.
There are lots of ways you can use humor in marketing, and I’ll be devoting the next few blogs to humor in marketing. One great way that I’ve used for years is to anchor your humor around a funny gift. I’ve sent food items to the speaker bureau agents who book me, and I include a funny note that ties into the treat. I focus a lot on candy, because it doesn’t matter what age you are, just about EVERYONE on the planet likes candy or they have a kid that they can give it to. I’ve been able to twist just about every kind of candy item into something funny. Some of the fun promos I’ve done include:
funny cigarettes are the only good cigarettes
- Candy cigarettes with the title “My comedy is smoken”
- Riesen candies with the tag “Top Riesens to book comedian Jan McInnis”
- Goo Goo clusters announcing that “Jan’s been on the Goo Goo with her keynotes”
- Mints alerting everyone that “Jan has FRESH comedy”
I’ve sent these to agents so long that I now get comments I’ve heard from my agents include things like
“I had a craving for chocolate so I opened your letter immediately.” And “thanks for thinking of me and giving me something I can use.”
So tag your marking up to an fun item and you can get people to remember you and get in the habit of opening your packets. It doesn’t have to be expensive, and the goofier the better, but I do have one “rule” for the item that I think is the reason my promotions have been so successful. I’ll be talking about that in my next blog, so stay tuned!
Jan
Check out my updated website! www.TheWorkLady.com – it’s a new look for 2013!
What Makes Us Laugh
That’s the question
that all comedians are trying to answer, because humor is subjective. Some people think that knock-knock jokes are funny (okay, that’s the under 7 crowd!), and some people like Bill Cosby-ish stories, while some people want Eddie Murphy dirty, and then there’s those of us who like set-up punch Rodney Dangerfield – you-don’t-like-this-one-then-you’ll-love-this-one jokes. I just got a great quote from a client who said “I felt sure that any comedian clean enough for our crowd would be a little too clean for me. You struck just the right tone — grown-up, real-world humor appropriate for everyone in the audience.” I was glad that she enjoyed the show, and even more glad that she didn’t share her reservations with me before the show!
And since every audience has
different expectations when it comes to what they think is funny, comics are constantly trying to figure out what will hit. And especially if you’re not famous, and the audience didn’t show up just to see you because they know your act and like your material, then you’ve got a little more work to do. I decided that fame in the comedy world will get you about 10 minutes. With that I mean, that you can get on stage and not be real funny for 10 minutes. The audience will cut you some slack. After 10 minutes they get pretty mad because they paid a lot of money to see someone funny. On the other hand, those of us not famous get about 60 seconds. The audience wants us to “make them laugh” within the first 60 seconds or so, or they’ll figure we’re not funny and they won’t laugh the rest of the time we’re up there.
How can you
Make people laugh in the first 60 seconds? Us unknown comics have learned how to do it, and you can too. Here’s a couple tips:
- find something to relate to them. If you can’t avoid the group (like you need the dough so you have to do the gig), then use one of the techniques listed in this blog to find some common ground. (next week’s blog will offer a bunch of different subjects you can kick off with that will appeal to most people)
- watch how unknown comedians do it. Studying others who are doing it successfully is a great way to come up with your own ideas (don’t steal the jokes).
- start off with a common topic – marriage, kids, etc. . .are pretty universal and you can connect with 80% of the group with one of those topics. I don’t start off with my dating material, because most people at my shows aren’t actively dating. If I had divorce material, I’d maybe start with that.
- get in front of your crowd. Stay away from groups that you know you have nothing in common with. I don’t like to perform for certain groups because I don’t relate to them.
- play off a common experience everyone is having in that moment (or just had) – like the dinners were all burned, etc. I once had some fun with a group because at one of the functions, the hotel ran out of meatballs and people got mad! The hotel bent over backwards to accommodate them and I was able to joke around with it and put “running out meatballs” into perspective.
- Ask a rhetorical question . ..something you know the answer to but it’ll also grab people’s attention because we like to feel smart by secretly answering it.
Kicking off with comedy, when you’re not Jerry Seinfield, can be tricky, but it’s done all the time in comedy clubs across the country. You just need to pay attention to your audience.
Happy Holidays,
Jan
www.TheWorkLady.com
www.ComedyEmcee.com
Getting Comedy From Non-Comedians
Whenever I say I’m a comedian,
invariably someone jumps in with a “joke I can use.” Which is usually a joke I can’t use because the joke is too dirty or it’s been on the Internet a million times or it’s just not funny. So non-comedians sometimes are not so helpful in the humor process. But they can be helpful if you approach it the right way. If you’re writing comedy for a particular industry or event, then by all means solicit information from non-comedians who have worked in that industry or been involved in it somehow. They don’t have to be your client, and in fact it’s better if it’s not your client – you’ll get the “real scoop.”
Jan’s Halloween shark costume is more funny than scary
Don’t ask them to
write jokes or come up with “funny things that have happened,”. . .ask them to tell you what they hate about the industry/job/etc . . .or what their biggest headaches and hassles are, or what has caused them sleepless nights, or who are their worst kinds of clients. A few of those questions will prompt a plethora of funny information, and you’ll be able to sift through it to find some real gems for the jokes.
Sometimes they’ll even
come up with stories from their own experiences that you can morph into “something that happened to you.”Especially if they know they’ll be anonymous, and it’s an event that they are not attending or even related to, you can get some great details on their industry. Sometime clients are nervous about telling you stuff, because they’re afraid you’ll attribute it to them or that the audience will figure out that the joke material came from them.
I recently did
a comedy show for a group who is in charge of corporate moves – moving executives from one city/state/country to another. I knew there had to be good stories in there, but obviously the client didn’t want to tell me any juicy details . . .so I asked a friend. My friend did tell me some ridiculous things that executives have demanded when they’re being moved, and I got some great jokes from her information.
So use non-comedians for comedy. . .you’ll get a great angle on touchy topics which will translate into hilarious humor!
Jan
www.ComedyEmcee.com
www.TheWorkLady.com
http://www.thebestmanspeech.
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