When most people see memes pop up, they don\u2019t think much about them.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOh it\u2019s just a stupid meme page,\u201d<\/em> you might say. \u201cWhat\u2019s there to think about? What\u2019s the big deal?\u201d<\/em> But what if I told you some of these \u201cstupid meme pages\u201d are making millions?<\/p>\n And what if I told you it wasn\u2019t just meme pages, but some of Silicon Valley\u2019s hottest startups and the world\u2019s most iconic luxury brands are using memes to make millions, too? Would you start thinking about how to use memes in your marketing too? Of course you would!<\/p>\n Meme marketing leverages the power of humor to get attention on the internet, but humor-based marketing isn\u2019t a new thing. It\u2019s been done for hundreds of years since newspaper ads in the 1700s for magical hair growth potions.<\/p>\n Meme marketing is just the newest internet-native version of it. And it\u2019s been used by the biggest brands in the world \u2014 from Duolingo to Porsche, Sony, and more.<\/p>\n As Gen Z and Gen Alpha take hold and become the next class of founders, CEOs, and CMOs, I believe this trend will only continue to grow.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why you should implement it in your marketing strategy ASAP.<\/p>\n\n Leverage is all about achieving bigger results with less work.<\/p>\n Meme marketing isn\u2019t some magical get-rich-quick scheme. It\u2019s a lever to pull like anything else. And I think it\u2019s one of the strongest out there.<\/p>\n Think about it. Memes are:<\/p>\n Free to make What could be higher leverage than that?<\/p>\n When I realized this, I became obsessed with understanding the tricks to meme marketing.<\/p>\n I interviewed every memelord, meme marketer, and meme page operator I could find: a memelord who sold a content agency for $1M+, a growth hacker at a fintech startup worth $100M+ whose main growth tactic has been ads on meme pages to grow it, and a startup founder who drove $3M+ in SaaS sales from viral memes and sold his company for $100M+.<\/p>\n Then, I wrote all about it in my book Memes Make Millions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n But I didn\u2019t just write about the tactics.<\/p>\n I put the tactics into action to prove they worked. I tweet memes like a madman and get millions of views every month.<\/p>\n I went viral and got 26M+ views for a video of me reading meme-y books on the New York Subway. I even went viral in Paris and got turned into a meme!<\/p>\n All this attention has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year as a marketing consultant helping startups go viral (and blow up the internet).<\/p>\n If you tried paying me $100k to make memes about hockey, I couldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n I know nothing about hockey (except that Canadians are weirdly good at it for some reason). But I can make memes about startups and venture capital all day.<\/p>\n I live and breathe startups. I listen to All-In<\/a> and My First Million<\/a>. I go to the tech parties. I read the books. I work with startups all day everyday, and many of my friends are founders\/VCs.<\/p>\n I\u2019m on the timeline interacting with people in this world all day. I\u2019m deep in this world. And I can make viral memes night and day.<\/p>\n The takeaway: <\/strong>You can only make memes about industries you\u2019re deep in.<\/p>\n You can make memes about any industry from hockey to gardening to healthcare to startups. The main thing is you need to know the zeitgeist and what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n Because the meme world is so fast-paced, I actually started a daily newsletter with new viral memes<\/a> to help people figure out the meme zeitgeist.<\/p>\n Inside Out if it was filmed in my head pic.twitter.com\/wi0XsmUGaC<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin) Good memes come from problems your industry faces.<\/p>\n If you look at the best meme pages across finance, tech, whatever, the best memes are typically about problems you\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re in accounting, you meme about Excel. If you\u2019re in startups, you meme about VCs taking the summers off to party in France.<\/p>\n VCs: “Sorry, we’re still doing due diligence”<\/p>\n The due diligence: pic.twitter.com\/WgeU39LgcL<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin) If you\u2019re making memes for your brand, become hyper-focused on what problems your users face. If you\u2019re working on software for writers, you better know what problems writers face (e.g., writer\u2019s block, not enough caffeine, etc.).<\/p>\n This is something super underrated that most social media managers don\u2019t think about.<\/p>\n It\u2019s actually okay to offend some people. I don\u2019t mean using offensive language like insults or charged words \u2014 that\u2019s never okay.<\/p>\n But it is okay to poke fun at a job group like accountants or YouTubers. You just have to be thoughtful and selective about who you\u2019re offending and who you don\u2019t want to ever offend or poke fun at.<\/em><\/p>\n For example, at one startup I work with, the product is all about helping founders, so we never try to offend founders. Instead, we pick on VCs (they\u2019re easy targets).<\/p>\n At another startup, the customer was engineers, so we never tried to pick on engineers. Instead, we picked on product managers (again, another easy target).<\/p>\n Happy Mother\u2019s Day to the Product Mommy who single-handedly caused the 2022 recession, the most impactful work she\u2019s ever done pic.twitter.com\/7wXfDDpzW6<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin) Is making money cringe?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n After all, I\u2019ve proved that memes make millions.<\/p>\n Memes are a powerful marketing tactic used by everyone from solo creators to public companies like Netflix. Stop worrying about being cringe, and focus on being funny and making money.<\/p>\n Cringe is the new cool<\/a>. Become a cringe arbitrageur. When you\u2019re willing to be cringe and do things others are afraid of, you can get so much more attention on the internet.<\/p>\n\n The tools and software are actually the least important part.<\/p>\n Speed is the most important thing.<\/p>\n Yes, you can use paid software like Photoshop<\/a>, but you can just as easily use free software like Imgflip<\/a> or Canva<\/a>. Really just use whatever is the fastest.<\/p>\n My advice? Don\u2019t overthink the tools.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a graphic design job \u2014 this is meme marketing. Don\u2019t worry about high fidelity, just focus on being funny. Because remember, in the attention economy, being funny makes millions.<\/p>\n \u201cHumor is related to strength. To have a sense of humor is to be strong: to keep one\u2018s sense of humor is to shrug off misfortunes, and to lose one\u2019s sense of humor is to be wounded by them. And so the mark \u2014 or at least the prerogative \u2014 of strength is not to take oneself too seriously. <\/em><\/p>\nMemes are the highest leverage marketing on earth.<\/h2>\n
\n Fast to make
\n An easy way to go viral <\/p>\nSo, how does meme marketing work?<\/h2>\n
Step 1. Learn the industry and trends.<\/h3>\n
\n July 6, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nStep 2. Know the problems.<\/h3>\n
\n July 30, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nStep 3. Know who you cannot offend.<\/h3>\n
\n May 12, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nStep 4. Embrace the cringe.<\/h3>\n
Step 5. Master the tools.<\/h3>\n
The Takeaway<\/h2>\n