Using humour to engage the casual consumer

How to engage an audience that is not (initially) wanting to be sold to -

Through the lens of modern digital marketing strategies...

https://www.tiktok.com/@corporatenatalie/video/7420776888722918698?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7404887011733128709

2 seconds in: starts with humour and in doing so engages and defuses the audience

10 seconds in: soft sells the product

40 seconds in (/1 second left): direct sell

In this example, a leader in the digital marketing space, @corporatenatalie, demonstrates: how to sell/ market on social media.

The challenge arises in a thought that Grace Andrews (@the.socialclimber) anchored for me, that people are not trying to be sold to on social media (generally speaking). This can make certain ads feel "cringe" and misplaced, with the result being an inability to truly connect with and engage the target audience (i.e., most just scroll past).

Adding humour, and soft-selling (subtly: mentioning products/ making them visible) is a useful approach to social media marketing, which is unique from other commercial environments and spaces.

(https://www.tiktok.com/@higherupwellness/video/7388211144843906346?_r=1&_t=8qCK9X4XH9y)

@higherupwellness refers to this in a similar fashion, relaying a cold calling technique whereby he acknowledges the awkward, obligatory nature of cold calling, and in calling it out (with a casual, humourous approach) eases the tension, and achieves higher conversion rates as it feels less and less like "just another sales call".

As with everything, this is highly dependable on who, what , where this is being applied to, but this approach can be particularly useful when targeting gen x/ gen z audiences, on social media platforms, which are one of the greatest "attention holders" of our time, and well positioned to extend their lead.