When it comes to creating promotional videos, many marketers mistakenly focus their efforts on one specific goal: creating and presenting a professional image. This, dare we say, obsession with being viewed as professional often leads to one disappointing result: videos that are dull and uninteresting.Maintaining a professional image for your business is important, of course. And we're not here to discount that. But, if you want to get people's attention and make a long-lasting impression, your marketing plan and strategy should go far beyond simply creating a professional image for your brand.And what's a wonderful way to really grab people's attention and make an impression? By making them laugh, of course!Want to learn about how (and why) you should use comedic videos in your marketing plan? Keep reading, and we'll lay it all out for you.

Humor Creates Bonds

Being successful in business is all about one thing...building and maintaining relationships. Whether it's with your employees, clients, or vendors, understanding what makes relationships work is critical to the progress of your business.If you want to create a bond, particularly with your customers, it's a good idea to keep humor in mind as a tool to help you achieve this goal. You might be asking why. Above, we established that maintaining a professional image is important.When it comes to relating to your customers, though, giving them the opportunity to see your brand as if it's human is also important.In addition to helping to humanize your brand, humor can:

• Diffuse tension
• Relieve stress
• Foster closeness
• Provide reassurance that everything will be OK

By using humor to do these things, you're giving your customers the opportunity to see your brand in a different light. Customers will be able to identify with your brand and relate to it, and thus, will view your brand in a more positive light than the slick, ultra-professional corporations that don't care about anything other than how people perceive their image.If you can establish your brand as human and create a real bond with your customers and those who view your comedic videos, they'll be that much more likely to remain loyal to you.It's simple: Customers want to support brands that feel like they have real people behind their marketing campaigns. It allows them to feel like they're going to be recognized and heard. And, if you can poke fun at yourself, it reassures them that you're not perfect, either. Give them that, and they'll remain loyal until you give them a reason not to.

Humor Inspires People to Share

Just think about it. When you find something funny, you're probably thinking about who you can share it with...so that they can laugh along with you, right?Whether it's a funny YouTube video, a meme, or just something amusing you happened to overhear in passing, we all like to share things that make us laugh. Everyone knows laughing with other people is infinitely more fun than laughing alone. (And it looks way less weird, too.)Using comedic videos in your marketing will inspire people to share your work in ways that other, less humorous content won't. Ever seen a white paper go viral? When you find one, let us know, because we most certainly haven't.When your customers and viewers share your videos, whether they're brand commercials, product explainers, or something else, it provides your brand with additional credibility. If a customer's friend sees that they trust your brand, they'll be more inclined to trust it too.

Humor Can Help You Establish Your Brand Voice

If used in an appropriate manner, using humor or comedic videos as part of your marketing strategy can help you establish your brand's voice even further. This goes hand-in-hand with the importance of humanizing your brand.However, wherever you use humor, be sure to add it in a way that aligns with the rest of your brand's tone and voice. If you don't think about your brand's current voice when strategizing on how to add an element of humor, you could risk hurting your reputation - particularly if your brand is typically perceived as sleek and ultra-professional.To avoid ruining the reputation of your brand, you could personalize your campaigns further and use your personal brand to get humorous points across. That way, you won't risk tarnishing the voice of your corporate brand. And, you can have even more fun with it.

How Do We Determine What's Funny (And Appropriate)?

Of course, a joke that's appropriate and works for a teenager is probably not going to resonate with their parents in the same way. Knowing this, it's important to plan your comedic videos and humorous marketing campaigns effectively so that the audience they're targeted to will understand and appreciate them.To accomplish this, you should do an appropriate amount of research to determine the right strategy to reach your target audience. No matter who your target audience is, try to keep the following in mind when creating your next campaign:

• Don't be too controversial
• Be natural, forced humor is obvious
• Relate to your audience and know what they experience
• Don't be afraid to poke fun at yourself
• Keep it simple

If you keep the above in mind when planning your next marketing campaign, creating humorous content that your target audience will relate to and be inspired to share will be easy as pie.

Use Comedic Videos in Your Next Marketing Campaign

You'll create a stronger bond with your customers, inspire them to share, and you might even find yourself with some new customers in the process. What's not to love?If you'd like some help coming up with or executing your ideas for your next marketing campaign, don't wait to contact us for a quote. We're all ears and would love to hear and help you execute your ideas. You'll have customers laughing at your comedic videos in no time!