Use of Humor for Web Site Marketing

Top-tier comedy can help the dissemination of your web site content and e-business mission. However, before you hire cartoonists and Harvard Lampoon writers to develop comedy bits and funny copywriting for your web site, develop a series of bottom line goals for your ecommerce venture. When used as a “spice” for designing your web site, humor can generate great returns. When used too extravagantly or used in place of other more well-advised marketing tactics, humor can backfire and pull focus from your e-business’s mission.

Most importantly, the definition of what constitutes comedy varies from demographic group to demographic group. 15 to 30 year olds may find certain ribald jokes and graphic humor amusing. However, these same videos, images, and content jokes can turn off older demographics.

Moreover, unless you have a very fine-tuned sense of what's funny (e.g. your sense of humor is in some senses in line with the mainstream), you risk alienating people with jokes. Unless your e-business strives to be edgy and exclusive, keep your comedy at the service of your web site -- not the other way around.

These warnings aside, how can you use comedy effectively to pull visitors to your web site and keep them there? You can start with your PPC ads. Instead on bragging about your service or offering matter-of-fact descriptions of your catalog products, you can ironically self-deprecate to generate interest.

For instance, let’s say you sell used books. A straightforward approach might post “great used books at discount prices” or “find James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Charles Dickens at 80 percent off other online retailers.” An ironic and humorous tactic, on the other hand, might boast “worst place on the Internet to buy books,” or “we sell books only in horrible condition.”

The jarring nature of these untrue but audacious statements can captivate the attention of surfers who are bored by traditional marketing pitches. Of course, given the potential for misinterpretations, you need to have a pitch perfect sense of what constitutes appropriate humor for your web site subject. Talk to your colleagues and loyal customers to see whether or not the humorous inclusions you’ve developed augment or hurt your sales pitch.

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