Ask any small business owner and they will tell you that marketing is hard work, and getting harder. Although it feels like there are more and more ways to promote your business – blogs, websites, videos, and social media – this saturation can also make it increasingly difficult to stand out.

In this guide, we’ll look at a few ways to use humour to create a memorable brand and keep customers coming back for more.

Use comedy in your business name

While the name of your business has to serve many purposes, including giving information, personality and SEO benefits, that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Your name is the first point of contact a lot of people will have with your business so it’s important that it sticks in their mind and make a lasting impression.

Humour is a great way to do this. If you can make someone smile, or even laugh, just by seeing your name, then you’ve instantly made a good first impression and created an association with a positive feeling. Think of the dog groomer called Doggy Styles or the potter called It’s a Mug’s Game – they’ll stay with you longer than something bland like A1 Dog Grooming.

If you’re really stuck for names, you can generate name ideas for your company using Business Name Generator. This cool tool uses AI to come up with fun names ideas based on just a few keywords and even if you don’t end up using one of its suggestions it’s a great way to get the creative juices flowing.

Pin down your tone of voice

Ask any copywriter what it means to have a tone of voice and they will have a story about the time a business has asked them to write ‘something like Innocent Smoothies‘. Innocent did such a great job of setting themselves apart from most businesses with their tone of voice that it became a benchmark for others, to the point that they’re really not unique anymore, but they’re still an interesting example.

Having a distinct tone of voice means not getting stuck sounding like any other corporate business. It means knowing your audience and what makes them tick, being clear about what you stand for, what feelings you want to provoke, and how you want people to feel about your product. Humour is such a useful tool here, as it can be used to inject personality and help you stand out from the crowd.

Keep your customer service informal

Informal doesn’t have to equal unprofessional – it is possible to respond in a fast and friendly fashion without being dull or corporate sounding. Remember that sales is about connection – people buy from other people, and anything that you can do to show that you’re a human at the other end of the email will help to nurture this connection and encourage more people to buy from you.

Making mistakes and apologizing for them, using self-deprecating humour, making silly jokes or puns to keep things lighthearted – these all have their place. The key is balance of course, but with the right approach, humour can be part of your brand identity and help you attract more customers.

Published by HOLR Magazine.