Email Memes: A Guide for Email Marketers
You’re going through your inbox when a competitor’s email catches your eye. Not because of an extravagant design or a groundbreaking offer, but because of a perfectly placed meme that makes you pause — and smile.
Frustration sets in as you wonder, “Why aren’t my emails this engaging?” Determined to unlock the secret of using email memes without compromising your brand’s professionalism, you set out to give your email marketing a refreshing and relatable twist.
And now you’re here; ready to find some inspiration and learn the best practices.
4 Evergreen Types of Email Memes
Some memes resonate with every email user regardless of how and why they use email. Most email apps have universal problems that can become good targets for jokes.
You can send these memes to your audience to spark some good laughs and connect with them.
1. Email Attachment Memes
We’ve all been there! Crafting a perfect message, explaining all the files attached, and hitting “Send,” only to find that the email attachment isn’t attached! This is highly relatable and meme-worthy. The situation happens more often in office settings, but you can also reference it in other situations for fun.
This next meme is for the absent-minded. You’re so embarrassed by not sending the attachments that you try to fix things with a quick apology. But it’s so quick that you forget to attach the files! AGAIN!
This one brings back all the nostalgic feelings about “Home Alone.” It may take you a few seconds to see the point, but when you do, you can’t unsee it!
Here’s another air-craft-related meme to capture email attachments. The helicopter has taken off without its landing skids. It never gets old!
2. Spam Email Memes
Spam is a real nightmare for every email user. Why don’t we share our collective pet peeves and laugh them off?
This one isn’t supposed to be funny, though. We are at war with spammers and online scammers. But we have the CAN-SPAM Act to protect us.
Here’s another meme to tickle our love of animations. Send this to your Toy Story fans who need to be warned of spam.
No meme collection is complete without this picture of Drake! Let’s take a moment to complain about spam and how much our inboxes “love” it.
Ok! Spam may be every user’s nightmare, but anti-spam laws are with email marketers everywhere. They go through all hoops and loops to avoid being a spam sender.
3. Email Deliverability Memes
As an email marketer, email deliverability is one of the primary metrics to watch out for. All your marketing attempts are in vain if your emails don’t land in the primary inbox. So, it is understandably a main topic of everyday conversations and a meme-worthy one!
Shoutout to all novice email marketers out there! Email delivery and email deliverability are not the same!
Now, let’s discover what we can do to increase email deliverability. Let’s put aside fun and laughter for a moment and get serious. Embrace subject lines and content to get your messages to the subscribers’ inbox. Any thoughts?
4. Memes About Cold Email
Sending cold emails isn’t illegal. But cold email open rates are meager and we strongly advise against the practice. These emails are impersonal and can end up in spam folders. Let’s go through some memes that reflect this view.
Cold calls and cold emails are equally bad marketing strategies that can ruin your business’s reputation. How about forgetting about them both?
Which one is more dreaded? Cold emails or dark winter nights? From an email user’s point of view, nothing can probably beat cold emails from obscure senders trying to pitch a product. We’ll need a great wall to ward them off.
Don’t act so surprised! You should have seen it coming. Cold emails get you nowhere and hurt your sender reputation.
Sent cold emails in the hope of capturing hundreds of leads? Prepare to get disappointed!
Memes to Use in Your Campaigns
Using humor in your email marketing campaigns can lighten up your audience’s day and make your emails something they look forward to.
When you include a joke or a clever meme, it grabs attention and makes your message more memorable. People tend to associate positive emotions with brands that make them smile, which can lead to stronger customer loyalty and more shares.
Humor can also help your email stand out in a crowded inbox and give your audience a good reason to click and read more about what you have to offer.
1. Newsletter Memes
Email newsletters are every email marketer’s friend. They keep subscribers engaged and connected to the business even if they don’t visit your website. Use these memes wherever they fit to intersperse information with a good laugh.
Every email marketer wants to be acknowledged for the effort they put into crafting a perfect newsletter. Why not share it with your audience to get some sympathy?
This is a perfect meme that you can send to your subscribers before sending them the actual newsletter. It’s funny and can raise their interest in getting it.
2. Memes for Welcome Emails
Welcome email campaigns play an important role in building the foundations of a trusting relationship between you and your subscribers. And a funny meme can foster this relationship using humor.
Most of the email welcome email memes you’ll find are about welcoming someone to the “team” at work. But if you phrase your email content appropriately, you’ll probably get away with using these memes in commercial emails, too.
This may not be what a newcomer would expect to see in your welcome email. But if they have a good sense of humor, and if it’s in line with your brand identity, they can appreciate it.
Welcome emails are lonely! Nobody takes them seriously. This meme can generate interest and get the reader to respond by raising their sympathy!
This next meme is funny and relatable while referring to a widely known element of pop culture.
This meme is hilarious! It’s a great choice to show the light-hearted side of your business and make the reader laugh from the get-go.
Even if this one didn’t have text, the level of cuteness would put a big smile on anyone’s face. You can also change the text to get the reader to press the call to action button instead of sending a “Thank you” message.
3. Holiday Campaign Email Memes
Holiday emails perfectly lend themselves to memes. People are happy and appreciate a good joke.
This one might refer to email inboxes after vacations. But it can be a good reminder for your audience to check their messages once in a while.
This is another relatable holiday meme that reminds readers not to neglect their inbox. Hopefully, they remember your brand and open all your emails.
Thank-you emails are also great for memes. Their lighthearted nature offers great opportunities to play around with many concepts and turn them into your friends using humor.
This is exactly one a thank-you email meme should be, lightly self-deprecating and relatable. The reader starts to see you have a brand with a human side and is more likely to interact with you.
Where to Find Email Memes
Social media is the richest source of memes, but a quick Google search can also give you a host of funny memes and images.
You can also find relevant memes from these sources:
Memedroid
Memedroid boasts a huge selection of popular and trendy memes that you can easily browse and choose from. It’s a lot like a social media platform where users create, share, and interact with each other’s content. You can like, share, or comment on any meme you find.
You’ll find memes neatly organized into categories like Latest, Trending, Top, and Random, making it easy to find what you’re looking for.
Pinterest isn’t just for discovering artistic images or cooking recipes. Think of it as a powerful search engine where you can find any image by typing your keywords into its search box.
The website is free to use, and you can save your favorite memes right on your profile. You can also download images and create your own memes with a dash of creativity.
Giphy
If you’re ready to take your meme game up a notch, Giphy is the place to be. It’s a treasure trove of GIF memes, stickers, and clips to spice up your content.
You’ll see a long list of trending GIF memes on the homepage. These are perfect for finding the right one for your email marketing. Giphy organizes these memes into various categories like Entertainment and Action, to make your search easier.
When you find a GIF meme you love, just click on it. A new window pops up with sharing buttons, letting you quickly post the GIF on your social media pages or embed it into your email content.
Why Use Memes in Your Marketing Emails
Using memes in marketing taps into the email readers’ collective experiences to boost the key message. Here are three reasons why memes are great email marketing tools.
Memes Grab Attention
Nothing can catch the eye of a reader — interested or otherwise — like a funny line inside a familiar picture. Internet users are used to seeing memes everywhere. 75% of internet users aged between 13 and 35 share memes on social media. So, they appreciate reading a perfectly written joke that cleverly hits the mark.
Unlike written text, it doesn’t take much time to read and process a meme. People can catch the message instantly and relate to it. This makes them more likely to continue reading the entire message.
Memes Increase Engagement
Memes are one of the best tools that increase engagement in social media. Users like and comment on Instagram or Facebook memes that are funny and relatable.
The same thing can happen with marketing emails.
Like other visuals, memes are a great part of irresistible content. They can increase the reader’s engagement by encouraging them to take your desired action.
Emails that use images have a 2.7% click-through rate, which is about twice as much as text-only messages (1.13%). They spark interest in the reader, resonate with them, and create a memorable experience that they want to share with others.
Use Trends to Your Advantage
Scroll down any social media feed and you’ll find memes everywhere. Some memes remain popular for years, while others become a trend for a short time.
You can use both types of memes to connect with your audience and get your message across.
The most important benefit of using trendy memes is that they can highlight the human side of your brand. Your audience will view you as a cool business that’s aware of popular trends and connect with you more easily. This is particularly important if millennials and Gen Z-ers are your primary audience.
Plus, you can use memes to showcase your product’s features and promote offers. The possibilities are endless; you just need to be aware of the trends to send more engaging messages.
How Often Should You Use Memes in Your Emails?
So, memes are trendy and highly engaging. And you may think it’s best to use them as much as possible. But where’s the line between funny and overused?
The primary point about using memes in email marketing is that you shouldn’t see them as an essential element of your messages. Instead, treat memes like the seasoning that can spice up and improve the relatability of your message.
Here’s why you should use memes sparingly.
- Memes can trigger spam filters. Memes are treated as images inside email messages. And spam algorithms are sensitive to image-heavy emails. Don’t use more than one meme in one message.
- Memes can overshadow your main message. Visuals are auxiliary devices that help convey your message better. But since they’re highly attractive, they can distract the reader from your main message.
- Humor may have the opposite results. Since they carry humor, memes can be viewed differently by different members of the audience, depending on their social and cultural backgrounds. If you don’t use them wisely, they may backfire and disengage your audience. So, use them only if you are sure about your subscribers’ preferences and interests.
For these reasons, it’s best to use memes when humor can help boost your message. Memes can dilute professional or marketing messages, so don’t use them for serious situations.
You can safely use them for:
- Welcome emails,
- Holiday messages,
- Showing gratitude,
- Re-engagement,
- Abandoned cart emails.
But tread with caution if you use memes in such messages:
- Email announcements,
- Making formal requests,
- Delivering serious or bad news,
- Pitching products or services to B2B customers.
How to Create Custom Email Memes
Want to add a touch of personalization to your email memes and highlight your email branding? Create your own memes, then.
When you create your own meme, you can have more control over the content and you can tailor it to the specific message you want to convey.
IMGFLIP
IMGFLIP is a meme-generating website that also allows you to access the memes created by its users.
It has a large collection of meme templates and an easy-to-use canvas to insert your captions.
The canvas offers lots of customization options, including font size, font and outline color, meme chains, special image effects, and many more.
It has free and paid plans. If you don’t want IMGFLIP watermarks on your memes, you should use the pro plan.
KAPWING
KAPWING is a free and easy-to-use online tool to help you generate your meme in just three steps:
- Find the image in their large database of trendy memes.
- Add your text.
- After clicking “Export,” your meme is ready and you can download it.
It also has an AI meme generator that makes your meme-generation journey much easier and more fun. All you need to do is to give detailed prompts. You can also choose your image size from five options.
Boost Engagement with Memes — Delivered Reliably to Every Inbox
Injecting memes into your email campaigns can seriously amp up the fun and engagement. But what good is a compelling meme if it never sees the light of an inbox?
At Campaign Refinery, we’re here to ensure your emails make a grand entrance into the Primary inbox.
We follow email marketing best practices to keep things smooth and spam-free:
- No spammers allowed: We’re picky about who joins our platform because we want the best for you. Every new client goes through an approval process, so our community remains top-notch.
- Active monitoring: We constantly monitor for any strange activity — like spam. Plus, we set the bar high for engagement — complaint rates below 0.1% and bounce rates under 10%.
- Mandatory authentication: Every client must use authentication protocols on their domains. This keeps our sending reputation shiny and mailbox providers happy.
- Clean lists, happy sending: Our automated tool regularly cleans out all harmful email addresses from your lists. This means you won’t accidentally waste efforts on unresponsive IDs.
Ready to boost those open rates and enjoy some viral fame? Apply to join Campaign Refinery today!