5 Excellent Marketing Ideas For April Fool's Day

April Fool’s Day has been favored not only by individuals but also by many companies. Speaking of this day, among many April Fool’s Day jokes, you might be thinking of one particular memorable prank by Google which has always been one step ahead of other search engine giants.

In April Fool 2013 Google announced to release Google Nose which was claimed to be a new dimension to its search engine ability.

According to Google, people are allowed to search for specific smells by sniffing their computers or devices. That means, instead of searching for information and images, users could also discover what things smell like. Subscribers might wonder that this was too nice to be actually true. Many people tried experimenting this smelling searching. However, Google Nose was just a joke.

This prank was an instant success for this brand. Up to the present, it has been viewed over 10 million times. This fact proves how successful this campaign is.

It can be drawn from this case study that April Fool’s Day is a great opportunity for companies to execute marketing campaigns. April Fool’s Day is an effective tool to drive sales, raise recognition of the brand and help the brand stay in customers’ mind.

Make Use Of April Fool’s Day To Prompt Sale And Marketing

What Is Real-time Marketing?

Real-time marketing utilizes current events at a certain place and creates a marketing strategy.

The goal of real-time marketing is to connect consumers with the product or service, at the moment. Marketers don’t create a marketing plan in advance but take advantage of current, relevant trends. With the help of social media, real-time marketing has grown in humongous popularity. Marketers today can know about any situation from social media quickly and therefore can use social media for using their real-time marketing successfully.

The reason why this marketing is so effective is because of the fact people always want to be a part of trends. Therefore, when marketers make use of current events, they could make products or services of their companies appeal to customers. For example, the time when Pokemon GO was at the top of the trend, it was highly addictive. Everybody, from celebrities to ordinary people, wanted to play this game. The marketers took full advantage of this craze and attract a vast amount of clients.

April Fool’s Day

April Fool’s Day, also known as All Fool’s Day, has been celebrated on April 1st every year. This day originated in the West but has spread globally and has various names across the globe. However, they all have a common theme which is playing jokes on others until noon that day.

Although this day is celebrated by many cultures for a long time, no one knows for sure its exact origin. Some historians believe that April Fool’s Day became in France. They speculate in the 16th century, there was a calendar change in France when the Gregorian calendar was adopted- New Year’s Day from April 1 moved to January 1. People would be called “April fools” if they continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1st instead of the new date.

For businesses, April Fool’s Day is the one day of a year when they can play pranks on their customers to entertain and engage customers. This is an opportunity for marketers to apply real-time-marketing strategy because everyone follows this trend. Marketers can get creative by generating conventional and fun ideas for executing a marketing campaign and can draw attention from clients. In today’s digital age, April Fool’s Day has become more creative and incentive. Therefore a wise marketer does not miss this occasion.

5 April Fool’s Marketing Ideas

So let’s take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity. If you are not quite sure where to start, check out these 5 ideas below:

Market A Fake Product

In April Fool’s Day, you can pretend that you are launching a crazy product or service. Invest in your prank, for example, creating a product page or a well-produced video. Remember to think of a hot trend in the market and consider whether you can apply it into your prank.

You can take Google and Procter & Gamble for example. In 2013, Google created a video to claim that their searching could search for smells. Google has proved their marketing team was so talented. It really helped evaluate the level in which brands would have to go in the future to surprise the audience. Another big corporate is Procter & Gamble, they released Scope which is bacon-flavored mouthwash. Although it was a fake item, it was effective in making clients laugh.

Offer A Discount That’s Too Good To Be True

Offering a discount which makes customers wonder it is too good to be too is also a good idea because it grabs buyers’ attention immediately. For instance, an online shop could introduce a shirt that’s normally $40 for only $10. Remember that, to keep your customers from feeling like you tricked them, you need to add some information such as a shirt for $10 for all buyers named John.

Make A Fake Announcement

This idea has been applied by several companies. On April 1, 1996, the fast-food chain Taco Bell announced that they purchased the Liberty Bell which is one of the Philadelphia’s most historic treasures. Thousands of American flooded Taco Bell’s headquarters and Philadelphia’s National Park Service with phone calls to see is the story was true.

In fact, the Liberty Bell was not for sale and at noon of April 1st, Taco Bell confessed to the hoax. This prank was successful incredibly.

In yet another April Fool’s prank, the day before April Fool 2013, a video titled “YouTube’s ready to select the winner” was released. In the opening scene of the video, Youtube’s Competition Director, Tim Liston, announced that: “Tonight at midnight, Youtube will no longer be accepting entries. After eight amazing years, it is finally time to review everything that has been uploaded to our site and begin the process of selecting a winner”. It added that a winner would be announced after every single uploaded video had been reviewed - in 2030.

Issuing a surprisingly fake announcement is a great idea for you to apply on April Fool’s Day.

Surprise Your Customers

It is the fact that not everyone likes to be surprised but many people enjoy astonishment. Thus, you should come up with ways to amaze your customers. Online shops can consider giving a discount at check out automatically. Restaurants can serve an appetizer for free.

Fool Day- No Fool

Apart from people who enjoy telling jokes on this day, many people want to tell the truth on April Fool’s Day Therefore, you should also think of telling the truth to surprise your clients. In 2015, BMW announced that they would give a new BMW car for the first person to come to their showroom and bring the advert in hand. Then, a woman called Tianna followed what the advert said and had the car when. It turned out to be not a joke!

Refer: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-32146335

Marketers can learn about this case study to apply for the next strategy for the company.

Traits Of A Winning April Fool’s Day Email Campaign

Like all marketing strategies, you should not implement April Fool’s day because many people do that. You need to whether it will work for you and use it successfully.

For email marketers, April Fool’s day is a wonderful occasion to show their ability. Therefore, if you are planning to execute an email campaign, do not miss the information below:

Maximize The Effectiveness Of The Campaign

Be Different

You do not need to use a totally different template from usual, but to mix things up a bit. On April Fool’s Day, Redbox-a rental DVD company was so different when they announced to recruit “Kiosk Ambassador” to dispense DVDs from their red boxes. How ridiculous it is?

You can make use of April Fool as a chance to experiment and do not need to worry a lot because at worst, you can just say it was all a joke and turn back to your formal email next time.

Try out subject lines

The most important thing to attract customers to open an email is a well-written subject line such as: “No prank allowed… Just FREE Shipping!” or “This is no joke..”. Subscribers will be curious with those subject lines.

It becomes more crucial on April Fool’s Day when there is a range of interesting and catchy subject lines.

It is highly recommended to create an unusual or absurd statement that intrigues customers enough to encourage them to open the email. In some case, a subject line can be so crazy that people could not resist opening the email to know what’s going on.

Use humor

Try to make customers laugh and feel relaxed. For example, PetSmart and Loft were so humorous on this day. Petsmart claimed that they had the ability to train customers’ jackalope and Loft use a gif creatively when they announced that they have a sale with 0% off, however, the information that the sale was 50% off was on the next image.

When clients feel comfortable, they are more likely to make a purchase. Remember to include a link to the company’s website.

Be straightforward

On April Fool’s Day, customers will be overwhelmed by many jokes. Therefore, it would be refreshing for them to have a good traditional deal. You can send messages such as: “The deal is no joke” or “You’re probably receiving many jokes today, so here’s a serious discount”. Therefore, you can draw attention from subscribers.

Attach your brand’s image

If you are planning to troll your customers with full of humor, make sure that it reflects your brand. Take Johnnie for example, they sent apologizing email for naked people image on their dress spotted by a shopper. This email campaign not only entertained subscribers but also made an impression on them of Johnnie’s brand.

Keep in mind that this humor not only makes customers laugh but also increase the recognition of your brand.

Avoid Negative Pranks

Do not cause harm to subscribers

One important thing that email marketers should keep in mind is that do not take April Fools’ emails too far. You do not want to send an email which can cause harm or violate customers’ trust. When clients trust you enough, you need to make sure you honor their trust and do not destroy that trust in the pursuit of a joke. Therefore, whatever you do for this day, make sure that it will not cause any trouble for customers.

Do not go overuse brand image

Several brands try to create a campaign with full of humor without realizing that they go overboard and could ruin the image of their brand. Therefore, it is essential for marketers to keep in mind the brand’s image.

Conclusion

In conclusion, April Fool’s Day is an opportunity fresh air into your marketing efforts. When you make use of this day properly, you can create an effective marketing campaign which not only adds new customers but also helps engage existing one. If you don’t know where to start, you can consider our suggestions mentioned above.

You also need to notice that although April Fools jokes can be a great way to draw attention and go viral, they can also be risky. We have listed some traits of a winning April Fool’s Day email marketing for marketers to take advantage of this day effectively. April Fool’s Day is really worthy to give a try, do not miss out this wonderful occasion to show your company’s characteristic, boost sale and execute your marketing strategy.

Looking for more Marketing Solutions for your Magento 2 stores? Take it here!