BARKBOX: MAKING MILLIONS THROUGH MEME MARKETING

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Hiya everyone, I've decided to make Growing Viral a tad more personal this week. I also added a new feedback feature at the bottom (very swanky). So, if you hate me saying "Hiya" at the start of the email, make sure to let me know!This week, I'm going to be talking about one of the most interesting companies yet. If you're from the UK (like me), chances are you've never heard of them.Yet, their growth story and marketing strategy is one you NEED to know about. Their business model is genius and they've absolutely dominated their space over the last decade.

They went from a mere idea to an 8-figure, publicly-traded, global powerhouse - all within the last 10 years. Their name is BarkBox.This is their marketing strategy...

Company Overview

Valuation: $460M (Source)

Revenue: $112M (Source)

BarkBox is a monthly subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences.

The company began back in 2011 as a side project. Co-founder Matt Meeker had just adopted a puppy named Hugo and noticed the local pet shop in his Brooklyn neighbourhood had a limited selection of dog toys and treats.So he had an idea...

A subscription-based service that delivers monthly treats and toys to dog owners.

Think Uber Eats on steroids, but for dogs.You may be thinking it's a fad - I know I did when I first heard of it.But once you start reading, you'll realise BarkBox is anything but a fad.

Breaking Down The Strategy

As a non-dog lover myself, when I came across BarkBox I had no concept of how successful a dog subscription service could be. Then I saw the stats...

• 1.05 million subscribers

• $100M in ARR

• Publicly traded company

So, I dove deeper into the world of DTD (direct-to-dogs). Turns out the market is HUGE. The pet market as a whole is estimated to be worth a whopping $261 billion (source). Not to mention, it's only getting started:

• Over the last 5 years, raw dog food has seen a 147% increase in purchasing patterns. (Source)

• 42% of pet owners buy their pet food online. (Source)

• 38.4% of American households own a dog. (Source)

Just because BarkBox created a company in a growing market doesn't mean they would instantly rocket to $100M in ARR though. They knew there were a bunch of dog owners who would be interested in their services, but to push them over the line to become consumers, it wasn't about having an excellent service. It was about building a connection with millions of dog lovers across the US.

How did they do that?Memes.

Above is a prime example of a "classic" BarkBox post. It doesn't sell their products and it doesn't directly make them money. So why did they post it?Well, before we get into why they posted it, it's important you understand the value of memes themselves. You may just think they're just stupid gags that you brush over on your daily scroll. However, memes have taken the internet by storm over the last 3-4 years. They've become a vital form of communication for people and an invaluable content pillar for brands. I mean, just look at the stats:

• 55% of consumers between 13-35 send memes every week, while 30% of them send memes every day (YPulse, 2019).

• Traditional marketing graphics have 5% engagement while memes can yield 60% organic engagement with ten times higher reach (The Nyu Dispatch, 2020).

• The click-through-rate (CTR) of a meme campaign is 14% higher than email marketing (Forbes council post).

The stats don't lie. Memes come with traction and people love them.

Nonetheless, BarkBox didn't just see memes as an option for a post or two. Instead, they made memes the forefront of their content strategy. They doubled and tripled down on them. So much so that nearly every post they put out is a meme.

Yep, this is the Instagram feed of a 1/2 billion-dollar company. There's no aesthetic grid pattern. No professionally shot photos. Not a photo of their product's in sight. It's purely dog memes. Now, if you showed this page to a social media "expert" they'd instantly tell you they've made a grave error. A Instagram feed not perfectly aligned and matching? Sinful! Yet, BarkBox gets exactly what they want out of their Instagram. They've moulded their social media pages into a hub for dog-lovers to hang out. They've made it a place where nearly 2M dog-lovers follow. They've gathered millions of their exact target audience on one page. They don't have to go out and find them, they willingly come to them for great memes on a daily basis.More importantly than them just coming to the page though, they're sharing it.

Just think about you personally. How many times have you shared a professional made graphic about a product to your friend? Once? Twice, maybe? Now, how many times have you shared a funny post or meme with your friends? Probably once or twice per week. BarkBox knew this and knew that if they could keep pumping out hilarious (and very shareable dog memes) dog lovers would share them with their friends who (can you guess?) also have dogs. BarkBox had people literally referring their friends to their page without even knowing they did so. It's like affiliate marketing but without having to pay the affiliates.

The sharability of the memes takes BarkBox from a business doing great on socials, to a rapidly scaling business.

Scaling through memes probably isn't a thing, but maybe it should be. BarkBox memes were a fundamental feature of their growth. The majority of their revenue comes through their social channels. The more they can grow those social channels, the more potential customers they have to convert. Which essentially means the company's growth is directly correlated (and tied) to their social content... which in this case is memes.

Their memes allow them to grow their socials rapidly. Their socials then allow their business to grow rapidly.

There are, of course, a huge amount of other factors of a business becoming successful: operations, processors, management, etc. But from a marketing perspective, it's impossible to overlook the pinnacle part memes (and their sharability) have played in BarkBox's growth.

A key factor to remember in this is the types of memes BarkBox was sharing (yes, there is a skill to meme sharing). BarkBox weren't just sharing any old memes about pop culture. They were sharing memes about dogs. This may seem simple, but it's a crucial part of the strategy. People don't share dog memes with people who don't also love dogs. Thus ensuring that every time the meme is shared a new dog lover sees the BarkBox social page. They're targeting dog lovers, not through some crazy paid social campaign, but simply through the shareable content they put out.

BarkBox aren't alone with their meme marketing strategy though. In fact, we are seeing more and more brands lean into it. Today, we are seeing some of the biggest brands in the world posting memes on their socials:

Which is not surprising at all when you see the stats I talked about earlier. When it comes to DTC brands on socials they have 2 major goals:

1. Garner a huge audience

2. Create a connection with that huge audience

Memes don't just achieve one of those goals. They achieve both.

No longer are they just a gag to send to friends.

They're a marketing sensation.

How To Implement It

I'm gonna make a MAJOR point here. Please don't come away from this and flood your company's socials with memes. It won't end well.On the other hand, think about how you can post relatable, sharable, and funny content that will benefit both you and your audience.A great example of this is how Because of Social utilises memes.

Their general feed is clean, sharp and sleek (very aesthetic) and not a place you'd expect memes to be. In fact, you'd think at first glance that a meme would stick out like a sore thumb within the feed.

Yet, (my good friend) Rachael does an amazing job of integrating great memes into her posts, that most importantly, are relatable to her target audience. It makes the brand 10X more relatable and 10X more human. Just like BarkBox did with their audience. If you're going to pay big sums of money on a monthly basis to anyone, you have to trust them. Coming across as human and relatable brings that trust.

That trust? Priceless for you and your business.

That's all for today!

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This has been a breakdown of BarkBox's meme marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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