Using Business Cartoons in Newsletters
December 29, 2006 by Brad Shorr
Filed under Cartoons, Marketing, Newsletters, SEM
This cartoon was created for use in a newsletter about Web analytics. Now, even the most ardent search marketing fan does not find Web analytics the most stirring of subjects. Applying a touch of humor, along with something visual, inspires newsletter readers to click-through.
When I started developing business cartoons for clients, I assumed certain businesses, like law firms, would never be interested. Not only was I wrong, I was 180-degrees wrong.
Attorneys, well aware of their stuffy image, want to humanize themselves and add a bit of comic relief to their gravely dry Web content.
Financial planners and realtors leave no stone unturned in the efforts to stand out from a crowd that inundates its prospects with e-mail blasts and direct mail.
Business consultants and corporate trainers need methods of breaking up long presentations and emphasizing key points. Business cartoons accomplish both objectives neatly and powerfully. And, the drier the content, the more interest these folks have.
Sales and human resources are more obvious candidates for cartooning, but even dry cleaning can be funny. (Just catch a Seinfeld rerun sometime!)
Are business cartoons right for your business? Most likely the answer is “yes”–provided you have a meaningful message as well. I think of cartoons as exclamation points. Cartoons draw attention to a message and/or reinforce it. And that’s big.
In advertising, getting someone to notice you is half the battle, maybe two-thirds of the battle. You’ll be well armed with a cartoon or two in your holster!
Happy New Year!
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Brad, you have a great approach here - to tickle clients’ funny bone in relation to ideas you want to get across. What a great “Word Sell.” In my mind, pictures often speak louder than words.