If you’re looking to try something new with your direct mail marketing, try a touch of humor. Everyone welcomes the opportunity to laugh, especially after a long, stressful day. The last thing people are looking for when sifting through a mound of bills is a serious or exaggerated advertisement. Instead, try a humorous cartoon for something more lighthearted.
Humor for Business
There’s no doubt humor can be very good for business. Associating your company with good humor and a smile can help build relationships and create a positive image for your organization.
Cartoons can be a useful tool to employ in marketing. They can offer potential customers a taste of what the company is like. If the message being sent is, “We are fun and don’t take ourselves too seriously,” most people will respond in a positive way. A cartoon can pique a potential customer’s interest and encourage them to want to learn more about you and the services or goods you offer.
Three Positives and One Drawback
Not everything is positive about using cartoons in marketing — but most of it is. Here are a few positives about using a cartoon in your campaign.
- Cartoons demand involvement. Cartoons are hard to ignore. People are drawn to them whether or not they are interested in who has presented the cartoon. If you use a cartoon as part of your direct mail marketing campaign, that cartoon may prove to be the single element that prevents your letter from going straight into the trash can. People love to laugh, and they tend to read cartoons hoping for a smile. If a cartoon garners a laugh, your work is done. Chances are a well-received cartoon will end up on a refrigerator door instead of the trash. Every time your customer walks to the refrigerator, the cartoon is a reminder of your business.
- Cartoons are “sticky.” The combination of a picture and witty caption is memorable in a way simple words on a page are not. Cartoons stick. People remember them and even try to recreate them for friends. This is a great opportunity for marketing. If you offer something in your mailings that people want to repeat or remember long after they have put the mailing away, the cartoon has served its purpose well.
- Cartoons have been tested. Cartoons have been used effectively in marketing for a long time. Unlike newer techniques that could be a gamble, cartoons are proven to work in marketing when used effectively.
Clearly there are a lot of benefits to using cartoons in direct mail marketing, but it’s not for every company or every occasion. The single drawback to cartoons: not all companies can use them appropriately. Cartoons create an image of lightheartedness. If your company does not have a lighthearted message or provides a service best perceived as serious, cartoons can give a mixed message to potential customers and clients, and could backfire.
When used appropriately, direct mail marketing can benefit substantially from using cartoons. Fun and clever cartoons will engage readers and give them something positive to associate with your company from that point on.
