Using Cartoons in Business Marketing and Customer Communications

Cartoons, funny pictures, illustrations, comics, or art are not just for newspapers, magazines, walls and greeting cards.  They can be incorporated into any businesses marketing and customer development and retention campaign.  And they should.

The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" really comes to mind here.  What is more boring than a bunch of words.  Words have to be read and that takes time, time is something that is valuable and in short supply for busy people (most of us).  Yet a picture is a short hand communication tool and hence gets a larger message across in a quicker time span.

Ideas of where to incorporate a cartoon:

Emails - Letters - Post Cards

• Meeting and appointment reminders
• Thank you and meeting follow up
• Birthdays and annual events 
• Follow up on quotes and sales pitches
• Invitations
• Fax cover sheet (if anyone uses faxes still)
• Just about any kind of regular, repeated correspondence can be more lively with a cartoon/illustration

Brochures - Pricing List - Information Pieces

• What about a marketing piece that answers the most asked questions
• A piece discussing the process you undertake
• Directions to your office or event
• How to guide to use a product

Marketing paraphernalia - mugs, mouse pads, shirts, stickers

The list is long and nearly impossible to exhaust.  Just about anything you can print on.

The cartoon could be as simple as a black and white single figure or a more elaborate color illustration.  You could even try your hand at some industry specific humor and use a comic strip or gag panel as a regular feature in a newsletter, blog, or on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.
Sure you could spend an enormous amount of time searching images  on the Internet for that perfect picture that  fits your need, but there is two major problems going that route.  First, time is money it will take some time to find something.  Second, most, if not all images you'll find on the Internet are copyright protected, if you use them you are stealing.  No you may never get caught, artist count on your moral bearing, but in the off chance you do get caught, there's an expense.

How the do you get a cartoon cheap that is just right?  Hire someone to draw one for you.  I'm not going to go into pricing right here, it is considered professionally inappropriate and quite frankly there are too many variables. That said, I assure you it is less expensive than you would probably be thinking.

Pricing and Quotes: booncartoons@comcast.net

It is time to bring some cartoons to your marketing and customer communications.

Don't wait.  Time is money and it moves fast.