Emails that don’t get responded to is no laughing matter. Maybe it should be?

Have you ever thought of adding a cartoon to the top of your next marketing newsletter, blog, or sales prospect email to make it fun for the recepient to want to keep reading your important communication? Where would you find the perfect cartoon for your message? When you're done reading you will have learned three invaluable marketing skills:

• Why an exceptional cartoon does so much good for your message.

• Where you can find the most exceptional cartoons in the world?

• How you can make the text of your email funny too.

Everyone in sales and marketing knows crafting attention getting emails that get read is a critical business skill. Yes an inviting subject line is a must, but once they’ve opened your email you have to make it easy for them to want to keep reading. You need to provide them dog treats. A phenomenal cartoon is as reliable a dog treat as has ever been created.

Funny cartoons work for getting and keeping people’s attention and motivating people to keep reading. Why? Because funny feels good. And boring feels like death.

B2B doesn't need to stand for "Boring to Boring."

Guillaume Moubeche

Remember, anyone on the receiving end of the marketing or sales message you’re delivering has only one request of you:

“Make it easy for me to feel good about this.”

Because if you don’t, guess what, they’re gone. Guess what great humor does? It makes it easy to feel good about getting a message from you. And if that’s not your purpose why would you send it? People get way too many emails for you not to hear them begging you not to torture them to death.

Why an exceptional cartoon does so much good for your message.

Cartoons have been used to increase readership in newspapers and magazines for decades. They have long known that cartoons are their most read and longest remembered content.

The popular email company, MailChimp, looked at their benchmark open rates* vs. the open rate for the successful cartoonist Andertoons and found this result.

You read that right. Emails with cartoons have an open rate of 57.09%! That’s more than double the closest benchmark. And it’s not just Andertoons.

Marketers using cartoons see newsletter open rates of 45% vs. 5-8% – Ekaterina Walter, Social Media Strategist

Cartoons often double e-mail open rates and break through with regularity to the C-suite as contact campaigns.” – Stu Heinecke, Salesforce Blog

According to Yesware, emails with humour received a 46% open rate.

The quick takeaway is with 306 billion emails sent and received every day, getting your emails noticed is becoming harder by the billions. Adding humor to your marketing gives your company and message personality and thus helps you stand out among the competition.

Ok so now you know the compelling data on why to use smart cartoon humor in emails - now the question becomes where can you find cartoon humor that get the kind of results you just reviewed to motivate you to get in on this action?

Where can you find the most exceptional cartoons in the world?

Antertoons is one place, but I suggest you try the world’s first curated cartoon search engine, “The Perfect Cartoon.” It provides the best cartoons on any topic sourced from all the largest cartoon online platforms including The New Yorker, Art.com, GoComics, ComicsKingdom, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Andertoons, and lots of other exceptional cartoon websites.

How good are the cartoons on The Perfect Cartoon? You tell me. Here’s a small sampling of eight cartoons. Roll your mouse over the thumbnail to enlarge the cartoon. Have you ever seen a collection of cartoons all at one time that were this good? I’m betting no. How about these eight cartoons? Phenomenal right? This gives you a quick taste of the quality of the cartoons you will find at The Perfect Cartoon.

With the Perfect Cartoon will you ever have trouble finding the perfect cartoon for your next email, newsletter or presentation need? No, you won’t. When you see a a cartoon you love just click on the cartoon thumbnail to be taken to the cartoon’s home site. You will be happily surprised how exceptional and enjoyable most cartoon sites are. On occasion you will be taken to Pinterest to see the cartoon where a link to the original cartoon site usually accompanies it.

One of the prime reasons the quality of the cartoons are so good on The Perfect Cartoon is because each cartoon is curated by an expert cartoon curator. Another reason is the creator of the back-end search technology platform was built by Adam Cheyer, the founding creator of Siri - you know the personal assistant on every Apple IPhone in the world. Thankfully the magic of Silicon Valley is finally applying it’s high-tech genius to support B2BH - Business to Businsess Humor. And not a moment too soon.

How can you make the text of your email funny too?

Cartoons are funny because the drawing are accompanied by smart humorous captions. Cartoonists are like Sit-Down-Comics. If you want to add funny text to your emails and you're not a naturally funny writer (few people are) then you're going to have to steal from those who are. The following are three popular humorous email templates designed to get a reply from those who otherwise might not. You can use them as written or customize them to fit your own humor style.

Appointment Setting Email

Email Opening for A Quick Survey

Jon Buchman created a business out of coaching people to add humor and charm to prospecting emails. For example:

“You won’t have heard of me. (Hi, I’m Jon!). I got your details from a list *gasp*. But hey, that means you’re list-worthy; that’s gotta be something, right? 😉

For over five years, we’ve run our amazing agency – and we absolutely love it. It’s a wonderful feeling to know we’re not ripping clients off and producing the best work of our lives.

We’re looking to win new clients over to our side and away from those evil (ok, maybe not evil… but not as good) other agencies.

If you let me have a chat with you about your digital marketing or advertising, spectacular content creation, or bedroom tidying needs – I will buy you lunch/coffee/tequila shots and promise to be somewhat entertaining. If you’re lucky, I may even wear a top hat. First off, I’d love to provide you with some ideas you are free to steal.

I have included a sticker containing a picture of a ferret that has been dressed up. According to the internet, his name is Colin. I trust this will charm you into submission.

I’ll be in touch on email when you least expect it… Dun Dunn Dunnn!

I await your profanity-filled response.

Have a splendid day,

Jon.”

Here is a Popular Follow Up Email With a 46% Response Rate

Catchiest Subject Line Of All Time:

Funny emails cause people to respond to you trying to brighten their day when you add humor to it. “You got me, that was funny. What is this event/course/software/opportunity about?”

David Nihill

When it comes to a sales email, a little levity goes a long way. Most messages are straightforward and serious - and boring. Adding a fun twist to their outreach helps reps distinguish themselves from the competition and make their pitch more memorable. HubSpot

In addition, humor usually puts recipients in a better mood. Once their prospects are smiling, salespeople usually have a far better shot of getting time on their calendars.

I think your course is clear. Add more humor to your emails and you will get better results as every metric points to. Why not make doing business a little more fun while being more successful and happier too.

For more ideas on how to add humor to your business communic-ations check out the world's first suite of humor tools for business professionals at HumorPoint. If you're not careful you might become the funniest employee or most enjoyable leader in your company.

PS. You can click on any of the cartoons above you will be taken to the cartoon's website.

PPS. If you want to learn how to avoid the risks people often associate with using humor at work read how at "Business Humor Etiquette."