KaTasidy June eZine

Personalized Cartoons as Response Engines...

"You like it?? I borrowed it from Katrina Rauch."

Have you ever received a mailing that was so fascinating and involving that you couldn't wait to open it and respond to the offer inside? We all want to make our direct mail campaigns stand out in a pile of mail, but very few do. Here's a way to make your mailings do that and much more: Use a personalized cartoon as your response engine.

Personalized cartoons have powered some of the most successful direct mail campaigns I've ever seen. I actually had one appointment-generation campaign produce an impossible 100% response -- and set response records for some of the biggest direct marketers in the world. So how can you put these powerful response engines to work in your campaigns?

First, it's important to understand what a cartoon is and is not. A good cartoon -- like all humor -- always reveals a truth. After the laughter comes reflection, and if the cartoon is properly targeted, a deep-seated point of agreement emerges about the need for your product or service as a solution to a problem your prospects face. Cartoons are also compelling. Readership surveys have consistently shown cartoons are the best-read and best-remembered part of anything they're in editorially. Which is why they also command a lot of attention when they show up in the mail.

But there are also potential pitfalls. Cartoons are difficult to create effectively, so if they aren't funny or if they're off-target, they can easily turn off an audience. Marketers often make the mistake of focusing the cartoon on their offer or brand, which also can shut a mailing down in a hurry.

I always apply the following five rules to ensure success with a personalized cartoon mailing:

* Focus the cartoon solely on the recipient, not on you, your brand or offer
* Make sure the cartoon is funny and the recipient comes out on top in the gag
* Steer the humor so that the "truth revealed" is in alignment with your branded message
* Use that truth revealed as the point of agreement to launch your message copy
* Use the "Refrigerator Door" test

What is the refrigerator door test? Ask yourself if the cartoon is something you would keep on your refrigerator door if you received it in the mail. If not, start over. So much of what we receive in the mail uses the principle of tease to get us hooked. Ultimately, teasing leads to disappointment or worse. But a personalized cartoon works on a completely different basis, delighting rather than teasing recipients into noticing and responding to the message inside.

Can a personalized cartoon mailing work in your business? Of course. Because your prospects are already trained to respond positively to cartoons. And because there are always central truths about every solution offered in the form of a product or service. If they can set response records for the likes of AT&T, Time, Inc., Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Glaxo/SmithKline, the NHL and NBA, they can do the same for you, too.

Content provided by: Stu Heinecke, Direct marketing expert, published cartoonist and creator of the Personalized Cartoon direct mail genre.

In today's world, running an ecommerce store can be an exciting job as long as the store is setup correctly. One of the main concerns with an ecommerce store is security. For example, if someone is entering credit card information or even name and address information how do I as the store owner know this information is transferred over the internet securely? How do I know if the information is stored securely? There are a couple of simple things you as a store owner can do to make sure your customers' information is secure.

First, when user's come to a page in your site where they will need to enter secure information, such as a registration page or store checkout page, be sure that the website address shows an https: in front of it and not just the standard http:. The https stands for Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol and when used causes the data being transmitted to be encrypted. For your website to be able to use the https protocol, you must purchase a secure certificate from a trusted authority. Several examples of trusted authorities are godaddy.com and networksolutions.com. We at KaTasidy can take care of purchasing and setting up your secure certificates. Prices range from $40/year to $500/year depending on the type of secure certificate needed. The important thing is that you are sure your website is using a secure certificate when customers enter data that needs to be secured.

Second, ask your webmaster (the person or company who created your site) if the sensitive data being stored in your ecommerce store database is being encrypted. This would include such information as user passwords, credit card numbers, and social security numbers. If it is not be sure to have this done. That way if someone gets access to your store database he or she will not be able to steal this sensitive information.

These are just a couple of ways to increase your store's security. If you are concerned about your store's security and are not sure whether it is secure or not, contact KaTasidy by emailing our sales department or by calling 303.941.6271 today and for a one time $50, we will do an analysis of your store and report to you whether any security improvements should be made.

In 1974 Steven K. Scott had just lost his sixth job since graduating from college and could not identify the source of his problems. Then his friend Gary Smalley (relationship and marriage expert) asked Steven, 'How would you like to be smarter than all of your bosses?'

Smalley told him to read a different chapter in Proverbs daily for a month and then write down the insights and wisdom he gained. And to repeat the process for two years. Smalley predicted that if Scott followed this system, he would be smarter than any boss he ever had in two years, and if he continued, he would be a millionaire in five years.

Steven Scott followed the plan and experienced an extreme turnaround. He's now laid out those insights in The Richest Man Who Ever Lived

I just read about this book - but in looking back I realize one of the practices I started after crashing financially in 1988 was to do exactly what this book suggests. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs and I have been reading the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month ever since then. I'm also confident it's one of the the subtle tools that helped open the doors of opportunity I've experienced in the last few years.

So, this is a pretty straightforward plan. If you aren't yet, would you like to be a millionaire five years from now? Would you like richer relationships or fuller personal development? Are you willing to invest 20 minutes a day in the process?

I trust you have a Bible somewhere in your house already. Thus, even if you're flat broke today, you can start this process immediately. No excuses - your actions tomorrow will be evidence for the decision you're making right now.--Content provided by Dan Miller of 48 Days to the Work You Love - www.48days.com.