There should only be one, over-riding reason why you're doing anything in your marketing.

Know what that reason is?

Of course! To increase the response rates of your sales promotions!

Because that leads to...

Making Yourself A Nice Little Boat-Load Of Cash!

Today I'm going to let you in on a little-known secret about how to use "pictures" in your sales promotions, the right way... and the wrong way... so you can start turbo-charging your existing promotions, immediately!

First of all, if you're using pictures -- whether in newspaper or magazine display ads... online... or in sales letters -- make sure, no matter what, you're using real-live photographs and not drawings.

People "bond" better to other people, not to "drawings of other people".

Think of any picture of a little infant you may have seen. You can't help but smile, right?

The truth is, you wouldn't have had that same reaction if you were thinking about a "drawing" of an infant now, would you?

Second, if you're going to be using photographs of your goods or services, show your products or services actually "being used".

See, assuming the people who want your products are reading your ads in the first place... action-shots draw your prospects "into" your sales messages, making your prospects visualize themselves using your product.

For example: Most of the time, when people are selling swimming pools, they show you a beautiful empty pool surrounded by an immaculately clean deck.

But wouldn't you be a lot more likely to picture yourself drifting lazily on the surface of your pool, with a cool drink in your hand... the sun beating down on you from up above... beads of sweat pouring over your eyebrows and dripping onto the edges of your sunglasses... if you saw a picture of someone doing that exact same thing in that photo of the swimming pool you were looking at?

And don't you think you're a lot more inclined to buy a pool if you can actually see yourself in that pool relaxing, right now?

Here, try something: I want you to close your eyes right now and totally immerse your thoughts with nothing else but that picture of yourself relaxing in your pool... without a care in the world.

Your kids are having fun close by (and not fighting with each other for a change)... your partner's on their way in, wading over to you with a fresh cold icy drink... and there's not a cloud in the sky.

O.K... Now... Snap out of it!

How did you feel?

Refreshing, right?

So you understand then, you want your prospects visualizing themselves using your products, so they start getting involved with your product in their own minds.

This brings them much closer to buying your products.

Here's an example of what can happen when you use pictures of your product in use, in your marketing. First, go to this website and look for the picture of the couple using the wine-cabinet, about a third of the way down the page.

I had my client use this exact same photo offline, using this web copy as a long-form sales letter.

Want to know how the sales letter did?

O.K., I'll tell you: We sent out 40 letters to a cold list, at an average cost of $2.25 for each letter: it was a $1.38 each for the printing, 83 cents for the postage on each letter, and another 4 cents for the envelope.

The first mailing, my client got 10 orders worth $20,970 Dollars, and since your second and third mailings will usually give you at least the same number of orders your first mailing produced... we're expecting another $21,000 Dollars worth of business from this mailing.

Not bad, hey?

There was one tragic thing, though. The painful part of this was...

He didn't have 400 names instead of only 40!

So remember:

If you're going to use pictures, use photographs... and nothing else.

If you're going to show a photo of your goods and services, show your product or service actually being used.

And lastly, I didn't tell you this before, but I'm going to tell you now: Always put captions underneath your photos. People tend to look at photos with captions, and then read the caption itself, but many times, photos without captions get ignored.

Why?

It has to do with your early programming from way back in elementary school when you were trained to read using textbooks, and then later on, newspapers.

All the photos always had descriptive captions underneath them, didn't they?

And think back... what was the first thing you did when you saw a photo with a caption?

Chances are, you looked at the photo and then you read the caption.

Well... just like bakery bread-slicing machines... some things never change.

What's going to happen is, your prospects will be doing the exact same thing when they're reading your sales promotions: First they'll look at your photos, and then they'll read the captions underneath.

Good pictures always lift your response rates. Start using them the right way, immediately... and you'll guarantee this.

P.S. Here's something else I bet you'll find unusual: Did you know, studies show men actually prefer seeing pictures of men using your product, and women actually prefer seeing pictures of women using your products? Yes, it's true!

Craig Garber is America's Top Direct-Response Copywriter. You'll find hundreds of marketing tips to increase your sales, and his insanely popular FREE Unconventional and Irreverent Daily Direct-Response Marketing Tips, on his website, http://www.KingOfCopy.com