Sending out holiday cards to existing customers and even to potential new clients can have many possible benefits, including getting your name out there and increasing customer loyalty. However, while sending cards is usually a good thing, if you don’t manage your card campaign successfully, the efforts might backfire and you might end up turning clients off instead of getting them excited about your business. To avoid making a gaffe that could cost you, follow these tips for sending successful holiday cards.
Tips for Sending Holiday Cards
While you need to use your common sense and your knowledge of customers in deciding exactly how to manage your holiday card campaign, a few basic tips include:
1) Make sure your cards are secular and not overly religious in nature. Unless your business is involved in religion in some way, such as a religious bookstore or a church group, you should always make sure you do not send cards that are specific to any one set of religious beliefs. There are many people of many different faiths and sending a religious card could offend some of your customers. There are plenty of cards that simply celebrate winter or that celebrate the holiday season in general, and these are often a safer and better choice.
2) Hand sign and hand address the cards whenever possible. While you should try to address the cards by hand and sign them by hand for all clients, it is especially important to do so for your best customers. A hand signed and hand addressed card is personal and sends a nice touch, while a pre-printed card with printed envelopes is a clear signal that no thought went into the card and that you just mass-mailed everyone in your database.
3) Keep advertising out. Your holiday cards are a time to show appreciation to customers, to let them know you value your relationship and to make them feel as if they are more than just some generic source of profit. You don’t typically want to confuse this nice gesture with a blatant advertisement for your business, as then the card transforms from a nice gesture to a marketing gimmick which is likely to, at best, be tossed into the trash and at worse, annoy your customers.
By sending a nice, simple message of holiday cheer, you can effectively keep your company in your customers’ minds without setting up any possible pitfalls or sources of complaint.
Monique Trulson works for eInvite, an online retailer of holiday cards for business, birth announcements, wedding invitations, party invites and more.
