During the holidays, you take time to send and share greetings and best wishes with family, friends, and neighbors. Are your business clients and contacts on your holiday card list, too? Sending an annual greeting card, regardless of whether you personally celebrate the holidays, is a way to acknowledge and thank those individuals for supporting your organization. In an era of emails, text messages, and print solicitations, a handwritten holiday card is more likely to be received with great enthusiasm and appreciation. As you prepare for the upcoming holiday season, keep the following business holiday card tips in mind.
First impressions are lasting ones. When your clients receive your holiday card, what impression do you want it to convey about you and your business? A professionally designed business holiday card shows that you put time into creating something thoughtful for someone else. When you’re planning your holiday card design, don’t sacrifice quality. Choose the best top-quality cardstock you can find. Remember, a holiday card must be sturdy enough to go through the mail and arrive in your clients’ hands in the same pristine condition it was when you placed it in the envelope.
Whether you’re creating it yourself or relying on the talents of a professional graphic artist, your business holiday card should still represent your business and carry your brand identity in the design. However, you don’t want to overdo your business branding on a holiday card. It’s certainly appropriate to feature your business logo on the card but do it tastefully so that you don’t distract from the holiday sentiment you’re trying to convey.
Keep your holiday greeting succinct. Acknowledge that you’re grateful for the gift of having your recipient as a client or professional business contact. Thank the person for the support that he or she has provided to you and your business over the past year and express your best wishes for an enjoyable holiday season.
Holiday cards are perhaps one of the few chances during the year that your business can put spirit ahead of sales. When crafting your message, leave your company’s sales and marketing boilerplate out of the text. Be genuine in your holiday greeting: Your clients and professional contacts will appreciate the authenticity.
Handwriting a personal message inside your cards can be the most important part of the card.
Among all the business holiday card tips you could follow, handwriting a personal message inside your cards is perhaps the most significant one. When you handwrite a funny holiday greeting, you give your cards a warm, personal feeling. A handwritten message shows your recipients that you took time to think about them as individuals.
Adding personalization to a card is a gift unto itself in an era of mass-printed mailers and emails. When you consider that, according to one statistic, the average American household receives only 10 pieces of personal mail every year, sending a personal handwritten card can break through the sea of anonymous mailings and show your recipients that you genuinely care about them.
Every professional contact you have likely has an assistant or two. When you’re organizing your holiday card mailing list, don’t forget to include the assistants. Sending separate holiday cards to these administrative professionals shows that you value the roles they play in scheduling meetings, forwarding messages, and contributing to the efficient operations of a business office. A simple note that thanks the assistants for all they do throughout the year conveys gratitude for their work, too.
To keep within the giving spirit of the season, think about including a small gift inside your card. A gift card or a coupon that offers a special discount on a product or service makes for a thoughtful gesture during the holiday season. You can take this thoughtfulness one step further and include a personal message from you and your staff thanking your clients and colleagues for doing business with you throughout the year.
To avoid having your gift come off as looking like a sales pitch, put some thought into what you’re offering. Don’t include any of the regular discounts or promotions you offer. Make your gift distinctive from all your other promotions so that your extension of gratitude is sincere.
The envelopes that you use to mail your business holiday cards should have as much personalization to them as the holiday cards themselves. An envelope that bears a preprinted self-adhesive address label and postage meter stickers won’t convey a personal touch to your recipients. Take the time to purchase and use holiday postage stamps on your mailing envelopes. Handwrite the names of your recipients on the outside of the envelopes. When you apply these small touches, you’ll convey personality and thoughtfulness from the moment your recipients hold the envelopes in their hands.
The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for the U.S. Postal Service. In 2018, the Postal Service anticipated delivering close to 15 billion pieces of mail and more than 900 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. To ensure that your holiday cards arrive on time, place your cards in the mail no later than the first week of December. You’ve taken time to create your holiday greetings, so make sure your recipients receive them before they leave their offices for the holidays.
If the thought of creating this year’s holiday cards leaves you feeling overwhelmed, turn to these business holiday card tips to help you connect with your clients and contacts and share the joy of the season with them. Remember that a holiday card should be a personal expression of you and your company. By avoiding sales pitches and focusing instead on the spirit of the holiday season in your communications, you can ensure that your business holiday cards convey the heartfelt gratitude that your recipients will appreciate from you and your business.
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