The holiday festivities are over. Even the honeymoon phase of the post-holiday diet is over. Spring is around the corner. But when holiday time comes back around, you will be prepared. Because when it comes to the when, if, and how of sending a corporate holiday greeting, it can be tricky to know how to do it right, and we’ve got you covered. Read on for our 5 best tips on sending holiday cards in 2018.
Checking your “ice cream” level
Holiday cards can be used to check in with prospects or with clients you haven’t heard from in a while. They can send a special thank you to folks who have been doing business with you for a long time, or who have just joined your “family.” Whoever you decide to put on your holiday card list, a simple “Season’s Greetings” can be great PR.
Just make sure that you’ve kept up with those who are on your address list, and that the promptness and attractiveness of your holiday card isn’t showing up your typical level of attentiveness. If a client hasn’t been able to get a fifteen-dollar refund for six months of haggling with automated phone systems, it may be a bit irksome, not to mention ironic, to receive a beautiful timely holiday greeting thanking them for their patronage in gold foil script. The holiday greeting is the cherry. Make sure you’ve got your ice cream all set.
Choosing a specific holiday vs. staying PC
There are a variety of ways people party during the time between the last week of November and the first week of January. Many friends and neighbors are celebrating for religious reasons, and so the kind of language used to wish people a happy “time” can be contested ground. If you say, “Merry Christmas,” are you leaving folks out who don’t celebrate Christmas? Then again, making a point of “Happy Holidays” has been known to irritate some who do celebrate Christmas. What’s a post-modern business marketer to do? Though “Happy Holidays,” “Season’s Greetings,” or another general message of good wishes is a much more inclusive option (and also encompasses the multiple holidays that fall in this time period), the point of your card is to show you care, share a sense of personal warmth, and reach out to your constituencies. Take care with the wording, but really take care to express that you care, and no matter how your clients celebrate the holy-days, they’ll feel the love.
Getting personal
You don’t have to include a photo of your employees drinking hot cocoa in their jammies by the fire to make holiday cards personal. (Though that could be amazing.) Gestures as simple as the following can make a great impression:
- using a font that slants toward handwritten
- including an image of something your employees did this year together, or in the community
- including the name of your client in the greeting and his or her full name with proper salutation on the address
- including “and Family” or “and Household” in the address
- inserting a little greeting from your founder, a poem, or a brief meditation on the season
- ending with actual signatures of key folks in your organization
Finding your tone
Match the tone of your card to the tone of your company. Are you urban chic? Southern comfort? Old-school Fortune 500? In your own words be dignified, be poetic, be witty, or even be funny if that’s your thing, as long as you make sure the greeting is warm and sincere.
And when it comes to design, simpler often says it better. There are many directions you can go depending on your identity. Do you want, for example, to draw attention to yourself in this moment or not? You could incorporate your logo into the image on the envelope or card. This might be a good choice if you’re an organization that has more direct interaction with the community, like a nonprofit, and could use more airtime during holidays. You might also choose to leave it off the card altogether if you’re more corporate or sales-focused and spend a moment to simply connect without a mind toward sales. Either way, it’s branding. You can play with font and color here, even adding a bit extra in the budget for metallic ink or an or embossed design. And definitely consider a colorful envelope.
Being super prepared
Design and order your cards early, and purchase a nice matching holiday stamp from the post office before they run out of your favorite. Order custom-printed envelopes. (Did we mention colorful, custom-printed envelopes?) And if the new year is going to hold something truly new for your organization, such as a new address or change in leadership pertinent to your clients, think ahead and consider including this new information in the card, too, as an act of hospitality.
Finally, if you’re wondering here whether you should just opt for an e-card, call us biased, but we think that unless you’re absolutely strapped for time, paper is your better option. You clients’ hands and eyes–and we think the cockles of their hearts–would agree with us, too.
When you’re ready to start planning this year’s holiday greeting, give Letter Jacket a shout. We can provide those colorful, custom-printed envelopes that are just the right match for your card and your company, and get your message of comfort and joy across with style.
