Dear Ms. Cards Etiquette

You recommend sending Thanksgiving cards, but that just sounds like another grab by the card industry to get my money. I’ve never heard of sending Thanksgiving cards before! Admit it, your bosses are making you say it, aren’t they?

Skeptical Reader

Well Skeptical, I understand why you’d think that. But really, I wouldn’t have this job if I wasn’t a genuine fan of written correspondence in the first place! And let’s be honest, half the point of this particular column is advice for businesses sending greeting cards, so while you may not send Thanksgiving cards to your family members (although it is a nice idea, if you can’t be together for the holiday), there are good reasons to send them out to your company mailing list! Here are three, for starters:

1. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Cards sent at any time outside the Christmas season stand out. The point of your mailing campaign is to catch the attention of your recipients, and sending cards at unique times of year will do just that!
2. Retail businesses can include an “early bird” coupon as a Thank You gift to customers, and encourage them to beat the Christmas shopping rush … make it a good discount though, so your cards don’t end up looking like a cheap marketing push. Maybe 50% off any item in the store, or something significant like that.
3. And let’s try to be sincere for a moment, shall we? What could a company possibly be more thankful for than the customers who keep them in business? Without your clients, your business is nothing. Take a moment to genuinely feel a little gratitude while you’re writing out your Thanksgiving cards, and your customers will feel it too. That builds good will, and genuine good will really is priceless!

Dear Ms. Cards Etiquette

You have recommended sending Thanksgiving or New Year’s cards as a way of helping a company’s mailings stand out from the crowd, and my company decided to take your advice and send Thanksgiving cards this year. Do we still need to send a Christmas mailing?

Frugal in Fargo

Most definitely, Frugal. Although some might advise otherwise, think of it this way: on a purely practical level, after your Thanksgiving cards go out, you’ll *really* have your customers’ attention (which is exactly what you want!). If you follow that up by skipping a Christmas card, you’re customers are likely to notice … and who knows what they’ll think! Odds are they won’t be thinking, “Ooh, what an innovative marketing move THAT was. I like it!”

On a more abstract level, the whole point of a card mailing campaign is relationship marketing. You’re supposed to be developing a relationship with your clients that makes them think of your business in a favorable, friendly way when it’s time for them to shop around for your products and/or services. Now, in your normal daily life I’m betting anyone who gets a Thanksgiving card from you (if you even send Thanksgiving cards to your friends and relatives) is almost definitely getting a Christmas card as well (unless they celebrate another holiday … but you are sending non-denominational cards for your business anyhow, aren’t you?).

Use the same basic rules for your clients as you would for non-business recipients: You can get away with only sending Thanksgiving cards to people you really want to keep in close contact with, but you can’t get away with sending a Thanksgiving card without following it up with a holiday card in December!

Dear Ms. Cards Etiquette,

My boss wants to put the company logo on the Christmas cards we are sending out this year. My boss tells me that I am old fashioned, but I think this might be a tacky thing to do. Are the holidays really an appropriate time to advertise your business logo?

Old Fashioned in Ohio

Hey Ohio,

You’re right. Until the mid-1980’s, it was unusual to put logos on holiday cards. Today, however, sending greeting cards during the holiday season is so commonplace, that people expect to see logos on cards if the card comes from a business. In fact, custom printed logo cards are a perfect way for companies of any size to project a memorable professional image along with holiday wishes.

One of the many frequently asked questions CardsDirect gets from consumers is if they are able to print a full-color logo on a Christmas card. The answer, of course, is yes.

CardsDirect has a large selection of custom greeting cards, photo cards and calendar cards which are all perfectly suited for printing a full-color logo or custom photo.

You can have your logo printed large with your company name underneath, as on the Corporate Logo Greeting Card design, or print any design or photo you’d like on the Custom Cards.

So no. You won’t come off as a seedy hack for putting your logo on a Christmas card. But remember, even with custom printed cards (with or without custom text printed inside), it’s still critically important to hand-sign and address each and every one!

Well, dear readers. Just when I finally got myself all settled in here, CardsDirect is trying to make Ms. Cards Etiquette obsolete! I urge you all to write in letters of protest if you prefer your advice with a personal touch, rather than an impersonal, automated, internet-robot touch. Etiquette fans unite! You have nothing to lose but your faux pas!

Actually, in all seriousness, they have brought out a really neat new feature on the website here, and I’m pretty sure it’s not threatening my job security, so never fear…

For all of you considerate souls out there who want to make sure you write the correct thing on all your greeting cards, CardsDirect now offers “suggested wordings” for their most popular greeting card categories! Not only will this help you last-minute types pen the perfect note without waiting for your’s truly to provide you with guidance, but it will leave me free to concentrate on more unusual and ’sticky’ (read: more entertaining for you!) queries in the blog here. It’s a win-win situation if I ever heard one!

The time is quickly approaching when companies around the country will switch gears from talking about the company summer picnic to discussions of holiday greeting card preparation. This can be a tedious task, especially if you are with a large company, but one that pays off just by sending a thoughtful gesture. There are numerous ways to decrease the stress levels that you may have endured in the past just by following a few simple steps.

First, make sure you pick a top notch greeting that represents your company and is of the utmost quality. Without this critical step, you could be creating the wrong impression for your customers that they aren’t worth the investment.

Second, update your address database early. If done throughout the year rather than towards the end of the year, you will have saved precious time and will be prepared when it comes time to print address labels. Also make sure you have the correct spelling of the recipient’s name. How embarrassing it would be if the greeting was delivered to an old address or listed someone else’s name.

Third, order early! Many companies will begin their search for holiday greeting cards as early as June! This will allow more than enough time to have your greetings printed, signed, labeled and prepared so all you will have to do is place them in the mail box. This simple step will alleviate days of stress and you will actually be able to enjoy the holiday season with this task out of the way. A good rule of thumb is to have your cards addressed by Thanksgiving to avoid the holiday rush.

Fourth, you should always personally sign your greeting cards. Even though you might have a printed verse or message, a quick signature will personalize your greeting and will show you actually took the time out of the day to think of them.

Last but not least, know your audience. Coming up with a universal greeting may be the best way to go. With the growing number of religions, it is safest to stick with a message of “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” as some may not observe the typical Christmas traditions.