Today’s technologies have made it easier to connect with customers through social media, apps, and news feeds. Personal forms of communication, like greeting cards, seem to have fallen by the wayside. But are they really a thing of the past? Not likely.

Keeping in touch with your customers

Greeting cards are an excellent way to let your customers know that you are still around when they need your services again. It strengthens your bond with them and increases your chances of repeat business and referrals. Something as simple as a quality greeting card shows your customers that you want to maintain a relationship. Here are some options:

• Send customers a greeting card (at least) twice a year to keep your business firmly in their minds.
• The obvious choice is sending a card during the holiday seasons, at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s.
• A better choice, so that you don’t get lost among all the other greeting cards your customers or clients are receiving, is sending them on holidays such as Easter, Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, or a card associated with the change in seasons, such as a card that celebrates spring.
• Get creative and find a lesser known “holiday” that matches your business. For example, if you sell bicycles you might send a card to celebrate “Bike to Work Day.”

Greeting cards are personal

Don’t just send a generic card that has your business name and contact information stamped to the bottom of it. Personally sign your name, and if your staff is small, have everyone sign each card. Computer-generated address labels and postage also look very impersonal, so it is better to hand write your customers’ addresses and use stamps on the envelopes. If your contact list is long, consider having multiple people hand write the address labels.

Greeting cards are also a personal way to keep your customers aware of events and changes in your business. This is an opportunity to let them know about an anniversary, new locations, or new partnerships. You are telling your customers that you care about them enough to keep them up to date with your business.

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Greeting cards aren’t about marketing. They’re about social currency!

A greeting card is more likely to be opened and read than a piece of advertising. So don’t disappoint your customers by including a sales promotion. You are not trying to sell something here. You are simply letting customers know that they are important.

Because of its personal nature, greeting cards are a form of social currency that is more tactile than an email, social media post, or tweet. While you have the option to send electronic greeting cards, these versions lose a lot of their personal flavor. Mailing a greeting card implies that that you took the time to sign the card, stamp it, and mail it. It required more than choosing an image and pressing the “send” or “post” button.

Gratitude is a trigger

Mental triggers are powerful influencers on how consumers make decisions. Gratitude is one of those emotional triggers that affect customer attitudes. Use greeting cards to show your gratitude, thanking customers for choosing your business and letting them know you want to continue that relationship.

Customers don’t want to be thought of as an open wallet. Treat customers like people, and they will be more likely to respond with more business. Giving them something personal like a greeting card is a great way to send the message that they matter to you and your business.

Print your own greeting cards

Because your greeting card is an extension of your business, you might want to purchase your cards from a bulk printer that specializes in custom cards. Vistaprint or CardsDirect offer a wide range of personalized holiday cards, and you can create your own custom cards to match your message with your own artwork or photography.

Save time with a greeting card service like SendOut Cards

If you are short on time, a service like SendOutCards allows you to develop a database of clients and dates to help you select and personalize your greeting cards, They’ll do the sending and free you from the pressure to remember when and where to send them. With Send Out Cards, you have the option of adding your signature as well as using your own handwriting. If you want to get creative, you can even cram multiple signatures in a single ‘signature box.’

As it turns out, greeting cards are not a thing of the past. They are an underutilized tool of communication that keeps people in touch on a very personal level. Use them to maintain your business relationships. Let your customers know they are important and thank them for their support.

If you’d like us to design a line of beautiful and effective greeting cards, contact us.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these:

Social Networks: The Key To Business Growth
Rookie Social Networking Failures and How to Avoid Making Them
Growing Your Business Through Email Marketing
4 Ways Business Blogging Helps Build Trust In Your Business
Everything You Need to Know About Mobile Advertising
10 Surprising Social Media Statistics [Infographic]
15 Statistics That Prove You Need Mobile Email Optimization

This article is published by Will Sherwood | The Sherwood Group |Website Design | Graphic Design | Marketing Communications: The Sherwood Group has over 30 years of experience working with all sorts of companies, small and large. Our clients range from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 firms, in nearly every business sector, from across the street to around the world (and yes, even Europe, China, and South America). Our goal is to create advertising,  graphic design, website design, and marketing communication that still looks fresh and relevant 10-15 years later. Our mission is to stir your imagination and leave your competition shaken and wondering,  Now what do we do?”  We are located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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