The photo holiday card and you

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving weekend usually brings with it the arrival of the first batch of holiday cards. And while most folks take the time to write out a heartfelt message, recent years have brought with them an increasing number of generic photo cards of the sender's family...with no personalized greeting whatsoever.

Those of you reading this might be wondering, "Why is he posting a blog item about photo holiday cards on a blog devoted to the AEC industry?" Well, if your firm is like the many firms out there that crank up the holiday card machine about this time each year, keep reading.

Do you (or your marketing department) send out holiday cards each year without any sort of personalized greeting to the recipient? (Judging from the avalanche of cards I get each year from many of you, I would answer this question "yes.")

Well, if the answer is yes, shame on you. Why would you treat the holiday card any differently than any other thank-you note or communication with your clients? Why half-ass this all-too-important marketing effort?

If your answer is, "We send out too many cards to personalize each one," then you are sending out too many cards. You don't need to send out one to every person in your database.

Trust me, if you aren't currently doing business with them and haven't spoken with them in several years, your clients will be more likely to wonder why you are sending something to them when you can't even pick up the phone to see how they are doing.

Point is, make the holiday card a truly effective marketing piece. Send out fewer, target them to specific clients, and personalize the heck out of them. Then, wait for the phone to ring...it will!

Ed