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Season's Greetings

Are they still relevant in times of Social Media?

The Christmas season is upon us. Some supermarkets have already prepared their product range to pick off the early birds, also called Christmas enthusiasts. Even if it still might look far away, you should consider to plan and prepare Season’s Greetings for your customers and business partners.

With all the Christmas advertising and generic holiday mail, you might believe that Season’s Greetings are today outdated or even irrelevant.

Today we are telling you, holiday greetings are a powerful way to reach out to your clients and to build up and strengthen relationships.

You don’t believe us? We will show you!

If you think Christmas Greetings are an invention of our modern age, you will be surprised now:

The first commercial Christmas card in the world was commissioned in Victorian England in 1843 by Henry Cole. Around Christmas, Cole was always receiving a lot of letters for which he did not have the time to answer. It came to his mind to do a mass mailing and shared this idea with his friend John Horsley, who was an artist and painter. Horsley illustrated and designed the first Christmas card. So the tradition of Christmas cards emerged way back in time.

Let’s come back to the year 2018, where Season’s Greetings can make a significant difference in the relationship with your clients.

Now we are going to find out why they should not be underestimated.

Among other great things, Cole founded The Victoria and Albert Museum and held the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Take advantage of the Christmas spirit

As so beautifully sung by Darlene Love:

“I’ve got to know
Where do lonely hearts go
Because nobody ought to be all alone on Christmas

 

Don’t underestimate the power of Christmas. You might think, many people are too busy nowadays to care about it and do not value it anymore.

However, in the end, Christmas brings people together. They return to their families and gather themselves with their loved ones. Everyone sooner or later jumps on the Christmas mood train at this time of year.

This mood can be in your favour. A customer that receives your Christmas greetings in a happy moment will be way more receptive for your kind gesture and will remember you as connected to a good feeling. Further, it will benefit to enhance your corporate reputation.

In a sad situation, when the client is indeed alone on Christmas, your Season’s Greetings are maybe one of the few things to create a happy feeling.

Time to say thank you

Even the “Grinches” get sentimental by the end of the year. It is the time for people to remember the good moments and experiences of this year, the time to be thankful.

As a B2B business you should think about the great collaborations and successful projects you had with your various clients during the year. When you want them to come back to you, it is essential to show them how much you appreciate or even honour the established collaboration. What’s more, you are reminding your client of your great work together. That should give him a little push to look back at good times with a warm, sentimental feeling.

If you are serving the B2C sector, it is not less important to show your thankfulness. Your customers are aware that you can not send a customized Season’s Greetings to everyone. However, the gesture – delivered in a compelling way – can bring you ahead of your competition.

Every year around 550.000 Christmas letters are sent in Finland to Santa. 

The right moment to show your human/personal side

Whether you cultivate business relationships on a personal base or not, Season’s Greetings can be the secret sauce you need to continue cooperations also in the next year. If your relation with customers or business partners goes beyond the serious framework of business connection, they will expect anything from your side. In the opposite case, it is a fantastic opportunity to humanize your collaboration.

Business relationships work especially well when you also clicked on a personal level. A professional designed corporate Season’s Greetings eCard constitutes a perfect opportunity to present your company in a personal way.

B2C companies are often making business in greater numbers. This circumstance leaves the personal contact and human interaction usually behind. That is one reason more to create nice Season’s Greetings to show that there are people working behind the scenes.

An opportunity to get in touch again

There might be even some business partners or customers you haven’t made contact with for a long time. In the first case, you might like to start working together again the next year, while in the second one you probably have realized that the last order had been made a long time ago.

What better occasion can there be than sending nice holiday greetings as a first approach, which does not show any sales or business intention?

Sharing important company updates

Season’s Greetings can serve as an instrument to communicate changes and updates about your company. Certainly, they should not be used to make Sales offers and close deals.

Sharing your news in combination with your appreciation for the customer makes up an unbeatable, easy marketing tool. It allows the borders to blur by providing informative content with an emotional component. With a positive feeling, the recipient will be unconsciously receptive for your message.

E-Greetings are still in fashion

Printed or handcrafted cards are indeed a more personal way to send cards when they are customized for each recipient. For private use or really special clients, they are a lovely gesture.

However, printed cards have also their downside. With massive mailings, some cards can get lost there and then. It’s especially bad if one of your most valuable clients does not receive any greetings. Of course, e-greetings (electronic greetings) can go directly into spam too. If you have an existing relationship, your email will not be identified as spam, though. In other cases, you should consider reviewing the GDPR before sending any email greetings to fresh contacts. And don’t forget the environmental benefits of sending digital greetings. That can also convey your “green”-oriented company attitude.

Unlike Victorian England, our daily life is surrounded by Internet 24/7, Social Media and constant networking. These privileges we have in our modern life contribute to reducing workloads and saving time, which is especially helpful in stressful times like at the end of the year.

So why not profit from that one thing Henry Cole was lacking? The benefits of the digital age!

The power of digital Season’s Greetings

E-greetings have many strong points which make them a powerful tool for your Christmas wishes.

1. Digital Season’s Greetings save time and money.
Especially before the end of the year the amount of work and stress is at it’s peak. Time and money you need for printing and delivering the holiday cards can be invested in the work of a designer to add a personal touch fitting to your brand identity.

2. Customization makes you stand out of the mass.
For different target groups, you can use various customizations, designs, and approaches. For a small B2B business with only a few clients, it can be a great idea, for example, to add some content referring to the best project together.

3. No limit for digital holiday greetings. Show your creativity once again!
With videos, animations, pictures or GIFs, you can bring additional value to your Season’s Greetings and even to a modest e-Card. The sky is the limit when it comes to their digital design. Entertaining content or even engaging features can be a great way to show your creativity. Creating a remarkable visual experience is important. It is probably even better to send out no holiday greetings rather than providing a generic card.

4. Another advantage of digital greetings is A/B testing!
Not only for the newsletter but also for holiday greetings you can test different versions and measure their success. It might make sense to send them at the beginning just to a small number of customers. After having identified which performs the best, you can go ahead with it.

5. They are able to provide important insights.
The same insights you are interested when sending newsletters, like opening rates or used devices can be tracked. From that information, it is possible to improve your Season’s Greetings in the following year.

Do you want to improve the loyalty of your customers? Contact us for a first advice.

Don’t miss out on sending Season’s Greetings!

Season’s Greetings are one tool to make the difference for the creation of long-lasting customer loyalty. Whether people are awaiting the Holy night eagerly to come or they hide from all the Christmas fuss, in the end, both groups will look back at the year. As you were part of it and made business thanks them, it is now your turn to give something back and show your gratefulness.

Don’t be afraid to do it the digital way. Christmas greetings came a long way. Like many other things that have changed since their invention, their shape has changed too. Apart from that, digital Season’s Greetings make the integration of great visual experiences possible.

It’s time to take Henry Cole’s invention to higher levels!