These are just a few of the questions to ask when creating your holiday e-card. With the holidays around the corner, it’s never too early to start thinking about what to send to your clients this year. How do you make your e-card stand out?
9 Tips to Create an Effective Holiday E-card
1. Choose the right e-card design
Create a custom e-card or select an e-card design that resonates with your brand. Put some thought and personality into your e-card by incorporating your logo, corporate colors, tagline and other branding elements to create a cohesive product that is aligned with all your other marketing initiatives. Brand recognition and familiarity are proven strategies for building and strengthening business relationships.
2. Convey Client Appreciation
Emphasize your appreciation and gratitude by extending a thoughtful greeting in your message. It’s also important to consider your company’s values, promise and vision. Adding things like signatures and personal messages from CEOs or other important company figures are good ways to convey a more personal appreciation.
Each year, we animate signatures for the attorneys at a mid-size law firm in New York City. This allows each attorney to send a very personal e-card, complete with their message and signature, to their clients.
3. Add employee names, photos or artwork.
Add a vital human touch to your brand by featuring photos, messages or artwork from your employees. People are generally distrustful of corporate brands and advertisements but inherently trust people to a higher degree. The strongest asset of any organization are its people. In today’s world, having a strong personal brand establishes influence and authority.
For the last several years, we have helped one of the biggest consulting firm in the US feature a diverse selection of paintings or drawings created by their employees in their holiday print and e-cards. They proudly include the name as well as a short bio to highlight each artist.
4. Include Charity Participation
Generosity and goodwill go hand in hand with the holiday season. Participating in the community and giving back are excellent things to highlight in your holiday e-card. Add a link to different causes that your company supports. Detail why those causes are important. You can even have your recipients vote on a charity or cause to donate to. No act of
kindness, no matter how big or small, is ever wasted.
Last year, we helped a top law firm in Florida create an e-card which highlighted 3 charities they support. Their recipients were given an option to vote for which charity they would like to donate to and the donations were dispersed accordingly.
5. Clean Up for Your E-mail List
Before sending out your holiday e-card, it is important to keep your e-mail list clean by managing bounces and removing bad email addresses. By doing so, you can ensure that your e-card has a higher delivery rate and lower chance of being flagged as spam. You may also consider segmenting your list so that you can send targeted emails to different groups of clients or customers. There are many platforms out there that allow you to check email addresses for deliverability.
6. Create Engaging Subject Line and Email Template
Having a good subject line as well as a short and simple email template with a call to action are crucial to a successful email marketing campaign. Marketing emails that use the first names of recipients will also make them feel more valued and engaged. An e-card thumbnail which includes your logo and a compelling graphic will also more likely to be clicked on, resulting in a higher number of views for your e-card.
7. Link/Post on Your Website & Social Media Pages
Having your e-card linked to your website or social media pages will direct more traffic to your site. Post your e-card on your website, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter for extra content.
8. Include Any Company News
Celebrating your anniversary or moving to a new location? Include your anniversary logo or your new address in your holiday e-card. Share other company news such as new website, rebrand, new employees or a big merger.
9. Make it Mobile-friendly
Make sure your e-card is mobile optimized. With the increase use of emails on smartphones and tablets, creating a mobile-friendly e-card can ensure that the card can be viewed across all platforms and devices.
Sending season’s greetings to valued customers, prospects and other contacts during the holidays is an important gesture for any business. It shows people that you value their loyalty and it encourages stronger business relationships. Consider these points when designing your upcoming holiday e-card.