July 10th, 2005

Business Greeting Card Etiquette

Buy High Quality Cards: A quality business greeting card from CardIsland will let your clients and colleagues know that you value them. A lesser quality greeting card can be received in a number of ways. Your clients might see it as a sign that business was not good this year, or that they are not worth the cost involved in purchasing a higher quality business greeting card.

Sign Cards Yourself: Even if you have CardIsland pre-print your personalized greeting cards with your name, or company logo or custom verse, you still need to handwrite your signature. The business greeting cards that your clients receive with a personal signature and a short handwritten message, will be the card that is remembered. Of course if you have thousands of cards to send out, CardIsland can pre-print your signature in the card.

Keep Your Mailing Lists Updated: Make sure your mailing list is up-to-date with current names and addresses. If you do this monthly, it will not become a huge task. When you make new contacts, add them to your database for your business greeting card mailing. This will allow you to avoid sending the card to the old address, and therefore wasting a business greeting card and a 37 cent stamp!

Avoid the Rush: Too often we see customers waiting until the last minute before ordering cards. It does not seem to matter if it is business birthday cards, business Christmas cards, or any other type of business holiday card, people always seem to procrastinate and then pick a card in haste. As a customer you will not be as happy, and your clients will not be either. One trend that is increasing year after year is Thanksgiving cards. Business Thanksgiving cards get you message of thanks and good will to your clients weeks before the other guys. Try it this year, and we are sure your clients will be very thankful.

Other Things to Think About

Home vs Office Address: If you can, mail your business greeting card to your clients home address if you know the client well enough. Be sure to include the family members names. If you send the custom greeting card to the office do not address it to the clients other family members, as they do not work there.

Mr. And Mrs. Or not?: It is always proper etiquette to address envelopes and greeting cards using the persons title rather than just their names. For example one would write Mr. And Mrs. John C. Appleseed, not Johnny and Barb Appleseed.

Business Greeting Cards & Traditions

Tradition and Religion: Make sure you know whether your business greeting card recipients observe Christmas, Hanukah, or Kwanzaa. It is imperative that you know which traditions or holidays your clients observe. If you cannot afford to buy many different cards, choose a generic one that will please everyone. "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" are always good. If you really want to be careful send a Happy New Year card, thanking them for the past year of business.

Don't Use Mailing Labels: If you are going to spend the time and money to purchase a quality business greeting card, do not under any circumstances use a pre-printed white mailing label. Address the envelopes by hand, or if you are too busy, have someone else address the envelopes for you. Don't use laser or ink jet labels. Labels are cheap and impersonal. They make your personalized greeting card look common. It might be cheaper and less time consuming to use a label, but you might not have that client to send a greeting card to next year if you do.

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