SEND A CARD – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #21

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas

IDEA 21:

SEND A CARD

There is always a need to keep in touch, to remind customers and prospects of your continued existence, either because there is time ahead of an order or because you need to maintain contact between orders. In this electronic age the written message is going out of style, but for many people a written message still has something special about it. Indeed maybe that is precisely because it has become rarer these days.

Idea

From Highgate House Conference Centre …

The traditional time to send cards is at Christmas, or in parts of Asia, at New Year. This may be something you do almost as an reflex, but have you ever stopped to think about what benefit you get from it? A typical customer may get 20, 30, even 100 cards’ from suppliers and business contact ahead of Christmas. They appear in the last hectic fortnight before the holiday, and are cleared away by the office cleaner before people return to work in the New Year. Can you remember even by mid – January who sent you a card and who did not? Most likely not.

So one school of thought suggests that you should forget Christmas cards, or send something quickly and easily in e-mail form, recognizing that it will not have any real lasting effect. On the other hand other sorts of cards are noticed much more, and may be worth sending. These include cards for someone’s birthday, for anniversaries (national, personal or corporate), from your holidays, or as a taster of some news. By acting in unusual way and sending something unexpected, but likely to be appreciated, you will make more of a mark. If the card contains a specific reminder, people are then more likely to ensure the information is noted.

One card that led to this thought was a holiday postcard from a consultant with whom I have collaborated in the past. It reminded me about a conversation I want to have with them when they return, and is stuck up beside my desk to prompt me to do just that.

In practice

  • Check the diary and plan ahead.
  • If you have special cards printed, make them suitable and memorable (standard materials may dilute the impact).

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