HOW TO AVOID TURNING INTO THE GRINCH THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

Holiday Card Best Practices

• List Management

• Creative

• Physical Cards or E-cards

• Standing Out

• Timing

List Management

• Who will receive the card

• Who will send the card

• How to manage the process

List Management: Who Receives the Card

• Clients

• Prospects

• Friends of the company

• Real or potential referral sources

• Alumni

• Vendors

• Professional association colleagues

List Management: Who Will Send the Card

• The company as a whole entity

• Different groups within the company

• Individuals responsible for their own holiday card distribution

• Multiple signers for one card

• Single signer based on seniority/prioritization

List Management: Managing the Process

• Round Robin

• Excel

• Contact Relationship Management Solutions

• Enterprise Relationship Management Solutions

List Management: Managing the Process

• Expectations

• Timing and Deadlines

• Call to action

• Tracking

Creative

Physical Cards

• Should we do them

• Who should receive them

• What is our budget and timing

• Tracking

• The envelope

E-Cards

• Decreased costs

• Ability to reach all contacts

• Tracking and a call to action

• Identifying potential risks

• Updating contact information and communication lists

E-Cards

• Expanded reach to an additional 5,000 contacts

• Cost decreased $4,300

• Internal coordination cut by 72.1%

• 900 unique click throughs

Standing Out

Standing Out

Timing: September Project Kick Off

• Identify your objective

• Decide what type of card you will do

• Determine timing

• Inform employees about the project

• Discuss distribution

• Select the vendor/designer

• Prep other staff or departments

Timing: October Meat and Potato Time

• Determine additional needs

• Test the different components of the e-card

• Merge and clean lists

• Approve final card concept

• Identify quantity of cards and envelopes needed for physical mailing

Timing: November Tick Tock

• The E-card complete and printed cards in-hand

• Final version of mailing list(s) completed

• Signing process kicked-off and signed cards obtained

• Plan other marketing initiatives

• Expectations for additional needs established

Timing: December Time to Celebrate

• Physical cards mailed the first week of December

• Complete your e-mailing, preferably in early December

• Handle any last-minute requests for additional cards

• Execute other marketing initiatives

• Tracking

• Celebrate

Recap

• Start the process early

• Consider your objective

• Track data

• Clean up contact lists

• Be unique and stand out

• Celebrate

ONLY 45 MORE DAYS UNTIL DECEMBER 1st

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU

Chelsie Givan , Marketing Manager, Cole Valley SoftwareEM: cgivan@colevalley.com | PH: 612-615-3090

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Learn more about ContactEase: sales@colevalley.com