Holiday Cards - Why the Direct Mail Touch Should Not be Lost

Tis the season!  

Well, tis almost the season, and you need to start thinking about…Holiday Cards! (Insert rolling eyes and sighs.) October is a few days away, so now is the time to begin thinking about your Holiday plan of action.

For many businesses, sending Holiday Cards can be a time demanding and fund draining activity. Because of this, more and more companies are opting to forgo the card sent via snail mail, and reach for the convenience of the computer instead. An e-greeting can be pretty and send a caring message, but more often than not, gets lost within the Holiday email shuffle or sent directly to spam. And let’s face it, opening an email is far more impersonal and leave many reaching for the delete button as soon as they begin rolling in.

Holiday Cards should be seen as an investment, and spending that time and funds to invest in your clients and prospects speaks more than flashy animation and sparkly graphics. Think of your clientele as family. They help keep your business home up and running, and if you’re doing your job right, they will have your back when the opportunity arises. Would you send your loved ones a birthday card via email if a CVS is not far around the corner? I’m guessing your answer is, “no”.

Printed Holiday Cards are a great way to thank your clients and partners for their support and loyalty over the past year, and to let them know how much you value their relationship. Most Holiday Cards are opened and displayed throughout the busy holiday season, keeping you at the forefront of your clients’ mind. If you keep up the tradition, those on your list will look forward to receiving your card year after year. There’s power in that; knowing you are important enough to make it on THE LIST.

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When you take that step to send out Holiday Cards via direct mail, make sure you do it right:

Personalize it. If you can’t afford to write a unique note in each card, create and print different messages per recipient. In other words, categorize your list into three or four different groups. A message to a client vs. a vendor or business partner should be different.

Leave sales at the door. This is a time of thanks for past and current business, not a time to generate more sales. Greedy Holiday givers who create expectations in return show poor taste.

Be sincere. If you send flowery words full of caring sentiments to a client you typically butt heads with, the message could come across as sarcastic. Always use kind words of course, but if you are generally a playful person, have fun with your messages. If you are a sentimental bird, allow your thanks to flow plentifully.

Design smartly. Catchy, yet simple, designs will stand out from the crowd. Incorporate your market niche within your design. For example, if your business is centered around fresh produce, use an image of a broccoli Christmas tree within the design. Remember to keep your logo small, perhaps even on the back of the card. This is about them, not you. (No business cards within either…)

Be a friend, don’t offend. Avoid including content, including words or images, that could come across as offensive or is inappropriate for the workplace. One would think this is common sense, but you would be surprised.

Time your sending. The first or second week in December is the best time to get your cards in the mail and in their hands. Any time after that, you are risking your investments to be caught in the mail rush, or lost in vacation pile for your recipients to shuffle through following the Holidays (embarrassing).

So, now that you have all of your contacts organized and in one location...take this opportunity to get them into a Simple CRM (Client Relationship Management) software, such as AddressTwo. AddressTwo was built for small-medium sized businesses who need a smart and cost effective solution for contact management, setting follow-up tasks, email marketing (drip campaigns), and pipeline tracking, to name a few features. Your clients are important around the Holiday Season, don't let the rest of the year stay quiet! Register for a free trial of AddressTwo CRM to see how it can streamline your sales and communication processes year round. Better yet, email your client list to A2, and have a trial created for you with your contact list imported and ready to go!

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Allow PostTwo to do your Holiday cards for you! Simple and easy solution for printing, stuffing, and mailing. Part of your friendly neighborhood, simple CRM, AddressTwo.

Discover what the power of Two can do for you! 

Small Business and the NLRB

By David D. Schein, President & General Counsel, 

Claremont Management Group

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) is an independent Federal agency that regulates the relationship between workers and employers with regard to union activities. Recently, a US Court of Appeals overturned President Obama’s appointment of three members of the five-member NLRB in January 2012. The Court ruled that the US Senate was in session and therefore the President was not authorized to make “recess appointments.” While this sounds like a minor technicality, if this decision is not reversed by the US Supreme Court, it could lead to the vacating of approximately 100 decisions made by the NLRB over the last year.

 Many small businesses do not regard the NLRB as a key concern. In general, this might be true. Unionization is at its lowest level in about 50 years in the United States. Unions often target large businesses since they obtain more members and dues from organizing a 500 employee plant than they would from organizing a 25 employee plant.

 The reason the Court decision is so significant to small business is that these Board members appointed in January 2012 are decidedly pro-union. Their aggressive approach expanded the reach of the NLRB. I note below two special concerns for small business.

 While unions have lost many members, they are not down and out. They have been energized by the recent national elections and the rulings of the NLRB over the last year. Small businesses are not immune from unionization. As an example, a wholesale distribution company with about 50 total employees, including about a dozen truck drivers and a dozen warehouse workers, faced a unionization effort. The workers were divided into two possible bargaining units and the employer lost one election and won the other. The union involved filed 10 Unfair Labor Practice (“ULP”) charges against the employer. Eventually, the NLRB ruled in favor of the union on most of the ULPs and the employer was facing another election in the unit which it had won. Ultimately, the union abandoned its efforts and there is no union at the company today. However, the cost was about two years of disruption and about $50,000 in legal fees and settlement costs.

 Employees do not need to belong to a union, or attempt to unionize, to be protected by the NLRB. Any “concerted action” is protected under the law. The reason this is a special concern is that suppose an employee posts on their Facebook page that they feel their employer is unfair and pays poorly? This employee is acting alone and can generally be disciplined for making inappropriate public comments about their employer. Suppose now that two or three fellow employees respond to the posts and agree with the first employee? This employee is now acting “in concert” with other employees regarding pay and other conditions of employment and may file a complaint with the NLRB if they are disciplined.

 For both reasons, small businesses must stay alert to the risks of unionization and concerted action.

Infographic: How Small Businesses use Software to Manage Contacts

We surveyed small businesses across the U.S. to find out how they manage contacts, and what they do with them. Read our full findings in the new whitepaper under Featured Articles.