Should My Company Send Out Business Christmas Cards?

Should your corporation or business send out Christmas cards? For many companies, this is a very real question that takes a lot of consideration. Especially in these economic times, the decision of whether to spend the resources – both time and financial – needs a lot of thought and planning.

The financial aspect is pretty straight forward. You need to buy the greeting cards and you need to pay for postage. You do have some wiggle room when it comes to the cost of the card, but, of course, the postage is a static cost. That wiggle room with the cost of the card, though, may not be as great as you hope.

A very important decision has to do with what kind and quality of card you decide to spend. The range of cost can be enormous, but you very much have to pay attention to quality issues. It won’t do you any good to go to all this trouble only to send a card that screams, “Cheap!!” Doing that, in effect, tells the client or vendor – or potential client – that they aren’t important enough for you to send a card that’s at least halfway decent. You’re better off forgetting the whole endeavor.

Nor should you think about making the cards yourself, unless you’re in the printing business and have talented artisits, layout folks, photographers, etc. Again, it sends the message that you either don’t care that much, really, or that you have questionable taste. Not exactly qualities you want your customers the equate with your company name. Another cost factor may be that you need to hire a temporary worker to take care of all or part of the tasks inherent in sending out the cards.

The second part of the equation is time. Do you or your staff have the time to take care of all the tasks involved in sending out business Christmas cards? The tasks start with organizing your list of card recipients, making sure the names and addresses are current, goes through finding good corporate or business holiday greeting card vendors, comparing costs and quality, completing the order, taking delivery and then actually writing the envelopes, greetings, and signatures.

So, while most experts will tell you that sending out your corporate or business Christmas cards is a very good idea, that they are an excellent tool to maintain contact with clients and vendors, to remind them and potential clients that you’re still very much around and appreciate or want their business, the decision to do so requires some contemplation. You need to look at all the factors and make a decision as to whether the positives outweigh the costs.