Christmas Cards – A waste of your time? Probably! Unless…

As I write this I’ve just received my first Christmas card of the season. It’s from a fabulous lady called Namita I met maybe 3 years ago in Darwin, Australia and she’s a prime example of how to ensure your Christmas cards aren’t a waste of time.

What can we learn from Namita:

1. Leader of the pack

Namita’s card arrived first. I remember the first card. I do not remember the 200th card arriving on the 19th of December. When do you send your cards out? Are you first, or are you mixed in with the blur.

Tiny tip: set a diary note for the 14th of November, 2008 (recurring each year) to remind you to prepare and send out your cards so that you can be first next year.

2. The thought and care was obvious

Namita’s message inside the card was personalised and thoughtful. As a speaker and as someone who loves to give out a lot of business cards over the year I tend to get a lot of Christmas cards. This is lovely, but it also is a huge opportunity for me to see the absolute worst trends in sending out Christmas cards.

My least favourite Christmas card mistakes include:

• The card with a stock standard, small un-personalised message (c’mon - why bother?)

• The card with only a scrawled signature or even worse, just a stapled business card (puh-leese!)

• The message obviously written by an assistant or someone other than the person sending it

3. She’s a savvy business woman

Namita has just launched a new business: http://kidimpressions.com/ and she took the opportunity to send a letter about it, a brochure and to offer me a holiday gift of my own book! She doesn’t know it, but I usually get a personalised book for newborns – and I had been using one of her competitors up until now. Not anymore!

Tiny tip: A little gift that promotes your business is ideal – but also consider small items that will give a big bang for a buck. One of my favourites is a scratchy lotto ticket, sure most people won’t win up big time – but imagine if someone were win $10,000 – how much favourable word of mouth would you get then! (In fact – I’d give you great word of mouth if I won $10!)

4. Rocking the database

Namita also took the opportunity to congratulate me on my second wedding anniversary (this girl obviously knows how to database like a rockstar).

Tiny tip: Whenever anyone mentions a birthday, anniversary or significant event, jot it down, put it in your phone and database it. It’s a small effort but one most people won’t make.

Challenge for the week: See how many extra special dates (birthdays etc) you can gather for your database this week. My favourite tips include sneaking peeks at people’s licences when checking onto planes, showing ID etc (thanks to my mentor Glen for this one!) and asking what star sign people are and working from there. You can be a bit cheeky with it or alternatively – you can just ask people!

So Namita get’s an A+ on my Christmas card experience with her. To follow are some of the other tips I’ve learnt over the years.

5. Remember not everyone celebrates Christmas

I like a “Seasons Greetings” card myself purely for this reason.

6. Do them as you go

If the idea of hand writing all those Christmas cards at once is about as appealing as licking the underbelly of a sheep, consider writing them throughout the year. Real estate agents for example could write the cards as soon as a property they’ve sold settles when they add that client to their database. The Christmas card can then be thrown in a box and hey presto – when November comes around half your work may already be done.

7. Don’t rely on your brain

I have a category in my database which tells me who I need to send Christmas cards to. When I add someone to my database I decide if they’re getting a Christmas card and categorise them appropriately. It means come November, my cards are a no brainer. I print off my list, remove anyone, add any last minute people and write away to my heart’s content. And don’t think you need a database to do this – just keep a list as you write out this year’s along with addresses and I promise you, next year you’ll find it all the easier.

So there you go, 7 simple steps which, if implemented correctly, will make all that time, effort and stationery worthwhile. If you want to practice – I love a Christmas card: Kirsty Dunphey, PO BOX 7713, Launceston, TAS, 7250. Pop in a note if you’d like some feedback on your card!

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