Category: Corporate Greeting Cards

Why Successful Companies Send New Year Cards

Your customers & clients are the bread and butter of your company. Valued vendors create a backbone of support and reliability. Successful companies know the value in winding down a rewarding year – and paving the way for the next – by sending  quality New Year cards to everyone on their list.

New Year cards provide the opportunity to do 3 things; Thank your customers and vendors for the role they play in your business, Wish them a successful year ahead and, as an ‘end of the season’ gesture, you’ll also be leaving a fresh and lasting impression certain to translate into good will (and potential business) well into the new year.

A Happy New Year card acknowledges the on-going relationship – one of mutual benefit and shared success into the New Year and beyond. Sending a premium New Year card like those available at The Gallery Collection speaks volumes about how you see – and value – that relationship. It will be appreciated and remembered.

Choose from a wide variety of designs to fit the tone you want to present, from the classic look of Sparkling New Year to ‘New Years Eve’ bright and bold Prism . Celebrate with New Year Fireworks or toast the old and new with a little Bubbly.

Let the style suit your business and your taste but be sure you do take the time to send an end of the year reminder – and thank you – to your valued connections. It’s a gesture sure to have ongoing rewards.

Why should my Business send Holiday Cards?

Sending Holiday cards to your customer, vendors and employees is a necessary for any business.  The extra expense of these tokens of gratitude will prove worthwhile in the end.  It is an advertising method that has been around for years with proven success.

Your customers and clients will appreciate that you are thinking of them during the holidays.  It is a show of appreciate for their business and will inspire them to continue working with you in the future.  Holiday cards show to your customers that their business is valued. 

Vendors that you deal with daily or monthly basis will also see that they are on your mind when they receive their holiday cards.  This could result in better discounts on future orders or maybe other perks such as free samples.

As for your personnel, any employee acknowledgement always leads to a more successful company.  Happy employees make for a better bottom-line.  The holiday season is the perfect time to thank them for all their hard work and effort.  I suggest you mail these cards to their households.  Getting a sign of gratitude such a holiday card mailed to their home will truly make them feel special.

Holiday greeting cards will result in only positive feedback from all of your recipients.

The Benefits of Custom Greeting Cards

Custom greeting cards are perfect for every business. No matter what line of work you are in, you have at least 100 customers or clients that deserve a custom printed greeting card from you or your business. I have read some marketing facts that show it costs 10 times less to keep a current customer than it does to get a new one.  This is the benefit of custom greeting cards. It also shows your appreciation to your current customers or clients in a very inexpensive way and it preserves your ongoing business relationships.

By the way, custom greeting cards are wonderful for personal use as well. The greeting cards are excellent for birthdays, holidays, or any special life occurrences. Custom greeting cards really touch the hearts of the people you send them out to.  In our world of faceless electronic communication it has become very important that we reach our customers in a memorable way.

Whether I send out a single greeting card or a few, say for a holiday, I almost always receive emails and text messages thanking me for the greeting card I that sent.  When I receive this kind of feedback I become more aware of the impact I created. One positive is that I have made someone smile and be happy, so I feel good too!

Another positive is that my greeting card has physically been opened and read, I wonder about emails we all send, sometimes it is just easier to hit “delete all”.  There is no question in my mind that my card will be placed somewhere in their home or office, for quite a while.   

Are you in the Market for Greeting Cards?

How do you shop for greeting cards?  When I was in the market for our yearly supply of birthday cards, I wasn’t exactly sure where to start.  My predecessor would make trips to the local discount store to purchase greeting cards.  No offense to her as she was doing the best she could, but the cards were always so flimsy and looked cheap.  This was not how I thought our business should be represented.

The first thing I did was hit the internet.  I went to multiple sites and requested catalogs.  This was a great way to start.  Most companies not only sent me a catalog but a sample of their greeting cards and sometimes even their envelopes.  It was really helpful as I was able to compare the quality of greeting cards from each company.

Once I narrowed down my choice to The Gallery Collection, I hopped on their website to see their full line of greeting cards.  It was so difficult to select one from all the beautiful designs.  They were nice enough to send me samples of my 6 favorite.  I then passed them along to my colleagues in the Human Resources Department for a vote.  We have the perfect birthday cards that I am proud to send to our customers and staff.

Keeping Greeting Card Assortment Boxes on Hand

How many times has an occasion popped up unexpectedly and you didn’t have a greeting card on hand? Running to the store isn’t always an option. We are always busy and just don’t have the time to stop everything. It makes perfect sense to keep an assortment of greeting cards on hand for different occasions. The Gallery Collection has many different assortment boxes available.

While there is always the option of buying one card design, sometimes you just don’t want to give out the same card to everyone. An all occasion assortment box will give you an array of cards to choose from. Birthday Cards, Anniversary Cards, Get Well Cards, Sympathy Cards and Congratulation cards can be at your fingertips. Ready to send out at a moment’s notice.

You can purchase beautiful, high quality cards at a fraction of the cost that you would pay at a department or stationary store.

If you mainly send out birthday cards, there is a birthday card assortment only. There are three options to pick from. For other occasions, there are other card assortments available like sympathy assortment boxes, thank you assortment boxes, get well assortment boxes, or anniversary assortment boxes. This is just to name a few. If you like to write your own message, there is a Fine Art collection that are blank inside.

With all the options available, you will be ready to send out your well wishes whenever the occasion pops up!

Facts about greeting cards…

  • Annual retail sales of greeting cards are estimated between $7 and $8 billion. Americans purchase approximately 6.5 billion greeting cards each year.
  • The most popular Seasonal Cards are Christmas Cards, with some 1.6 billion units purchased (included boxed cards). This is followed by cards for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduation, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and St. Patrick’s Day.
  • Seven out of Ten card buyers surveyed consider greeting cards “absolutely” or “almost essential to them. Eight out of Ten of these buyers expect their purchases to remain the same going forward. Of the balance, twice as many card buyers say they will “increase” their purchasing as say they will “decrease” their purchasing in the coming year.
  • Women purchase an estimated 80% of all greeting cards. Women spend more time choosing a card than men, and are more likely to buy several cards at once.
  • Younger card buyers and those who are more technology savvy are currently the ones most engaged in buying paper greeting cards online.
  • Most people now acknowledge many more birthdays than ever before because of Facebook, but they aren’t necessarily sending fewer cards as a result.
  • The tradition of giving greeting cards as a meaningful expression of personal affection for another person is still being deeply ingrained in today’s youth, and this tradition will likely continue as they become adults and become responsible for managing their own important relationships.

Adding Your Brand to Greeting Cards

The main purpose of sending greeting cards is the act of showing a friend, colleague, client, customer, etc. that they matter to you.  Receiving a greeting card is always a welcome event.  A side benefit of sending greeting cards is the opportunity they provide for businesses to promote their brands.  Greeting cards can function as relationship building items and soft marketing materials.  When attempting to use a greeting card in this manner, there are some points of decorum and restraint to keep in mind.  There is the danger of over-promoting your brand in your cards to the point that your recipients could only view your card as a marketing vessel and thus ignore any of your true genuine good wishes.

Here are some general guidelines for your branding to keep your greeting cards off the proverbial wall of shame.

  1. Keep it Simple in Sympathy Cards and Get Well Cards – While it is certainly acceptable to include a company’s or organization’s name or even their logo in a sympathy card or get well card, please be wary of how you do so.  It’s best to keep font sizes and styles on the smaller side for your firm’s name in these greeting cards.  You don’t want to call too much attention to your company.  Also, if you opt to include a logo, it should be kept on the smaller side as well and preferably printed in a neutral color.  If your logo is bright, multi-colored, and cheerful, it would be wise to consider printing it in just a plain black or green ink.
  2. Avoid Redundancy – You may wish to include your company’s name and your logo in your greeting cards, which is great, unless your logo includes your company name in it.  Cards with a printed company name right above a logo that also includes the company name can sometimes look redundant.
  3. Watch for Overexposure – It may be tempting to plaster your brand all over the greeting card putting your logo or name on the front and inside of the greeting cards.  Keep in mind that you don’t want your card to scream marketing material, nor should it.  A good rule of thumb is to look at the card you’ve created before ordering and ask yourself, “If I received this card, would I feel that the sender actually cared about me?”  If the answer is no, tone down some of the branding on the greeting card.

Tips On Choosing The Right Greeting

Although there are dozens of ways to say the same thing, not all greetings are created equal. Here are some tips on choosing the right greeting for any occasion.

Keep your audience in mind. If your business plans on sending out holiday cards, consider choosing a secular card and greeting. Keep in mind that not all of your employees may celebrate Christmas. It is best to take a “happy holidays” or “season’s greetings” approach, so all employees feel represented and included. Religious greetings, such as greetings with scriptures or references to God, should typically be limited to personal use or religious groups, like a church organization.    

Thank your employees. Another popular choice for business greetings is to take the time to acknowledge all of the hard work that your employees have done for the company. These greetings can be used for multiple occasions, including birthday, holiday, and anniversary cards. Of course, thank you cards are the perfect opportunity to show your employees that you appreciate their efforts!

Be inclusive. Greetings that include the phrasing “from all of us” give your cards a feeling of inclusion. These types of greetings are good to use if you are planning on sending a card from a group, like the management of a business, or from an entire family.

Add a graphic. If you want your card to have a cute, light-hearted feel, you can choose a greeting that also includes a graphic. A happy birthday card with a cartoon cake or a Christmas card with a happy snowman make for fun greetings. Decorative lines underneath a greeting can give your card a chic and sophisticated appearance. Along with the graphic, you can also play around with the font styles. Script fonts are typically more formal, while printed fonts are generally more informal and playful.

Although your greeting is important, don’t stress over the abundance of options! If you’re spending time agonizing over whether to wish someone “joy and happiness” vs. “good health and success” for their birthday, just remember that whoever receives your card will appreciate the gesture, no matter what wording you’ve chosen. And if you can’t decide on a greeting that encompasses everything that you’re looking for, you can always create your own! 

Why I Send Calendar Cards Every Year

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Sending calendar cards to everyone on my list instead of a regular old holiday card was one of those ‘why didn’t I do this sooner’ decisions. Let me tell you why I send calendar cards every year.

It started when I found a card I really loved on The Gallery Collection. I didn’t even notice it was a calendar card until I clicked on it and saw that it opened out to reveal a full 12 month calendar plus room for my company name, address, message – whatever I wanted to write. I thought this was the best thing I’d ever seen – a card and gift rolled into one.

The design was great, the months clear and easy to read – it was big enough to be useful but wouldn’t take up too much space – I was seriously wowed.

Now when I send my holiday cards I know they aren’t going to end up lost in a pile of others. And I know that I’m sending a holiday greeting that will last – literally – all year long, my company name on someone’s wall or desk for the next 12 months.

Calendar cards also show that the giver wanted to provide something of value – not just another card for the recycle bin but something as useful as it is beautiful.

And I love that I can have my phone number, web address and even my email address printed right on it – all of my contact info just a glance away all year long. You can’t beat that kind of advertising.

They have so many great calendar card designs to choose from, all the same high quality and value I’ve come to expect from The Gallery Collection. And for the same cost as a regular card I can truly send a gift that keeps on giving.

Assortment Boxes: An Office Staple!

If you work in a busy office setting, you absolutely need to purchase The Gallery Collection’s Greeting Card Assortment Boxes. It is imperative to have at least one of these premium quality card assortments on hand!

While it is amazing that The Gallery Collection offers so many opportunities for customization, it is nice that these Greeting Card Assortment Boxes cannot be altered. This cuts out just one more decision you would have to make, and is somewhat unnecessary for inter-office distribution—like birthday cards or anniversary cards. There are plenty of different boxes to choose from, all containing 35 cards and 38 seal-fast envelopes. These greeting cards range in cover design, greeting inside, and printing color. All exact contents can be viewed online.

Each Assortment Box is delivered in its own labeled, sturdy box as to keep your cards looking neat and untouched. This is also particularly helpful in terms of organization. Never dig around the office to scrounge up a good enough card. Never dash to the store and hope for the best. Get yourself an Assortment Box from The Gallery Collection.

Many offices choose to have multiple types of Assortment Boxes on hand, as they are a huge time-saver without sparing at all on the quality. Never let a birthday sneak up on you or a job well done go unthanked again. Earn the respect of coworkers with the timelessly thoughtful gesture of a prompt greeting card.