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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
We never imprint a logo in sympathy cards or get well cards, or on those envelopes. It doesn’t seem like the proper time to show one, better to keep it personal, and respectful in black ink.
Every year at Christmas our business gets some cards stamped with a company name. The ink is sometimes blurry, the stamp is crooked or maybe not centered. It’s so much easier to get your name & logo imprinted instead of sending out a messy looking card to represent your business.
I think a lot of it depends on how your logo looks. A plumbing company with a toilet in the logo wouldn’t look great on a Sympathy card! But if your logo is words, you can probably put it on any kind of card without it looking awkward.