5 Recommended Greetings For Business Holiday Cards

When sending holiday cards for a business, the rules change slightly from when sending personal holiday cards. You might want to be sure you select a holiday card and greeting that reflects a broader range of your clientele. To keep it safe, I would suggest you select a holiday card and greeting wishing everyone Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings. These greetings will be neutral and inoffensive. In the end, the goal is to extend a heartwarming gesture in the spirit of the season and avoid sending anything divisive.

Please take a look at my top 5 recommended greetings below:

  1. One of the real joys of the Holiday Season is the opportunity to say Thank You and to wish you the very best for the New Year
  2. During the Holiday Season more than ever, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our progress possible. And in the spirit we say, simply but sincerely Thank You and Best Wishes for the Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!
  3. Best Wishes for Peace and Joy this Holiday Season and a New Year of Health, Happiness and Prosperity
  4. Our entire organization joins in sending HOLIDAY GREETINGS with every good wish for the New Year!
  5. Our Sincerest Thanks and Warmest Wishes for the Holiday Season and throughout the New year

What Should Go On My Business Christmas Card Envelopes?

You are sending out Christmas cards on behalf of your business this year. You’ve thought about everything except how in the world you are supposed to do the envelopes! Of course you know the basics: Recipient address, proper postage, and a return address?

Although it is not necessary to include a return address, should you? Will your recipient even open it because they might think it’s junk mail? While there is the advantage of curiosity, why not impress recipients as opposed to trick? Using your name will reinforce your company with your well wishes of Christmas cheer. Why wouldn’t you want that good press?

You can place your return address on the front or on the back flap of the envelope. Either is correct. Personally, I like the return address to be on the back flap in foil. It is an elegant statement that the recipient will see just before seeing your Christmas card. Everything sets the tone of your attempt to contact the customer, so do not overlook anything.

Consider using your logo with your company name for a sophisticated look. This little touch will make you stand out in a good way. It is impressive to use your company logo printed as opposed to on a stamp or a sticker. This shows forethought and care. Finishing touches? Consider sealing your envelope with a gold or silver seal. Stand out this holiday season by mailing your cards out early!

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.

14th Annual Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest is Open!

The Gallery Collection is proud to announce our 14th Annual $10,000 Create-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest has officially opened!

To enter, please go to our contest entry page, review the contest rules, and submit a greeting card design using an original photo, piece of artwork, or computer graphic. The winner of the contest will have a chance to win a $10,000 scholarship and $1,000 for his or her school. In addition, the winning design will be made into a greeting card to be sold in The Gallery Collection’s line!

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity! And while you’re working on your submission, please feel free to check out some of our past contest winners and finalists.

Be Entered! Be a star! Be Inspired!

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.

Why Get Well Cards Are Important in the Business World

Get Well cards are extremely important inside and outside of the business world. Get well cards let your employees, supervisors, or whoever is ill, sick, or injured know that they are being thought of during their trying time of illness, sickness or injury.

Imagine how the person in question would feel when they open a card full of well wishes and good thoughts from their co-workers. I, for one, would feel extremely pleased and happy to know that I was thought of enough to warrant a Get Well card. On GalleryCollection.com, there is a variety of Get Well Cards including the Get Well Roses Get Well Card, the Get Well Basket Greeting Card, and the Garden Get Well Greeting Card.

They also have an amazing Get Well Assortment Box, stocked with thirty five Get Well Cards; with nine different designs. Sending a get well card to your employee or supervisor creates a kind of caring and empathetic representation of your company, and it will make your employee or supervisor happy to know that they have been thought of, and it may even make them feel just a little bit better!

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!