Harnessing Passkeys in the Battle Against AI-Powered Cyber Threats.pptx
Holiday Card Best Practices
1. HOW TO AVOID TURNING INTO
THE GRINCH THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
2. Holiday Card Best Practices
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List Management
Creative
Physical Cards or E-cards
Standing Out
Timing
3. List Management
• Who will receive the card
• Who will send the card
• How to manage the process
4. List Management: Who Receives the Card
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Clients
Prospects
Friends of the company
Real or potential referral sources
• Alumni
• Vendors
• Professional association colleagues
5. List Management: Who Will Send the Card
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The company as a whole entity
Different groups within the company
Individuals responsible for their own holiday card distribution
Multiple signers for one card
Single signer based on seniority/prioritization
6. List Management: Managing the Process
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Round Robin
Excel
Contact Relationship Management Solutions
Enterprise Relationship Management Solutions
7. List Management: Managing the Process
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Expectations
Timing and Deadlines
Call to action
Tracking
14. Timing: September Project Kick Off
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Identify your objective
Decide what type of card you will do
Determine timing
Inform employees about the project
Discuss distribution
Select the vendor/designer
Prep other staff or departments
15. Timing: October Meat and Potato Time
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Determine additional needs
Test the different components of the e-card
Merge and clean lists
Approve final card concept
Identify quantity of cards and envelopes needed for physical mailing
16. Timing: November Tick Tock
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The E-card complete and printed cards in-hand
Final version of mailing list(s) completed
Signing process kicked-off and signed cards obtained
Plan other marketing initiatives
Expectations for additional needs established
17. Timing: December Time to Celebrate
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Physical cards mailed the first week of December
Complete your e-mailing, preferably in early December
Handle any last-minute requests for additional cards
Execute other marketing initiatives
Tracking
Celebrate
18. Recap
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Start the process early
Consider your objective
Track data
Clean up contact lists
Be unique and stand out
Celebrate
ONLY 45 MORE DAYS UNTIL DECEMBER 1st
20. THANK YOU
Chelsie Givan , Marketing Manager, Cole Valley Software
EM: cgivan@colevalley.com | PH: 612-615-3090
Blog: www.contactease.wordpress.com
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/contactease
Learn more about ContactEase: sales@colevalley.com
Editor's Notes
Today we will be discussing Holiday Cards and best practices in managing the process of distribution and creation. We will cover…
In sending holiday cards the first part of the process is to determine who should all receive a card. The next step is to determine who they receive the card from. Then you will need to establish how the process will be managed.
How do you decide who receives a card?
For larger companies this is one of the most difficult portions of the holiday card process… how you determine who will send the card…The company as a whole… create one central list that is approved by management Different groups/areas within the company… develop their own lists and assign people to send and therefore organize the signature processHave each individual responsible for their own holiday card distribution list. However, with individuals responsible for their own cards the main concern is that one recipient may receive multiple cards from your company. Some companies believe this reinforces the importance of the recipient, others think it makes the company look uncoordinated and wasteful.Have one card for a contact with multiple people who sign the card.Have a single signer based on seniority or prioritization for a contact.In some companies, the relationship between the company and client is broadened by including assistants or for law firms paralegals in the signing groups, or encouraging them to send their own greetings to their contacts in the client organization.
In a smaller company a round robin approach as all of the cards get put out on a table and people can go through the cards and sign them.Other companies may ask employees throughout the year to track their contacts in an excel spread sheet and submit the spread sheet to marketing. The level of complexity can vary… if the company opts to send individual cards than all of the contacts just receive a card. If the company opts to send one card with multiple signatures then the spread sheets would need to be merged, sorted, and the cards would need to get all of the required signatures.By using a CRM solution there are multiple ways to manage the process. Custom fields or categories can be created to track who should receive a card and who needs to sign it. There are also additional features such as mailing list management functionality were a survey can be sent out to individual employees and they can mark their contacts and select who should receive the card making it easy for marketing to determine the holiday card list. There are also unique situations were a company may want to send the card from only one person and is unsure who has the best relationship. In this situation an enterprise relationship management solution would be helpful to understand who has the best relationship with a contact and who the card should come from.
No matter what method is selected for your holiday card it is important to set expectations up front. If opting to do a physical holiday card with multiple signers an ample amount of time should be set aside to allow the signers enough time to complete their cards. By coming up with a schedule up front and making people well aware of deadlines it will help your process go smoother. Make sure to allow for fluff days on the back end in case something comes up. Also, for those stubborn colleagues that wait until the last minute (and we all know who they are) I suggest blocking time out in their calendar ahead of time to sign their cards.It is also important to think through the objective of the card. Is it to just send a warm sentiment or are you trying to accomplish more? Is there a call to action with the card whether physical or online? Do you want your recipients to do something… maybe visit your social media sites.Are you going to track your success… we will talk more about tracking specifically with the different type of cards but whether sending a physical or e-card you can track your contact data. If you get returned mail or bounce backs you can track that information and update contact information or the information in a database if you are using a CRM solution.
Make sure that the tone and spirit of the card reflects your company’s brand.Make it about the contacts. While the temptation to use this opportunity to say amazing things about your company is there, it’s important to ensure the card is more about wishing everyone happy holidays than it is about selling.If you can avoid it don’t use a stock card or stock creative. You don’t want to convey that you treat clients in a cookie-cutter fashion.
Physical cards are an investment so it is worth the time to make sure they are done right. More and more companies are opting not to do physical cards due to the cost. If you decide to do them you will need to determine who receives them… do all contacts or only certain contacts this can impact your budget as it could be 50 cards or 500 cards. Depending on the signing process you select, that will also determine your timing on the cards and how long they will take to complete. You will need to determine if your company wants to track the undeliverable mail and update contact information. Depending if you have multiple offices it could be a logistical nightmare. If you have multiple locations and senders, you will need to create envelopes with return addresses from each office. Nothing says “I did not put any thought into my holiday greeting” like a holiday card from a Minneapolis employee, sent in an envelope with the company's Chicago return address. Some CRM systems can help manage the physical components of a mailing such as the return labels. It is also helpful to track the activity and who received a card in the system to make the following year’s list creation a lot simpler. The data from previous years can be shared with employees and they could just make their list modifications rather than creating a new list year after year.Here are a couple of other things to consider regarding physical cards…Instead of doing a mass signing, have the person with best relationship write something personal to the recipient. Instead of physically having everyone sign a card maybe get everyone’s signatures electronically on file and custom print so that it looks like they were signed. Since everyone is opting to do e-cards and we have become so virtual physical cards are a unique touch point in this day and age. I would suggest opting for a combination approach to holiday cards with both a physical card and e-card sending only select people the physical card with a personal sentiment.
With e-cards you have the ability to decrease your holiday card costs as the cost of physical cards and postage are taken out of the equation. This gives you the ability to extend your reach and send a card to more contacts.Time should also be figured in, in a law firm for example when a lawyer is going around a table signing a physical card that is time that could be better spent billing hours.Tracking:By sending an e-card your company can identify who has received a card and what action they took. The number of people who opened the card can be tracked identifying if the card was successful and worth the time put into the project. Marketing and business development initiatives could be launched and the click-throughs to additional messaging or promotional items could be identified. Those activities could then be added to the database and depending on the call to action there could be very specific follow-up items assigned.Identifying Potential Risks:Opting to send an e-card helps your company clean-up their database. If a contact at a client leaves and the company doesn’t know about it, it could become lost work. By tracking bounce backs and failed emails, someone can alert the company of potential at risk clients. A CRM system combined with ERM functionality could quickly identify these relationships and who would be the next best point of contact at both the company and the client company. Updating Contact Information:Another consideration with e-cards is having contacts update their own information and which communications they would prefer to receive. With some CRM systems this could be done by using an Online Client Update Form. Ask contacts to take a minute to review their data and make any changes necessary by providing the hyperlink to do so. The data is then cleaned up in the database and your company has the most up-to-date information for a contact, and contacts can opt for the communications that matter the most to them.
An example of an physical card to e-card switchWhen the accounting firm Skoda Minotti out of Cleveland made the switch to e-cards, they were able to send a card to an additional 5,000 people. They cut their costs by $4,300 and cut internal project coordination by 72.1%. They were also able to track the click-through rate and they had over 900 unique click throughs. (Note this is not the open rate but just the click through rate)
Create an interactive card where by a recipient must complete something to get a result. Jakes James LLP created a card where by in order to make it snow and receive their custom message, you had to first put a snowman together.Goulston Storrs has a holiday card contest for all the kids in the firm and showcases the winners in their electronic card. Marks Paneth & Shron, a New York based firm, created a survey to see how well their contacts knew about the holiday season in New York.Other companies opt to give back to the community. In discussing giving back…Instead of the typical snowflakes or starry night, if your company does a lot of pro bono and charity projects use images from the events and on the back of a physical card of through interaction online explain the event and the non-profit’s mission. Show how involved your company is and how they have given back to the community.Another example someone had artwork commissioned and used it as their imagery for their card, they then donated the artwork to a non-profit to be sold.
September the project truly kicks off…Identify your objective… warm wishes, charitable contribution, marketing campaign, database cleanupDecide what type of card you will do… physical or e-card or a combination of bothDetermine timing…. You will need to think through the delivery date and create your project plan… this will also effect your messaging such as Happy holidays v. Happy New Year.Discuss distribution… who receives the card and who the card should come fromInform employees about the project… ask them to compile their list of recipients, how you will be using the information, and inform them of deadlines.If doing a physical card inform employees of when and how the cards will be distributed for them to signSelect the vendor/designer… you will employ to create the card discuss concepts and copy Prep other staff or departments… you will want to prep departments such as IT if there is a need to host a video on a server or assistants who will help with list generation and inform them of your timeline
At this point your creative is well under way, the lists have been started, and everyone is aware of the project and deadlines. Determine additional needs… if you want recipients to select a charity you will need to create a survey. If your giving a contribution based on the number of new “likes” on Facebook someone will be responsible for tracking the metrics. You will need to determine how you will handle bounce backs or returned mail as well as how you will track success (open and click through rates, interaction with the card)Test the different components of the e-card… if there is built in functionality like replay for video or links to other items you need to test their functionalityMerge and clean lists for “multiple” or “from the company” methods of signing… your lists should be at about 80% completionBy the end of October you should Approve your final card conceptIdentify quantity of cards and envelopes needed for physical mailing… and order them with a few extras for last minute requests
November is now crunch time… The E-card should be completed and if your are doing printed cards you should have them in-handFinal version of mailing list(s) completed within the first week of NovemberSigning process kicked-off around the second week of November and signed cards obtained by the last week of November (2 week window for signing).Other marketing… at this point you should be thinking of other ways you will promote and distribute your hard work… post the card on your website, tweet it, Facebook it, submit to contests, if you win a contest write a PR piece about it, etc. Another thing to think of, are you going to create an OFT version of the e-card or have just blank cards that employees can use for people they missed or forgot so you don’t have to do the leg work for all of those recipients? At this point your process(s) and expectations for additional needs should be established
The hard part is close to being done and it is almost time to celebrate at the office holiday party….Physical cards mailed the first week of DecemberComplete your e-mailing, preferably in early DecemberHandle any last-minute requests for additional cards… either you take care of them or provide them with the tools they need to execute such as the OFT version of the e-cardExecute other marketing initiativesTrack your card based on the additional needs you have established. Celebrate… this project is a large undertaking and takes a lot of coordination. Celebrate with your team for their hard work, thank those who helped with the executions such as the IT department and the assistants, and make sure to share the news with the entire company. Send out an internal memo with the card and share success stories or feedback that you have received.
