Season’s Greetings
The final quarter of 2008 is upon us, and the festive season is just around the corner. That means it’s time to start thinking about festive season communications to customers, clients and contacts.
The corporate seasons greetings message is an opportunity to spread the spirit of the season and thank everyone for their support over the year. It is also an opportunity to send out something fun, interesting and different from your usual business communications to engage your contacts on another level, and demonstrate another side to the personality of your organisation.
DEPENDING ON YOUR SITUATION OR REQUIREMENTS, A SEASON’S GREETING CAMPAIGN CAN ACHIEVE A NUMBER OF COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES THROUGH A PLATFORM THAT IS OFTEN LESS RESTRICTIVE THAN OTHER CAMPAIGNS. IT CAN BE USED TO ADDRESS PR ISSUES, BUILD STAKEHOLDER CONFIDENCE AND EVEN BECOME A SOPHISTICATED VIRAL MARKETING AND PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN.
Your festive season message is a ideal medium to remind your customers that you are more than just a money making machine. Promoting your organisation’s Corporate Social Responsibility program or credentials is a popular and well received message that ties in nicely with the season of giving.
What’s more, taking your campaign electronic and distributing online via email can make it fun, interactive, measurable and environmentally responsible. Electronic greeting cards, or e-cards as they’re often called, can include animation, audio, video and interactivity to deliver true brand engagement, and can be easily personalised to the recipient from their specific contacts within the organisation. They can also include personalised messages or targeted content depending on your contact segmentation. Because they can be developed to dynamically retrieve information from a database, personalisation can be based on any data that you hold. You can also easily measure the readership of your communication through the usual email and web metrics.
However, if you do wish to distribute a traditional hard copy card, environmentally responsible options are available to minimise the environmental impact of your campaign. There are many options available in recycled, unbleached paper stocks from green paper mills. Printing can also be done with organic, vegetable based inks using water efficient processes.
So whatever you choose to do, remember that Christmas creeps up on you quickly, so now is the time to act and start planning to ensure you make the most out of your festive season communications opportunity.
