Let’s assume you want your business marketing to be as effective as possible, right? If it’s not the case that your marketing must matter, if you’re happy with just any mention of your business or any contact with your markets, most of what I suggest won’t really matter. But if your goal is effective, meaningful, impactful marketing, than do whatever you can to make your market feel special, and appreciated. This is a guiding principle in greeting card marketing: It’s not about you, it’s about the card recipient.
How would you like to hear, or see when you visit, that your business marketing greeting cards are kept right on the kitchen counter, refrigerator door, desk, display case, or some other prominent place at the recipient’s home or place of business? If your cards are about you, it’s not likely to happen. If you have photos of the recipient, his or her family, home, pets, or business chances are pretty good (frankly we have it happen all the time) that your marketing piece will be in full display to visitors to the car recipient’s home or business.
The purest way to keep cards about your customers, clients, colleagues, referral sources or prospects is to not mention yourself or your business at all, other than signing your name, or maybe mentioning a shared social or fun experience. As soon as you mention your company name, the card becomes a sales piece, and that’s exactly what you do not want.
When we first started using greeting cards in our marketing I almost always included a scanned image of my business card on one of the inside panels. Now I only rarely include my business card image. The cards are special, to me, and I hope they’re special to the recipients as well. So I keep myself out of them as much as possible.
Greeting card marketing is to build relationships, not to sell and not to convey other messages about your business. The more consistently you are able to focus card content on the recipient and not on yourself and your business, the more effective the powerful marketing company will be for you.
