Whether or not you use photos with your busines greeting cards, it’s highly desirable that you customize your cards. The greater the level of customization, the more personalized it becomes for both the sender and the recipient. If the purpose of sending a greeting card in the first place is to enhance a relationship, clearly a more personalized the card the better chance it has to fulfill its purpose.
Sending any card is better than no card, so if you’re in a rush of course it’s better to grab a card off the rack or from a standard collection than to ignore the chance to send a card. If you do use a totally standard card, look for one that conveys the desired emotion or expression and then add your own heartfelt words.
Very plain, formal corporate-style greeting cards do not convey emotion and are clearly company-focused. It’s doubtful corporate cards do much for building relationships other than expressing the most formal communications.
Sales and marketing departments of medium to large companies, even if required to use standardized, approved greeting cards, should press to adopt cards that, via graphics, photos, and/or printed messages, do the best possible job of addressing the target market’s needs and the company’s purpose. For example, if a business differentiates itself by depth of resources, or creativity, or environmental awareness, the most effective standardized cards to clients or prospects should do what they can to underscore those messages.
In addition to the greeting card’s content and design, special factors in the materials can also help a card to stand out. For example, using high qualilty paper, preferably from recycled materials that are so noted, is helpful. Another way to convey specialness is to use real, first class stamps instead of bulk mail or metered postage.
Anything you can do to customize your greeting cards that will help the recipient feel special will strengthen the relationship-building effectiveness of the cards.
