Thread: Holiday Cards

Anyone sending out holiday cards to customers? This is a great marketing tool, but can get expensive if you send printed cards. It can also be time-consuming.

Anyone try e-cards or a simple seasons greetings e-mail to current and past tenants?

I've done both e-greetings and (through VistaPrint.com) I ordered holiday postcards. I've found that watching for their specials greatly reduces cost and, compared to many other printers, they really are rather inexpensive overall.

Still, I agree, it can be costly for some facilities, especially the big ones. This is a small facility compared to many and I have chosen to personally fund this as I want my tenants to know that I truly do appreciate them and their business. My tenants have expressed that they do appreciate the greetings and have told me that no other manager had ever sent cards - of any kind.

I also have "generic" sympathy and get well cards that I send. I don't send birthday cards as it would require that I have hundreds on hand, 1 for each tenant. Whereas, the sympathy and get wells are far less numerous events. I even send sympathy cards to the family of or to a former tenant that I learn has suffered a loss. They're amazed I would even remember them, never mind think of them or their family after they've left us.

I've wondered about this. It IS a great marketing tool for your existing tenants!

It's also a good way to find out if someone has moved without telling you...!

Apparently, palmettostorageFC has had far better luck with Vista Print than I have. I do not like them, Sam I Am! But that story is for another post...

I send a Holiday Email since I have email addresses for most of my customers.

We get photo cards done at Costco and send it out to those we do regular business with and the delivery folks, etc ...

Email to the customers.

I printed cards last year for all the tenants and found that we used as much in ink as it cost to order them this year from Vistaprint.com.
We will be holding our 2nd annual Gift Wrapping. We wrap gifts in exchange for a local care and share program. This brought in approximately 100 new people last year and really boosted our merchandise sales.

We order 1000 personalized full size calendars from comda each year. We end up sending out about 800 of them and give out the other 200 left over. Our tenants love them. They cost us $1.00 each and then another $.45 to have them sent to our customers. We use a mailing service to seal, print addresses on them and the postage to cut down on costs.

Even if you are only sending out holiday cards a mailing service can help you save money on mass mailings. The one we use has a minimum of 200 items. Anytime we do a full facility mailing we use them as opposed to stamping them ourselves.