I found this extremely interesting article that is basically a big rant about intrusive holiday e-cards from companies. This only reinforces a company’s simple errors in building customer relationships.
This is taken directly from the article and are a few good questions to ask yourself:
Is Christmas an opportunity to boost your email marketing? Are you legitimately sending holiday greetings to valued clients or are you trying to run conversions with your holiday card program? If you’re viewing the tradition of sending holiday cards as a convenient sales opportunity, I think it’s a really bad idea.
BAH-HUMBUG
Here’s why:
- Despite what you say, I don’t feel like you’re sending me best wishes. It feels like you’re wishing I would do business with you. Have a look at the image above if you don’t understand what I’m saying.
- When I only hear from you at the end of the year, it makes me wonder where you’ve been the previous 11 months.
- Ulterior motives aside, you come off sounding insincere when you send a mass mailing out and don’t bother to personalise the note in any way.
- Limited “special offers” requiring me to purchase something from you are not a gift. They’re a sales promotion for your company. Don’t insult my intelligence.
- If I’ve done business with you, registered my details on your website or subscribed to your newsletter, let me know about your holiday sale. Otherwise, consider yourself a spammer.
Don’t become one of these companies that your clients talk about on other blogs with absolute annoyance. Think about it, if you received a card from your electrical company saying “Merry Christmas, contact us if you want to save $100 on your next bill” you wouldn’t feel like it was a genuine ‘make you feel good’ Christmas card, but a sales tactic, or as some like to call it “chocolate covered dog crap”.