Christmas card mailings

Unless you’re in the retail or mail order game, Christmas probably isn’t the most productive month of the year for you. It’s a time of year when people you want to do business with to seem to be out of the office more than usual. And even when you can pin them down between office party hangovers and days off for Christmas shopping, it’s not easy to get a firm decision on anything substantive. ‘Let’s meet in January and we can talk about it then’ is about the best you can hope for.

But need this extended holiday mode make December a total write off? Not necessarily, according to research from the Royal Mail. It believes that a key seasonal opportunity lies in the simple sending of a Christmas card.

The Royal Mail says that such is the value of the Christmas card mail-out as a strategic marketing tool, companies can realize tangible financial returns as well as build stronger relationships with key customers and stakeholders.

If you think this sounds a bit far fetched and that sending your best customer a picture of a robin sitting on a bit of holly is a sentimental waste of time, then you are not alone. In fact, says the Royal Mail, only one third (39%) of UK businesses actually send Christmas cards. But their research goes on to show that over half (51%) of businesses that do send Christmas cards believe that this can lead to an increase in their bottom line, with an estimated average 24% rise in profit. That makes the idea sound less like a piece of homespun whimsy doesn’t it?

The research goes on to reveal that:

• 80% of companies reported feeling valued when receiving Christmas cards
• 83% of businesses that sent cards believe it keeps them front of mind
• 90% of businesses feel the Christmas mail-out helps to build and maintain a relationship with their key audiences
• 97% of businesses believe sending a card adds a personal touch to a business relationship
• 37% of businesses that receive cards believe a Christmas card is the least a business can do

There are of course a few watchwords. The Royal Mail advises traditional, non-religious themes. And it says a handwritten message inside is an appropriate finishing touch. Best of all, it says, don’t leave it to the receptionist, but appoint someone with marketing and organizational experience to manage the mailing to best effect and according to a proper plan.

But as some other rather alarming research from the Royal Mail reveals, there’s no plan in the world that’s going to put the skids on your message of goodwill quite so fast as sending to the wrong person, or perhaps worse the right person with name spelt wrong.

This kind of howler is not as rare as you might hope. The Royal Mail says that small to medium sized organizations in particular in the UK lose more than £3bn a year as a result of poor business communication. A staggering 172 million items of mail were sent to businesses that had moved or ceased to trade, alone costing in excess of £163 million.

Inaccuracy is apparently epidemic, and harmfully so. Some 31% of consumers have ended a relationship with a business due to inappropriate communication errors - namely spelling and grammatical mistakes. A total of 52% of businesses surveyed had terminated a contract because of inappropriate communication. And it’s really no wonder with around 69% of all direct mailings having one or more errors of one kind or another.

So, this Christmas, if you’re going to do the right thing, make sure you do it right.