Imagine getting the customer or client of your dreams and having the best time working with them. But after the project or sale is over, you struggle to get them to return to your business.
Fortunately, you can use greeting cards to encourage repeat business and increase customer loyalty. Read on to learn some tips to use a greeting card to help grow your business.
1. Make It Custom
One of the ways you can use greeting cards to increase loyalty is that you can make the cards custom. Instead of sending a generic card that you find at the store, you can make sure each card is unique.
That can help you connect with your customers and encourage them to support you in the future. A custom printing service can print a variety of designs and types of cards based on your needs.
Then, you’ll be able to send the right type of card to individual customers. You won’t have to worry about a card not quite working well for a message you want to send to someone.
2. Brand Your Greeting Cards
Another way custom greeting cards can help you is that you can include your branding. That means you can design the card using your brand fonts and colors.
Of course, you can also include your logo, and you could create a signature to automatically print on each card. The unique design will make it easier for people to associate the card with your business.
However, if you buy and send store-bought cards, there’s no guarantee if the cards will match your branding. People might not read the card before they assume it’s junk mail.
If you include your branding clearly on the card and your envelope, your greeting card may get more attention.
3. Reach More People
As surprising as it sounds, about one out of every five Americans doesn’t use email. If you rely on email marketing to connect with your customers, greeting cards can help you bridge that gap.
Then, you can communicate with more customers to announce events, sales, or new products. Even if someone doesn’t check their email, they probably check their mail, so they can hear from you more easily.
However, even people who do use email might miss your email messages. People receive more emails now than ever, and it can be overwhelming to check and read everything in your inbox.
By sending a greeting card, you give yourself one more way to reach people and maintain customer loyalty.
4. Add a Personal Note
When you send a greeting card, you can handwrite a note inside the card. That can help you further personalize the card, and you can write a message specifically for the recipient.
Email marketing is great, but it can be very impersonal and generic. However, you could write a message about the product a particular customer just purchased.
The customer can see that you care about them and their relationship with your business. If you have the time to handwrite notes, do so, because it could make a huge difference for your business and your customers.
5. Welcome New Customers
Another excellent way to use custom greeting cards is to welcome new customers. You can send a card with the person’s first order if you sell products.
Service-based businesses can send a card after completing a project for a client. Of course, you can send a thank you email, and many brands will do this.
However, a greeting card can be more personal, and it won’t get lost in someone’s inbox. If you have some sort of loyalty program, you can send a card when people join and once a year when they reach their anniversary in the program.
6. Include a Card With Orders
If you sell physical products, consider designing greeting cards that you can include with each order. You can add the card on top of the other items in the box so that the customer sees it.
Of course, you can use your branding to design the card. If it’s the first thing the customer sees, they’ll be more likely to open the card and see your note.
The nice thing about adding the card to orders is that you don’t have to pay for separate postage. Cards can also make the order stand out, and people may want to order again to get another nice greeting card.
7. Show Customers Your Appreciation
Maybe you sell services or digital products and so don’t send orders. You can still send greeting cards to your customers and clients to thank them for hiring you or buying from you.
If you offer a service, consider sharing your favorite part of working with the client. Be as personal as you can and avoid copying the same note over and over.
On the other hand, if you sell digital products, you can also share a unique message. Maybe you share a tip for how they can make the most of your digital product.
8. Celebrate Customer Birthdays
If you collect customer birthdays, you can send greeting cards to people when their birthday comes around. As with other greeting cards, you can include a personal message.
For younger customers, you might congratulate them on the age they’re turning. Of course, older customers might not want you to mention their age.
If you don’t know someone’s age, you can still send a sweet greeting card for their birthday. Many people won’t expect to get a card from their favorite shop or service provider, so you can surprise people and encourage loyalty.
9. Send Appointment Reminders
Another excellent reason to send a custom greeting card is to remind someone of an upcoming appointment. This is an excellent option if you have a medical practice.
You could send a card when someone is due to schedule their next appointment with you. It’s also a suitable option for hair salons and other businesses that people visit regularly.
Include when the customer is due to visit you and a few ways to contact you to schedule the appointment. Make it as easy as possible so that you can encourage them to visit you rather than your competition.
If someone has already scheduled their appointment, you can include the date and time. Share any reminders regarding when they should arrive as well.
10. Announce a Holiday Sale
You can also use a card to announce events, like holiday sales. Around the holidays, you can send a card to all of your customers and clients and share the details of your upcoming promotion.
Include when the sale will start and end, what products or services qualify, and how someone can take advantage of the sale. If your sale will include multiple things, maybe you stuff a brochure inside the card with more information.
Of course, you can brand the card so that people know it’s from your business as soon as they open it. For online sales, include a QR code or a link where people can easily access the sale page.
Be sure you send out these greeting cards with plenty of time for them to arrive. That way, customers will be able to shop the sale before it ends.
11. Provide a Coupon Code
One of the best ways to encourage customer loyalty is to give shoppers a coupon code. After someone first shops at your store or orders something online, send them a greeting card with a coupon or discount code.
Then, they can use the code the next time they want to buy something from you. Consider experimenting with a few different coupon code percentages to see what works.
The discount should be big enough to make people want to place an order. However, you don’t want it to be too big to the point where it starts to cut into your profits.
You can implement A/B testing with a few customers to see which code or coupon gets more activity. Then, you’ll know which one to use going forward.
12. Send Gift Cards
Another option is to send gift cards to customers rather than coupon codes. You can send a gift card to your own business to encourage people to visit you again.
Or maybe you decide to partner with another business that’s an indirect competitor. You could send gift cards to that business to your customers, while the other business does the same for you.
A greeting card is also a useful tool for sending a gift card to a raffle winner. Maybe you host a loyalty event and get people to enter a drawing for a gift card to your store.
You choose the winner at the end of the night, but if they left before the drawing, you can send the card in the mail.
13. Share Small Gifts
Another excellent way you can increase loyalty or announce events is to do so with small gifts. For example, maybe you design a bunch of branded notepads.
The notepads could include the date of your upcoming event. People love to receive small gifts, and notepads are great because they’re so versatile.
They’re also relatively thin, so they can fit in the envelope with most standard greeting cards. You can write a note in the card about the gift you include and announce any events you have in the near future.
14. Share Event Details
Even if you don’t include a gift, you can still send greeting cards to announce events that you’re hosting or participating in. You can include the date, time, and location of the event in the card.
Of course, you may already use social media and email marketing to announce the event. However, cards are especially useful for reaching people for local events.
You can make sure to send the cards only to people who live in a certain city or metro area. That way, you won’t waste your time advertising the event to people who won’t be able to attend.
Cards can also be easier for people to reference when the event day arrives. They won’t have to search through their email to find the address and look up directions.
15. Include a Zoom Link
In the past few years, virtual events have gained a lot of popularity, and Zoom is an excellent platform for that. If you want to host an event that people can attend from anywhere, you can still send greeting cards.
However, instead of including a location, you can include a Zoom link or QR code. If the event will have a password, you can also share those details.
This can be a more secure way to inform people of an online event. When you share the link online, anyone can see it, so anyone could hack into the Zoom room.
But when you mail the link or code, it will be much harder for people to get in. Plus, you can send as many cards as you have spaces in your Zoom room based on your plan so that you don’t have to upgrade or kick people out.
16. Use Greeting Cards as Tickets
Another way greeting cards can help you is for in-person events. Not only can you include the details of the event, but you can share that the card will act as an event ticket.
This can be especially useful for events in smaller venues since you can’t fit as many people. Like sending a Zoom link by mail, you can send only as many cards as the number of people that can fit in the venue.
Since you’ll require people to show the card as their ticket, you can avoid overflow. Then, you can make sure people have a fun time at the event, and you can use the night to build loyalty even more.
How Will You Use Greeting Cards?
You can use greeting cards for a lot of things, and many of those strategies can help build customer loyalty. They’re also an excellent tool to announce events or sales.
Be sure to start with custom cards that use your business branding. That way, your cards will stand out more, and people will be more likely to engage with your business after receiving the card.
Are you ready to start sending custom greeting cards to your customers? Learn more about our greeting card printing services.
