Business Greeting Card Etiquette
Using the proper business greeting card etiquette is important when you start a greeting card marketing program. Sending greeting cards build strong customer relationships and show appreciation to your clients. But not using the proper busines card etiquette can sink your efforts.
Use good quality personalized business greeting cards
It shows that you value your clients. Skimping here can give the impression that your client aren’t worth the extra money or that your business is not doing well or even that you skimp in all areas of your business. Is that lasting impression you want to make? Using proper business greeting card etiquette will help you make a great impression.
Update your client list
Keep your client list current. This way you won’t overlook anyone or embarrass yourself by sending the card to the old address.
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Sign each card personally
Even if you have preprinted information on your card, the most effective cards will have your personal signature and a short handwritten message. It allows you to connect on a personal level with your clients. Sound like a lot of work?
Our state of the art technology can reproduce your handwritten signature and message and no one will be able to tell the difference.
Never, ever use mailing labels
They are impersonal. Your personalized business greeting cards will lose its effectiveness. It will look like a mass mailing. No time to complete the project? Use our greeting card mailing services. You’ll save time and money.
Send your business greeting cards to their home
Mail your greeting card to the home. Be sure to include the spouse’s name. This makes your card more personal. Use your common sense here. You know whether it would be inappropriate to the card to your client’s home. This may rattle a few bones about proper business greeting card etiquette but you’re establishing a personal relationship.
Special Note for Holiday Business Greeting Cards
Be sensitive to the religious and cultural traditions of your clients. Do they observe Christmas, Hanukah or Kwanzaa? Make sure your message is appropriate. A generic message such “Season’s Greetings” and “Happy Holidays” are safe. A well-meaning gesture can offend your client when the proper business greeting card etiquette is not followed.
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Make sure your card gets there on time
If you’re sending a birthday card make sure it arrives before the actual date. Same goes for holidays and anniversaries.
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Always use titles
Titles should always be used. It’s “Mr. John Doe,” not “John Doe,” or “Mr. and Mrs. John Doe, rather than “John and Mary Doe.”
Use titles, rather than professional initials. It’s “Dr. and Mrs. John Smith,” not “John Smith, M.D. and Mrs. Smith.”
If both the husband and the wife are doctors, you write, “The Doctors Smith.” However, if they use different last names, you address the envelope to “Dr. John Smith and Dr. Mary Brown.” The husband’s name is placed first.
If the wife is a doctor and the husband is not, you send your invitation to “Mr. John Smith and Dr. Mary Smith.”
Try to get it all on one line. When the husband has an unusually long name, the wife’s title and name are indented and written on the second line:
The Honorable Jonathon Richardson Staniskowsky and
Mrs. Staniskowsky
When a couple is not married and share a mutual address, their names are written on separate lines alphabetically and not connected by the word “and.”
Ms. Mary Brown
Mr. John Smith
When the woman outranks her husband, her name is written first. It’s “Major Mary Smith and Lieutenant John Smith.”
Note: The man’s name is always written first unless the wife outranks him or if the couple is unmarried and her last name precedes his alphabetically.