As a kind gesture to friends, networking partners, and clients, holiday cards are a nice way for a company to say they are thinking about the people who make their business possible. And organizing your database ahead of time can make the holiday card send out a much easier task.
What are the best ways to prep your database? A few months before you want to send out your greeting cards, assess who you would like to include in your mailing—are you sending cards to networking contacts and gift baskets to clients? Think about who you would like included in your mailing, and mark them in your database.
How should you mark them? This is up to you. We recommend creating a group in ACT! called “Holiday cards 2011” (or similar) to make things easy. Once you have your list of persons receiving cards complete, it is a good idea to verify that you have their correct mailing info.
Updating records is a smart move everyone should do periodically. An easy way to accomplish this is to send out a mail merged email template asking clients if the address listed is their current mailing address, and asking them to reply with up to date information only if it is not current (Swiftpage users should note that we offer a premade template in a bundle that does just that. Click here for details).
Verifying addresses before your holiday mailing means you save money on cards that may otherwise have been returned to sender. Once you have a list made up, you may choose to send a mailed greeting card or maybe a Swiftpage email template. If you choose the former, you can set up your labels for printing in advance. If you choose the latter, you won’t have much more work to do—Swiftpage makes it easy to send out email blasts to large groups of people with only a few clicks.
Prepping your database in advance of the holidays can save you time and money—making it an administrative priority can help.
Do you have any tips for seamless holiday mailings? Share with us in the comments.
What are the best ways to prep your database? A few months before you want to send out your greeting cards, assess who you would like to include in your mailing—are you sending cards to networking contacts and gift baskets to clients? Think about who you would like included in your mailing, and mark them in your database.
How should you mark them? This is up to you. We recommend creating a group in ACT! called “Holiday cards 2011” (or similar) to make things easy. Once you have your list of persons receiving cards complete, it is a good idea to verify that you have their correct mailing info.
Updating records is a smart move everyone should do periodically. An easy way to accomplish this is to send out a mail merged email template asking clients if the address listed is their current mailing address, and asking them to reply with up to date information only if it is not current (Swiftpage users should note that we offer a premade template in a bundle that does just that. Click here for details).
Verifying addresses before your holiday mailing means you save money on cards that may otherwise have been returned to sender. Once you have a list made up, you may choose to send a mailed greeting card or maybe a Swiftpage email template. If you choose the former, you can set up your labels for printing in advance. If you choose the latter, you won’t have much more work to do—Swiftpage makes it easy to send out email blasts to large groups of people with only a few clicks.
Prepping your database in advance of the holidays can save you time and money—making it an administrative priority can help.
Do you have any tips for seamless holiday mailings? Share with us in the comments.
