I hate getting e-cards for Christmas.  I promptly delete them.  If someone can’t take the time to send me a personalized card than don’t bother.   I recently sent out approx. 85 Christmas cards that I had printed with my company name.  I signed everyone of them.  Sure they weren’t cheap; however, I feel it is important to convey to my customers that they are important to me.   I also sent cards out to a few of my vendors as well.  I love  getting Christmas cards and I proudly display them on my office walls and bulletin board.  Unfortunately, I don’t get as many cards as I had in the past years.

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 I would love to hear from other business folks about their thoughts on this issue.  

Lately I’ve been getting customer supplied print files with nothing but headaches.   A few expect me to fix their problem or wave a magic wand over the file to make it press-ready for printing.   sorry, but that’s not my responsibility.   My competitive pricing is based on the receipt of acceptable press-ready electronic files.   That has always been the way I conduct business.   If a file needs fixing I will have to send it out to a graphic designer or have my factory fix the problem (minor) at an additional cost.   It is not my responsibility to fix submitted files to get them to work.   I’ve run up to a gammut of problems including low resolution graphics, Publisher files which are a pain, or in one case, clip art that was “borrowed” off the internet.  

It would be better if customers would invest in using a qualified graphic artist to preflight their files and pay them to fix the problem.   I equate this problem to buying parts from a auto parts store and then taking the parts to their local mechanic and tell him to fix the car.   sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way.

Now that I’ve vented give me your feedback please.

A lot of folks are now using e-newsletters to save on printing costs and higher postal rates.   This is all well and good; however, I can’t stand reading a lot of text on-line.  My opinion is that if you are going to send out more than 2 pages of text than you ought to use the mail.   I don’t like reading mulitple pages on the computer screen as it is harder on my eyes.   Also, I don’t like to have to print out multiple pages on my printer as it sucks up a lot of ink.    The laser and inkjet printer manufacturers must love it when you have to print multiple pages because they make a ton of money on the supplies.

My thought is to use e-newsletters only for the shortened version of your monthly or quarterly newsletters but send a hard copy through the mail when you have more than a couple of pages.    I generally don’t read long newsletters on-line and wait for the hard copy to be sent to me.   I would rather read newsletters at home at night while watching some TV program or just listening to music. 

I would like to solicit other bloggers to see what their thoughts are on this.

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Here are 5 good reasons to mail postcards for prospecting and generating sales:

1. They’re simple–A postcard will get someone’s attention while going through the mail because there is nothing to open.

2. They’re timely–They can get the word out faster than a classic mail package because they can be printed faster and there is less mail prep to be done.

3. They’re printed on both sides–this gives you selling space on 2-sides and there is NO waste of space.    You just need to allow a clear area of 4″ x 2″ for a bar coded name & address.

4. They’re attractive–Using 4-color process printing your message gets attention and they are printed on a heavier stock so they can take a beating going through the mail process.  Also, I recommend that you use varnish or UV coating to protect the ink and prevent scuffing.

5.  They’re measureable–A postcard can incorporate a coupon, a gift certificate, or even a tickte to a special event.  By using these features you can easily track the success of mailing your postcard.   You can do this with most other media.

Direct Mail Rules!