Category: Greeting Cards for Business

Welcoming New Employees

You have found the perfect candidate for the opening in your company.  You offered them the job and they accepted it.  Now how do we get that person to stay for the long haul?

The first thing I suggest is giving the new hire a call a couple of days before their start date.  I am sure they have many questions and this will help them feel at ease.  Let them know things like where to park, where they can grab a bite to eat, etc.  You do not get a second chance to make a first impression.

Then have a welcome strategy.  A great idea is to have a bunch of office supplies bundled on their desk with a welcome card.  Next, assign this new employee a mentor or buddy.  This person should meet the newbie in the lobby and start off with a tour of the building and introductions to the staff.  He can show him around, teach him how things work in the office and be there for support and guidance in the future.

Show your new hire that they are welcome and appreciated from before they walk through the front door and continue to make a point of including him in all the activities around the workplace.  How your company handles onboarding will leave a lasting impression.

Retirement Party Ideas For Coworkers

When planning someone’s retirement party, think about what they like when it comes to the theme, speeches, and who to invite. Not all retirement parties need to be galas. Think about local hangouts, parks or even a party in the office depending on what suits the person.

A retirement party can be anything you want it to be:

  • A luncheon during the workday
  • A big gala on a Saturday night
  • A sporting event on a Sunday afternoon
  • After work dinner with the team

There are no particular etiquette rules to guide a retirement party. The party can really be anything that suits the interests and personality of the retiree.

A retirement party is the opportunity to celebrate the retiree’s past accomplishments as well as their future endeavors. The party should therefore reflect these endeavors.

Some retirement party ideas for what to do at the party are as follows: Speeches, Commemorate the Retiree, Create a theme, do invite Family and Friends of the retiree, and create a playlist with fun songs.

The final thing to decide on would be the food. If you know the retiree’s palette then you can order food that they would like followed by CAKE.

Say Cheese! Send Photo Christmas Cards This Holiday Season

We’ve all done it. We open our mailbox and receive the customary Holiday cards from friends and family. They get opened and placed on a table amongst several other cards. Placed and forgotten until the Holiday season is over and it’s time to clean up. They are all then shuffled into a garbage bag, or stored in a box, only to never be seen again. We don’t mean to be so insensitive, but unless these cards stand out, they are destined to fall into the “abyss” of forgotten mail. It’s time to make your holiday cards stand out. What better way to do this than with Business Photo Cards this Holiday season. You are able to capture a moment, and share it with the people closest to you. Pictures can be special sentiments, which is why people are more prone to throw out a card versus a picture. Once the Holiday season is over, the picture portion can be cut out and framed. It is received as a card and gift in one!

Switching gears, businesses can also benefit from Photo Greeting Cards.  We’ve all heard the famous saying that states “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is with reason. Marketing firms have discovered that content with images receive 94% more views than content without relevant images. Don’t just tell your customers, show them. Bring them into your business with a picture that exemplifies your message.  Say “cheese” and send them your customized photo cards.

The Benefits of Custom Greeting Cards

Custom greeting cards are perfect for every business. No matter what line of work you are in, you have at least 100 customers or clients that deserve a custom printed greeting card from you or your business. I have read some marketing facts that show it costs 10 times less to keep a current customer than it does to get a new one.  This is the benefit of custom greeting cards. It also shows your appreciation to your current customers or clients in a very inexpensive way and it preserves your ongoing business relationships.

By the way, custom greeting cards are wonderful for personal use as well. The greeting cards are excellent for birthdays, holidays, or any special life occurrences. Custom greeting cards really touch the hearts of the people you send them out to.  In our world of faceless electronic communication it has become very important that we reach our customers in a memorable way.

Whether I send out a single greeting card or a few, say for a holiday, I almost always receive emails and text messages thanking me for the greeting card I that sent.  When I receive this kind of feedback I become more aware of the impact I created. One positive is that I have made someone smile and be happy, so I feel good too!

Another positive is that my greeting card has physically been opened and read, I wonder about emails we all send, sometimes it is just easier to hit “delete all”.  There is no question in my mind that my card will be placed somewhere in their home or office, for quite a while.   

Are you in the Market for Greeting Cards?

How do you shop for greeting cards?  When I was in the market for our yearly supply of birthday cards, I wasn’t exactly sure where to start.  My predecessor would make trips to the local discount store to purchase greeting cards.  No offense to her as she was doing the best she could, but the cards were always so flimsy and looked cheap.  This was not how I thought our business should be represented.

The first thing I did was hit the internet.  I went to multiple sites and requested catalogs.  This was a great way to start.  Most companies not only sent me a catalog but a sample of their greeting cards and sometimes even their envelopes.  It was really helpful as I was able to compare the quality of greeting cards from each company.

Once I narrowed down my choice to The Gallery Collection, I hopped on their website to see their full line of greeting cards.  It was so difficult to select one from all the beautiful designs.  They were nice enough to send me samples of my 6 favorite.  I then passed them along to my colleagues in the Human Resources Department for a vote.  We have the perfect birthday cards that I am proud to send to our customers and staff.

Keeping Greeting Card Assortment Boxes on Hand

How many times has an occasion popped up unexpectedly and you didn’t have a greeting card on hand? Running to the store isn’t always an option. We are always busy and just don’t have the time to stop everything. It makes perfect sense to keep an assortment of greeting cards on hand for different occasions. The Gallery Collection has many different assortment boxes available.

While there is always the option of buying one card design, sometimes you just don’t want to give out the same card to everyone. An all occasion assortment box will give you an array of cards to choose from. Birthday Cards, Anniversary Cards, Get Well Cards, Sympathy Cards and Congratulation cards can be at your fingertips. Ready to send out at a moment’s notice.

You can purchase beautiful, high quality cards at a fraction of the cost that you would pay at a department or stationary store.

If you mainly send out birthday cards, there is a birthday card assortment only. There are three options to pick from. For other occasions, there are other card assortments available like sympathy assortment boxes, thank you assortment boxes, get well assortment boxes, or anniversary assortment boxes. This is just to name a few. If you like to write your own message, there is a Fine Art collection that are blank inside.

With all the options available, you will be ready to send out your well wishes whenever the occasion pops up!

Facts about greeting cards…

  • Annual retail sales of greeting cards are estimated between $7 and $8 billion. Americans purchase approximately 6.5 billion greeting cards each year.
  • The most popular Seasonal Cards are Christmas Cards, with some 1.6 billion units purchased (included boxed cards). This is followed by cards for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduation, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and St. Patrick’s Day.
  • Seven out of Ten card buyers surveyed consider greeting cards “absolutely” or “almost essential to them. Eight out of Ten of these buyers expect their purchases to remain the same going forward. Of the balance, twice as many card buyers say they will “increase” their purchasing as say they will “decrease” their purchasing in the coming year.
  • Women purchase an estimated 80% of all greeting cards. Women spend more time choosing a card than men, and are more likely to buy several cards at once.
  • Younger card buyers and those who are more technology savvy are currently the ones most engaged in buying paper greeting cards online.
  • Most people now acknowledge many more birthdays than ever before because of Facebook, but they aren’t necessarily sending fewer cards as a result.
  • The tradition of giving greeting cards as a meaningful expression of personal affection for another person is still being deeply ingrained in today’s youth, and this tradition will likely continue as they become adults and become responsible for managing their own important relationships.

Adding Your Brand to Greeting Cards

The main purpose of sending greeting cards is the act of showing a friend, colleague, client, customer, etc. that they matter to you.  Receiving a greeting card is always a welcome event.  A side benefit of sending greeting cards is the opportunity they provide for businesses to promote their brands.  Greeting cards can function as relationship building items and soft marketing materials.  When attempting to use a greeting card in this manner, there are some points of decorum and restraint to keep in mind.  There is the danger of over-promoting your brand in your cards to the point that your recipients could only view your card as a marketing vessel and thus ignore any of your true genuine good wishes.

Here are some general guidelines for your branding to keep your greeting cards off the proverbial wall of shame.

  1. Keep it Simple in Sympathy Cards and Get Well Cards – While it is certainly acceptable to include a company’s or organization’s name or even their logo in a sympathy card or get well card, please be wary of how you do so.  It’s best to keep font sizes and styles on the smaller side for your firm’s name in these greeting cards.  You don’t want to call too much attention to your company.  Also, if you opt to include a logo, it should be kept on the smaller side as well and preferably printed in a neutral color.  If your logo is bright, multi-colored, and cheerful, it would be wise to consider printing it in just a plain black or green ink.
  2. Avoid Redundancy – You may wish to include your company’s name and your logo in your greeting cards, which is great, unless your logo includes your company name in it.  Cards with a printed company name right above a logo that also includes the company name can sometimes look redundant.
  3. Watch for Overexposure – It may be tempting to plaster your brand all over the greeting card putting your logo or name on the front and inside of the greeting cards.  Keep in mind that you don’t want your card to scream marketing material, nor should it.  A good rule of thumb is to look at the card you’ve created before ordering and ask yourself, “If I received this card, would I feel that the sender actually cared about me?”  If the answer is no, tone down some of the branding on the greeting card.

Assortment Boxes: An Office Staple!

If you work in a busy office setting, you absolutely need to purchase The Gallery Collection’s Greeting Card Assortment Boxes. It is imperative to have at least one of these premium quality card assortments on hand!

While it is amazing that The Gallery Collection offers so many opportunities for customization, it is nice that these Greeting Card Assortment Boxes cannot be altered. This cuts out just one more decision you would have to make, and is somewhat unnecessary for inter-office distribution—like birthday cards or anniversary cards. There are plenty of different boxes to choose from, all containing 35 cards and 38 seal-fast envelopes. These greeting cards range in cover design, greeting inside, and printing color. All exact contents can be viewed online.

Each Assortment Box is delivered in its own labeled, sturdy box as to keep your cards looking neat and untouched. This is also particularly helpful in terms of organization. Never dig around the office to scrounge up a good enough card. Never dash to the store and hope for the best. Get yourself an Assortment Box from The Gallery Collection.

Many offices choose to have multiple types of Assortment Boxes on hand, as they are a huge time-saver without sparing at all on the quality. Never let a birthday sneak up on you or a job well done go unthanked again. Earn the respect of coworkers with the timelessly thoughtful gesture of a prompt greeting card.

Sending Business Greeting Cards to Build Customer Relationships

Communication and exposure are the crux of growing your business and reaching more customers. If you are reliable, excel at your products or services, and are responsive to customers (both in requests and remedying complaints) then you will attract lifelong customers. Sending greeting cards can strengthen your customer relationships. It is an underutilized marketing tool in today’s instant-gratification world. If you are unsure if sending greeting cards is right for your company, keep reading for a little insight on common concerns.

Sending greeting cards is annoying . . . serendipitous!

It’s not another time-consuming sales pitch, spam, or junk mail. Business Greeting Cards, no matter the occasion, are a sweet, timeless gesture that recipients of all ages will enjoy. Your card will make them feel special and cared about, especially if it is a high quality card.

Sending greeting cards is not economical . . . cost effective!

The bottom line of great customer service is to follow through with your promises in order to meet customer expectations. Customer satisfaction can be improved just by making your company present, but not pestering, which is exactly what a greeting card accomplishes. Being there for your customers through thick and thin is a thoughtful endeavor that will be remembered. The cost of the cards in comparison to their quality and effectiveness is unmatched when you choose The Gallery Collection. See for yourself!

Sending greeting cards is a lot of hassle . . . fast and easy!

Your eye for details will be noted without an exhausting amount of effort. Business Greeting Cards from The Gallery Collection can be customized as much or as little as you please, all consistent with your high standards. Order your cards easily online or over the phone, quickly receive them, and send them out. There are even services The Gallery Collection offers to help you get your cards out faster— like sealing, recipient addressing, and mailing your selection out for you. Find out more by visiting Gallery Collection!