Does anyone send cards to their customers for Christmas? I been thinking about doing it, my customer base has really grown this year and thought it would be a good marketing strategy. For those who do send cards, do you make them or order premade cards? Baileys has Christmas cards but they seem more designed for logging instead of arborculture.
Christmas Cards
- Thread starter NCTREE
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flushcut
Addicted to ArboristSite
I do my customers really like it. Most of them take it to heart that you are thinking of them and their trees well being. It's kind of like extended family. A word of caution use generic Happy Holiday cards, you know all that PC bull excrement. It has worked well for us and they spread your name around, referrals are king these days and cheap. 
We look for the landscape cards at walgreens you know the impressionistic Monet type.
We look for the landscape cards at walgreens you know the impressionistic Monet type.
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WolverineMarine
ArboristSite Operative
I have done it the last couple of years and while I dont know of any DIRECT referals from it..I'm sure it has generated at least a job or 2..which is more than worth the price of the cards and postage..I always put a couple of business cards in each one as well..
I do. I have ordered from Cards Direct and have always been happy. They have a large selection and good prices and very nice quality.
deevo
Addicted to ArboristSite
I was thinking the exact same thing this year! Glad to see everyone seems to be doing well and getting a lot of work!
capecodtree
ArboristSite Operative
We always send out Christmas cards to all our clients. its short money and a good way to stay in front of your clients. We have our cards made for us from a picture i took. we photo shopped(added Christmas lights) to a large spruce being lifted over a house top with a crane. I will have one of my children down load (it's above my pay rate).
treeman75
Addicted to ArboristSite
I mailed some out last year. I ordered 300 last year and it was like 120. for cards and envelopes. I used a local print shop they had a lot of different ones to choose from. Keep it simple mine says happy holidays with snowy outdoor scene. When you open it the right side says we appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the future, then i sign them. The left side has my logo printed the size of my business card. The cards are 4by 5 I think.
WolverineMarine
ArboristSite Operative
ewoolsey
ArboristSite Operative
I have the print shop I use for my personal formaids make them up.....only bad thing is I had to buy 250, 500, 1000 just like biz cards.
I bought the 250 & have many left over, I dont send to all customers that would financially kill me, I got creative with the postcard pic...Ill see if I can post it???? not too good at that stuff.
the coupon is two coupons actually, one for services up to $500 & the other for services over $500, the coupons are a dollar savings based on the job & I am fair with it too....I tell them on the coupon to present coupon after they receive the bid, when I explain why.....they`re very pleased with the honesty.
cost for 250 post cards was like $92.00 n some change......the stamps will kill ya!!!!
LXT...........
I bought the 250 & have many left over, I dont send to all customers that would financially kill me, I got creative with the postcard pic...Ill see if I can post it???? not too good at that stuff.
the coupon is two coupons actually, one for services up to $500 & the other for services over $500, the coupons are a dollar savings based on the job & I am fair with it too....I tell them on the coupon to present coupon after they receive the bid, when I explain why.....they`re very pleased with the honesty.
cost for 250 post cards was like $92.00 n some change......the stamps will kill ya!!!!
LXT...........
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Something that is uniquely fitted to Arborists who are sending cards to their clientele, is to send a card made of wood.
You design your own card, what you want to say, whatever picture you want on it. The card may be all wood, or have a wood outside and be laminated to paper on the inside, much easier to write on.
Gang, I've mailed extensively, early in my arbo career, for about the first 7 years. I base much of the success I enjoy now to the mailings I did as an early practitioner, getting the machine rolling. My one and only piece of advice, sign each and every one of them, by hand. This is not a robo-card. This is from you, and you sent it deliberately and with intent to let them know, well, whatever it is you want them to know.
Cards of Wood.com will do your layout, for a fee, and run the cards on the specie of your choice. Here's a link to Cards of Wood.
They're in SW Michigan.
__________________
You message can be powerful. The wooden card gives a truly visual impact.
You are not sending to your friends. You are sending to clientele. You are connecting. They will feel the love immediately, simply because you took the time to send them a special card, and you signed your name in purple ink. But what do you write after "Happy Hoiidays"?
After happy holidays, this should be a golden opportunity for marketing and promotion. They can expect, not a sell job, but updating them with current information. This information should carry emotional lift FOR THE READER. To inform them is one thing. To move them to action is quite another, and you will do this with your words (or mine, you can copy my stuff
).
You only have the space of a postcard to work with. You must be minimal in words.
To punctuate these examples, I will write the good sentence and then /, & the same sentence of lesser 'lift' value.
I love climbing in the Winter! / We'll work in this weather. Call me.
Dormancy is often the best time of pruning, for the trees themselves. / we're working december thru march
I am honored to be the caretaker of your trees. / I look forward to hopefully seeing you
Customers are enjoying saving money with my discounted Winter rates. / 10% off between now and spring.
Your referrals to your friends and family is the life blood of my business. I can't fully express how much this means to me. / Tell people about me!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. / Thank you.
How will THEY experience you. You're doing this for THEM. They should smile, want to share this with their spouse, and you are going on the fireplace mantel. Guests will see your unique and outstanding wooden card, pick it up out of all the others and read your words. The words are written to them. Short, sweet, with lift. It should take less than 10 seconds to read.
They will go "WOW, what a cool card. Can I get this guy's business card?" and the reply should be, "Take the one he taped inside the card. I already have one."
I'm so serious on this one. Where else are you going to put a 10 second message out there that can move your clients to action and make them want to tell other people about you? When you figure the total, eventual cost per card, per sending, the cost may seem high, but only as compared to a 'conventional' Christmas card, warm wishes, your treeguy, yada yada, a card that is not made of beautiful wood and is not intended as a formal presentation of yourself and your Wintertime status. Don't compare an apple to a Rhinocerous. Cost this through your business as a marketing and advertising expense, take it serious and don't frickin split hairs. Marketing and advertising is expensive. This card strategy, by contrast, is not. It's extremely economical with regards to the response it will generate. Results are what count.
From the standpoint of your overall yearly marketing campaign, to get this message out, would you pay a dollar? Seriously, to get a job, would you spend a dollar? That is a pretty darn good deal any way you cut it. Mail out 200, get an immediate small job you maybe would not have gotten otherwise for $200, man, you still got 199 more cards out there. This is how it works. There are just few deals out there that create a better success ratio.
I have done similar things, this is why I KNOW how effective it can be. I have benefitted and gotten the feedback and responses and the return on investment (slam dunk on that one.) I share this strategy in great detail with you all because you are my tree brothers and I want you to have a strong Winter. Treeguys cooped-up inside for too long is never a good thing.
Admittedly, this is shameless self-promotion, though done tastefully and professionally. You ARE a professional. Professionals do what it takes to cultivate their clientele. This is what you are doing, this is what you do. It is what is expected of you, and this time it just comes in the form of a wooden Holiday Greeting card.
You design your own card, what you want to say, whatever picture you want on it. The card may be all wood, or have a wood outside and be laminated to paper on the inside, much easier to write on.
Gang, I've mailed extensively, early in my arbo career, for about the first 7 years. I base much of the success I enjoy now to the mailings I did as an early practitioner, getting the machine rolling. My one and only piece of advice, sign each and every one of them, by hand. This is not a robo-card. This is from you, and you sent it deliberately and with intent to let them know, well, whatever it is you want them to know.
Cards of Wood.com will do your layout, for a fee, and run the cards on the specie of your choice. Here's a link to Cards of Wood.
They're in SW Michigan.
__________________
You message can be powerful. The wooden card gives a truly visual impact.
You are not sending to your friends. You are sending to clientele. You are connecting. They will feel the love immediately, simply because you took the time to send them a special card, and you signed your name in purple ink. But what do you write after "Happy Hoiidays"?
After happy holidays, this should be a golden opportunity for marketing and promotion. They can expect, not a sell job, but updating them with current information. This information should carry emotional lift FOR THE READER. To inform them is one thing. To move them to action is quite another, and you will do this with your words (or mine, you can copy my stuff
). You only have the space of a postcard to work with. You must be minimal in words.
To punctuate these examples, I will write the good sentence and then /, & the same sentence of lesser 'lift' value.
I love climbing in the Winter! / We'll work in this weather. Call me.
Dormancy is often the best time of pruning, for the trees themselves. / we're working december thru march
I am honored to be the caretaker of your trees. / I look forward to hopefully seeing you
Customers are enjoying saving money with my discounted Winter rates. / 10% off between now and spring.
Your referrals to your friends and family is the life blood of my business. I can't fully express how much this means to me. / Tell people about me!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. / Thank you.
How will THEY experience you. You're doing this for THEM. They should smile, want to share this with their spouse, and you are going on the fireplace mantel. Guests will see your unique and outstanding wooden card, pick it up out of all the others and read your words. The words are written to them. Short, sweet, with lift. It should take less than 10 seconds to read.
They will go "WOW, what a cool card. Can I get this guy's business card?" and the reply should be, "Take the one he taped inside the card. I already have one."
I'm so serious on this one. Where else are you going to put a 10 second message out there that can move your clients to action and make them want to tell other people about you? When you figure the total, eventual cost per card, per sending, the cost may seem high, but only as compared to a 'conventional' Christmas card, warm wishes, your treeguy, yada yada, a card that is not made of beautiful wood and is not intended as a formal presentation of yourself and your Wintertime status. Don't compare an apple to a Rhinocerous. Cost this through your business as a marketing and advertising expense, take it serious and don't frickin split hairs. Marketing and advertising is expensive. This card strategy, by contrast, is not. It's extremely economical with regards to the response it will generate. Results are what count.
From the standpoint of your overall yearly marketing campaign, to get this message out, would you pay a dollar? Seriously, to get a job, would you spend a dollar? That is a pretty darn good deal any way you cut it. Mail out 200, get an immediate small job you maybe would not have gotten otherwise for $200, man, you still got 199 more cards out there. This is how it works. There are just few deals out there that create a better success ratio.
I have done similar things, this is why I KNOW how effective it can be. I have benefitted and gotten the feedback and responses and the return on investment (slam dunk on that one.) I share this strategy in great detail with you all because you are my tree brothers and I want you to have a strong Winter. Treeguys cooped-up inside for too long is never a good thing.
Admittedly, this is shameless self-promotion, though done tastefully and professionally. You ARE a professional. Professionals do what it takes to cultivate their clientele. This is what you are doing, this is what you do. It is what is expected of you, and this time it just comes in the form of a wooden Holiday Greeting card.
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PinnaclePete
Addicted to ArboristSite
Design personalized cards on your computer with a personal message. You can use clip art or photos you've taken, add discount offers, etc. Just don't make it seem too commercial - they'll remember and appreciate you without the hard sell. Also get them out early so they don't get lost in the holiday shuffle. We've already sent ours out for Thanksgiving and Christmas combined, always good to be first on the mantle.
BTW, it's Christmas, not Xmas. Don't forget what the season is celebrating.
BTW, it's Christmas, not Xmas. Don't forget what the season is celebrating.
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
I agree, that is what I and most of my clients celebrate, Christmas, never X-mas.
But for those celebrating Kwanzaa or Chanakuh, it may be prudent to go 'holiday greeting'. That depends on your client base.
Good strategy going Thanksgiving / Christmas early. Fabulous idea.
But for those celebrating Kwanzaa or Chanakuh, it may be prudent to go 'holiday greeting'. That depends on your client base.
Good strategy going Thanksgiving / Christmas early. Fabulous idea.
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
I just ordered a couple of hundred cards with a Christmas scene like a Norman Rockwell painting. You have to wonder if you are going to offend a Jewish person with a Christmas (message) card. I concentrate mainly on new and established clients. Sporadic customers....maybe not worth the effort (or disloyal).
sgreanbeans
Treeaculterologist
I thought it celebrating the ####,PS3,I-POD and so on
NOT what it used to be, I remember being excited to see all my cousins, gifts where cool don't get me wrong, but it was time to hang with the family that I never saw.
Now, its a race to get to 4-5 homes in one night, worried if we spent the same amount so no one gets jealous blah,blah,blah
Just aint the same
Tree Machine
Addicted to ArboristSite
Beans, I couldn't agree with you more.
I hope it doesn't appear that I'm bastardizing a Christmas card into a commercial marketing product, even though, gulp, I am. Gosh, is this shameful or savvy?
If anyone feels I've denegrated the spirit of Christmas with this one, and I am sort feeling that that it could be perceived that way, I will admit to the wrongness in that.
However, the content is sound. It's the timing of being attached to Christmas that would require my apology. I can see where that would go either way, though, to be clear, there is no hard sell. It is a reaching out, and a sharing of the arborist's Winter state. I'm not defending myself, just saying there's a difference to me in casting a greeting and some information, as opposed to soliciting or following up on an estimate.
But I get it. Marketing, mixed in with a Christmas card is really stepping up to that line. I can see that.
I don't send out Christmas cards. Usually, though my malings go out sometime after Christmas. I'm on vacation, have some chill time, I'll pour over the existing database, add pretty much all of this years new clientele to it and have that pool, around 6,000 people. Clearly, a mailing of this size is logistically and economically not viable. Nor necessary.
My mailings go to the folks currently in the 'GO' file, and everyone in the 'maybe' file. I do this every other year. By then the 'Maybe' file has swollen to ~100. These are the 'rocks' I'm kicking over, reconnecting to create activity, or to clear that file for this year's fresh start.
This stuff has nothing to do with Christmas, I do apologise, I've sorta derailed the thread. This belongs in a 'marketing' thread.
I hope it doesn't appear that I'm bastardizing a Christmas card into a commercial marketing product, even though, gulp, I am. Gosh, is this shameful or savvy?
If anyone feels I've denegrated the spirit of Christmas with this one, and I am sort feeling that that it could be perceived that way, I will admit to the wrongness in that.
However, the content is sound. It's the timing of being attached to Christmas that would require my apology. I can see where that would go either way, though, to be clear, there is no hard sell. It is a reaching out, and a sharing of the arborist's Winter state. I'm not defending myself, just saying there's a difference to me in casting a greeting and some information, as opposed to soliciting or following up on an estimate.
But I get it. Marketing, mixed in with a Christmas card is really stepping up to that line. I can see that.
I don't send out Christmas cards. Usually, though my malings go out sometime after Christmas. I'm on vacation, have some chill time, I'll pour over the existing database, add pretty much all of this years new clientele to it and have that pool, around 6,000 people. Clearly, a mailing of this size is logistically and economically not viable. Nor necessary.
My mailings go to the folks currently in the 'GO' file, and everyone in the 'maybe' file. I do this every other year. By then the 'Maybe' file has swollen to ~100. These are the 'rocks' I'm kicking over, reconnecting to create activity, or to clear that file for this year's fresh start.
This stuff has nothing to do with Christmas, I do apologise, I've sorta derailed the thread. This belongs in a 'marketing' thread.
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