Creating your business holiday message

Before you select your company's holiday greeting cards, and certainly before you begin to pen a message inside, take some time to think about what your business holiday message should be. What do you want to convey, besides Happy Holidays, to those who will read your card? Here are some things to think about:

What is the core value of your company? Is it service? Reliable tradition? Something to make life more fun? Offering cutting-edge technology and gadgets?

Who are your customers? Can you identify a key demographic? Are they older, well-educated professionals? Young, liberal people just starting out in their lives or professions? Families? Sports and/or outdoors enthusiasts? Corporate employees?

Just brainstorm the answers to those two keep questions. Ask others in your organization for their first thoughts. Use the information to create a picture of who you are and who your customers are, painting both with broad strokes rather than specifics like age or annual income.

Now use this information to select a card that will convey a holiday message that reflects your company and your customers.

Start with the picture on the front of the card. For example, if your company stands for environmentally friendly or nature oriented values, an image if pristine snow in a wooded setting would be a better choice than one of a city street crowded with shoppers and decorations. Companies who want to convey a message of friendly, non-traditional service to a younger or more active audience might want to select an image with playful penguins or polar bears instead of a Thomas Kincaid-like scene of a cottage in the countryside.

There is important psychology in action here. By matching the image on the card to the image you see for your customers and your company, you are saying "Hey this is who and what we are, and we connect with who and what you are." Without shouting it, the message will get across.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about what the holiday message inside says about your company. Believe it or not, even the font counts!