Business Christmas ecards are an inexpensive or even free (in some cases) way that you can communicate with your customers. Some companies will use fulfilment website services where you can create your Christmas ecard, specify and manage the recipients and send them all in one place. This has the advantage of being managed centrally and often these services can deliver cards to multiple platforms such as pc, smart phone or tablet.
Other companies will use in-house expertise to create a visual email to send out. This can have limitations on who is able to view the email. For example, it MAY be that the email cannot be viewed by someone who is using a smartphone to access their email. The benefit of course is that it is a very low-cost solution and highly personalized as emails can be sent from a direct email address to direct addresses. For example, a specific account manager can send to their contacts.
Cost and available expertise are usually to two main deciding factors between these two options. However, increasingly companies are feeling that the versatility and time saving benefits of using a third party service are a worthwhile investment and are going down this route. In addition, many companies are getting increasingly ambitious in their business ecard offerings looking to include multimedia such as video or animation into them. Of course, this can be done in-house if you have the expertise but many companies do not.
If you do wish to include multimedia in your in-house Christmas ecard email and you cannot afford to use a third party service there are a number of options available to you. For example, fiverr.com is a website which offers services for $5 US and these services include limited design services, writing services and essential a number of multimedia / video solutions. Specifically you can get some animation done for just $5!
Alternative solutions may be using a company such as elance or freelancer where you can request certain services for a set budget and people bid to complete the work for you.
As an interesting recent development is that there are websites that will enable you to send both printed and ecards whilst contributing to the charity of your choice. Individual charities such as UNICEF & Marie Curie offer such services direct from their own websites as well.
Sending business Christmas ecards need not be expensive and can benefit your company, your customers and even charities. It has to be worthwhile for your business to consider sending them out this coming year.
