A Procrastinator’s Guide to Holiday Mailings December 2012 ! t i t on Ge r r you d o f n to en ciatio ppre eat way It’s a a g in r. gr Show ers is a rt anothe ll as e m ta as w custo ar and s e v o m ye one business o do. t r ng t sma e thi c i n just a Make Your List & Check It Twice A successful holiday mailing starts with a good, up-to-date mailing list. It’s never too late to pull one together. You may have your contacts spread out everywhere, from spreadsheets to your email address book to your invoice software. The first thing you need to do is pull together a list of contacts from all of those different places that you would like to send your holiday mailing to. Social C RM Who Gets It? Quick places to find folks who should get a holiday message or gift from you: ⁕⁕ Your best customers and vendors from your invoicing software ⁕⁕ Your email newsletter “frequent readers” list Many small businesses use a CRM software, such as Batchbook. You may also have a good list of your customers in your accounting software, or maybe you keep your contacts nicely organized in spreadsheets. ⁕⁕ Fans of your Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest pages Whatever the case, you’ll need to go through your list of customers to decide who is going to receive what holiday cheer from you this season. ⁕⁕ Your employees’ favorite customers and friends of the business ⁕⁕ Twitter followers and “stars” ⁕⁕ Your blog’s frequent commenters ⁕⁕ Anyone who has been extra nice to your support team © Batchbook Social CRM - www.batchbook.com 1 Batchbook Social CRM • A Procrastinator’s Guide to Holiday Mailings Clean Up Your List It is easy to add all your contacts into a central customer database and quickly remove any duplicates. Time is Ticking Once you gather all of the people you want to reach out to this holiday season, you will likely need to do a little clean up before you have a list ready for mailing. You want to avoid sending anything to the same contact twice. To make sure you don’t, you can merge your various lists together into one central database. There are so many different ways to reach out to your customers and extended network with a gift or holiday greeting. Here are some easy options based on the amount of time you have left for your mailing. Using a CRM system like Batchbook Social CRM is the easiest way to merge your lists and remove any duplicate contacts. Here are a few other tips for cleaning up your list: 1 Month E-mail address verification service: ⁕⁕ Send small gifts or cards ⁕⁕ Host a holiday themed contest ⁕⁕ Post a series of creative holiday tips or messages 2 Weeks The United States Postal Service can help you check the accuracy of your mailing list addresses: http://pe.usps.com/businessmail101/addressing/checkingaccuracy.htm http://www.verifyemailaddress.org/ Remember, the best way to keep your mailing lists accurate and up-to-date is to stay in touch with your customers. Never buy or “borrow” someone else’s lists. ⁕⁕ Send personalized holiday cards ⁕⁕ Create a customized online holiday photo greeting 1 Week ⁕⁕ Create a holiday themed newsletter ⁕⁕ Send personal messages with attached e-gifts Today ⁕⁕ Write a heartfelt blog post ⁕⁕ Post a fun team picture on your social media accounts ⁕⁕ Spiff up your logo a la Google Doodles style © Batchbook Social CRM - www.batchbook.com 2 Batchbook Social CRM • A Procrastinator’s Guide to Holiday Mailings Gift Giving When you give a gift to a customer, vendor, or friend, you are telling them how much you value them and how important they are to your business. To make the most of it, we suggest putting a lot of thought into the gifts you decide to send. You want to send something that will be enjoyed and remembered. Get Inspired If you have customers or a local small business that makes things that would be great for a holiday gift, use them! When you work with someone small and local, you can often have the gift personalized, adding even more meaning to it. For instance, we send out special Batchbook brownie pops, which are made by our customer The Secret Chocolatier. Desserts, wine, and gift baskets make great gifts. Tailor your gift based on who you are giving it to. If your customers are businesses, you will want to send something that can be shared more easily. Sending something handmade is also a great way to show you care. Check out all of the great gifts you can find on Etsy, or ask friends if they know anyone locally who makes small crafts. You may want to send something that is branded. When you buy your gifts from a small business, you can likely get them customized or even branded in some way. Find something that your customers will appreciate and use. At Batchbook, we send Moleskine notebooks with our logo printed on them (by a local non-profit organization for at-risk students). Sending Those Gifts Having your mailing list organized comes in handy when it is time to mail your gifts. Whether you are doing the shipping yourself, or if you are having gifts shipped directly, you can use your list to make sure they get to the right place. Major shippers such as USPS, FedEx, and UPS have tools that help you upload your list and input other shipping info so you can print out the labels yourself. Or put your list on a flash drive and take it to your local shipping location, and they will be glad to help. When having another company send your gifts, you just need to send them a copy of your mailing list and they will handle it from there. © Batchbook Social CRM - www.batchbook.com Great Gift Ideas ⁕⁕ Delicious Desserts Find a local bakery or one that will ship and send some yummy treats for the holidays. ⁕⁕ Handmade Memories At Batchbook, we have our own Etsy aficionado on staff, and she makes onesies for all the new babies. Find someone on Etsy or locally to make a nice gift, such as hand-crafted ornaments or other holiday decorations. ⁕⁕ Branded Gifts that Work Add your logo to a thoughtful gift, such as Moleskine notebooks or custom made candy bars. ⁕⁕ Charitable Donations Make a donation to a favorite cause in the name of your customers. Be sure to include a personal note about why the cause is important to you. ⁕⁕ Party Favors If you have an office space or retail shop, have a small gift for the young ones when families come in to keep everyone happy and patient. Tip from @payprobusiness. 3 Batchbook Social CRM • A Procrastinator’s Guide to Holiday Mailings Spread Your Holiday Message Far & Wide After you create a list of all of the customers, friends, vendors, and even some prospects that you want to connect with this holiday season, it’s easy to get the actual mailing done. You have two main ways of connecting. You can send greetings in the mail or via the Internet. Mail Holiday Cards Get Your Cards There are a few ways to mail holiday cards: ⁕⁕ Use Online Software Tools like Direct Mail Manager’s Holiday Card Mailer can make sending cards a breeze. You can choose a card or upload your own design, add a nice message, and have them printed and mailed for you without ever touching a thing. You just need to provide your mailing list, which you’ve already prepared! ⁕⁕ Print Custom Cards You could also have custom cards printed and then mail them out. It may take a while for you to get the cards, so figure that in to your planning. ⁕⁕ Buy Beautiful Cards You can buy some nice holiday cards and then personalize and send them yourself. If you have a local company or person who makes cards, go that route. Sending a card that stands out will help your business to stand out too. © Batchbook Social CRM - www.batchbook.com Sending physical cards in the mail is a great idea (though obviously not a new one). Your customers are very likely to open your card and read your message. They may even display your card on their mantle! Yes, they may be getting a lot of other cards, but if yours stands out in some way, it will make an impression. If you are interested in sending holiday cards or a holiday letter, you will need mailing addresses. Sort your master list based on which contacts have a complete address. Be sure to filter out anyone who was on the “nice” list and will already be receiving a gift from you. This list of contacts with addresses is everyone you can send a card out to. Go through it to find the people you want to send a card to. If you use a CRM such a Batchbook, you can tag contacts and then put them in a separate mailing list. In a spreadsheet, just create a new sheet with all of your contacts with mailing addresses and go through and delete the ones you don’t want to send a card to. If you can, add a personal note in your cards. However, if you are sending a lot of them, this may not be possible. Don’t let that stop you. If you are using online software or getting them printed, just be sure to type up a nice holiday message letting your customers know how thankful you are for them. Hand-Addressed or Mailing Labels? There are studies that show your mail is more likely to be opened if it is hand-addressed. This may be true, but if you’ve put off sending your cards, you may not have time to address all of them. Besides, most people will open up your mail if it looks like it is a holiday card. People like cards! Since you already have your list in a digital format, it makes a lot of sense to just print labels. You can do this right from Excel. Some CRMs also have a feature to print your list directly to mailing labels. You can also check out services like Stamps.com or Endicia to print labels and stamps for your cards. 4 Batchbook Social CRM • A Procrastinator’s Guide to Holiday Mailings Send Seasons eGreetings Too late to send cards or gifts? You can still show your customers that you care. Email a Card If you have an email list, you can feel comfortable sending a holiday themed message to it. We are big fans of opt-in email lists (and you should be too). Don’t spam people, even to wish them holiday joy. It IS okay to send emails to customers who you have an established relationship with. Tips to make your holiday email a success: Don’t Sell: Treat this email as a holiday card. Use it to let your customers know you are thinking about them and are thankful for them. Personalize It: Make your email more personal by addressing the recipient by name. Consider sharing a more personal side of your business with this email. Include a cute company photo and tell a story (think of that family update holiday letter that your Aunt sends every year). Spice it Up: The holidays are a great time to add a little spice to your message. Consider adding a video to your holiday email. Something as simple as your team singing a fun holiday song can work very well. Or get your smartphone out and record holiday greetings from your employees. Get tips for quick and easy videos and holiday email best practices. Social Messages You can post holiday messages for your contacts on social networks. Record a holiday message on video or put up a heartfelt message to customers on your site. Post a link to this message on your blog and social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Make your message as creative as you can. That way, people will not only enjoy it, they will likely share it as well. Make it personal by sending a direct holiday message to everyone who you have interacted with recently. Ring in the New Year The start of the new year is a great time to connect with folks post holiday frenzy. You will have more time to enjoy the effort and your customers will appreciate the extended season. It’s never too late to show your customers how thankful you are for them. Get your list organized right now and give your customers something to smile about this holiday season. © Batchbook Social CRM - www.batchbook.com eGift Ideas Here are some creative ideas from other socially savvy small businesses. ⁕⁕ Shoeboxed.com asked customers to send funny santa photos then created an e-book from the best submissions. ⁕⁕ Red Rocket Media posted a series of 12 Tips of Christmas blog posts with great tips for writing good (and fun!) web content. ⁕⁕ Canadian retailer Golf Town sent daily discounts as the 12 Tweets of Christmas. ⁕⁕ Beauty retailer Sephora. com granted a holiday wish a day through their Sephora Claus Twitter campaign. ⁕⁕ Young & Free St. Louis held an ugly Christmas sweater facebook contest. ⁕⁕ Here are some fun Facebook contest ideas that can be tailored to a holiday theme. ⁕⁕ Follow our holiday Pinterest board for more ideas! 5 Batchbook Social CRM • A Procrastinator’s Guide to Holiday Mailings Batchbook Social CRM M R Social C Batchbook is a software company based in Providence, RI, founded in 2006. Our social CRM software is designed for small businesses and organizations. Batchbook provides an affordable, cloud-accessible solution that is easy to adopt as an individual or a team. Its feature set includes full contact details management, social integration, to-do list, advanced searching, list building and reporting. Batchbook takes a unique approach to contact management, encouraging users to maintain smaller lists, make more personal contact, and to build a culture of openness and teamwork. Share Your Ideas! We’ve only scraped the surface. Connect with us on your favorite social network and let us know how you share holiday cheer. When you do, we’ll send you a gift! ⁕⁕ Twitter ⁕⁕ Facebook ⁕⁕ Google+ ⁕⁕ Pinterest ⁕⁕ LinkedIn ⁕⁕ The BatchBlog Or you can email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you! © Batchbook Social CRM - www.batchbook.com Use Batchbook to organize your holiday mailing. 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