Ho Ho-Hum.
“I will definitely remember this card tomorrow.”
Pretend your law firm or accounting didn’t send out this year’s holiday card. Now imagine that you received the IDENTICAL card from… say… your banker. How would you react?
For many law firms, you’d probably think, at least subconsciously, “Well, this is a boring piece of crap,” then toss it in the garbage and immediately forget that you ever received it. Right?
The general philosophy seems to be – in this warm-and-wonderful holiday season, “If I don’t send my clients a boring-piece-of-crap holiday card, they won’t know how much I appreciate their business.”
Personally, I always get that special feeling, knowing that my accountant took the time out of his busy schedule to have his secretary include me in his thousand-person mailing list. An unsigned bulk-mailed card with the name of his firm stamped in gold foil?
I know he’s busy but, frankly, those types of mailings do more harm than good. Oh, if he’d only send me a pleather calendar with his firm’s name embossed on it, then I’d know for certain that he’s going to do his very best for me in 2015. No client has ever said,“My lawyer didn’t wish me a generic ‘Seasons Greetings’ this year; I’m taking my business elsewhere!”
(I wrote a long and relatively popular blog post on this issue last year, click here to read it. This is an updated, abbreviated version of it.)
Sure, holiday cards are an easy way to stay in touch with your entire database. The danger is that if you do it badly, you’ve imposed it upon EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
Is what you want everyone to know about you — the message that represents your entire firm and practice — summarized in a bland politically correct image of pine trees, ice skaters, snow-covered skylines, or handicapped children’s artwork?
How does this strengthen your client relationships or your brand as a creative, innovative firm?
That is, if you’re going to do it badly, just don’t do it; no one will notice its absence.
Or care.
On a 1-10, how creative do you think this firm is?
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Shout out to Above the Law for this:
* Here’s how to lose our holiday card contest. Hey, how about scrolling back up and typing in your email address into the “Enter Your EMAIL” (i.e. “Subscribe”) box?
Just a thought….
Images (c) Design Crafters
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