Well it’s that time of year where we gather with loved ones in the traditions of Creating Holiday E-Cards cheer and well-wishing. For many this is a time to leave the hustle and bustles of work behind them to focus on seasonal events and catching up with family and friends whom they may not have spoken too all year. But the wise businessman has a different philosophy about this time of the year. So while you are making your list of holiday greetings, how about making room between Aunt Belinda and Sam the mechanic for another important person, your customer/clients.
Now before you start to dizzy yourself trying to tally up all the stamps and envelopes you would need, relax, how about a holiday e-card? They are easy to make, deliverable by the internet and the gesture will go a long way.
You are almost guaranteed an honorable mention as they celebrate with their families on who they received holiday cards from, you may even rope some new customers from their family and friends.
A holiday e-card will keep you and your business fresh in the customer’s mind for repeat business, especially if you couple special discounts or give-away’s tailored for them. You will also start a tradition that can be extended through all holidays and even their birthday. And lastly, if you haven’t already have one, now you’re building a mailing list where you can message out all your customers at once, talking about a gift that keeps on giving!
Okay, so let’s roll up how sleeves and spread some holiday cheer, e-card style. Now there are two ways you can create your e-card, online through web sites with photo crop options (like www.photobucket.com) and/or preset and customizable templates or on your own using software such as Photoshop or InDesign.
If you are going the web site route, first decide if you will use a template or you would like to customize your e-card with your own photo.
Creating E-Cards using a web site
A couple of great sites are www.myfuncards.com, www.bluemountain.com and www.evite.com. They have easy to follow directions and are very user friendly. Or you can do a google or yahoo search to find others if none of these do the trick for you.
1)You will need to have a couple of things handy here, the recipient’s email address and the message that you would like to have included in your e-card. Some sites restricts your character (word counts), so maximize your message by remembering that sometimes less is more and don’t forget to spell check.
2) Practice on a word document first, experiment with different colors and fonts, remember, you want the e-card to be visually pleasing to the eye and easy to read.
Many sites offer the user different fonts and colors, make a note of the font and colors you like best.
3) Preview your card with the full design in place and make sure it is want you want your customer to see, when you are satisfied just click send.
4) If your not sending the same message to everyone, most sites allow you to send a copy to yourself when you send it to your recipient, this is a good thing to do just for records of who you sent what to. If you are sending the same message to everyone, simply copy and paste the message in the dialog box and don’t forget to adjust the fonts and colors.
*5) If you feel at all nervous about the whole process, send it to yourself first so you can see what your customer will see, and also what steps they must go through to view it.
Creating E-Cards using a web site/ and using your own photos
1) Save your photo that you will use on your e-card to a folder on your desktop that you will remember and can easily access. This could be one you took with your digital camera, phone or webcam. Or it can be a stock photo you got offline,
2) Go to www.frameshow.com, (you can download their app to your desktop or just use it online) on the home page click on the button that says browse frames. Next, under the drop box that says categories, select occasions, with over 360 to choose from sub categories, you can really have fun being creative, but we will choose a christmas theme as our sub category
3) Next, select the template that you wish, a new page will display the option for you to upload your photo from your computer by hitting the browse button, or inserting a URL address to a picture you want to use online.
4) Use the rotate and scale buttons on the right hand side to get the desired sizing of your photo.
5) Next click on the tab that says type your message, remember step 2 from the previous column. You can even add music or videos by clicking the next tab. When everything looks to your liking click send card, you will be able to preview again before you send.
6) Now you have two different options of sending your e-card from your own email. Create and store the e-card online (for 14 days), and send the e-card URL through your email, or create and download the e-card to your PC as a zip file, and then attach it to your email.
These were two quick and simple avenues to create a great e-card and building up some “holiday repoire” with your customer/clients. I hope that you find it to be a valuable business tool all year round for newsletters, special announcements, events and general correspondence. The technology is here, use it to grow your business and business relationships while your competition is saying “humbug”.
Season Greetings to you, yours and your business and Happy Endeavoring for 2011!
Axiom Designs, along with greeting card printing in Los Angeles, offers creative E-card design services.
Source: Los Angeles Printing