Designing Funny Greeting Cards

When you get your custom greeting cards done, you can design it any variety of ways. You can choose to outfit it with photos, original art or just lace it with your own brand of humor.

Humorous greeting cards are popular for a reason - they're extremely memorable, apart from providing that gift of laughter. If you feel that a funny greeting card will work best for the people you're planning to send them to and the occasion they're celebrating, here's a brief guide on how to write with humorous sentiments.

First, the things to avoid. While toilet humor can be funny at the right time, greeting cards aren't their venue. Avoid racist, sexist and similarly offensive jokes, regardless of how funny they may seem.

Second, there are a few basic techniques good greeting card writers employ when crafting those funny lines. Most humorous greeting cards employ one or a combination of these techniques.

Bait & Switch. With this technique, the card starts out simple enough with the typical greetings on the cover. Inside the fold, however, you deliver a strong punch line.

Examples

BAIT: Happy 25th Birthday
SWITCH: I'm sorry, this card was printed several decades ago.

BAIT: Happy Graduation
SWITCH: Now get a job and pay me back for all that money I loaned you.

Gentle Insults. You can just call them "insults" but I wanted to highlight the word gentle. You want the receiving party to laugh, after all, not cry in shame. This one should be a little more forthright in its intentions - looking at the cover alone, you know there must be a punch line inside. Sometimes, there doesn't even need to be anything inside as the whole humorous sentiment is written on the outer fold.

Examples

COVER : A Good Case Can Be Made For Enjoying Christmas
INSIDE : In Fact, You'll Probably Have Two Cases You Fat Alcoholic. Merry Christmas!


Visual Gags. Usually a variation of either the bait and switch or gentle insults, visual gags add pictures to drive the humor in. It's the most popular variation of funny greeting cards as its the type you usually see across racks.

Examples

PICTURE: Two Old Men In A Calgary Club
CAPTION: Your Male Strippers Are Here
INSIDE: Happy Birthday!

Greeting Cards For Your Employees

Celebrating special days for your company's employees can go a long way towards raising their morale, apart from making office life feel more personable. Even a small token to recognize events like birthdays and special holidays like Christmas can go a long way.

Most people associate work with things they'd rather not do. As a result, the office is usually among the last of the places they'd rather be in. While greeting cards won't change the fact that people would rather frolic in the beach than take phone calls and work on spreadsheets, it's a great way to make those tiny cubicles feel like a more welcoming space.

A big office I used to work for in Toronto would have cards printed especially for employees. During birthdays and major holidays, each one gets a card along with a short note from one of the VP's. If you're celebrating a birthday, you got a cake along with the card. Come Christmas time, the cards came with a small gift. It wasn't much and it probably isn't that sincere - still, it made the office a place where we can feel at home instead of just four walls with tables and a boatload of work in front of us.

Giving your employees greeting cards for those special times is one of the cheapest ways to reach out and show a personal interest in their lives, well beyond the objectifying performance numbers and attendance records. Why not have a batch printed and put a smile across your employees' face for even just a day?

A Few Guidelines To Sending Business Greeting Cards

When you're sending out business greeting cards, it's important to bear in mind that it's still tied to your professionial reputation. It's a marketing tool as much as it is a way of showing gratitude for your customers' continued support. As such, following some guidelines will help ensure that your good intentions are rewarded and your customers appreciate the small gesture.

Keep Your Contact List Updated

Make sure to keep your contact list current. You don't want to keep sending a client "Happy Anniversary" cards after they've been divorced and the best way to ensure it doesn't happen is to take the effort to consistently update your list every time you learn of life changes.

Use A Theme Suited For Your Business

Make sure the color, design and sentiments expressed in the greeting cards you send reflect your business. You never want to come across in an improper manner, unless your line of business calls for doing so.

Personalize It

You can add family or employee photos or simply add a sincere note every time you send one out. People likely receive dozens of holiday and greeting cards during special occasions and it can feel like a chore having to read them all. Without a personal note, yours will likely be forgotten right after they open the next one.

Mail It To Their Home

If you have a personal relationship with the contact, mail it to their Toronto or Calgary home, even if business is your primary reason of interaction. When you do, include their family in the greetings, even mentioning the name of their spouse and kids if you know it. This makes any message more personal and intimate.

Send It In Time

During big holidays like Christmas, printing companies are usually heavily booked and the mail rush can get your greeting cards delayed. Always order your cards and send them early to be one of the first to bid them good greetings during the season.

When To Send Your Customers Greeting Cards

Do you send your customers holiday cards? If not, you might want to start. It's a low-cost, low-maintenance way to keep in touch and build real relationships with your clients beyond the monthly invoices and weekly consultations.

Of course, with dozens of holidays every year, you want to pick the few times that are appropriate to send them a card. Here's a few you may want to consider.

Christmas

It's the ideal season to send your all your best customers a holiday card. Christmas is just that one holiday out of the year when everybody bids everyone else good tidings and the most appropriate time to let your clients know that you appreciate their business.

Father's Day

If your business is related in even a remote way to fatherhood (cigars, cars and similar products), Father's Day is a good time to send your favorite dads a token of appreciation for their continued support.

Mother's Day

Like Father's Day, if your business is related to this special day for moms, sending out a holiday card is wholly appropriate, apart from being a good way to invite them back and do business with you again. This is especially important when your business involves anything that has to do with children - sucking up to the mother always proves to be a good bet.

Valentine's Day

While it may feel out of place, Valentine's Day is actually a good time for may kinds of businesses to get in their customer's radar once again. Everyone appreciates a romantic card that bids them the best gifts of the heart for the season. I've seen hotels, travel agencies and restaurants send out romantic holiday cards in time for Valentine's and it always came across as a sweet gesture.

For Your Customers This Christmas: A Card Or A Gift?

During Christmas and similar holidays, reaching out to your customers as a way to show appreciation for their business can be one of your most important marketing tools. As such, manufacturers of novelty gift items and holiday cards usually see a lot of business.

Remembering your customers during the holidays can make your professional relationship feel more than just a financial arrangement. The simple act of giving them something to remember you by can make future interactions feel less formal and more personal. At the end of the day, isn't that the kind of relationship you'd rather cultivate with the people you do business with?

Some people prefer the intimacy a holiday card can bring. Even a simply-designed greeting card with some genuine, handwritten sentiments can feel like an honest effort to show gratitude.

Others opt instead for gifts. Small presents like gift bags are a great way to say thanks. Giving out office supplies branded with your company's logo allow you to both give something that is useful while keeping your brand in people's consciousness.

Whichever you choose to send out, holiday cards or gifts, the most important thing is to do it as a way to give, instead of a way to take. If you're sending out Christmas cards, for instance, with a sales pitch at the inside fold, it's both tacky and insincere - might as well send them a flyer and a brochure while you're at it.

What kinds of holiday greetings will your Toronto clientele appreciate? What kinds of gifts will be valuable to your customers in Calgary? Answer those questions and keep them in mind when deciding what to give your loyal clients this Christmas.

Sending Christmas Cards With Personal Photos

Christmas is around the corner and, for many of us, it's possibly the merriest time of the year. If you're like most folks, you probably purchase and give out your share of greeting cards to family, friends and various acquaintances.

While sending cards that we get off-the-shelf from local bookstores isn't so bad, it can make a simple greeting extremely special when you personalize it beyond a simple handwritten pleasantry. An easy way to add a personal touch to your holiday greetings is by sending cards adorned with personal photographs.

If you're sending the Christmas cards to relatives and friends, you can choose a recent photo of your family as the central design. More than sending good tidings their way, the card becomes a way to clue them in on how your family is doing and the way your kids have grown, making it a keepsake more than a simple Hallmark Greetings card could ever be.

For your business, Christmas photo cards can work even as a way of sending holiday greetings to clients and associates. In place of a family portrait, you can opt for photos of your employees. It's a great personal touch - I myself received a couple of them last Christmas and was pleasantly touched. I deal with maybe, two or three people regularly from those companies and it was nice to put a face to the other employees I've never had the pleasure of meeting.

25 Hour Printing can help you design your holiday photo card so make sure to inquire if you're interested in buying a set for the coming season. A picture paints a thousand words and a Christmas photo card will easily do the same for your holiday greetings.

Using Greeting Cards To Introduce Your Business

Introducing your new business can be tricky. As such, executing that first marketing push can go a long way towards setting your new venture up for a successful start.

Many small businesses get their foot into customers' doors by offering something new - a notable price point, a unique product or a deal that is so sweet it's impossible to forego. Often, these initial offers come at a loss for the company, a trade-off to get new customers to try you out. Even with such offers in place, you still need to find a way to let potential customers know about your new business. Sending out a marketing package to a mailing list or buying local advertising space is usually the first way to get your word out.

Instead of sending out brochures and postcards to potential customers when getting in touch via mail to invite them to the opening, some people use greeting cards. If your opening happens to coincide with a holiday, it's a marketing strategy that can work really well.

Christmas, for instance, is a holiday that sees plenty of people hitting local shops for gifts. If you're opening a new toy store in Toronto a couple of weeks before the date, you can send out greeting cards to your target mailing list a week before. The cards, of course, will wish them holiday greetings and invite them to take advantage of your special opening prices.

It definitely comes across more personal than a standard brochure or sales letter, apart from being more fitting to the upcoming season. If you have coupons you want them to use, you can slip it inside the card and call it a special gift especially for them.