As a small business owner or marketing professional, you’re constantly striving to improve your marketing strategy. With customers receiving constant promotional emails, you’re tasked with creating messages that stand out in their inboxes. eCards may be your solution!
eCards, or digital greeting cards, add a fun and interactive element to your business’s marketing strategy. eCards engage constituents with visually appealing, brand-aligned content that keeps your business top of mind. Plus, they enhance relationships and foster a sense of loyalty by creating personalized interactions during special occasions.
This guide will share insightful tips for how to make eCards an integral part of your marketing strategy.
Decide What Types of eCards to Create.
One of the best parts of eCards is their versatility. Stay connected to customers, business partners, and employees throughout the year by sending eCards at key times. Try reaching out to:
- Follow up with a client or business partner after a meeting.
- Thank a customer for a recent purchase.
- Market new products and services.
- Create promotional events, like sweepstakes.
- Wish customers, employees, and business partners a happy birthday.
- Celebrate milestones like employee or business partnership anniversaries.
- Send seasonal greetings, depending on the holidays each individual celebrates.
Knowing when you’ll send eCards will ensure your outreach is consistent, isn’t overwhelming, and captures attention.
When deciding when and how to use your eCards, consider your goals. Do you want to improve employee engagement, boost customer retention, or bring attention to a new product? eCards are flexible and can be used to achieve multiple goals, but remember that for each kind of eCard you need, you’ll need to create a new set of eCards.
Put Thought Into Your Designs.
Your eCards say a lot about your business, so create professional ones. Well-thought-out designs will reflect your brand identity, enhance recognition, and boost trust.
eCardWidget’s work anniversary cards guide advises companies to design eCardsby including these elements:
- Company Branding: Add your logo, colors, and fonts to create a professional look and boost brand recognition. Your eCards can vary in color and even diverge from your brand colors. Just be sure to add your logo somewhere on the eCard so it’s clear it’s coming from your company.
- Images: High-quality photos of your team or products are ideal for anniversaries, company achievements, and product promotions. Alternatively, include illustrations, such as snowflakes or Christmas trees for a winter holiday card.
- Animations: Animated graphics like exploding fireworks or falling confetti can bring your designs to life. Use animations sparingly to avoid overloading your design.
- A Meaningful Sentiment: Feature a short yet impactful saying. The exact sentiment you’ll include depends on the nature of your eCard. If celebrating a work anniversary, you might write, “Cheers to four fantastic years!” If thanking a customer, you might write, “Thanks for choosing us!”
- Effective Typography: Choose legible fonts and ensure a good contrast between text and background colors. This is essential for making text legible and making your designs pop. Also, consider checking your eCards with various colorblind filters to ensure individuals with visual impairments will still get a great experience.
Essentially, make sure your eCards represent your business. By incorporating these elements, you’ll end up with a professional yet fun design like this Valentine’s eCard that Teremana offered to customers for free to promote its products:
To save time, create designs that can be reused, such as thank-you, birthday, and holiday cards. When you want to reach out, pick a relevant eCard. Then, write a personal message to each recipient to go with your compelling designs.
Use eCards to Power A Referral Program.
Launch a referral program to get your customers talking about your company’s latest offerings. After all, 90% of consumers trust recommendations made by family, friends, and online reviews.
For your referral program, publish your eCards to your company’s website. Then, encourage customers to send them to their friends, family members, and colleagues. Promise rewards or discounts for new customers who sign up and existing customers who facilitate introductions.
For an example of this eCard marketing strategy in action, Worx launched a Father’s Day campaign to promote its power tools. After all, who loves power tools more than dads?
Each design featured a pun. One featured a pressure washer and said, “Being a dad is high pressure, and you are the best! Happy Father’s Day.” Another one included a picture of a saw and said, “To the best dad I ever saw! Happy Father’s Day.”
Anyone who sent one of the free eCards was entered into a drawing to win a drill. Create fun eCards like these that your customers will want to share with their friends and family to spread awareness about products and connect with new customers.
Include Gifts With Your eCards.
Try including appreciation gifts with your eCards to elevate engagement. You might attach the following to your eCards:
- Digital gift cards or discount codes that provide immediate value to the recipient and encourage purchases
- Access to exclusive content such as instructional videos or advanced product releases
- Free trials that can be used online or samples that can be mailed or picked up
- A gift certificate to a corporate gifting program where recipients can pick their own gifts
Create guidelines for your team to follow, so they don’t give out gifts excessively. Double the Donation’s guide to corporate gifting laws explains that businesses can only deduct $25 worth of the gift value per recipient per tax year. For example, if you give someone a $35 gift card, only $25 of that cost would be tax-deductible, so keep this in mind when choosing gifts.
Follow Contact Laws and Preferences.
When sending mass emails to your customers, follow all laws that govern spam and email campaigns.
For example, CAN-SPAM establishes requirements for commercial messages, such as giving recipients the right to have you stop emailing them by including an unsubscribe option. If someone has previously indicated they only prefer outreach via text message, send your eCards via SMS.
Ensure that all personal data you collect through your eCard campaigns is handled in compliance with privacy regulations, too. For instance, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) impacts how businesses collect, store, and use the personal information of California residents. This includes the data collected through eCard campaigns.
Because of this law, consumers have the right to know what personal information your business collects and to whom it’s sold, opt out of the sale of personal information, delete personal information that’s been collected, and receive nondiscriminatory treatment for exercising these privacy rights.
Wrapping Up
The impact of your eCard marketing strategy hinges on creativity, relevance, and compliance with contact laws. As your business strives to make each communication meaningful, eCards offer a unique opportunity to connect with your customers, employees, and corporate partners.
Start integrating eCards into your marketing strategy, pay attention to how recipients react, and use that information to refine future outreach.
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