There are always those super organized business associates who have their holiday cards sent out the day after Thanksgiving.

Then there’s the rest of us.

In this digital age, you might wonder if you should even bother sending out a holiday card. After all, can’t you just send out a festive email instead? And the answer is yes, an email is a great way to wish your clients a happy holidays and express your gratitude for their business.

But a card takes a little more effort to send and can be a way to stand out. Here are a few ideas and card writing prompts from your favorite San Diego copywriter to make the process a lot more fun and more memorable.

A San Diego designer sends a greeting to snowbound clients on the east coast.

You can send out greetings anytime you like.

Take the pressure off and send out New Year’s card. Only don’t send it right before New Year’s because so many people are out that week. Send your New Year’s greeting in the first two weeks of the year. (There you just gave yourself another two or three weeks to get this done.)

Or choose another holiday. Maybe it’s about Valentines and how much you love your clients. Or the spring equinox or May the Fourth be with you for Star Wars fans. The main thing is that at some time of year you do it.

Sign by hand.

Try to sign your cards by hand. Writing a personal note is even better, but if you don’t have time to write a personal note to all your clients, choose 10 clients and write a note to them.

Create your own card.

Costco, Moo, Tiny Prints and Vista Print have easy upload apps that make it easy to create a custom card. So grab a photo of the team, pick a holiday template, and you’re done. (Some companies like Tiny Prints will mail out your cards if you upload contact info. Okay, so they won’t be signed by hand but sent out is better than sitting in a stack on your desk.)

Christmahanakwanzika?

Some people leave the references to Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza for their personal cards. For more inclusive business cards, you can simply say Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, or focus on New Year’s greeting.

What to write:

This is a magical time of year, so go light on the sales banter. Think cheer, gratitude, and sarcastic references to fruit cake.

Happy Holidays and warmest of wishes.
A little holiday alliteration.
We wish you the happiest holidays and look forward to a bright 2019.
Shine on!
The shine on refers back to bright. Lots of light references can be made to tie into pictures of ornaments, candles, lights.
Seasons Greetings. May your holidays be merry and bright.
Classic. Great to reflect visuals of ornaments, fireplaces, etc.
We hope you sleigh 2019. Have a great year.
This is about the one time a year a bad pun is okay.
This was an amazing year of growth. To say thank you and to celebrate, we’ve made a contribution in your honor to The Nature Conservancy (insert cause here).
Incorporate the message that you’ve made a donation in your customer’s name right into the card.
We appreciate working with you so much. We can’t wait to see what’s brewing in 2019!
Use this message when you’re including a Starbucks card.
Joy to the world!
A nice caption showing a picture of whatever your joy is—service, family, friends, art, etc.
Let there be (peace, peas, pizza, etc) on earth.
Holiday songs, movies, and traditions are a great source to draw upon.
Beary Christmas. Merry Catmas, Meowy Christmas, Falalallama. Seasons Bleatings. Mooy Christmas. Fleece Navidad. Happy Howl-i-days.
Bad animal holiday puns are always appropriate.

Think beyond the card.

SocialPrintStudio offers some innovative products that can make use of photos.

Stickers – Print out sheets of stickers. Each one with a different message. (Think of what you could do with your photos and WordSwag.)

Tinybooks – If you’ve completed a long project with a client, upload photos for a Tinybook. (These books feature magnets on the back cover, so I still spy books I sent to clients years later stuck to filing cabinets and desks.)

Ornaments – This photo shows these ornaments with pictures, but imagine what you could do if up created images with text.

Happy holidays. And Happy Writing! :)