By wishing your customers a Christmas greeting, you are also thanking them for their trust throughout the year. It does not matter if you are a large company, an SME, a startup or a freelancer: sending Christmas greetings to customers, partners, followers, fans and friends is also a way of advertising . Although for this, both the content, as well as the idea and the form, must be correct; otherwise, the opposite effect may be achieved.

Why congratulate Christmas to customers?

Every year the same question: do I send Christmas cards to my clients? And, if so, to all or to some? How to make the greeting catch their attention? Do I send Christmas cards the old-fashioned way or go digital?

However, before delving into the ins and outs of the creative part of the matter, you should ask yourself why it is so important to send Christmas cards to clients.

Not all companies congratulate their customers on Christmas every year due, on many occasions, to the lack of an updated customer database. It often happens to smaller companies that they do not have a complete list and, therefore, they decide not to send Christmas cards for fear of forgetting a client.

However, customer loyalty is essential and congratulating them on the holidays properly can reinforce it.

In addition, these Christmas details are a sample of the level of professionalism of the company in relation to corporate correspondence. You can quickly see which company has done their homework and built a mailing list. In these cases, the customer is already loyal and the Christmas greetings are not a surprise.

Advice: An effective tool for freelancers and SMEs that makes it possible to professionalize customer loyalty is Google Workspace. With it, you can not only create mailing lists, but it also allows you to work simultaneously and together on different projects, appointments, meetings, etc.

The client must perceive the Christmas greetings as a serious and professional gesture. In addition, this type of correspondence also serves to promote the company itself. It is not material value that matters, but authenticity.

Advice: For larger companies, Microsoft 365 is a good tool to professionalize internal and external processes in communication with customers.

E-mail or postcard to congratulate customers on Christmas?

Despite living in the technological age, many companies continue to bet on the classic Christmas cards . There are many who continue to show great esteem for the analog, because, in this way, the client receives something physical and tangible.

However, this postcard rarely resembles a letter or writing in use. As a general rule, corporate Christmas cards are individualized for each client. In addition, they have a creative touch that makes them stand out from all the others. It can be a group photo signed on the back, a handwritten letter in a scented envelope, or a small detail, such as a chocolate or cookie, that accompanies the postcard.

Even so, congratulating Christmas to customers in digital format is increasingly common. A company can make use of technology to demonstrate to its customers that it is acting with the times: it is committed to sustainability, saving on paper and resources related to delivery routes, and underlines its digital affinity . Also, the Christmas greetings sent to customers in this format have no creative limits. You can send videos, Christmas carols or interactive Christmas cards, among many other options.

Choosing one way or another will depend on two factors: the profile of your company and that of the client. It is useless to create an attractive digital Christmas card if the client hardly uses the Internet. But, at the same time, you cannot ignore originality. Your congratulations must be good enough so that it does not get lost among the rest of the Christmas letters and postcards.

Create Eye-Catching Christmas Cards for Clients

To achieve the desired effect, you have to first think about what goal you are pursuing. What is your business relationship with the client and how would you like it to be?

One possibility, of course, is to thank the customer for the trust they have placed in your products over the last year. However, congratulations can also be used as tools to deepen the business relationship, broaden contacts, and build trust. With a creative and original message, you can even win back customers with whom you had lost contact.

For a corporate Christmas card to be effective, you don’t need to invent anything new. It is enough for the client to know that the company has remembered him and that the good wishes are sent sincerely.

the right treatment

To appeal to the recipient’s receptivity, it is necessary to give him the correct treatment and the way in which you address him depends on the business relationship you maintain. A basic distinction can be made in the relationships you have with new clients and those you maintain with your portfolio of old clients:

  1. Formal treatment . If the Christmas greetings are sent to potential or new customers, you can opt for the formula “ Dear Mr./Ms. + Surname”. This builds initial trust and can serve as the first step in a business relationship.
  2. Informal treatment . If the relationship with the customer has existed for some time, you can include the first name in the greeting. You can also address more than one person, which shows respect for the team.

an original text

For the congratulation itself you can use standard texts, although it is much more effective to use quotes or formulate a completely original and personalized message. After all, many of your customers also send Christmas cards and are very likely familiar with template texts.

Quotes from books, movies, and songs with Christmas references are elegant, as long as they are marked as such. They are also very useful if you want to write personalized congratulations to customers. For example, if you have a friendly relationship with some of the customers, you can rewrite a stanza from a Christmas carol to refer to the mutual business relationship. In the case of a formal relationship, simply wish him a Merry Christmas and a good start to the year.

The farewell formula

The final greeting should appeal to the relationship with the customer:

  1. Formal:
  • With the best wishes
  • Kind regards
  • Yours sincerely
  1. Focused on Christmas time:
  • We say goodbye with the best wishes for next year
  • We wish you happy holidays to you and your family
  • With the best wishes for these holidays, best regards

Sign the greeting by hand, even if it was typed or on the computer.

What should you avoid when you congratulate your clients on Christmas?

An inappropriate Christmas greeting for clients can be counterproductive for the business relationship. This happens, for example, if you don’t hit the right type of relationship they have with your company, you make a mistake when typing their name or you write an unsuccessful message. Here are some of the most common mistakes in written business communication, which will also help you when you go to write your corporate Christmas cards.

Using the wrong format

There are two formats for congratulating Christmas to customers: by postal mail or by email. Fax, SMS, WhatsApp or social networks are not recommended channels.

In case of opting for email, it should not contain different recipients . Avoid links as far as possible and, if you attach a file, try not to exceed the minimum size, otherwise your greeting may end up in the spam folder.

Advice: Also keep in mind the following tips: keeping up when writing emails is also important the rest of the year.

Christmas greetings can be sent as a card or in the form of a letter. In this case, you also have to be careful. If you opt for a cheap paper printed in black and white, the greeting will lose its meaning. Clients may find it impersonal and made with little appreciation.

If the greeting contains any Christmas theme, it should not be obscene or childish, as it can be embarrassing and unprofessional. If you write it in the form of a letter, change the usual design of the format: avoid the standard letterhead that contains information about your company, such as the address, department, logo, etc.

Include inappropriate content

The message should focus on wishing your customers happy holidays. Therefore, under no circumstances should it contain any type of information related to commercial activity, for example, a late payment reminder. If, for any reason, the terms of the business relationship may change in the following year, you must indicate this in a separate letter. This also applies if you want to communicate new appointments or information about ongoing projects.

The content of the Christmas greeting should not look like a text written by commitment, so it is recommended not to use standard text templates. Also avoid sending the same text every year.

Send the congratulations at the wrong time

As a general rule, the 50th calendar week is considered a good time to start sending Christmas cards to your domestic customers. In the case of dealing with international clients, in week number 49 the entire process should already be underway. If you haven’t managed to send your Christmas wishes by then, consider whether it’s appropriate to do so at the wrong time. Wishing happy holidays late can give the impression of a lack of organization.

Learn from mistakes

What if you have made some of the mistakes mentioned and have already sent Christmas mail to your clients? Keep calm, you can’t change what’s done anymore. Apologizing in this case is not a valid option. It is more efficient to analyze errors and discover what can be improved for future occasions:

  • Annual analysis : which customers have remained? Which ones are gone?
  • CRM training : customer relationship management is the basis of any strategy that seeks to build customer loyalty.
  • Communication Concept – Has there been a clear and authentic intent in the communication exchange with the client?
  • Customer recovery strategy : promotions and special offers can be a good method to win back customers who have left.

Ten examples of Christmas greetings to clients

Original and personalized Christmas cards are the most successful among customers, although no one starts from scratch. Here we include some examples that can serve as inspiration:

  1. Formal Greeting : “We wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We thank you for your trust and are very pleased about our cooperation and the successes we have achieved.”
  2. Formal thanks : “I want to thank you for placing your trust in us this year. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year.”
  3. Short and concise : “Merry Christmas and thank you for this great year. Our best wishes.”
  4. Personalized Christmas greetings: “When the time has come to put aside emails, calls and delivery dates to spend more time with the family, we can only wish you the best this holiday season. It has been a pleasure for us to have been able to share this year with you.”
  5. Informal Christmas greetings : “Thank you very much, (customer name), for these months of collaboration! Now it’s finally time to rest and enjoy at home with family and friends. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and we wish you the best for the coming year. Until next year!”

Currently, it is not enough that the text is good for the Christmas greeting to have an effect on customers. Many companies have extended creativity to other fields. Here we show you some ideas.

  1. Christmas greeting with personalized image . Instead of using templates, personally create the theme for the Christmas card that you will send to your clients. For example, you can include a team photo or make an attractive design with Christmas motifs.
  2. Send Christmas cookies . If your client portfolio is manageable or you want to give your most important clients a very special treatment, you can surprise them with some homemade sweets. Bake and decorate some cookies and send them along with the greeting. Success is guaranteed.
  3. A corporate Christmas card that becomes a craft. Handmade fashion has returned, so a good option may be to include this trend in your Christmas greetings. For example, the greeting itself could be a template that can be turned into a paper Christmas tree for your desktop.
  4. Christmas carols . If you find it difficult to formulate personalized Christmas greetings for clients, you can resort to a useful alternative: use lyrics from well-known Christmas carols and include them in a short video. You can send it to customers via email.
  5. Seed packet . It doesn’t matter how unique, creative and successful the Christmas card you send to your clients, when January arrives it disappears: it is either saved or thrown away. But if you accompany it with a packet of seeds, for example, the client will be able to plant it and have fresh flowers in spring.