The Content Matterz animated holiday cards have to be one of my favorite projects every year. It’s creative, fun and it sends joy to everyone who receives it. Beyond the sparkle, animated holiday cards can play an important role in any marketing strategy, including relationship building and increasing your brand recall (to name a few).
The top 4 reasons to send an animated holiday card this season
Are you creating your organization’s holiday marketing plan? Read on to learn why you should integrate a holiday card into your marketing strategy.
1. Build and improve relationships
Think back to the last time you received a non-work-related email or eCard in your inbox. Whether it came from a vendor or client contact, or perhaps even a friend or family member, more than likely, it generated those fuzzy warm feelings towards the person who reached out to you.
An animated holiday card follows the same concept. Your clients and prospects are feeling the pressure of year-end and the holidays, all in one big whirlwind of a few weeks. Receiving an email that offers a few moments of animated, cheerful zen goes a long way to creating goodwill and building a relationship. It gives you an opportunity to express your gratitude and demonstrate that you value your relationship in a unique way. Not to mention, it reminds recipients that you are human, someone behind the nurture emails and monthly newsletters.
Here’s the holiday card we sent last year:
2. Make your brand memorable
Beyond the emotional response, animated holiday cards are a great way to increase your brand awareness and recall. Creating a card that represents your organization’s brand and values is an excellent way to build your company’s identity. Recipients are more likely to remember your company when they receive something memorable (and share-worthy) in their inbox.
When creating your card, make sure the theme, design and message are directly related to your organization’s values. This will reinforce who you are and help you to stand out in an already crowded inbox. As a bonus, it sets a positive tone for the start of the new year.
Check out this holiday card we created for our client to be sent out globally!
3. Get measurable statistics
We are marketers at heart, and statistics are important to help drive current and future strategies. Animated holiday cards are sent out by email, and with email comes a good handful of statistics, including opens, click-throughs, forwards and shares (check out this post to see the top 7 email stats to track).
The response you receive will also drive future animated card campaigns. You may find that animated cards should be more than a single holiday send, and be integrated into other campaigns. For example, if you have a charity event coming up, an animated card kicking it off might be a nice touch. Or, you may want to integrate an animated “Thank You” card into your sales process.
4. Get social (outside the inbox)!
Continue that brand awareness by posting your animated holiday card on your social media channels. Take it a bit further and turn it into a whole campaign. During the creation process, ask your designer to provide animated GIFs you can use on social media. This is an important request, as each channel has specifications for image and file sizes, so you don’t want to attempt posting your email-ready card.
With over 4.48 billion people using social media, sharing your animated holiday card, along with other social posts in the campaign, will give your brand even more exposure. On top of that, with social media comes more useful stats to help you learn more about your audience—woohoo!
A few tips for making your animated holiday card a success
Ready to incorporate an animated greeting card into your holiday marketing strategy? Here are a few tips to ensure a positive outcome:
- Start early. You want your animated holiday card sent out around mid-December to beat the rush and people leaving for vacation. Select the date you want your card to go out and work backward from there when creating your schedule. If around Christmas doesn’t work for your schedule or organization, consider sending a New Year’s card after the first of the year.
- Less is more. This is a fun project, and it can definitely be easy to get wrapped up in the design creation. However, the more animation and graphics you add to your card, the bigger the file size, which can make it hard to display in some inboxes.
- Pick one theme. When deciding on your card design and message, start by picking a theme. Select something that aligns with your organization’s brand and goals, and carry it through your entire holiday strategy, including an animated holiday card, any gifts you may be giving, as well as other holiday promotions (social media, etc.). We find it’s best to start with a brainstorming session and then narrow down the options from there.
- Have fun. Your joy and enjoyment with this project will shine through to all your recipients. After all, it is the holidays—what’s not to like?
Get the help you need to make your holidays less stressful
At Content Matterz, the holidays are our jam, and we are more than happy to help you and your team with your animated holiday card strategy and creation. Reach out to us today to set up a strategy meeting.