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A personalized card shows your customers that you've put some thought and effort into your Christmas greeting. Clients will appreciate that you've taken the time to arrange a company photograph. While a photo of your employees wearing Santa hats may not be the most original idea, it's far more personal than a card that came out of a packet that you bought at Costco!

In comparison to store bought greeting cards, creating a custom greeting card is actually the smart thing to do. Even if you represent a small business, you should think twice about going to the store for your cards. The likelihood is that you'll have to write your personal greeting on each card, address each envelope, seal each envelope, put a stamp on each envelope, and post all your envelopes! This adds up to a lot of work on your part. Not only is it much easier to get your Greeting Cards online than it is to drive to the store for your cards, it's also a heck of a lot less hassle! There are now some online print companies, such as OvernightPrints.com where you can upload your designs and photos, have your cards printed, and then get your cards mailed for you! This is a godsend when you need to send out a couple of hundred cards!

Be original but be tasteful
Although you want to make a statement , whatever you do, don't send anything rude or offensive (i.e, a card with a "sexy Santa Claus in a revealing outfit" might be fun for you and your friends but why take the risk of offending one of your good customers?) Be bold and original, but use your common sense when choosing a design! In business it's always best to air on the side of caution. A good joke can be enjoyed by everyone, but you have to be REALLY careful not to be derogatory in any way.

While living in the UK last year, I received a greeting card from one of my business contacts that included a joke about an Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman and Welshman (a joke that was likely to offend the peoples of all four nations!) Being of Irish descent, I could have taken great offense to it, and chosen never do business with that company again. That wasn't the case, but I did hear that they lost business as a direct cause of that particular Greeting Card!

Designing your card
A montage of snapshots of your employees having fun at the office is a nice idea and would eliminate the need to organize a group company shot. If you do decide to take a company photograph, don't use a cell phone camera! And don't get the janitor who works in your office building to take the photograph! The result probably won't be good. Either hire a professional or at least find someone who's good with a camera to take the shot!

Good ideas for Company Photographs

These are just a handful of good ideas - pretty much anything that will generate a positive and happy image of your company

This Company card won't win any awards for design or originality but it does the trick!

Unless you know how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, or other desktop design programs correctly, or you have a design professional that works for your company, don't try to design your greeting card yourself. I can almost guarantee that it won't look good. Luckily, there are a lot of online resources that you can use. Most online print companies provide nicely designed templates that you can add your photo to. Some sites are far better than others and can provide more contemporary templates and better online design programs.

Order from budget print companies, such as, OvernightPrints.com and you can expect to pay around $80 for 250 cards. This is not a lot of money for glossy photo prints that look a million times better than the flimsy cards you get in those "budget packs" of cards.

Design and send your cards to print WAY before December 25th!
The ideal time to post your cards would be the 1st December. Keep procrastinating about getting your picture taken or sending your design off to print and you may end up leaving it too late! By around the 19th December, people start to take their holidays. Past this point, there's not much point sending a Christmas greeting card. It will be highly unlikely that anyone will get to see your card or appreciate it. Fortunately, you would still get the opportunity to send a New Years greeting card. Wishing your customers and business partners great success in the new year is another effective way to interact with your customers.

Most companies don't go to the trouble of creating and sending holiday cards. This is a mistake. They're missing out on a great opportunity to network with businesses and maybe even find some new customers! For the small amount of effort and cost that is required to create a custom card, it's worth it.