What type of Christmas card will you send this year?

Christmas Cards

Tempted to send an ‘e-card’ instead of a printed card to your top clients? Think again.

Research shows your clients will hate it. If it’s the thought that counts, they’ll think you’ve given it no thought whatsoever. Better to send a traditional printed card, and send it early. Why send it on Christmas Eve and be on their desk for a day? Get it there for the first week of December and make the most of the month.

Premium Silk Christmas Cards are our most popular – on an elegant 400gsm board.

Want something a little bit more special?

WINDOPOP Your choice of simple shape is cut-out from the front panel to reveal part of your design inside 125 from £74.70
STARMARQUE Set your cards to sparkle with spot gloss highlights on the front panel 125 from £100.80
VOUCHER CARD Add an extra tear-off third voucher or discount panel to make your cards work harder 125 from £125.10
OPULEAF New this year – gold or silver foil on the front for a festive look and feel 125 from £311.40
SMOOTHWOVE An uncoated finish, looks classic and understated 125 from £53.10

Need to raise some funds?

Fundraising Calendars Fundraising CalendarsEver thought about selling calendars instead of giving them away?

Many of our customers use calendars to raise funds or make some money. Here are a few ideas on ways you could boost your income – and raise your profile – with a little bit of effort.

 

Top five tips

1) Run a design competition for kids
Put the best paintings or artwork into your calendar and sell them to parents (and a second copy to Granny).

2) Sell adverts to local businesses
Ask local businesses to buy adverts – put a different one on each page, or around the side of wallplanners.

3) Photograph kids on their birthday month
Snap everyone with a June birthday together, print on their birthdays, then flog the calendars to Mums and Dads.

4) Strip off like the calendar girls
Get your colleagues to flash a bit of flesh in the name of charity.

5) Double up as recipe books
Pop on some seasonal recipes on each month and make the calendars even more sellable.

 

No matter your budget, calendars are an effective way to give a branded gift that lasts a whole year. Here’s our most popular sellers – fancy something else? Ask us.

CASE CALENDARS
A separate card per month with a front and back cover, all presented in a neat acrylic case  250 from £279

14 MONTH ‘DOUBLER’ CALENDARS
Wall hanging, with big images and calendar pages to view  250 from £430.20

WALLPLANNERS
A massive billboard on your customer’s wall, with the whole year to view (as well as your brand)  250 from £262.80

MOBILE PHONE HOLDERS
Somewhere to rest their phone, with the whole year at a glance 250 from £235.80

POCKET CALENDARS
To keep in the wallet or purse – your details one side an annual calendar on the back  250 from £27

DESKPADS
A scribble pad with 35 leaves. A calendar on the side – leave room for to do lists and memos  100 from £188.10

HANGING CALENDARS
Our lowest cost hanging calendar – a nice picture and a whole year to stick up  250 from £81.90

14 MONTH CALENDARS
Starts in December and runs ‘til January 2018 – up a month earlier, stay a month later  250 from £259.20

14-month-calendar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Customers are people too. Give gifts and make them feel special.

And maybe they’ll feel like giving you a bit more business in return?

Customers often aren’t as loyal as we’d all like to think. Building relationships increases the loyalty odds and, as we know, loyalty means repeat business.

You’ve gone to the effort of gaining the customer and all the research shows, selling to existing customers is cheaper than finding new ones. So it’s worth nurturing each special relationship.

Free gift inside
A time-bound discount is sometimes a good way to prompt people to buy, especially for customers who are solely motivated by price. But that’s not everyone.

The trouble with discounting is it sets an expectation of a lower price next time the customer is ready to buy.

Consider giving them a free gift with their purchase instead. One benefit is that it incentivises the person placing the order – and that may not necessarily be the person paying the invoice. Think of all those airline miles, paid for by companies, redeemed on trips to Barbados. Or the stationery supplier who gives a free biscuits with every order, compared to the one who’s a little cheaper.

Who do you think the office junior will order from? Correct. And their next tough decision is who’s going to brew up.

The world is your mousemat…
So how do you go about choosing the right promotional gifts to get your message across? There are thousands of gifts available – from the clever to the bizarre.

Top 10 things people keep on their desk…new-pens-white

  1.  Pens
  2.  Calendars
  3.  Mousemats
  4.  Sticky notes
  5.  Pencils
  6.  Deskpads
  7.  Calculators
  8.  Diaries
  9.  Notebooks
  10.  Champagne (maybe the fridge)

benefits of branded giftsMake them useful
89% of people say they would keep an item if it were useful. Makes sense, if it has a use, customers will use it.

Make it relevant
If the gift complements your business or your customer demographic, you won’t get funny looks. Try a bottle opener if you run a wine shop. Or a sports bottle if you own a gym. How about a mousemat if you repair computers?

It’s about perceived value

That’s how much it’s worth to the customer, rather than what it costs you. The more valuable your gift is perceived to be, the better the response. A wall planner might cost you 30p each – but your customer would have to pay ten times that to buy one from a shop.

Talk to your local studio and we’ll find some gifts to suit your business.

 

 

 

What Makes Great Seasonal Branding?

Plan Your Seasonal BrandingWhether it’s Christmas, Halloween or the height of balmy summer, seasonal branding can get you noticed, define or change how customers perceive you, and even improve sales. This Christmas for example, small businesses everywhere will be wondering how best to adapt their marketing materials to cash in on the warm glow and deep pockets of the season.

Of course, the real challenge lies in balancing festive exuberance with brand continuity. It’s really important you don’t forget who you are, or your customers might too. Make sure you avoid drowning out your messaging or selling point with jingle bells and glitter, keeping your seasonal branding coherent and in tune with your core identity.

Planning your campaign

When it comes to planning your seasonal branding efforts, it boils down to two crucial elements: relevance and consistency.

Choose your season or event carefully – trying to cover everything from Pancake Day to Burns Night will be exhausting for both you and your customers. Which is most relevant to your audience and your product or service? Of course, everybody likes Christmas, but if you’re a health clinic or a tanning salon you might want to reconsider!

Consistency is important both across the seasons and across your marketing output. The brand experience should be seamless, whether the customer is looking at your business card, brochure, press ad, website or Twitter feed, whether it’s Christmas day or August bank holiday.

The key to this is setting your core identity in stone, and always referring back to this. Use it as the starting point for any seasonal branding, rather than starting with a seasonal idea and then trying to ‘brand it’.

Seasonal BrandingTop tips for capturing the season’s feelings

If you’re considering some festive branding this Christmas, check out our top tips and ideas for inspiration:

Logo

It’s risky changing your logo too much as it’s so central to your identity, but it could have a subtle addition in keeping with the season. Take Tesco – the paper crown balanced jauntily over the O barely detracts from their famous logo, but adds an element of fun and evokes nostalgia for family Christmas dinners from years gone by.

Colour scheme

Every season has its own colour palette, which can immediately inspire the right mood and Christmas has several. There’s the Dickens Christmas of deep reds, greens and gold, the sleek and icy Christmas of silver and pale blue, or the cosy Nordic Christmas evoked by bright red, white and parcel paper brown. If your branding is normally neutral a splash of colour will evoke Christmas cheer, but if you’ve already got a strong colour scheme it may be a challenge matching it up.

Images

Although we all love reindeer and snowmen and Father Christmas, it’s difficult to incorporate this with your normal branding if you’re not usually very playful or exuberant. From subtle snowflakes or holly boughs, to minimal calligraphy or stylish line drawings, there are plenty of ways to incorporate festive images without being too twee.

Words

Carefully crafted copy can inspire those feelings of warmth – be emotive and cheerful, but stick to your core messaging. Copy is also really important if you’re sending out branded Christmas cards – go the extra mile with the message inside so it’s not too generic. It might be tempting to use a festive font, but if you’ve got a house font used across other marketing materials it may help keep things consistent.

Medium

Think outside the box – you’re not restricted to Christmas cards or promotional flyers! If you have a product, why not adjust the packaging, like the star-studded red cups Starbucks serves its Christmas lattes in? Meanwhile if you’re service-led and looking for a subtle option, seasonal business stationery can inspire the right feelings without impacting on your serious image. And if you want to go all out, branded promotional gifts always go down well!

Starbucks Christmas Cups

Branding is all about defining who you are and what you stand for, and associating feelings and concepts with your name. Seasons come and go and can be leveraged, but your core identity should be recognisable all year round.

Article by: Peppermint Soda is a full service creative and PR agency in Manchester, specialising in branding, design, advertising and digital.

Christmas is coming…

…and sooner than you think!

Picture it now. Lights turned down low, carol singers warbling outside, chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Yep, it’s that time of year again when we come over all festive. And boy have we turned up the heat on our Christmas range this year.

We’ve got our biggest range of exclusive Christmas Card designs ever. Choose your favourite and easily personalise with your details – no design skills needed. Change text, choose colours and fonts. Add your own logo or type in your business name and personalise the message on the inside. All of our Edit&Go Christmas Cards are half price during October, get 50 from £78 including envelopes.

While many people are barely into the “back to work” routine after Summer, some of our customers have already started planning their Christmas promotions.

During October organise your festive calendar gifts. With 25% off Fourteen Month Calendars and Wallplanners, there’s never been a better time to make sure you’re on your customers walls all year round –€“ make sure your competition don’t get there first.

Start Planning Christmas Today


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