by Dave Balch
It's the holidays again and we all want to do something for our What to do for them? Buy a gift they may or may not want or Consider this: donation cards. I have used this concept with Print post cards that are self-addressed/postage-paid on one For AOL users: Bingo! Holiday shopping is complete, you have complete control 1. You can decide ahead of time how much you want to spend, and 2. Send each charity a copy of the cards that selected them, in 3. Historically it has been cheaper to put stamps on the cards
customers, right? We want to let them know how much we
appreciate them and their business, and we want to wish them and
their families a wonderful holiday season. Mostly, though, we'd
like to score some big points so they will continue to be our
customers! (Maybe we're just afraid we'll look stupid if we
don't do anything at all…)
need? Wine? Maybe they don't drink. Candy? Maybe they are
watching their weight. Calendars? Desk stuff? When's the last
time that you received something like that from someone that you
do business with? Did you like/want/need/appreciate it? My
guess is "No". So what can you do that everyone will appreciate
without breaking the bank?
great success. Here's what worked for me.
side. On the other side put a holiday message to the effect
"Thank you for your continued support during the past year. In
lieu of a gift of some sort, we felt a charitable donation in
your name would be more in keeping with the holiday spirit….", a
place for name and address, and a list of charities from which
they could choose. (You can see and borrow a sample from
http://www.TheStayAtHomeCEO.com/donationcard.htm )
Click Here
over the cost, and your customers will love it. Some thoughts:
then write the individual checks in proportion to the responses.
case they send acknowledgements.
than pay a business reply rate on only those that are returned.
You could let the customers pay the postage, but that would
defeat the purpose!
4. Printing the cards for several years in advance makes them 5. I wouldn't suggest letting individuals write-in a charity... 6. We tried to select the charities so that there would be 7. Several of my customers have told me that they always look 8. Many companies object to vendors sending gifts of any kind, How can you adapt this idea for your business? About the Author
Dave Balch generated over $5 million from his home-based
really inexpensive, and including them in my Christmas card gets
them into my customers' hands at no extra cost. The down side,
however, is that if something changes, the cards may be unusable.
you'll get too many different ones, which will be very expensive
by the time you write a check that is an amount worth sending,
research addresses, and keep track of it all.
something for everyone: three major diseases (Heart, Cancer,
Diabetes) and one for animal lovers (Actors and Others for
Animals). Now, something for September 11 might be appropriate
as well.
forward to getting my cards every year (we always use humorous
cards), and appreciate the donation.
but we have never run into an objection with this technique.
business.
Visit http://www.TheStayAtHomeCEO.com to
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past articles and newsletters. Comments and/or questions are
always welcome at 1-800-366-2347 or Dave@DaveBalch.com.