I was doing a search at the forums here and came across this thread and was very interested to read all the responses.
I was sending out Christmas cards to clients that I'd bought from a charity or one of those foot painter organisations. One way of giving back to a group as well as acknowledging clients I appreciate.
One of my long-term clients every year sends out Christmas Cards, New Year Cards, and Easter cards, usually with small gifts. She got me to handwrite them for her (I've been her Virtual Assistant for over 12 years) and to purchase small Easter eggs or other gifts relevant to the time of year. She's done this with all her major clients and they've stayed with her, year after year. She also would send me a birthday card when it was my birthday and occasionally a thank you card acknowledging the work I've done for her.
The value of receiving a card in the mail should not be underestimated. Emails are easily overlooked and/or deleted and phone conversations are nice but you can't put them on a shelf and re-read them over and again. Cards you can.
I've recently set up a
blog about the value of sending cards personally to people and the 'gift of encouragement'. I've recently set up an account with Send Out Cards where I can personalise the cards with my own photos (some samples are on the blog) but I can choose to use any one of their 10,000+ templates also. Although the system is US owned, the printing and postage of the cards sent to Australian addresses is done here in Australia. And the cost is considerably less than it would be if I had to print up my own cards or even in going to the newsagents. Added benefit is that these cards are printed on recycled paper.
If you write another article for this year about acknowledging clients at Christmas time I can't emphasise enough how cards can speak volumes long after they've been received.