Christmas Cards

The Christmas card is NOT a promotional piece—it’s simply a way to send our well wishes for the holidays. We like ours to be one of the first holiday cards that people get in the mail. To achieve this, start the Christmas card process in early August!

Early August

Have Leo, Robin, Erny, Nick, Maggie, the salespeople and Aimee meet before shoot to discuss the card concepts, color and theme of clothes, and what props are needed

• Two drastically different cards – one for the store, one for Leo’s personal use
• Make them different sizes
• Family pictures are used for both cards
• Colors are always green, red, gold for at least one card, maybe both
• Possibly traditional colors for one, modern colors for the other
• Christmas background or theme – decorated tree?

Elements to include on the Christmas card:

• A holiday theme, holiday-ish colors, etc.
• The words “Merry Christmas”
• On the inside: “Merry Christmas from our family to yours”
• Our logo (small on the back)
• Ensure all names are spelled correctly (Leo, Penelope, Scarlett, Alexis, Little Leo)
• Make sure no one’s face is in the crack when you fold the card
• DO NOT put the website address or “call for a free catalog”
• Leave space for salespeople and Leo to write a message
• Make sure that paper or at least signature part is easy to write on and doesn’t smear
• Use nice paper that doesn’t wrinkle (paper in 2013 wrinkled)
• Add something religious to the design: a star, cross, angel, etc.

Elements to include on the envelope:

• Our logo (in the return address area)
• A holiday theme, holiday-ish colors, etc.
• DO NOT put the website address or “call for a free catalog”
• Make sure that paper or at least address part is easy to write on and doesn’t smear
• Use nice paper that doesn’t wrinkle (paper in 2013 wrinkled)

Schedule photo shoot with Leo’s family

• Get all photos done in one day to save time

Choose a mailing list

See previous years’ CSWs for what we’ve done in the past. (4500 + 500 in 2015)

For the xmas card list 2014, we had these names on the list:

• Customers with a profit of $100+ in CURRENT YEAR plus
• Customers with a profit of $1000+ for the past 2 years
• Customers with a profit of $5000+ for the past 5 years

Plus, you must order EXTRAS:

• 400 total extra for salespeople who lose some cards, mess-ups, VIPs who didn’t make the list, etc.
• 25 for Maggie
• 50 total for Admin (Amanda, Robin)
• 500 for Leo’s personal card
• 30 for Repair
• 100 per each wholesale buyer and manager

• CSW and PO for the Christmas cards and envelopes.

Mailing list and printing

• When you make the mailing list, be sure to sort the names by SALESPERSON.
• Keep a master list with ALL names.
• Separate each salesperson’s names onto different tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet to make it easy for the salespeople to find their customers.
• Within each salesperson’s tab, sort the names from largest to smallest PROFIT. Always remember to keep profit on the spreadsheet for the salespeople so they can write personalized notes.
• Ask Brad at SOS to keep the cards separated by salesperson when he prints them.

• CSW, PO, and order festive Christmassy stamps that match the cards and envelopes. Consider the holiday stamps USPS offers before creating the card art.
• CSW, PO, and order or buy fine tip Sharpies for the salespeople and helpers to write on the cards and envelopes with; regular pens do not look good on the glossy surface.
• Make sure we have plenty of glue sticks to seal the envelopes.
• Find people to help address the envelopes; ask Amanda—she might already have a few people in mind that are friends of the store.

• When the cards arrive from the printer, distribute them as soon as possible and give everyone a deadline for finishing them (before Thanksgiving).
• Finishing includes signing and/or writing a personal note, addressing, and stamping.
• Leo likes to sign most of them too, so make sure he does that before they’re sealed.
• Tell everyone not to mail the cards themselves, but to turn them in to you so you can send them all together on the same day.