Holiday E-Cards and Spreading Joy: The Art of Building Better Experiences

E-cards are a growing trend not only in the consumer space but in the B2B world as well, allowing your business to spread holiday cheer while reflecting on the past year and looking forward to what’s next.

Published digitally and distributed either through your website or an email campaign, these cards allow your business to save money on printing costs while reaching a broader audience.

In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of what you need to know about the topic and provide some essential tips for ensuring your campaign is set up for success.

The benefits of holiday e-cards

E-cards can come in various shapes and sizes, ranging from animated videos to custom pages hosted on your website. Often they include animation, pictures, video, music, and messages to create a 30-90 second unique experience.

As with most marketing campaigns, e-cards are designed and published with a specific goal in mind. However, in most cases, the purpose of such a card is limited to a few key areas:

• Increase awareness of the business and foster goodwill by spreading holiday cheer among customers and employees (staying top of mind).
• Express thanks and gratitude toward a particular audience (“this holiday season, we would like to recognize our sales associates for the excellent work they’ve done in the past year…”).
• Acknowledge the major wins of the past year and discuss the opportunity to strive for even greater success in the new year (“we distributed over one million tons of lumber to local construction projects this year…”).
• Foster superior brand, client, and employee experiences by highlighting your business’s guiding principles (using the holiday to reinforce and display your brand messaging).

The goals of holiday e-cards are often less about direct conversions and profitability, and more about taking advantage of the opportunity to say something important to a particular group. Whether that’s recognizing and showing gratitude to your employees or reinforcing your culture and core values to clients, e-cards tell a story that best represents your brand in a positive light.

What's the best way to create and publish holiday e-cards?

A holiday e-card can range from simple to complex. Whether you create the e-card yourself or work with an agency, the process remains the same:

1. Determine your goals for the campaign (awareness, gratitude, reinforcing the brand, etc.).
2. Create a few wireframed storyboards, each focusing on a different theme or angle for presenting the content — determining the assets that will be needed.
3. Select the storyboard that most closely matches the message you’re trying to convey.
4. Produce the e-card by combining elements of animation, video, images, voice-over, and music.
5. Determine the distribution method with your e-card either playing on a landing page, sharing on social media, or delivering via email.
6. Send out the e-card to your target audience.

Get started on your next holiday e-card today

E-cards present a unique opportunity to express your brand in new and interesting ways — allowing you to highlight employee contributions, promote your guiding principles, express gratitude to your clients, and otherwise promote your brand in the eyes of your key audiences.

However, holiday e-cards also take time and resources to produce, so it’s generally wise to start planning early to ensure you have enough time to create a polished final product going into the new year.