Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off

CHAPTER 62

PUT GREETING CARDS ON AUTOPILOT

Everyone likes to get personalized mail. I think most business owners have probably had the thought at one time or another that they should have some sort of personal greeting card service running in order to help them stay in touch with their partners, prospects, and customers.

But who has time?

It has never been easier to automate the process of sending cards to those that you know you should be staying in touch with. In much the same way that you can automatically send a series of e-mail messages spread out over time (see Part 13 about e-mail automation), you can also do the same thing with greeting cards. A good card service will also allow you to drop in the mail a fully customized, spur-of-the-moment card with your handwriting inside it. You can do all this without touching pens, stamps, or envelopes. By making the card you send out informal, fun, or even humorous you can establish a great deal of rapport with those that you are sending cards to.

One of the people that is better at this than anyone I know is David Frey. I've learned a great deal from him about automating my own greeting card efforts while maintaining a strong personal touch inside each card. I have no idea how many people David stays in touch with this way, but barely a month goes by without him sending me a personal card of some sort with a funny or timely word of encouragement inside it. I have a link on the resource page if you're interested in learning more about ...