Holiday gifts for prospects?

I got a question this week from Jackson Foster of theID-entity.com. He writes:

Q: Is is appropriate to give a holiday gift (in this case a Starbucks $10 gift card) to potential clients; those I have called on but not actually received a project from yet?

A: It is definitely appropriate to give holiday gifts to prospects, especially if you really want to work with them. I'd say so in the card too. The holidays are a big-time marketing opportunity in my opinion.

Any other opinions out there?

Comments

[Boris Mahovac - Email Marketing Coach]

I send my "holiday" cards the last week of December. That way my cards arrive after most others have been discarded (recycled, I hope :)

I do send gift cards - but only to existing clients, not prospects.

I've found the easiest way to send automated postcards and greeting cards using http://www.SendOutCards.com/20175

You create a "campaign" card, then simply select a group of people you want to send it to and you're done. It's like sending an email blast - with personalization and all - only with real cards delivered through the mail.

Note from Colleen: Thanks, Boris. SendOutCards has come up on the blog before. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the link Boris provides is an affiliate link; if you'd prefer to access the site without an affiliate link, you can do so here: http://sendoutcards.com.

[AP]

Interesting that Colleen would tell the readers Boris' link is an affilated link. Is he really advertising for himself or someone close to him? Even if he is, did his comment take away from the content/comment he provided? I too like sendoutcards. It's another system or service to keep you connected to your prospects/clients. If you are pressed for time, you can og on to their site, pick cards, write a personal message, and they do all of the other leg work from there; Printing,addressing and mailing.

I personally wouldn't reward my prospect without first establishing a fair trade. If they have not at least verbally committed to doing business with me, I am selling myself short and spending money on someone or something that does not have a clear ROI, doesn't make sense to me.

[Kathy Piersall]

This year, I am making a donation to FeedingAmerica.org in the name of my company and clients. I’ve picked 50 top contacts and sent them a custom-designed card (since I’m a graphic designer who specializes in print collateral) that’s based on this donation. (The card also includes a web link to a pretty terrific chili recipe.) I also created a simple e-card version of my printed card, and send that to a larger group of contacts using Constant Contact.

Here's the link:http://tinyurl.com/4l7wgf. (Hope it is not inappropriate to include this link - if so, please remove and let me know so I won't do it next time.)

[Boris Mahovac - Email Marketing Coach]

Thanks @AP, that was my primary motivation - to share a good resource.

Yes, my link to SendOutCards is an affiliate link, but the only reason I gave it is because it's not possible to sign up with SOC unless you have a "sponsor" i.e. an affiliate who refers you to them.

Here's another good resource: if you're thinking of email marketing, you can get postcards, email and surveys from VerticalResponse.com (no affiliation :)

[Colleen Wainwright]

Hey, Boris (and AP).

Understood about not being able to sign up for SOC without the link being an affiliate one, and I didn't mean to cast aspersion nor insinuate any evil motives.

I try to be scrupulous in all my Internet dealings about paid (affiliate) links, and we ask the same of visitors here. All that would have been necessary was the brief explanation you gave in your follow-up comment.

Thanks for reminding me that we should probably have a "policies" page here on the Marketing Mix blog.

Still friends, right? :-)

[Boris Mahovac - Email Marketing Coach]

Friends, of course :-) We're all doing our best to fight comment spam, right?