Holiday & Business Anniversary Promotions: The Gifts That Keep On Giving by Pauline Bartel, Bartel Communications Inc
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Like brightly wrapped, beribboned packages, holidays and business anniversaries hold promise for your business. When you use them as occasions to remember and thank your customers, holidays and business anniversaries become the gifts that keep on giving: giving you top-of-the-mind awareness and giving customers incentives to purchase. Here are three ideas for using holidays and business anniversaries to promote your business.

Use the year-end holidays to set the stage for a successful New Year. Sending handwritten thank-you notes at Thanksgiving or Christmas is the simplest way of showing appreciation to your customers. Sending a unique holiday card that you’ve created shows off your design, photography, and/or illustration skills and sets you apart from your competitors. Enclose a gift certificate or a discount coupon for your products or services as an added token of gratitude for past business and as an incentive for future business. Consider, too, sending your one-of-a-kind card to prospective clients as part of a year-end direct mail campaign.

For the next step up in customer appreciation during the holidays, combine your handwritten note or unique holiday card with a gift or a gift basket. Send a travel mug, for example, imprinted with your company’s name and logo, containing a gift card from a local coffee house. Assemble a gift basket, brimming with boxes of gourmet coffee and tea and packages of biscotti or scones.

Incredible edibles such as fine chocolates, hand-decorated cookies, or sumptuous fruits make excellent gifts that will help your customers remember you all year. But if you prefer sending tangible rather than consumable gifts, choose your items carefully. Will your customers proudly display your gift on their desks or in their offices all year? Or will they toss your token into the trash? The impression tangible gifts make on your recipients will reflect back on you and your company.

Use year-round holidays to stand out from the crowd. The approach of the year-end holidays signals an avalanche of customer appreciation and promotional cards and gifts. Stand out from the crowd by timing your promotion for other holidays during the year. For Valentine’s Day, send cards to your customers, stating “We LOVE having you as our customer!” For Halloween, send candy-filled trick-or-treat bags with a note, saying “It’s been our treat serving you this year!”

Use holidays that tie in with your product or service to remind customers how important they are to you. For National Arbor Day (last Friday in April), a tree service can send notes, telling customers “Thank you for helping us grow this year!” For National Ice Cream Day (third Sunday in July), a dairy store can reward customers with coupons for free ice cream cones or sundaes. Find dates for other such celebrations in Chase’s Calendar of Events, available on-line or at your local bookstore.

Use business anniversaries to promote your business all year. Celebrating your business anniversary with a promotional campaign shows appreciation to your customer base, spreads awareness of your products or services, and trumps your competitors (who probably don’t recognize an anniversary’s promotional power). As a result, your business anniversary promotion becomes a yearlong “sell”-abration, contributing directly to your future success.

Which business anniversaries are the best to celebrate? The milestone years – those ending in 0 or 5 – are, of course, the biggies. But you shouldn’t ignore the in-between business anniversary years. Each business anniversary is a chance to remember your customers and to remind them of your company’s staying power, achievements, and service to others. Do you want that marketing advantage once every 5 or 10 years or every year?

Here’s an example of a business anniversary promotional campaign in action. A company celebrating its 33rd business anniversary – Maple – could send maple-flavored candy to customers with a card, announcing the milestone and thanking customers for the company’s “sweet success.” To thank employees for their loyalty and hard work, a company could hold a pancake breakfast cooked by senior staff and served with commemorative bottles of maple syrup. A company could also plant maple trees in a local park as a community-service project that would thank the community at large for the company’s success and longevity.

Planning your business anniversary promotion is easy with free information from Bartel Communications, Inc., the business anniversary ideas expert. Download a free brochure and Special Report at the company’s Web site www.paulinebartel.com to get started.

The brochure, “The Bartel Years™,” provides a roster of business anniversary symbols to inspire business anniversary ideas for a century of business anniversary promotions. Whether you’re celebrating your 7th business anniversary (Chocolate) or your 46th business anniversary (Nickel), these symbols spark business anniversary ideas for an array of promotional campaigns.
The Special Report, “The Top 10 Business Anniversary Ideas For ‘Sell’-abrating Your Business Anniversary,” is filled with ideas for promotional campaigns directed not only to customers but also to prospects, employees, and the community. Pick one or two ideas, add your own creativity, and you’ll be “sell”-abrating in no time.

Holidays and business anniversaries are like brightly wrapped, beribboned packages, holding promise for your business. When you use them as occasions to remember and thank your customers, holidays and business anniversaries become the gifts that keep on giving all year round: giving you top-of-the-mind awareness and giving your customers incentives to purchase. And those are gifts you can take to the bank.

Pauline Bartel is the President of Bartel Communications, Inc., a award-winning corporate communications firm, specializing in writing and editing, public relations and marketing, training and professional development.

Email: pauline@paulinebartel.com
Company Profile: Bartel Communications Inc
Company URL: http://www.paulinebartel.com

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