How to Make Ho-Ho-Holiday Cards

It's beginning to look a lot like holiday card season. Whether you're wishing your clients a merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, or a more general season's greetings, it's important you get your messaging just right. Read on to find out how to write, design, create, and send holiday cards that add that extra personal touch and a little bit of fun!

Design:

The first thing to think about when designing your card is what your card will celebrate. A card wishing someone a happy new year will be thematically different than one wishing someone a merry Christmas. Once that's decided, choose what tone you want your card to take. Will your card be serious? Whimsical? Cheery? Hopeful?

Use that to determine what colors and fonts you'll incorporate into your card. Gold, silver, and black are good colors for more serious themes, while red, green, and blue are good for more light-hearted themes. Choose whether you will use an image or text focused design on your card, then sketch out what you would like your card to look like.

Another design consideration is where to include your logo and contact information. While holiday cards aren't the place to present an elaborate business proposal, it is okay to ask for new business. You should make it easy to get in touch with you if someone wants to send a referral your way. Consider using the back of your card for this purpose.

Write:

Play to your strengths when deciding what you want your holiday cards to say. Some people are poets and some...aren't. If you're an open, sincere person, write an open, sincere holiday greeting. If you tend to have a more energetic personality, work that energy into your holiday card. Try to keep the traditional holiday greetings (like Merry Christmas!) on the cover of your card so that the inside your card can be more personalized. Websites like Calligraphr will turn your actual handwriting into a font so you can send your clients "handwritten" cards without the inevitable writing cramps.

The text inside your card can be as little as a sentence or two or as much as a few paragraphs if you want to update your clientele on how your year went or explain any new developments you have on the horizon. Just remember not to turn your holiday cards into a sales pitch and to proofread your text before finalizing your cards.

Create and Send:

If you're new to creating your own holiday cards, companies like Shutterfly and Vistaprint provide templates you can work from. All you have to do is choose a design and edit the fonts, colors, and images to fit your needs. If you're a bit more experienced, you can use your preferred software to design your card on your own and send the specs to a local printer. Just remember to order your cards at least 2-3 weeks before you hope to send them out.

If you can, send a card to all leads, clients, past clients, and other contacts. If you don't have the time and resources to send a card to everyone you know, focus on current and past clients for printed cards and email everyone else a digital copy. Your current clients will appreciate the gesture and your past clients are a great referral source.

With these tips in mind, go forth, create your cards, and spread some holiday cheer! For other fun holiday tips and ideas, download our free holiday eBooks, Home for the Holidays Handbook and the Holiday Entertaining Guide.

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.