How *Not* To Send a Christmas Message

You can see below a Christmas letter I received last week from a mortgage broker. We had used the mortgage broker when we refinanced a few years ago, but we hardly ever hear from her.

The Christmas message arrived in an envelope bearing the logo of the mortgage broking company (which I won’t mention here). It is a major company.

When I opened the envelope I was shocked (from a marketing perspective) to find that the sender had not mentioned her name at all. She didn’t even sign off with her name or company. No name, no company, no logo. Who is it from? I had to assume it was from the broker we used.

See what I mean…
(click image to enlarge)















I can understand the intention of the message was to provide a chatty year-in-review, New Year resolution-type of update.

However I am appalled at the thought that the sender thinks this is good client relations.

The problems:

* The message (and the envelope) never mentions who it is from.

* The opening line is confusing… do we match any?? (what are we matching?)

* Trying to sell me to attend investor seminars… inappropriate to do here. Better to send me another message specifically about that.

* Mentioning personal and family achievements is out of place, as the sender never takes time to ‘ever’ make contact at other times of year. Am I interested in what she has done with her frequent flyer points? (answer: not really)

* Signing off with “From our family to yours” is insincere… I’ve never met her family, and she doesn’t know ours. Importantly, we never hear from her at other times.

You might think I’m being a grump at Christmas time. But I’m not.

If you are going to send any message that purports to be personal, you must be sure to make personal contact. Don’t send a generic ‘personal’ note to people that you hardly ever contact.

Developing client relationships needs to be an ongoing strategy for you. Not just something you hurriedly do at Christmas time.