What Does Your eMail REALLY Say?

What Does Your eMail Really Say?
eMail Holiday Cards May Send the Wrong Message

By BIG Mike McDaniel

Thinking about saving time and postage this holiday
season by sending your greetings by eMail? Don’t.

Using eMail will get the greeting delivered all right,
but it might not be the message you want to convey.
eMail is great for rapid communication. eMail is
terrific for business. eMail it is great for old
friends to keep in touch. But eMail is a real
flop when it comes to expressing genuine
emotion or caring.

The sentiment expressed when you snail-mail a card,
picked by you, addressed by you and signed by you
cannot be duplicated on a color monitor. Some
people like to use the free electronic greeting
cards that send an eMail message that points
the recipient to a web page that has an antimated
greeting card, some artificial music, and an ad
for a product! What feeling does that convey?

Think back to holidays past and the joy of opening
cards and reading the handwritten messages. Now consider
how you felt when the card was factory imprinted
with the name or business of the sender, or worse,
how you felt when your name was stickered on the
front by a computer label.

I help people and businesses better understand and
use eMail. With over 50 Billion eMail messages traveling
around the globe every day, there is not a lot of
room for the flat emotion of an eMail holiday greeting.
First, more than half of the people who use eMail
still see only plain vanilla text. Newer and fancier
eMail programs allow the reader to see fancy pages
with color and photos, called HTML. But if you send
an HTML encoded eMail message to a friend with
plan vanilla text eMail, your message will be lost
in lists of code and funny characters. I tell my
audiences to stay away from eMail greetings at
holiday time.

Many people put their snail-mail (US Post Office)
address in the “signature” at the end of their
eMail messages. Most eMail programs will do
that automatically on every message, if you ask.
Start now, collecting post office addresses so
you can mail a sentiment to your friends.

You can keep your holiday list in the computer,
nothing wrong with that, but leave the labels
in the drawer and print the list only as a
guide for hand addressing those envelopes.
Get the family involved. Everyone can address,
even the kids.

If you feel comfortable with your computer,
check into printing your own greeting cards.
There are a number of programs available at
office and computer supply stores that will
design and print cards for you, for any occasion.
They come with blank cards and envelopes.
Make sure the program you select has refills
and additional card blanks available.

Exercise restraint when making your own cards…
it is so easy to let the computer print your
name on the inside like those factory imprints
that most of us find so distasteful. I recommend
you make, or purchase, several styles of cards.
Cards with a Jolly Santa, A Holiday Tree, A
Serene Setting and a Religious Theme, or more.

Send different sentiments to different friends,
business associates and relatives. You may want
to send a “Happy Holidays” card to those who
might be offended at “Merry Christmas”.

Whether you print or purchase your variety
of greeting cards, choose ones that use the
same size envelope. By doing this, you can
have an address party instead of watching TV
and get all the envelopes done at one time.

Then have another party (a week later) to
select and sign the cards. Take the time to
add a personal note on every card, it will
convey emotion and friendship so much more
than just your signature.

Hold back on the desire to insert one of
those “what we did this year” newsletters.
Those tend to say the recipient is not
important enough to have heard from the
you at the time of the breaking news.
If there is big news in your family in
June, print your card list and hand address
some notes, don’t wait until December.

Most holiday cards will still mail for 37 cents
even with a picture enclosed. Sort though
the many pictures taken this year and
choose one or more to insert with your cards.
Order your reprints now, so you have plenty of time.

If you took pictures with your computer camera,
you can get special glossy paper to print pictures
that look like drug store originals. Don't make
them too big. There is nothing tacky about
using your computer to add a caption to the
picture before you print it. Computer or drug store,
be sure all photos have names and dates of those
pictured. Oh, if Grandma had only done that,
those old pictures in the drawer would have
some much more meaning now.

The Post Office always wants you to mail early,
but for best emotional results hold off until
after the first of December. In 1860, the goal of
the Pony Express was to get mail from St. Joseph,
Missouri to Sacramento, California in ten days.
Not much has changed. Mail before December 10
or your snail-mail may not make it in time.

Convey your message of friendship, love
and business communication in a very personal
way this holiday by not using eMail
for seasons greetings.

Copyright 2003 BIG Mike McDaniel - All Rights Reserved
BIG Mike McDaniel is an Author, Professional Speaker
and Business Consultant with Advertising,
Promotion and Publicity ideas that really work.
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