Before you know it, the holiday season will be here. Each year many firms embark on the annual tradition of sending out holiday greetings to clients and friends of the firm.

While this process can be time-consuming and overwhelming, it’s crucial to ensure that the effort put into creating and distributing these cards is not wasted.

One way to maximize the impact of your holiday card mailing is through effective list cleaning.

In this blog post, Chris Fritsch explores the importance of holiday card list cleaning and provide practical tips to streamline your holiday card process.

Why List Cleaning Matters: Holiday card list cleaning involves regularly updating contact information, removing bounced emails, eliminating duplicates and purging outdated or irrelevant contacts. By undertaking this process, you can ensure that your holiday cards reach the right people and increase the effectiveness of your interactions. Moreover, maintaining a clean holiday card list helps improve your overall email marketing engagement rates. It also protects your sender reputation from potential damage caused by bounces, unsubscribes and spam complaints.

Getting Started: To begin the holiday card list cleaning process for your holiday card mailing, start by reviewing last year’s master holiday list. Determine whether any contacts need to be added, updated or removed. It’s highly likely that there may be invalid or outdated email addresses from the previous year, so take the time to research and update or remove them before involving other professionals or administrators in the process.

Key Questions to Ask: As you work with the updated holiday card list, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do contacts have the necessary information? If you plan to send the cards via email or postal mail, remove any contacts that don’t have a valid email or physical mailing address.

2. Are there inactive or unknown contacts? Identify contacts who are no longer known by anyone at the firm, have no recent activities, or may be deceased. It’s essential to remove such contacts to maintain an up-to-date and relevant list.

3. What about contacts associated with former professionals? Review contacts connected to professionals who are no longer with your firm. Vet these contacts with current professionals to re-establish relationships, or remove them if they are no longer relevant.

4. Are there processes for managing unsubscribe requests? Ensure that you have established procedures for promptly removing contacts who have requested to unsubscribe. Ignoring such requests can lead to recipients marking your messages as spam, damaging your future email deliverability and reputation.

Embrace Year-Round List Hygiene: While the focus may be on holiday card mailings, implementing list cleaning practices should be an ongoing effort throughout the year. Regularly maintaining and updating your contact lists will not only improve the effectiveness of your holiday mailings but also enhance your overall marketing efforts. It allows you to reach the right audience with relevant and targeted communications.

List cleaning is an essential step in ensuring the success of your holiday card mailing. By regularly updating contact information, removing invalid or irrelevant contacts, and respecting unsubscribe requests, you can streamline your process and increase the impact of your holiday greetings.

Remember, maintaining a clean and up-to-date list is a year-round effort that will benefit all your future communications. Get in the spirit of effective list management and make your holiday card mailing a smooth and successful endeavor. Reach out to us for help managing your holiday card lists.