What Do You Give Your Clients for Christmas?
Working primarily with realtors, the idea of pop-by's has been drilled into my head. With the Christmas season in full-swing, showing a little appreciation to the people who pay your bills is a great idea.
1. Pinterest Christmas Snacks
People love to snack and winter is a completely justifiable time to put on a layer of insulation.
Things like peppermint brownies, grinchy green cookies, and candy cane jello shots thrill most people because it appears that you've put some effort in. However, there are hacks.
-Peppermint brownies: Most grocery stores sell brownie bites or trays of brownies. For those of us who can't bake, this is sooooo convenient. Just take a jar of cream cheese frosting, crush up some candy canes or peppermint candies, mix them in, and spread. Viola! Peppermint brownies.
-Grinchy green cookies: Buy pre-made cookie dough and green food coloring. Knead food coloring into dough. Put in oven. Boom.
-Candy cane jello shots: Add peppermint schnapps to red and white jello mixes. Pour red into tray and cool in the fridge. Pour white layer over red and cool in the fridge. Keep doing that. Once you have however many layers you want, cut into squares. You will be the office hero!
2. Branded Gifts
When doing branded gifts, it is my opinion that stapling a business card to a blanket is underwhelming. If you want your logo on something, it needs to be printed or embroidered ON THE GIFT.
-People will throw your business card away and they will not care who gave them the blanket or hat or socks.
-If your logo is cool, it will make the gift even cooler. My logo is super hipster and amazing, so I will be doing whimsical socks and dad hats.
-People will think you put forethought into these gifts even though you probably did not.
-Free advertising when they use the gift.
-VistaPrint almost always has some kind of promo code and three day shipping for about $20-ish.
3. Gifts Related to Your Services
-As someone who deals with social media and digital marketing, computer-related gifts are generally the way to go. USB drives, bungee phone chargers, headphones, any kind of accessory are usually pretty affordable but seem more expensive than, like, a brownie.
-For my realtor buddies, a big trend are those wooden cutting boards that have the city engraved into them or anything you can get at World Market.
-Several of my clients have written novels or autobiographies, and my best friend is a writer slash english-teacher-to-be. For them, I'm thinking some "fancy" (not really) pens. You can get engraved ones for less than $15 here.
-The secret is to seem thoughtful without spending too much money, AKA Googling.
4. Try a Reverse Pop-By
Throw a lunch! Have a mimosa bar! Have them come to you for a "client appreciation party"! Save yourself the stress of addressing dozens of envelopes and driving around town like a taxi. Buy a bunch of pastries from a local shop (#supportlocal), grab some OJ and few bottles of Mumm's. If you want to be fancy, buy a few kinds of juices and some fruit.
-Not only does this save you a TON of time, social events are super fun and there's alcohol and carbs. You can't go wrong.
