Two Kinds of Holiday E-Cards I Can't Stand

Amidst all this holiday cheer, allow a moment of grinchiness.

With all the holiday e-cards going around, two are starting to get to me.

1) The sales pitch.

This is NOT what an e-card’s for. It’s a way to acknowledge clients, prospects, partners, and others, not to sell to them. Every other email you send out during the year can have a sales pitch in it. Leave it out of the holiday card though. The one type of business that can get away with the sales pitch is a non-profit; this is precisely when they can rake in last- minute donations that qualify for the current year’s tax deductions while capitalizing on the giving spirit people get into. If you’re for-profit, your card must be non-pitch.

2) The click-through card.

Below is an example of an actual card sent my way.
This was the entire text of the card (they didn’t even bother adding in my name. And then as if I had nothing better to do, they  make me click to see some greeting I really don’t need in the first place, some generic exhortation of holiday cheer. Blah. Why would I waste my time?