Merry Christmas Archives - Motherhood, Marketing, and Medical Mayhem

: Merry Christmas from the Mostyns!

Right now, I should be getting my presentations together for Affiliate Summit West 2011 (hey, look, it’s an affiliate link!) and MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Forum 2011 (sadly, no affiliate link for this one), but I wanted to take a few moments (or sentences) to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011 to us all!

Now that the kids are teens, we got to “sleep in” until about 9A this morning. As is our tradition, we got up and found out what was in our Christmas stockings and then proceeded to open presents and spend the day together and finished up by joining the whole Mostyn family for dinner.

The holidays are a time for reflections and I have so much to be thankful for this year. I hope that you have had a wonderful year and that 2011 is even better!

Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, or Merry Christmas?

: Does your company use Santa Claus as their winter holiday representative?

I work for an international travel medical and security assistance company. The opinions expressed below are my own and may not represent those of the company where I work.

Our company sent generic holiday greetings via email to our subscribers – no mention of Santa Claus, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, or any other holiday – just a general sentiment that no matter where in the world you are this holiday season, you are wished peace and joy. Seems innocent enough, right? Apparently we weren’t specific enough with our season’s greetings for at least one subscriber. He asked to be removed because if I couldn’t wish him a Merry Christmas, then he didn’t want to be subscribed to our email list.

While I would love to have an email list that is specific enough to let me know what winter holiday each customer celebrates, unfortunately many companies (including the one where I work) do not have lists that targeted, so rather than further upset that reader, we removed him from our holiday greetings email campaigns.

Unless your company has a specific religious orientation like Catholic Charities USA or The Jewish Federations of North America, or represents a specific culture like the African American Cultural Center in Los Angeles, or has ties to any of the other winter festivals, it is my opinion that sending a holiday email with a generic “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” message is better than not sending any message at all.

Are you able to segment your emails to something as specific as holiday preference? If so, how did you gather that information? If not, what do you think – is it better to say Happy Holiday or Season’s Greetings, or is Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or Enjoy the Winter Solstice the way to go? Please post a comment below and let me know what you would recommend!

Thanks to Tutorial9.net for the wonderful Santa graphic!