The rapid evolution of modern life that the internet has instigated means that certain traditions are as sacred as ever, especially when it comes to holidays. Take Christmas, for example. We still receive physical gift vouchers even though it would be just as easy to send an e-voucher, whilst the idea of a family living far apart meeting up on video chat for Christmas seems ridiculous. Christmas cards too; there’s something quite reassuring that in the fast pace of life, we can still rely on these traditions.

That’s not to say there haven’t been attempts to try and modernise these traditions however, with e-cards being one such innovation. E-cards are essentially digital greetings cards that can be delivered to a friend, family member or colleagues email inbox or mobile phone. E-cards are sometimes seen as somewhat impersonal but this article will outline why sending an e-card can actually be a fantastic alternative to traditional paper cards. While the tradition of card sending is one worth preserving, it’s well worth taking a look into e-cards, especially if you have a particularly large Christmas card list!

One of the obvious benefits of sending e-cards is the money you can save on paying for physical cards and postage. While the highest quality e-cards will cost you money, you can find plenty of designers offering free cards online. Obviously sending an email costs nothing, which means you save on the cost of a stamp too. This is particularly advantageous if you have friends living abroad, as the cost of sending mail abroad can be quite steep!

Sending a card digitally also means that you won’t have to worry about the understandably unreliable postal service around the holiday period. With an e-card, you can pick your design and schedule the date you want your card to land in the recipients’ inbox, which alleviates any fears of your card getting lost in the post or arriving late!

On a wider scale, e-cards are also far more environmentally friendly than physical Christmas cards – there’s no paper involved with the production of an e-card, and no wastage from the inevitable Christmas clean-up. It also helps reduce carbon emissions too, as there’s no physical transportation such as mail vans involved with sending an e-card.

E-cards are also recommended if you have a particularly large mailing list as they provide an inexpensive and easily manageable alternative to buying physical cards and writing out each address, a process which can take hours! Some e-card providers can offer bulk discounts on e-card recipients too, making it an ideal solution for businesses wanting to send customers something for the holidays as part of an email marketing campaign.

That’s not to say e-cards shouldn’t be considered for those only wanting to send a couple of cards over the holidays. E-cards offer a number of personalisation options that physical cards just can’t offer – after picking a design you can personalise it with your own message, pictures and even videos! This makes e-cards an especially good option to send to relatives who live far away or can’t be there over the holidays – attaching a video of the family to your e-card makes for a wonderful alternative to the traditional Christmas card.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Extravision, specialists in Christmas ecards

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Extravision (http://www.extravision.com), specialists in Christmas ecards.

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Extravision, specialists in Christmas ecards

Category: Advice
Keywords: christmas ecards, email marketing