T’is the season to say thanks ― and to be jolly.  Some of us don’t realize how important it is that we express our gratitude for the loyalty and patronage that our clients have given us throughout the year.  In this season’s Pet Care Catalog, we at Sharper™ have made it easier for professionals in the pet care practice or business to communicate their appreciation to clients for their continued loyalty, referrals and support.

Brand new this season is our Holiday & Calendar Store which offers a wide selection of personalized communications and giveaways.  Showcasing some of the best products to effectively retain client loyalty and promote referrals, the Holiday and Calendar Store is now open for your shopping pleasure.  Simply visit www.e-sharper.com/holidaystore2010 for more information.

Some of our other fun products that are featured in this season’s catalog are Thanksgiving and Halloween products ― yes, Halloween is arriving soon, and what a better way to celebrate the season than with our Postcards and Folding Cards.                      

Another one of our featured products in this new catalog is Holiday Toothbrushes, definitely a unique pet owner giveaway.  Designed to encourage proper pet oral hygiene, these toothbrushes are a great way to keep your contact information visible for your clients.

Visit our website today to easily shop online at www.e-sharper.com.  And don’t forget to check out some of our other popular products such as Sharper Tags™, Sharper Leashes™, Sharper Tote Bags™ and Sharper Magnets™.

This year it’s all about variety.

We’ve introduced a new selection of premium foil & embossed holiday cards that will build loyalty and motivate referrals.  Best of all, they come with FREE foil-lined envelopes for the extra touch of elegance!

Also featured in this catalog are Photo Holiday and Thanksgiving cards.  Send us a photo of you and your team and we will place it on the front of the card with your choice of a Holiday or Thanksgiving border.

And don’t miss out on our 2011 Calendars!  We have a variety of calendars for any budget including wall calendars, promotional and tri-fold calendars, magnet calendars and more.  Make sure to order early because if you place your order in September, you will receive 20% more calendars for FREE.  Click here for details.

Looking for a promotional giveaway this season?  BIC Pens are now available at Sharper™ and can be personalized with your practice or business information.  Mix and match trim, barrel and personalization colors to suit the brand of your business and keep your patients and clients talking about you into the new year.

Sure we’re still in the midst of summer, but with Fall & Winter approaching it’s a great idea to plan ahead by ordering your holiday products nice and early.

As a great incentive, we have a special offer on Holiday products for the month of August where you can get up to 30% more cards FREE on any of our Holiday, Thanksgiving, or Halloween cards. Click here for more details.

This year the holiday spirit must have kicked in early at Sharper™ because our selection of new business holiday cards is larger than ever. You can now find pet care premium holiday cards featuring exquisite varieties of foil and embossed treatments to show true appreciation for your pet owners. These come with foil-lined envelopes to add that extra touch of elegance.

We also have our standard veterinary holiday cards in every style imaginable. Whether you’re looking for modern, sophisticated, fun or cute we have the holiday card perfect for your practice or business.

What about thanking those pet owners who walk in to your office? Check out our new Halloween and Holiday veterinary toothbrushes that are a fun and functional giveaway for the upcoming Fall and Winter seasons.

For those of you that are on our mailing list, you probably already know that we generally come out with a new Dental catalog every month or so.

Contemporary Health catalogers are usually every 2 months.  Pet Care and Vision & Hearing are usually every 3 months or so.

With that in mind, our catalogs that come out in August or early fall always have a lot to look at!  It may seem very early for some but all of our holiday products are in those catalogs and they are incredible this year!  Also, we have a few new recall/reminder cards!

If you haven’t received the catalog yet…no worries, all of our designs are available through our website www.e-sharper.com.

These are my favorite picks for…

Dental Holiday Cards:

Dental Recall Cards:

Pet Care Holiday Cards:

Contemporary Health Holiday Cards (Chiropractic, Massage, Podiatry, Spa’s, Physiotherapy, etc…):

Vision Holiday Cards:

Audiology & Hearing Holiday Cards:

Financial Holiday Cards:

General Holiday Cards:

I don’t know about you, but I have to say that I really like pens!  I like them so much that I rarely buy them because I have a collection of pens from hotels I’ve been to and companies I have done business with.  Did you know that the average pen will switch hands amongst 5 different people?  What could be a nicer and more effective touch to build loyalty with your clients and maximize your advertising than to offer them a personalized pen? Sharper™ offers 4 different pens by BIC to suit your style.

Not only is BIC one of the most well-known brands of pen manufacturers in the world, but one of the nicest things about these pens when you order through Sharper™, is that you can customize the barrel color, trim color, ink color and print color!  These options allow you to choose either your favorite colors, or for greater effect, choose the colors which are reflected in your company logo.  Just ask us and we will gladly print your logo or website right on the pen for added advertising!
Consider these pens not only as a giveaway item, but also as part of your office supplies.  In the age of the electronic message, a handwritten message and signature on Sharper™ Orthodontic birthday cards, Cat and Dog sympathy cards, Congratulations cards, Veterinary and Financial Holiday cards is never out of style.  You can also use these BIC pens for writing down dates on Eye Care Appointment Cards.
BIC pens are so versatile.  They fit easily into purses, wallets, and pockets.
Quick fact: Have you ever wondered what the name BIC stands for?
Answer: It is a shortened version of the founder’s name, Marcel Bich.

BIC pens at Sharper™.  Share one today!

There is nothing like acknowledging your patients or clients with a greeting card. Many businesses tend to forget about small details that will help them grow as a company. A simple reminder to those who contribute to your business shows not only the appreciation for their valued business but also creates loyalty.

Here are Sharper™ there are many different  styles of cards available for you to show a little thanks or even a simple welcome. From our Dental Welcome Postcards to our Pet Welcome Folding Cards there is so much to choose from.

There is nothing like sending out a welcome card to a new patient or client to show you care. Sharper™ offers free personalization so it makes it easy to get the message across.  Be sure not to forget our Thank You Cards as well. These cards are great for patient referrals and let’s your customers know that you appreciate their valued business.

During the holiday season many offices partake in the spirit by sending warm wishes of health and happiness to their clients. Whether your cards are for appointment reminders or the holiday season it is a nice way to end off the year letting everyone know that you care and are thinking about them.

Check out some of our Holiday Designs!

Everyone loves summertime.  Getting out in the fresh air and enjoying the sunshine on vacations, no wonder it is often less busy at work!

Summer is also a great time to get your ordering done!  Take the time now to pick out designs of orthodontic recall cards for the rest of the year and not have to worry about it later!  Why wait until the busy season to order dental stationery?  Order it now to make sure it’s on hand when you need it.  And if you order chiropractic holiday cards now you can avoid the rush and guarantee the selection you love is in stock!

And Sharper has great deals all year long.  Right now, check out our website for a promotion on birthday cards until the end of June.  Now it’s time to get outside and enjoy the summer! 

Believe it or not, referrals are typically worth a minimum of $800 over the course of three years.  Personalized dental holiday cards and gifts reflect professionalism and is a great way to generate referrals for your practice.  So are these products included in your dental practice marketing kit to get new patients?  If not, they should be.

The easiest way to accomplish this is source a supplier who specializes in holiday products geared to the dental market, rather than the more vanilla card companies that sell general designs.  A high quality card, with your personalized contact information, demonstrates the value you place in patients and colleagues who provide referrals – while reinforcing your practice brand for quality care.

When sourcing your supplier for dental holiday cards and gifts, please make sure that Sharper™ is on your list.  We have one of the widest selection of dental holiday, thanksgiving, Halloween, new year’s and 2011 calendars.  Listed below is my favorite in our dental holiday cards line of products.  It is a beautie!

We carry a lot of different products here at Sharper, but hands down the most versatile is the simple postcard.  It has been the mainstay of our business, and can be a great tool for operating and growing yours.  Here are some ways to take advantage of the amazing postcard!

• Reduce missed appointments with reminder postcards. As an example check out our Orthodontic Recall Cards.  And if they still miss their appointments send them Missed Appointment Cards!
• Send a card to your clients on special occasions. See our Financial Holiday Cards and Dental Birthday Cards for some ideas on how to impress your loyal clientele and encourage repeat business.
• Get new clients by sending postcards to your potential customers. We have cards for different specialties, like our Massage Therapy Postcards.
• Inform your patients of changes. Announce new staff and re-locations so patients always know where to find you.  Look at our Business Moving Announcement Cards.

Every day I speak with dozens of customers and process their orders via phone, fax, email and website.  I see everything from simple Dental Hygiene Cards to Financial Holiday Cards to Personalized Leashes! It’s interesting to think back on all these orders and ask…

My favorite orders are the ones where the customer has created something truly unique for themselves with the personalization on their cards.  Something like adding a discount coupon and warm greeting to Massage Therapy Postcards, making clients feel special.  Or designing a frequent purchaser layout to add to the back of Business Cards, rewarding customer loyalty.  Even a friendly message introducing yourself on Dental Welcome Postcards can make a great impression!

Let us know if you have any special ideas for your personalization and we can make it happen.

Your patients and clients will remember it!

I have worked in advertising and graphic design for over 15 years, and there is one trend that i have always found to be very interesting… regardless of what your business is, continuing to advertise during slow economic times is essential to long term recovery. Studies by McGraw-Hill Research and  Meldrum & Fewsmith have indicated that companies who continued or grew their advertising during economic slumps recovered much more quickly and grew their sales by as much as 265% over those companies who did little to no advertising.

A personal and convenient way to advertise your services can be as simple as sending out financial greeting cards such as:

• Welcome Cards to new clients
• Thank You Cards for referrals
• Financial Birthday Cards
• Financial Holiday Greetings

This simple act tells your clients that you care about them and that you value their business, and as a bonus… it helps to build loyalty! With my busy schedule, I always appreciate it when my financial planner sends me personalized reminder cards for my appointments or upcoming events.

Further personalize your financial greeting cards by printing your signature and the signatures of your staff on the card. You can also increase your brand awareness by adding your logo.

Adding your signature to financial greeting cards is easy:

• Use a black, Sharpie felt pen (or similar) and sign your name on white paper
• Scan it at 300 dpi and email it to  logos@e-sharper.com
• or Fax it to us a 1-888-251-4454

Some tips for greater quality of your signatures:

• Avoid ball-point pens or felt pens that have a very fine point
• Avoid blue or other colored ink
• Avoid writing on  colored or textured paper
• Sign a little larger than normal (no more than 2x your normal signature size)

Adding your logo to your financial greeting cards is also easy:

• Choose the highest quality digital format that you have available
• email it to logos@e-sharper.com

Some suggestions for successful logo reproduction

• Review the Logo Specifications PDF here
• Using a vector format like Adobe Illustrator (.ai or .eps) will give you the greatest range of options
• Avoid logos that are used on your website, instead send logos that were created at 300 dpi (TIF, JPGs)

Some of my favorite Financial Greeting Cards:

With Thanksgiving over for the year, thoughts quickly turn to the holiday festive season.  At Sharper™ this is a really fun time since our customers are into full swing purchasing business holiday cards.  I often spend time at the presses, watching our talented operators print orders and it is so amazing to see the different ways our customers acknowledge their patients or clients.  Some holiday card messages are extremely funny, with humorous poems written by the staff.  Many are very touching, with sincere acknowledgment of how important patients are to a practice’s ongoing success.  And there are always customers who utilize their holiday cards to offer a special promotion to their most loyal clients.  I also see how resourceful our customers are by digitizing their signature so it is pre-printed on their cards.  This saves a ton of time hand signing – very important for those customers with a large database to mail to.

Although I personally get a lot of holiday cards, my most favorite each year is from my veterinarian.  A very serious doctor in person, his cards are so cute – and he takes the time to add a stamped paw print to each.  It is this small gesture that ensures I remain a customer for life at his practice.  Happy Holidays!

When you think of cards what do you often think of?

My guess is most likely folding cards and/or postcards. However, Sharper provides more than just those two types of cards.

We have a long list of ‘card’ product;

• Chiropractic Birthday Cards
• Cat Sympathy Cards
• Optometrist Business Cards
• Dental Holiday Cards
• Grooming Appointment Cards

And so much more…

We offer card product as reminder tools, recall tools or for just saying ‘hello’. We also have special services such as message highlighting or adding your digitized signatures for creating that personal and special touch.

Remember, during the month of November receive 15% more card product for FREE on orders over $125.00! Order now to snag this amazing card promotion.
Quote Promo code P1109

The next time someone says “It’s in the cards for you” you will be able to respond with a loud “Yes, it is” if you purchase some of Sharper’s card product!

Reusable tote bags have a variety of uses for increasing traffic to your practice or business, building loyalty with your patients or clients and even welcoming new ones!

Here are a couple of ways to use plastic supply bags to increase your marketing efforts.

‘Tis the season, so why not start planning a holiday giveaway as a thank you to your patients or clients! We have a variety of great designs and you can include products such as business holiday cards, promotional calendars, personalized magnets and a host of promotional products such as personalized lip balm and personalized toothbrushes!

Check out some of our great holiday tote bags.

We also have a great selection of reusable tote bags specific to every market, that you can use all year around to welcome new patients or clients! Check out our reusable tote bag selection for the dental, contemporary health, vision & hearing and pet care markets.

Taking every opportunity to say thanks, and doing it with taste and style will strengthen your image while building stronger relationships. Practices and businesses today are finding Thanksgiving season a great time of year to express appreciation to patients or clients for their loyalty. Sending business Thanksgiving greeting cards makes a nice addition to your usual personalized recall and appointment reminders, business cards and birthday greetings which are typically mailed throughout the year.

Our Sharper™ customer feedback surveys tell us that they are very pleased with the wide selection of high quality holiday card designs we are offering this year. Here are some tips to help you choose what will work for you:

• Avoid being buried in the Christmas rush of business holiday cards – get a head start with personalized Thanksgiving holiday or 2010 Thanksgiving calendar cards. Plus, think of how many fewer Christmas holiday cards you will need to send out! To keep your practice or business information top of mind even longer, the Thanksgiving calendar card is a great solution and slips nicely into a #10 envelope.

• Autumn is a time for reflection. The color palette is always a favorite -  Thanksgiving cards with appealing imagery have a very long life. With the right look and tasteful design that doesn’t scream, “I am a marketing piece”, your personalized folding card or postcard will sit on the recipient’s mantle until Christmas along with family and friends’.

• Choose designs that you know your patients or clients will enjoy - Think about their lifestyles and personalities. It’s about acknowledgment and emphasizing the fact that you are aware of their individuality.

• Choose a look that emphasizes your values and also connects with the values of your patients or clients – A traditional elegant look, offering well worded Thanksgiving greetings shows that your practice or business remains successful and stable, even during the trying economical times experienced over the past year. A humorous postcard may be a good fit for you and will reinforce the casual approach that you and your staff typically engage in during your daily interaction with patients or clients.

Schedule Thanksgiving into your marketing mix, and do it with beautiful imagery that will leave a lasting impression. These personalized business Thanksgiving cards are suitable to send to Dental, Financial, Chiropractic, Massage Therapy, Spa and Salon, Optometry and Veterinary patients or clients.

Christmas and Thanksgiving provide you with the perfect opportunity to market your business.  Business holiday cards and business greeting cards are an ideal marketing tool that can be used to

• Promote return visits
• Encourage referrals
• Thank loyal patients or clients for their continued support

Personalize your business holiday cards with a special promotional offer or simply include a warm holiday message.  Sharper™ works very hard to create business holiday card designs that will engage your patients or clients and ensure that you build and maintain a strong, loyal customer base.

Professionals from many different industry backgrounds have used our Financial holiday cards, Veterinary holiday cards, Chiropractic holiday cards and Dental holiday cards to retain patients or clients.