Snow globes and singing Santas: tips for producing your firm's holiday cards.

• Author: Knox, Brandie

It soon will be that time of the year again: holiday card season. Law firms and other professional services firms can never start the holiday card process too early.

Although often laborious, the process can be fun and the sailing can be smooth if internal expectations are set at the project's start and if your design team is properly briefed and has adequate time for research and conceptualization.

Instead of talking about my experiences managing and navigating this process as both an external studio and as a former in-house brand and design manager, I've reached out to the following individuals within our community to get their thoughts:

* Rick Carpenter, CMO, CTLGroup

* Julie Gurney, senior marketing communications manager, Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP

* Jody Maier, CMO and managing director, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

* Randy Noak, former design and production coordinator, Shearman & Sterling LLP

Q-and-A

Brandie Knox: Does your firm produce print or electronic cards, and why?

Julie Gurney: Electronic. We communicate most with our clients via email, so electronic is the best way to reach them. Budget is another reason. We also have a strong green initiative and are encouraged to go paperless where we can. This was a good place.

Jody Maier: Although paper cards are nice, we've made the move to e-cards. Aside from the expense involved, paper cards generally require a variety of print processes and papers to really stand out. And, very often, they aren't recyclable. Of course, given the widespread move to e-cards, it can be nice for contacts to receive paper. Regardless, your time with your audience is very limited, so your card must be memorable.

Rick Carpenter: Electronic. It's greener. Most of the world communicates electronically. And you can track the campaign if you use an email marketing platform.

Knox: What are the most important elements to consider with e-cards for law firms and other professional services firms?

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Gurney: Attorneys and internal marketing constituents have strong thoughts--they want a card that's heartfelt. They want to showcase through an exciting and compelling ecard that they have many offices in many cities and countries around the world, while not focusing on religions. Firms want to communicate that they're diverse.

Carpenter: It's difficult to develop a card that matches the various backgrounds of both the recipients and the senders (e.g., culture, language...