Sincerely Ink Cards from your smartphone
One of the problems with shipping off holiday cards or thank you cards is the amount of planning that go into the process, which let’s be honest, can be overwhelming unless you’re Martha Stewart. Enter Sincerely Ink Cards, brought to you by the same company that developed Postagram, which sends instant postcards made from your iPhone pictures.
What excited us most about Sincerely Ink Cards is not only that the app is available on an iPhone and iPad, but Android, so I was actually able to download it immediately. The app was a little over 5MB, but was a fast download and didn’t require any unreasonable permissions I wouldn’t expect, mostly access to your contact lists.
The available cards are presented much like iBooks or the Kindle Fire bookshelf, so it is a familiar feel, and super easy to use, just click on a photo of a card, customize, and boom, you’re done. Although our test is not complete, the company promises “checkout to mailbox in three to seven days,” so for all of you holiday card procrastinators, here’s your answer!
At $1.99 which includes postage, it’s cheaper than buying a Hallmark card. Genius. More than genius. You don’t have to go to the store and wait in line, and you can customize the whole thing in minutes, even adding your own pictures in seconds.
Business uses for Sincerely Ink Cards
Because it was so inexpensive and easy, the implications for business are profound, particularly for professionals with a detailed Rolodex (or CRM, I know it’s almost 2013) and modern tools like Rapportive that unveil detailed contact information for people based on their social networks.
So imagine your company has a booth at a conference, and for every lead that spends more than 30 seconds talking to you, if they leave their business card, open the Ink app on your smartphone, quickly pick a thank you card, type in a note, enter their mailing address, and send. Done. Those 60 seconds of effort can make you stand out and because it’s not a bunch of promotional junk, the marketing effort is a no-brainer.
Next time you’re at a party, send the host a thank you note while you’re in between drinks. If you attend a mixer or conference you enjoy, spend a few seconds to thank the organizers (trust me, as an event organizer, no one ever does this, so you’ll stand out, I promise).
You’re in a meeting with a repeat client, and he mentions he’s about to go on a trip for his upcoming birthday – while he steps out to take a call, pick a birthday card and zip it over. It is so inexpensive and easy, that it’s almost silly not to pick up the phone and send out cards without waiting in line or trying to find stamps in the bottom of your drawer.
