Sep 3, 2026 · 30 min · 14 segments
In this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Mary Ellen Harden, a relationship marketing expert and greeting card advocate at Hallmark Business Connections, to discuss why personal…
So over the course of 20 years, you have seen a wild change in the way that people communicate, right? Yes.
Well, even just the way a greeting card order would be placed, I feel like I have the benefit of looking back, like I said, like 15 years ago, and I was speaking with advisors and helping them, the care that goes into crafting where the logo is set up and what the sentiment is that's sent out on behalf of the company.
And so I know at an enterprise corporate level, it's important how the brand is carried out, but even more so in that office and the conversation around what card is going to be sent throughout the year for birthdays or at the holiday season is so important.
And so I think back to that, where we would be on the phone with each other, we would be filling out paperwork, a faxing over setups to make sure that this card was presentable and represented the brand.
And so I think it's important to think back to that and understand that the evolution of card sending and the importance of it to each practice hasn't changed, that it still exists.
And I say August is a perfect time for this conversation because as we lead into holiday card sending, the team knows we're going to have to pick the perfect card.
It's a lot easier to transfer things like logo files, a handwritten signature that can be imprinted.
And when I think about just in my household, the holiday cards that arrive in the month of December, I do not stop and think, oh, I wonder if this was automatically mailed.
I think how beautiful is this imprint and the lovely way my address is printed on the front and how thoughtful that they spent the time to order this and then the money that we know is invested in sending this out and that I'm included on that list.
And so I don't think that there is any reason to look back to, oh, we were handwriting and sending signatures, doing each signature and look at the automation that's in place right now, that it lessens the value of the card at all.
It's the fact that that card makes it in a household that just stays so important when we talk about card sending for marketing and specifically in the financial industry.
So over the course of 20 years, you have seen a wild change in the way that people communicate, right? Yes.
Well, even just the way a greeting card order would be placed, I feel like I have the benefit of looking back, like I said, like 15 years ago, and I was speaking with advisors and helping them, the care that goes into crafting where the logo is set up and what the sentiment is that's sent out on behalf of the company.
And so I know at an enterprise corporate level, it's important how the brand is carried out, but even more so in that office and the conversation around what card is going to be sent throughout the year for birthdays or at the holiday season is so important.
And so I think back to that, where we would be on the phone with each other, we would be filling out paperwork, a faxing over setups to make sure that this card was presentable and represented the brand.
And so I think it's important to think back to that and understand that the evolution of card sending and the importance of it to each practice hasn't changed, that it still exists.
And I say August is a perfect time for this conversation because as we lead into holiday card sending, the team knows we're going to have to pick the perfect card.
It's a lot easier to transfer things like logo files, a handwritten signature that can be imprinted.
And when I think about just in my household, the holiday cards that arrive in the month of December, I do not stop and think, oh, I wonder if this was automatically mailed.
I think how beautiful is this imprint and the lovely way my address is printed on the front and how thoughtful that they spent the time to order this and then the money that we know is invested in sending this out and that I'm included on that list.
And so I don't think that there is any reason to look back to, oh, we were handwriting and sending signatures, doing each signature and look at the automation that's in place right now, that it lessens the value of the card at all.
It's the fact that that card makes it in a household that just stays so important when we talk about card sending for marketing and specifically in the financial industry.
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