Holiday gifting sounds simple enough. Choose a gift, make a list and send it out.
Then the questions start.
What should we send? How much should we spend? Should everyone receive the same thing? Can we add our logo? Who has the addresses? What goes in the card? Who is going to pack all of this? And how are we shipping 75 individual boxes to 75 different places?
Suddenly, sending a thoughtful holiday gift has become one more project to manage during an already busy time of year.
It doesn’t have to be.
With a little planning and the right gifting partner, you can send memorable holiday gifts to clients, employees and referral partners without taking on all of the logistics yourself.
1. Start With the People, Not the Products
Before you start looking at gifts, decide who you’re gifting and what you want the gift to accomplish.
Are you thanking longtime clients? Recognizing employees? Staying connected with referral partners? Celebrating the people who helped make the year successful?
Once you know who the gift is for, choosing the gift becomes much easier. You can also decide whether everyone should receive the same gift or whether it makes sense to create different gifting levels for different groups.
2. Set Your Budget Early
Having a budget before you start shopping saves a tremendous amount of time.
Remember to think about the total cost of gifting, not just the products inside the box. Packaging, personalization, handwritten notes and shipping can all be part of the final cost.
A clear per-recipient budget gives your gifting partner something useful to work with and helps narrow the possibilities quickly.
3. Choose a Gift People Will Actually Want
The best corporate gifts don’t feel overly corporate.
Instead of filling a box with promotional products, think about what you would genuinely enjoy receiving yourself. A few well-chosen items can make a much stronger impression than a box packed with things simply because they can hold a logo.
Food and entertaining gifts, cozy nights at home, useful everyday pieces and gifts built around an experience can all work beautifully for holiday gifting.
Your company can still be part of the presentation. Branded packaging, a custom tag, ribbon or a thoughtful note can make the gift feel distinctly yours without putting a logo on every item.
4. Make It Personal
This is the part that turns a nice gift into a meaningful one.
Include a message that sounds like it actually came from you. Thank the recipient for their business, acknowledge their contribution or simply let them know you appreciate having them in your corner.
At Thoughty, we handwrite your message on every enclosure card because we believe the note matters just as much as what’s inside the box.
It’s a small detail, but it changes the way the entire gift feels.
5. Get Your Recipient List Together
This is often the part that causes the biggest last-minute scramble.
Start collecting names and shipping addresses before you need them. If several people within your company are contributing recipients, give everyone a firm internal deadline for submitting their information.
Before handing off the final list, check for missing apartment or suite numbers, duplicate recipients and incomplete addresses.
A clean list at the beginning means fewer shipping headaches later.
6. Let Someone Else Handle the Logistics
Choosing the gift should be the fun part. You shouldn’t have to turn your conference room into a packing station afterward.
A full-service gifting partner can take the pieces that consume the most time off your plate, including sourcing products, assembling gifts, adding branded details, handwriting notes, creating shipping labels and sending individual packages to recipients across the country.
Instead of receiving cases of products at your office and figuring out what to do next, you send the recipient list and message and let someone else handle the rest.
7. Don’t Wait Until December
Starting early gives you more choices.
Popular products can sell out, custom packaging takes time and shipping carriers get busier as the holidays approach. An earlier start also gives you room to make thoughtful decisions instead of settling for whatever is still available.
And once your gifting plan is finalized, it becomes one less thing hanging over your head as the end of the year gets busier.
Holiday Gifting Can Be the Easy Thing on Your List
Corporate gifting should feel good. You’re thanking people, celebrating relationships and reminding clients and employees that they matter to your business.
The logistics shouldn’t overshadow that.
At Thoughty, we make gifting effortless and memorable. Choose from one of our ready-to-send corporate gifts or work with us to create something specifically for your company. Send us your recipient list and message, and we can take it from there, including packaging, handwritten notes and individual shipping.
You get the credit for sending a thoughtful, beautifully presented gift.
We’ll handle the project.
Planning your holiday gifting? Let’s make it easy.