According to HubSpot research, 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that companies often look for creative ways to continue delighting their audience.
A simple method to add a personal touch to your interaction with customers and leads is to use ecards. You can opt to send greetings to customers in marketing emails or install a widget that allows customers to send an ecard when buying a gift for someone else. Better still are companies that allow you to make an ecard online for free.
Below we’ll cover our favorite ecard makers on the market to handle your business needs.
Best Online Ecard Makers
Sending customers a card can be a great way to promote new products and show customers you appreciate your business. Here are a few of our favorite ecard makers out there.
Free Ecard Platforms
1. Open Me
Open Me makes it easy to send and personalize ecards. One of the best attributes of this platform is how collaborative it is, which is great if you’d like to send a card from your team to a client. With just one link, everyone can write their own note in real-time.
Why We Like Them
There’s no limit to the number of cards you can send for free.
2. EcardWidget for Shopify
Shopify store owners looking to send ecards to customers and allow customers to personalize gifts after checkout should use EcardWidget. This free widget enables businesses to add fully designed, branded ecards to their website. The free tier of this plan includes four card options, social media sharing, and 15 emails per month — a good start for small businesses looking to test this widget out.
Why We Like Them
EcardWidget offers an easy and free solution for business-to-customer and customer-to-customer ecard sending.
3. Adobe Creative Cloud Express
If you’d like to take a do-it-yourself approach to heard sending for your business, Adobe Creative Cloud Express is an excellent free option. Adobe has several templates available with the ability to customize fonts, colors, photos, and video. Premium plan users also have the option to auto-apply your brand logo, fonts, and colors.
Why We Like Them
Adobe’s Creative Cloud Express is a great free option for small businesses that allows them to create ecards and repurpose the content they’ve created for other marketing channels like social media.
4. Canva
Canva is another free option business owners have at their disposal. You can start with a template or create something new from scratch. Canva’s popularity stems from how easily and quickly users can create designs of their own, and creating a card using the platform is no different.
While they don’t offer an ecard sending service, you can create your own design and download it to use across other channels. Additionally, you can design physical cards with Canva if you’d like to use snail mail.
Why We Like Them
Not only can users create ecards using Canva, but they can also repurpose what they’ve created into several different formats to use across multiple channels.
Paid Ecard Platforms
5. Ecard Mint
Ecard Mint offers a full suite of business communication services to aid your marketing efforts. In addition to managing email campaigns, the company also designs bespoke ecards for holidays and other events tailored to your brand. Chose from a template or have Ecard Mint design something custom, including animation options. Additionally, their analytics reporting allows businesses to see results in real-time.
Why We Like Them
Ecard Mint is a one-stop shop for businesses looking to outsource email management in addition to providing customers with a wide variety of ecard greetings.
6. Smilebox
Smilebox allows customers to create animated ecards with a gift they’ve purchased from your online store. At checkout, customers are asked whether or not the item is a gift. If they check “yes,” they’ll be prompted to create a personalized card and schedule a time to send it. A bonus feature of Smilebox is that this ecard can be sent by text, in addition to email.
Why We Like Them
Smilebox allows gift recipients to track their package in addition to receiving the ecard. Additionally, the service allows companies to retarget gift recipients for marketing efforts.
7. Paperless Post
Paperless Post offers premium ecards on their site to choose from, depending on how much customization you need. You can upload your own images if you wish, and schedule cards to go out on a future date.
Why We Like Them
Paperless Post also has an option for users to send ecards via text message and social media for added flexibility and potential retargeting efforts.
8. Ojolie
Ojolie allows businesses to send ecards to clients and customers in a few simple steps. You can customize the templates they offer by adding your logo and changing existing colors to match your corporate ones for a fee. Once you’ve created a card you love, Ojolie will send you an email template to send the card, plus a social media link if you choose to send it that way.
Why We Like Them
Ojolie makes it easy for businesses to send cards without sharing their mailing list and none of their branding appears on the card or the site it’s hosted on. Additionally, you can host the card page on your own site if you prefer.
9. Corp Note
Similar to Ecard Mint, Corp Note is an all-in-one platform that allows users to not only send ecards but manage email campaigns, send event invites, and customer surveys. You can also use Corp Note for internal communication to employees.
Why We Like Them
Corp Note allows you to track when your email is opened in real-time, showing you how many times it has been opened so you can measure engagement.
10. B2B Ecards
B2B Ecards allows businesses to send animated cards to clients, customers, and employees. While they have a variety of stock animation options to choose from, users do have the opportunity to customize their cards with their own images, colors, and branding for an extra fee.
Once you’ve created your design and placed an order, B2B Ecards will send you a template that you can either forward to recipients individually or use an existing mailing list.
Why We Like Them
For businesses that would prefer to have an outside partner handle all of their email marketing needs, B2B Ecards is a solid option. If you chose to use their delivery service, they’ll contact you prior to the mailing date for a test run.
Boost Customer Satisfaction With Ecards
Ecards are not the solution to poor customer service. However, sending personalized messages like these will only enhance a customer experience already bubbling with value, help, and delight.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in November 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.