PostNet

There is no single last day to ship for Christmas.

The date depends on the carrier, the service level, where it starts, where it is going, and for anything crossing a border, customs.

Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year. Some carriers have published their holiday schedules and some have not, which is exactly why a plan built on last year's dates is only a guess.

The more useful approach: treat published deadlines as the latest recommended planning point rather than a target, and ship earlier whenever you can. As the date gets closer, the slower services stop being options, and you end up choosing on speed alone.

Shipping deadlines move. A good plan doesn't have to. Bookmark our holiday shipping guide for the weeks ahead: https://www.postnet.com/blog/holiday-shipping-deadlines/

Bring us the destination and the date it needs to arrive, and we will compare all major carriers for that specific package.

December is not the finish line. It is the setup.

If January is typically slow, the time to fix that is while you are already printing something.

Decide now what you want a customer to do after the holidays. Book a January appointment. Request an estimate for a first-quarter project. Redeem an offer once the season is over. Sign up for a maintenance plan. Refer a neighbor.

Then put that next step on the postcards, door hangers and thank-you cards going out over the next six weeks — rather than on the ones you have not designed yet.

One more thing worth doing this month: confirm your holiday hours everywhere customers look. Website, voicemail, social profiles, printed signage. Google supports special hours for temporary changes and recommends confirming them even when they match your normal ones.

December doesn't have to be the finish line. Find all seven ideas in the full guide: https://www.postnet.com/blog/year-end-marketing-ideas-local-service-businesses/

A booth is a room you build in four hours and take apart in one.

Holiday markets, craft fairs, vendor shows and expos all ask the same thing of a small business: be recognizable from fifteen feet away while you are mid-conversation with someone else.

Signage is what does that. A banner behind you carrying the name. A display or poster that answers what you sell before anyone asks. A table sign. Something at the front edge of the table people can take. A small sign for whatever you want them to scan.

The part worth planning: the same kit travels. A booth built for a November market works at a spring expo, a trade show and a school night, as long as nothing on it is dated.

Tell us what the space is and we will size the kit to it.

Year-end gives a local service business two jobs.

Give customers a reason to act before the year closes. And be visible when they start planning what comes next.

Neither one requires a new marketing strategy. Most of it is choosing one timely message, putting it in front of the right local audience, and making the next step obvious.

A winter tune-up reminder. A seasonal inspection. An invitation to book January before the calendar fills. One offer, carried consistently across postcards, door hangers, yard signs and the materials your team already hands out.

The goal is not to say more. It is to make the same next step easy to recognize wherever someone sees you.

Seven ideas. You don't need to use all of them. Find the ones that make sense for your year-end plan in the full guide: https://www.postnet.com/blog/year-end-marketing-ideas-local-service-businesses/

Holiday cards don’t all need the same lead time.

A finished design on standard stock is one project. A photo card with specialty paper, foil, printed envelopes and a mailing list that still needs work is another.

Before setting your order date, look at what still needs to happen: design, proofing, printing, addressing, assembly and mailing. Every extra step needs its own place in the schedule.

Not sure how much time your project needs? The full timeline breaks down what to plan for based on the week you want your cards to arrive. https://www.postnet.com/blog/holiday-cards-planning-printing-mailing-timeline/

The most important thing at your fundraiser might be the paddle numbers.

Great programs set the tone. But it’s the less glamorous pieces that keep the night running:

📖 Programs guests reference all night
🪧 Table numbers, signs + directions
🔢 Paddle numbers, item cards + bid sheets
🎪 Event banners that make it into every photo
💌 Donor thank-you cards ready to send after the event

And when the auction ends? Those items still need to reach their winners. Framed art, glassware, gift baskets and more, packed properly and shipped with care.

Fall is full of community events, and they run on the details nobody notices until they’re missing.

Save this checklist now. Thank yourself when someone asks where the bid sheets are.

Fall fundraiser season is starting, and most of what an event needs is printed, packed, or both.

On the print side: paddle numbers, table signs, programs, donor thank-you cards, and a banner that shows up in every photo taken that night.

On the shipping side: auction items that have to reach the winner in one piece. Framed art, glassware, signed memorabilia, gift baskets — packed properly and quoted across carriers.

Running a gala, auction or school event this fall? Give us a call, and we’ll help organize the print and shipping pieces around your timeline.

Week one of a new business tends to go the same way.

The sign isn't up. The cards are ordered. And someone asks for a brochure that doesn't exist yet.

Ordering the kit in one pass fixes most of it — cards, brochure, flyers, banner, window graphics, folders, thank-you cards. Less back-and-forth, and everything matches because it was designed together.

Opening this fall? Tell us what you're launching and we'll build the list with you.

A new business gets judged on its materials before anyone has used the product.

Ten pieces cover it: business cards, brochures, flyers, postcards, banners, yard signs, window graphics, presentation folders, business forms and thank-you cards.

Ordered together, all ten match. Ordered one at a time as each need appears, they usually don't.

The full breakdown: https://www.postnet.com/blog/printed-materials-every-new-business-should-have/