Every December, inboxes across the United Kingdom face an absolute avalanche of automated holiday emails. You know the ones: generic, templated e-cards sent from an unmonitored mailbox, featuring a sterile graphic and a standard “Season’s Greetings from the team” message.
What happens to those emails? They are scanned for two seconds, archived, or deleted instantly. They do not build warmth, they do not show appreciation, and they certainly do not leave a lasting impression on the clients who kept your business thriving all year.
Now, contrast that digital noise with a physical, custom-printed corporate greeting card.
When a heavy, beautifully tactile card arrives in the post, addressed directly to a key decision-maker, it does not get dragged into a spam folder. It gets opened. It gets read. Crucially, it gets placed on a client’s desk, mantlepiece, or display board, where it sits proudly for weeks. Every time that client reaches for their morning coffee, your brand is sitting right there, reminding them of a genuine human partnership.
If you want to build deep, resilient business relationships at year-end, physical print remains unbeatable. Here is your ultimate plain-English guide to creating corporate greeting cards that look majestic, feel luxurious, and arrive strictly on brand and on time.
Why Paper Stock Matters: The Feel of 350gsm Recycled Uncoated
In the print world, weight and texture communicate value long before anyone reads a single word of your text. If you send a flimsy card printed on lightweight paper, the recipient subconsciously registers cheapness. If you send a sturdy, substantial card, they immediately recognise quality.
That is why Print Lord custom greeting cards are produced on premium 350gsm recycled uncoated paper.
Why 350gsm? GSM stands for grams per square metre, measuring the density of the paper. At 350gsm, the card has a dense, satisfying stiffness that stands tall without sagging on a desk.
Why uncoated? Uncoated paper has a smooth, natural texture that absorbs light rather than reflecting glare. It feels warm and organic in the hand, which aligns perfectly with modern corporate sustainability goals. Even better, uncoated paper is delightful to write on. If you or your team want to pen personal handwritten notes inside each card, ink from a fountain pen or biro dries smoothly without smudging or sliding across a glossy coating.
To complete the package, every run of Print Lord cards includes matching C6 white envelopes as standard, ensuring your cards are ready to pop straight into the post.
Choosing Your Size and Format
While A6 portrait (105mm x 148mm folded) is the classic workhorse size for business greeting cards, versatility is key. Depending on your design and message, Print Lord supports a variety of standard templates, including A5, 148mm Square, and DL formats.
Cards are delivered to you flat, complete with precise pre-creased folds. Receiving them flat makes storage far easier and allows you to run them through handwriting sessions or insertion lines with total ease before folding them crisp and sharp for mailing.
Setting Up Artwork Without Cocking It Up
Creating a custom greeting card is straightforward, but because a card folds in half, artwork setup requires a tiny bit of attention to detail. There are few things more soul-destroying than getting a box of cards delivered only to find the inside message is upside down or split across the crease.
When preparing artwork for a folded card, keep these four essential rules in mind:
- Supply a 2-Page Double-Sided PDF: Page 1 of your PDF file represents the outside of the card (the front cover on the right, the back cover on the left). Page 2 represents the inside of the card (the inside left and inside right panels).
- Mind the Orientation: Always ensure both pages in your PDF are set to the exact same orientation (portrait or landscape). Do not rotate page two in your design software, or the back-to-back print run will print your internal text upside down relative to the front cover.
- Include 3mm Bleed and Safe Margins: Ensure background graphics extend 3mm past the cut line, and keep crucial logos or text at least 4mm away from the fold line and outer edges.
- Export as PDF Print: Save your file as a high-resolution PDF Print file at 300 DPI in CMYK colour space.
If that sounds daunting, do not panic. Every order at Print Lord includes free file checking. Our eyes on the ground review your artwork before anything touches ink, catching orientation errors, missing bleed, or low-resolution images so your brand is fully guarded.
Personalisation: Moving Beyond Generic Signatures
If you want to take your year-end cards to the next level, leverage Variable Data Printing (VDP). Rather than printing five hundred identical cards with a generic printed signature, VDP allows you to customise individual cards within a single print run.
You can print the client’s name directly onto the inner message (for example, “Dear Sarah, thank you for an outstanding 2026”), feature account-specific account manager signatures, or even include personalised QR codes linking to bespoke video thank-you messages. Combining tactile physical print with tailored data transforms a routine holiday card into a powerful, high-converting relationship tool.
Pricing, Planning, and Turnaround
Year-end print runs do not need to break the bank or cause administrative headaches. At Print Lord, custom greeting card orders start from just £50.53 plus VAT, giving you premium quality, free artwork checks, matching C6 envelopes, and free UK delivery under one transparent banner.
With a rapid standard turnaround time of just 3 working days, we handle urgent requests with ease. However, getting your order placed early in Q4 ensures your team has plenty of time to write personal notes and get them posted before the seasonal mail rush begins.
The Print Lord Promise
At Print Lord, we refuse to push you through a cold, automated click-to-basket web portal that does not care whether your artwork is correct or your margins are clipped. We bring back trust, personal service, and uncompromising standards.
Whether you need a short run of fifty bespoke A6 client cards or a complex multi-thousand campaign, we deliver under one simple oath.
Print Lord. At your service. On brand. On time.