Like anyone starting a new business we’ve spent the first few months learning a lot - and I mean A LOT.
For those who haven’t been following us until now, Unseasoned Greetings is a greeting card company that is all about helping people connect in a way that feels meaningful and tangible – something that often gets lost in our increasingly online world.
Simply, we make it easy to send a greeting card to anyone, anywhere in Australia, from the comfort of your couch. You can read more about how it works on our home page.
One of our most interesting challenges has been making sure that we can stay true to what we want Unseasoned Greetings to be - a business which encourages people to reach out to their loved ones and acknowledge everyday occasions which often get overlooked, while also making sure that Unseasoned Greetings develops to be sustainable in the long term.
Our first couple of months in business have meant dropping our egos completely and making sure that we listen carefully when our customers, family and friends speak. It's helping us to understand where our gaps are, what stops people from buying particular products, and what we can do to attract new customers to Unseasoned Greetings.
Here is some of the feedback we’ve received, and how we’re addressing it:
“I’m the kind of person who likes having a whole pack of cards ready to go in my top drawer for any occasion.”
Yep, not everyone wants to send a card via snail mail directly to a mate’s home - some of you want to see the look on their face when they receive it.
Reflecting on our product, we had underestimated just how many people love to be super organised, with a collection of their cards ready for each and every scenario that could pop up.
We are rectifying this by introducing our multi packs, which enable you to choose between themed packs and ‘pick and mix’ packs - meaning you can include any design from our website.
One of the key benefits that these packs give you as the customer, is not only more choice and the ability to always have cards available when you need them most, but also a significantly lower cost per card (versus buying individually). We have been able to achieve this based on lower postage costs and a more efficient print process - and we are passing all of the savings on to you. Our five pack of cards have launched at $29.95 (less than $6 per card), while our eight packs are available now for just $41.95 - just $5.25 per card!
To make sure that we stay true to what we want Unseasoned Greetings to be though, our multi packs still have a strong focus on celebrating the everyday and acknowledging and supporting people who are close to you.
Our initial multi packs include a moral support pack, a flirty pack, a pack to cheer up your nearest and dearest, and even cards with just a simple image on the front. Each and every card sold as part of one of these packs still includes a 50 cent donation to ReachOut Australia.
An example of one of the packs you can expect to find on our website
“When I write cards, I really need to take the time to sit down and think about what I’m going to write - and I need to be in the right frame of mind.”
We hear you. Putting into words what someone means to you can be tough, and not everyone is going to be able to do this in the moment. For us at Unseasoned Greetings, helping to solve this problem is really important. When new customers discover our site for the first time, if they don’t know what they’re going to write in the moment, there’s no guarantee that they’ll even remember to come back to our site when they are in the right frame of mind to write in a card.
To solve this problem, we’ve done a few different things:
- We’ve created a blog filled with writing prompts that will help you find the right words to acknowledge any situation
- We’ve added info into every card description giving examples of people in their lives that a card may be suitable for
- We’ve launched multi packs so that when you are in the right frame of mind, the cards are sitting in your drawer at home and ready to go.
“I love your product, but I got busy and need to keep reminding myself to go back and do it later.”
I get this. And I do this all the time too, so why would I not expect this to happen with Unseasoned Greetings, right?
We know you’re a good human, but good humans get busy too. If you’re not ready to buy just yet, but you’d like to in the future, make sure that you’re following us on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, so that we can give you a little nudge through your feed every few days - we promise that we’ll make you smile :)
We’re also currently looking at adding a snooze button on our website, so if you’re not ready to buy right now, and you’d like a reminder to come back later, we can send you an email reminder in a few day’s time.
If you have any other ideas on how we can help with this, we are all ears!
“I was looking for a card, but I couldn’t find one where the message on the front resonated with the occasion I was sending it for.”
This piece of feedback actually came from my mum (mums can be wise like that) who went on our website looking to find a card that she could use for a really difficult situation. She really liked the designs, but, as she explained, sometimes there simply aren’t any words which are appropriate for the hardest situations, but they still need to be acknowledged nonetheless.
To address this, we’ve created our ‘cards for any occasion’ range which has no text on the front. They are simply plain white cards with a variety of image options. The idea behind these is that they can be used in any way you want - the only limit is how you interpret the card. We’re proud to say that these cards are doing well - thanks mum!
“I wanted to buy one of your cards for an upcoming birthday, but you didn’t really have anything for it.”
While we originally created our cards to acknowledge less traditional occasions, we love seeing how customers have been super resourceful and have found cards that work for birthdays and anniversaries.
Even though these situations aren’t at the core of our mission, if you are using them that way, we want to make sure that you still have a really good customer experience. So here’s what we’ve done:
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Created a birthday category on our website so you can easily find all of the cards that may be appropriate for a birthday. A couple of our favourite examples are:
- Created a birthday multi pack, so you can have a whole pack of cards sitting at home ready to go for that all important big occasion.
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We’re also exploring creating a ‘schedule send’ option so that you can plan all of your birthday card needs in advance, and have them scheduled for the whole year. This is in the early stages of research though, so stay tuned for updates!
“I don’t know my friend’s address.”
Yeah, that’s a common one. But it turns out most of the time, you actually do have their address saved - you just don’t know where to look. So, we’ve created this little guide to help you out :)
As brand new business owners, we know we still have soooooo much to learn. We haven’t got everything perfect from the outset, but we have loved having the opportunity already to create some really touching moments in people’s lives - which honestly fills us with so much joy.
If you have something that you think would be valuable for us to hear, please oh please reach out to us. We value our customers so much and want to keep improving for you every day. Unseasoned Greetings is a learning journey - a bloody fun learning journey that comes with a lot of ups and downs but lots of smiles.
Here’s how you can reach out:
- Leave a comment on this blog
- Email hello@unseasonedgreetings.com.au
- Message us on Instagram or Facebook
- Connect with Joe Nes or Jacqui Dean on LinkedIn