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Overview

• Expressing gratitude deepens your relationships, builds trust, & increases your referrals.
• Word of mouth remains one of the most effective lead generation strategies (expressing gratitude plays a major role in this). (Download the full article here) 

What is the opportunity cost for "Thank You"?

 

We know what you’re thinking and yes, this is a big deal. You are leaving so many things on the table by not sending thank you cards to your customers; money, repeat sales, community building, referrals, raising brand awareness, emotionally capturing your audience, and an opportunity to reinforce your brand mission. 

Somewhere along the way you got so caught up in making quick sales that you lost touch with the real goal; building long-term relationships. So, we want to take some time today to share our data and research with you to prove how effective sending personalized thank you cards is and why your business must take advantage of this practice.

After all, the goal isn’t to just start a business but to STAY in business.

Having repeat shoppers is the key to this and our research will prove it.

What does our research say? 

Handwritten and personalized Thank you cards are increasing in popularity as many industries veered away from them once emailing became the prominent form of communication. Per Researcher Emily Lintz at Help Sprout, these trinkets will only continue to increase in popularity and demand as consumers treat them like keepsakes.

In other words, your customers want to feel like their package is a gift. In every gift what do we include? A card (birthday, thank you, get well soon, etc.). So why would you exclude a card from this gift?

Stop wasting time & losing out on countless opportunities & invest in you

custom prints.

If you're not convinced yet, consider these findings:

• Sending personalized notes to your customers makes them feel special, which emotionally inclines them to share this experience with others via their network. This means that a small gesture has the ability to appeal to your customers through pathos which has the power to directly increase your revenue through word of mouth.
• This small act guarantees that you receive more brand exposure by providing additional literature for your customers to give to others. This literature is unique, brand-specific and straight to the point, making it easy for new people to connect with your brand.
• 80% of consumers openly admit that family and friend referrals have a direct impact on their shopping behaviors because they value the opinions of those close to them.
• 70% of customer shopping experiences are based on emotional qualities, so appealing more to pathos is truly the key to having happy repeat clients who give you referrals.

These findings are only a small glimpse of the readily available research provided by ResearcherEmily Lintz at Help Sprout.

Let’s take this a step further and try to understand why you may be reluctant to express gratitude to your customers. In part, we’ve found that this feeling often stems from underestimating the value, impact, and significance of expressing gratitude.

Per researchers Amit Kumar & Nicholas Epley in the publication “Undervaluing Gratitude: Expressers Misunderstand the Consequences of Showing Appreciation”, relationship building and healthy social interactions is the key to happiness.

 

To accomplish this, one must experience consistent positive moments with individuals or corporations. The key takeaway here is that one interaction is not enough to make people remember you, nor is it enough to close the sale most times.

Among many of the positive experiences, one can have, receiving a written letter of gratitude is one of the most impactful because it is the least exercised. These findings are also reflected in those who write notes as they are found to generally be happier and satisfied with the overall experience.

When you put it this way, who wouldn’t be happy to receive this?

Retention & Expansion:

Subconsciously, you may have already subscribed to the notion of underestimating the value of expressing gratitude in business. Per researchers, Ruthan Clay & Peter Sterns in their publication “Don’t Forget to Say “Thank You”: Toward a Modern History of Gratitude”, customers are generally excited to relieve Thank you emails, However, most Americans underestimate the importance of this. Gratitude research has however grown in popularity recently as professionals try to understand direct relationships, strategy building, and consumer attitudes.

Several studies have been done to determine what customers want, frugal wows, and the emotional aspect of consumer behavior. Author Gregory Ciotti elaborates on this within the article “The Frugal Wow: How Small Gestures Create Lasting Loyalty” by explaining how gratitude can be frugal and accessible to any brand. This can be accomplished by understanding that goodwill is built on emotional actions, rather than financial.

The WHY behind why you do something for your customers & the quality of it matter more than the financial cost in terms of what’s expensive. Ultimately, this shows us why personalization is essential to your business's success.

Marketing guru Neil Patel expands on this by compiling data from 20+ brands who began focusing on personalization. On average, each brand boosted conversions by 30%+ by focusing on specific offers that their audiences could not resist. While these studies are completed via the web, you could use this data and replicate these results in your business by promoting specific actions or using action based thank you cards to prompt your audience to take action.

One thing is for sure though, thank you cards add a stylish touch to your brand and customer experience. The cards can be uniquely cut, scented, and cute as little puppies. Although I understand that the cards are cute, but cute is not what makes you money – strategy does. Developing a gratitude strategy can be game-changing for building your loyal community. So, here are five tips on how to build your gratitude strategy and get on track to meet your goals.

Tips for building a gratitude strategy:

• Build a customer profile
• Prioritize relationship cultivation
• Focus on personalizing your offers
• Start saying thank you more often
• Get creative in how you say thank you.
• Incorporate more acts of kindness towards your clients

Conclusion

Research shows that sending thank you cards is more about evoking an emotional response than it is about the cards being cute or breaking your budget to obtain them. Your cards or methods can be frugal, strategically done, and something you love just as much as your audience.

If you want to boost client retention, happiness, and conversions - this is a potential solution that evokes creativity and adds a unique flair to your brand.

 

 

References

Undervaluing Gratitude: Expressers Misunderstand the Consequences of Showing Appreciation by Amit Kumar & Nicholas Epley

Source: https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/undervaluing-gratitude-expressers-misunderstand-the-consequences-of-N7EeLEkkOY?articleList=%2Fsearch%3Fquery%3DUndervaluing%2BGratitude%253A%2BExpressers%2BMisunderstand%2Bthe%2BConsequences%2Bof%2BShowing%2BAppreciation

Don’t Forget to Say “Thank You”: Toward a Modern History of Gratitude by Ruthann Clay & Peter Sterns

Source: https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/don-t-forget-to-say-thank-you-toward-a-modern-history-of-gratitude-6uHCiYi0lE?articleList=%2Fsearch%3Fquery%3DSending%2Bthank%2Byou%2Bcards

The ROI of Thanking Your Customers by Emily Lentz

Source: https://www.helpscout.com/helpu/roi-of-thanking-customers/

The Frugal Wow: How Small Gestures Create Lasting Loyalty by Gregory Ciotti 2014

Source: https://www.helpscout.com/blog/frugal-wow/

Psychological Principles of High Converting Websites (+ 20 Case Studies) by Neil Patel

Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/psychological-principles-converting-website/