By Blair Cariss

After doing a lot of research into marketing over the past couple of years I have come across a rather unique strategy for creating Thank You gifts for your clients that are well received and also stimulate additional business for you.

I am a firm believer that you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. So I like the idea of giving our clients gifts just for doing business with us. And that gift does mean that you are likely to be remembered by your clients and they will come back as loyal customers when they need you.

Say you print a calendar and every month is themed around different parts/products/problems of what your business does. Meaning you can create ‘specials’ and print offers related to each month’s theme.

Giving your customers a reason to come back and buy from you each month. How cool is that? So say you have a health food store, you can make January ‘Detox Month’, with a printed voucher for some detox products so that your clients can get healthy after the festive season binge...

Say February is ‘Heart Health Month’ (Valentine’s Day is in Feb and you need a strong heart for Feb 14...) and offer a bundle of heart health products at a special price for anyone who brings in the right printed voucher.

And so on throughout the year. Different voucher(s) or offer(s) each month...

So every new client gets an unadvertised gift when they start with you - this year’s printed calendar. Then every Christmas all your clients who conducted business with you get their annual gift – next year’s calendar jammed full of value.

Then they get all these opportunities to try your different products and services.

Let’s face it everyone always needs a calendar. So they are not going to throw them out. Especially if there are vouchers on them. You are creating a lot of good will for a small cost per unit to you. And as a by-product, increasing your chances of making more sales to your customers over the coming months.

See what I mean by the ‘Ultimate Thank You Gift?’