Any good salesperson knows how to turn on the charm when they’re first approaching a potential new client. But it’s easy to butter someone up. What’s difficult is keeping them coming back for more, and beyond that, inspiring them to refer their friends and business partners to you.

We’re all hard-wired to say ‘thank you’ when someone gives us something or does something for us. After “hello,” it’s the first phrase we learn when we travel to a foreign language-speaking country. But do we really mean it every time we utter a “thank you,” ”‘gracias,” or”merci?”

Whether you’re courting a new client or working within a long-term contract, gratitude works wonders for keeping business channels flowing. And when clients, customers, and employees are happy, business is usually growing. Just remember these important points when expressing your appreciation.

1. Be Genuine. Saying “thank you”can be very simple, as long as it’s honest. When you send an invoice to a client, add a personal note with a message of thanks. After a meeting, shoot out an email to say you appreciate their time and enjoyed the conversation. When it’s appropriate, send a handwritten thank you note. Make that easy on yourself by keeping stamps and stationary handy, and it’ll only take a minute or two to send a personal message that won’t go unnoticed.
2. Give Kudos Online If your company has a Facebook page, it’s easy to say thank you by doing your business partners a simple favor. Let’s say you’re a wedding planner, and you just met with a florist who may be a possible long-term partner. It doesn’t take any time to put up a quick post saying, ‘Just met with Susie from the Main Street Florist. Their spring arrangements are amazing!’ You may not have confirmed the deal at the meeting, but after Susie sees you pay her a public compliment, she’s bound to like you all the more.Of course, once you do establish a working relationship, make sure to link to Main Street Florist on your website. A ‘Links’ page of friends and business partners publicly expresses your trust in them and says thank you for their role in your company.
3. Keep Them Happy Remember when all banks gave out lollipops? Mine still does, and although I rarely grab one, I appreciate the gesture. It puts me in a good mood when I approach the teller, and even though it’s a small thing, it makes the bank feel local, like a part of the community.The same kind of thing happened last week at a craft market. My wife was looking at one artisan’s beaded necklaces, when I noticed a plate of chocolates there on the table. I had been anxious to move on, but now I stepped closer to the table. With me willing to stand there a minute longer and give feedback, my wife ended up buying a necklace she might have walked away from.

   Of course, there’s more to marketing than free candy, but every little thing helps. Any time you give away something (and chocolates and lollipops don’t cost much), it opens a door in people’s minds. They relax and stay a moment longer — the moment that might make all the difference between a potential customer and a sale.

4. Stay in Touch, But Don’t Pester. A monthly email or print newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with customers and clients, but it’s ground that should be walked softly upon. The last thing you want to do is annoy people and have them grow accustomed to deleting your emails.A first tip is to grow your email list from scratch, with people who have provided you their address – then you’re guaranteed to be hitting your key audience. Secondly, offer these faithful customers a coupon or discount. For the record, 10 percent off is hardly appealing in this era of half-off daily deals. Pick one item to steeply discount, or give 25 percent off any item in your store, menu, or services. You’ll soon have email recipients chomping at the bit for your next message to arrive.

It’s impossible to put a monetary figure on a thank you. When it comes to building lasting business relationships, showing gratitude is invaluable. However you do the math, saying thank you is always good for your bottom line.

Christopher Wallace, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing, has more than 20 years experience in sales and marketing. At Amsterdam, a leading provider of personalized promotional items such as imprinted apparel and customized calendars, Christopher is focused on providing quality marketing materials to small, mid-size and large businesses.

image by flickr user Steve Snodgrass

Wherever you are in the world, you’d have to have been hiding pretty well to escape all the news of economic gloom and doom. Markets are taking a rollercoaster ride as people speculate what will happen in both Europe and America, while the growth in the Far East that was supposed to be helping has so far not materialized.

This could not have been timed much worse if you are running a small business, with the peak time for many companies, Christmas, fast approaching. Many are  scratching their heads, wondering whether to invest in marketing and promotions or hold on to their cash and brace themselves for what might happen in the future.

So what promotional activities can you undertake in the lead up to the holiday season whilst keeping an eye on the dark clouds that are gathering on the horizon? The key is value for the money, so let’s take a look at where your efforts should lie.

PR
Newspaper and magazine advertising has been perceived as a dying art for some time, but newspaper and media exposure can still be an important way of getting your name known. There is one problem with this however — cost.

Using a simple bit of PR and getting it seen by the right people can be one way in which to appear in publications without paying the high costs demanded by their advertising departments. Use a bit of imagination and come up with something newsworthy that your company can be involved in. For example, do something for charity or to help the local community to get some local press coverage.

Another tactic is to distribute questionnaires and quizzes to your customers  to find lots of interesting ideas on which to base your press release. UK company called Engraved Gift Ideas did this, found out that This one questionnaire led to a press release that captured valuable national press coverage in newspapers and on radio. Best of all, it cost next to nothing!

Online
The days of ignoring online marketing are well and truly gone, and many businesses could not survive without the money brought in by traffic to their website. Using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be quite expensive, but it shouldn’t cost you the earth to do some basic optimization on your site so that you appear higher in Google’s organic rankings.

Don’t be intimidated by the technical side of thing. If you’re running your site by yourself, now might be the time to invest in a little training to help you make the most of your online presence. Then, with a  few little tweaks, you could make a big difference to your online visibility. Take the time to research Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and see how you can drive new traffic to your site.

Promotional Gifts
Building and maintaining relationships with clients is an important part of running a business and with the festive season coming up, now is a good time to look at sending promotional gifts.

The days of giving holiday gifts to everyone in your database are long gone, but using promotional gifts to maintain relationships with your best clients can be an effective way of keeping their custom.

The headlines might make for gloomy reading but a little investment in the right places now could help you ride out the rough times that are to come. With the holiday season on the horizon, the opportunity is there to insulate yourself against the worst of the downturn. While it may seem a little scary to invest money now, the quality of how you spend on promotion ,rather than the quantity, will help to put you in the best possible position should the worst case scenarios come true.

Author Bio:
Alan Grainger is an in-house B2B web marketer in the promotional gifts sector and manages SEO for The Promotional Gifts Company. He writes articles exploring the issues faced by the B2B web marketer, giving an “in the trenches” view from an in-house SEO department. Follow him @alanjgrainger.

There is an interesting discussion on the 37signals.com blog  about a Nike commercial using a song by Saul Williams- activist, poet and musician. The song, “List of Demands” was used to enhance their messaging about their newest product/idea/brand.

The term “selling out” has been around for a long time. Wikipedia (the bastion of accuracy) offers this definition: Selling out refers to the compromising of one’s integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, ‘success’ or other personal gain.

I guess I have a bit of a problem with this term in general. Why should artists; musicians, photographers, painters, poets, etc, have to choose between obscurity and exposure? Why are they ridiculed for wanting to make enough money to sustain their ability to make art?

I discovered some of my favorite music artists because of hearing them on a commercial or movie. I guess this makes me a big supporter of sell outs.

As a business, you market your product, you do your best to expose your brand. You place commercials and ads to make as wide of an impression as possible. You do everything in your power to bring people information on why they should give your company their business.

So why is a painter or photographer or songwriter any different than your local coffee shop or … Nike?

Williams says: “I received a lot of questions from some about why I would allow my song ‘List of Demands’ to be used in a Nike campaign. Ironically, half of the people now reading this post never heard of me until that commercial aired. That, indeed, was one of my reasons for allowing it.”

While I’m not a huge fan of Williams music, I found the music and the ad compelling together. And good for him for finding a way to get his message to a larger group of people.

That’s good marketing and good business.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software