Granny knows best: why her marketing hack gets results
Want to know a simple, low-cost marketing trick you can use to stand out from your rivals?
The answer is handwritten thank-you cards.
As granny taught us, everyone loves receiving thank-you cards. Yet hardly anybody sends them any more.
That creates an opportunity for you and your business.
Here are three reasons why investing a small amount of money in cards and postage can translate in to big sales results.
- Thank-you cards build relationships
As social psychologist Dr Lisa A. Williams explains, “saying ‘thank you’ goes beyond good manners – it also serves to build and maintain social relationships”. In other words, handwritten thank-you cards are a great way to build and maintain relationships with existing and potential clients.
You know those ‘friends’ and colleagues who only show an interest in us when they want something? We get irritated when they ask us for favours, because their insincerity is so obvious. But you know those friends and colleagues who are genuinely interested in us? When they ask us for favours, we want to help, because we feel connected to them.
Customers will be much more open to your sales calls if you’ve previously shown that you value them on an emotional (rather than transactional) level.
- Thank-you cards differentiate you from your rivals
The purpose of marketing is to stand out from your rivals. But how can you expect to stand out from your rivals if your marketing is exactly the same as theirs? That’s another reason why handwritten thank-you cards are such a great idea.
It’s highly unlikely any of your rivals are sending thank-you cards. How do we know? Well, when was the last time you received a thank-you card from anyone you spent money with? If a potential client gets quotes from you and two rivals, and if you’ve previously sent that client a card and your rivals haven’t, you’ve immediately established a point of difference. Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to get the business. But it does give you a headstart.
As we’ve explained in the past, letterboxes have never been emptier. Use that to your advantage.
- Thank-you cards make clients feel special
When it comes to expressing gratitude, a card is far more likely to impress than a text or email.
Part of the reason is that we receive far fewer cards than we do texts or emails. Mainly, though, it’s because we know more effort goes in to handwritten cards. As a result, they make us feel valued and special in a way that electronic communications rarely do.
Don’t believe us? Well, how would you feel if you attended a wedding – after spending several hundred dollars on a gift and clothes – and then received a text to thank you for your troubles? The reason newlyweds send handwritten cards instead is because they know that nothing conveys respect quite like a personalised piece of print.
Be like granny
One final tip – your thank-you cards should be unique to your business, rather than something you bought from a newsagent. They should also feature a handwritten and personalised note, so the recipient knows that you invested time and effort in the card.
Because if the card feels ‘mass produced’, it will be little better than a text or email.
Make sure your note mentions something unique to the recipient – the cool red carpet in their office or their upcoming trip to Paris or the science prize their daughter just won. Now, you’re not just another annoying salesperson who only wants their money. Instead, you’re a good person who really cares.
Granny understood the impact of personalised, handwritten thank-you cards. So should you.
