s soon as children stop trick-or-treating and forget about their Halloween costumes for another year, shelves of grocery stores will slowly get filled with lights, ornaments, and wrapping paper. You will start to hear Let It Snow on the local radio station, and everyone will start to buy Christmas gifts for their friends and relatives. However, before the nation celebrates the winter holidays, there will also be another important moment of celebration — all Americans will take a moment to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to spend an evening with your family, but if you own a business, this is also a great opportunity to remind your customers about yourself and to let them know that you’re thankful. Almost everyone who lives in the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving so this holiday certainly deserves your attention. It’s more than just a transition from Halloween to Christmas. It’s an opportunity to strengthen your relationships with clients and to build connections that will be beneficial in the long-term.

Timing Is Crucial

The success of your thanksgiving message to a large extent depends on the timing. One of your main goals is to remind clients about yourself, but it will be difficult to do when their mailboxes get filled with Thanksgiving messages from friends and dozens of other businesses. You don’t want your message to be ignored so you must stand out. Therefore, we recommend that you send your message in advance.

No matter what marketing strategy you have, the chances are that its success somewhat depends on standing out from the crowd. If you become one of the first brands that express their gratitude, you will be able to stand out easily, with no need for additional investments. Besides, you will be able to emphasize the value of human connection that often gets overlooked.

If you send a personalized thanksgiving message to clients, it might repay you in many ways. For instance, some clients might reply so that you can continue the conversation with them, offering discounts, or sending product recommendations. The recipients may also recommend your brand to their friends and relatives so the number of your clients will eventually grow.

Will It Work For You?

Here are some tips for businesses that think that Thanksgiving messages could work for them. To make sure that these messages will fulfill their purpose, you may need to make some adjustments so that they will reflect your brand image. We wrote these tips for two separate groups, each of which has its two subsets.

The first group includes businesses that only communicate with their clients online. In this case, there are certain limitations regarding how personal your communication with the audience can be. If you have a big audience, the chances are that you have assistants who are responsible for communicating with different segments of this audience. Therefore, it makes sense to continue this communication so that clients from a certain segment will receive Thanksgiving messages from people they have already interacted with.

Another group of people who might think about using Thanksgiving messages includes individual entrepreneurs and those who have side-gig businesses. No matter whether you own a business or have a personal blog, you might send newsletters to your audience. In this case, you can turn one of your regular newsletters into a Thanksgiving message.

We recommend that you put some effort into designing a themed message. The design of your message should correspond to the holiday, and we suggest that you make your message well-focused, getting rid of any irrelevant clutter. Keep in mind that the main purpose of such a message is to let your clients know how much you appreciate them, so don’t make your Thanksgiving message too promotional. Instead, make it warm and personal.

There are also small business owners, independent contractors, and entrepreneurs who can communicate with their audience not only online but also face-to-face. This group can benefit from personalized Thanksgiving greetings more than others. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic created many restrictions for in-person meetings, nothing should stop you from using direct mail and connecting with your customers in a more intimate way than when sending emails.

Beauty shops, barbershops, boutiques, and garages may consider sending postcards. A great approach is to send cards signed by the owner or by all the employees. If you don’t want to deal with direct mail but you have your clients’ phone numbers, you can also call them and express your gratitude in an even more personal and authentic way.

Challenges

Contacting your clients on Thanksgiving may be more or less difficult, depending on the type of your business. Businesses that only communicate with their customers online probably won’t experience any difficulties because they can write messages upfront and customize them by adding their clients’ names. In this case, the main thing is to send your happy Thanksgiving email at the right time. For instance, you can schedule your messages on Friday, a week before Thanksgiving. You may also send these emails on Monday of Thanksgiving week.

In this case, the only common challenge is that not everyone was born a brilliant writer, and the success of your Thanksgiving emails certainly will depend on how good the message itself is. Not only should it be spotless in terms of grammar, but it should also be written in an appropriate style. Besides, your emails should reflect your brand image, which means that the writer should understand the specifics of your business and choose the right words. Fortunately, you can always find talented and experienced writers on professional writing services websites like Supreme Dissertations and Trust My Paper. Therefore, there’s no need to worry if you can’t find great writers in your team.

If you’re going to send postcards, this task will be much more time-consuming, and it will also require you to put more effort into the preparation process. Don’t forget that the main goal of your Thanksgiving message is to make personal contact with your clients so that this connection can contribute to building strong relationships with them. Therefore, the best solution is to hand-sign each card and to hand-address it.

Just imagine how your clients will open their mailbox and see a stamped, hand-addressed letter. Isn’t it awesome? Now imagine them opening the envelope and realizing that you don’t try to sell something nor ask for a favor. This is what genuine connection is all about, and it will immediately make your business stand out.

Tips on Writing Perfect Thanksgiving Messages

• Choose simple templates
  You can find thousands of Thanksgiving greetings samples on the internet, but not all of them are good. If you’re going to use templates, we recommend that you stick with simple designs that won’t distract your recipients from the message. Besides, make sure that your emails aren’t sales-focused.

We recommend that you use Thanksgiving emails to provide some emotional value and to remind your clients why they have subscribed to your emails, in the first place. Holidays also enable you to use some fun imagery and to crack a joke. However, if you’re going to write something funny, make sure that it’s not controversial.

• Reward your loyal customers
  Imagine what your business would look like without loyal customers. Loyal customers can make a huge difference, and Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to let them know how important they are to you. Telling them “thank you” is great, but nothing should stop you from supporting your words with deeds.

For example, you can make an exclusive offer for your loyal customers so that they can see how valuable they are to you. You can also give them early access to your upcoming sale. If you have a bonus program, you may also double their bonuses for products purchased during holidays. Keep in mind that your customers will be busy chatting with family members and eating turkey so give them some time to use your offer. 

• Make a difference
  Some brands support particular cases, and if you don’t do it yet, you can find a case that is relevant to your brand image. On Thanksgiving, you can show your clients what their purchases can accomplish. For instance, you can donate a certain percentage of every purchase to charity.

Your company may also buy a meal for those in need for the money it gets from every purchase. This way, you will not only motivate your clients to make a purchase during holidays but also inspire loyalty among them. As we’ve already mentioned above, your business should stand out, and actually making a difference is probably the best way to demonstrate that your brand is better than your competitors.

• Use the holiday spirit to your advantage
  Your Thanksgiving emails can not only express your gratitude to the existing customers but also send a welcome message to the new ones. Tell your new clients that, even though you have just met each other, you are happy that they have become your subscribers. You may also send them a photo of the owner or the whole team.

Thanksgiving is also a great opportunity to contact not only those who are your active subscribers but also those who haven’t been active for a while. Perhaps, you have a certain number of unsubscribed clients who no longer receive your emails. Of course, some of them may never want to hear from you again, but the chances are that many of them would reengage if you reached out at the right time, and Thanksgiving is a perfect occasion.

Tell your inactive customers that, although you drifted apart, you are still thankful. Your clients expect to receive more emails during holidays so your reactivation email likely won’t be annoying. You may also offer a discount so that these recipients will have additional motivation to get in touch with you again.

• Mention Black Friday
  We have already emphasized that your Thanksgiving message shouldn’t be too sales-focused. In fact, the best solution is to avoid any direct calls to action associated with purchases. The first reason is that your Thanksgiving message should establish a genuine connection. The second reason is that most of your contacts don’t even think about your products or services on Thanksgiving.

Nevertheless, your clients will be ready for some serious shopping as soon as they finish eating their turkey and say goodbye to their relatives. Therefore, you can use your Thanksgiving message to quickly remind your clients about your Black Friday sale.

• Listen to their opinion
  Any business’s success depends on its ability to meet its customers’ expectations, and it can be extremely difficult to do if you don’t get feedback from your customers. Unfortunately, many people don’t bother to leave a review, especially if they are completely satisfied with the customer service. Therefore, if you want to get valuable feedback, you need to ask for it.

Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to not only express your gratitude but also to let your customers know how valuable their opinion is. Ask your clients to complete a quick survey so that you can understand what you should improve to make your customers’ experience even better. To make sure that your email will be effective, you can offer a discount or bonuses for completing a survey.

Wrapping Up

Thanksgiving is a special holiday. It’s all about human connection and gratitude so you can use this holiday to strengthen your relationships with your customers and to let them know that they are important to you. Expressing your gratitude to the clients is an opportunity to add some authenticity to your brand image. A well-written business thanksgiving message can make your customers feel more appreciated, and it can also help your business stand out.

We hope that our simple tips will help you write both heartwarming and effective messages. There are some of the simplest ways to let your clients know that you care so these methods might work for businesses from different niches. The main thing is not to forget what Thanksgiving is about and to demonstrate that your clients are valuable to you.