Showing Gratitude Isn't Just for Your Personal Mindset Practice, it's an Imperative Business Practice.

If you’ve done any self-development work you’ve probably heard of the “attitude of gratitude”, the mindset practice that every self-help book and life coach preaches incessantly. When you first started writing down 5 things you were grateful for everyday there probably weren’t any fireworks or overwhelming rushes of incandescent happiness, but after a while (it is called a practice after all) you began to feel positive shifts in your mindset. 

Now let me ask you this...once you felt the yummy effects of gratitude did you share it out into the world? Did you start telling your friends exactly why you feel so lucky to have them in your life? Did you start leaving bigger tips at restaurants and scribbling a little “thank you : )” on the receipt?

If you did (if not, you should try it!) you learned that building your internal gratitude and then amplifying it out into the world felt SUPER yummy. Good vibes all day, everyday. We humans love spreading the love, it gets us out of our heads and connects us to something greater. 

So wtf does this have to do with business + branding? 

Your brand is the ideas, feelings and emotions - the impression - people come away with after interacting with your business. We talk about creating a “brand experience” that is consistent, memorable and favorable in order to build trust which leads to sales. 

There are many ways to achieve a stand out brand experience and showing gratitude is a very powerful way, yet it’s rarely talked about.

Saying “Thank You” should be part of your brand experience, not only because it will make your clients feel good, thus increasing word of mouth marketing but because it’s the decent thing to do. 

A business without sales is a hobby and you get sales via your clients and customers. Your business would quite literally be nothing without your clients so why not share your gratitude for the money they’ve spent, the awesome projects you’ve gotten to work on and the referrals they’ve sent your way?

Good vibes for you, your business and your clients all day, everyday.

Saying thank you doesn’t have to be difficult.

If you don’t have a gratitude practice in your business yet or are looking to spice things up, here are 3 of our favorite ways to say thank you...

Mail a thank you card. 

Yes I said “mail”. No one gets good mail anymore, it’s always spam or bills or advertisements and that one time out of 50 that you get a handwritten card from your grandma saying “just thinking about you sweetie”, you get so excited! So why not go the extra mile, print some branded thank you cards, handwrite a genuine note, mail that baby and make your clients day? 

Promote a client on social media.

If you’re anything like us you work with some pretty rad clients who are up to cool things. Promoting a client on your social media is a great way to say “thank you for being awesome”. And don’t just think of this when you wrap up a project or sell a product, think of promoting them when they are launching a new offering or get published in an online magazine or do something amazing for their community. 

Write a good review. 

Working in customer service for 7 years, I learned that people usually only write reviews/comment on their experience when it’s a bad one. Once in a blue moon we would get a customer who would go out of their way to let us know their experience was amazing and it was the best feeling. Being cognizant of this, I’ve made it a point to write reviews for businesses where I had a great experience. 

You probably use outside services in your business like an accountant or a co-working space or a brand designer or the Pho place you order lunch from everyday. Take 5 minutes out of your week and write a genuine review on Google or LinkedIn or Yelp (make sure to ask where they prefer) and spread the love to the other businesses you rely on to run yours. 

We believe that a business isn’t just about making money, it’s also about making an impact. Saying “Thank You” is a simple, thoughtful way to impact your customers and clients day and as a bonus will make your brand experience stand out.