A physical thank-you note might seem like an old-school marketing gimmick in the age of email automation and electronic greeting cards, but making this physical connection with your customer is still a valuable way to get more sales, increase customer retention, expand your reach, and grow your business. In the previous episode, 5 Lessons from my 5-Figure Product Launch, I shared the 5 biggest lessons I learned when I created my dream product. One of which was the value of including a thank you note with each order.

I truly believe that this tried-and-true marketing tool should be part of any modern marketing strategy. I’ve been refining my Thank You notes for the past 10 years and in today’s episode, I’m telling you the 7 things I think you should include on your card, how to design your card online for free, and where you can have 1000 of them printed for $100.

Tune in to this episode to get everything in more detail, but here are some CliffsNotes:

THE 7 THINGS THAT SHOULD BE ON YOUR CARD

1. Make it something worth hanging up and hanging on to. For example, mine has a 2020 calendar on the front. But if you’re a calligrapher maybe you’d include a beautiful quote, or if you’re a restaurant perhaps it makes sense to design your Thank You to double as a recipe card for a favorite dish or cocktail.
2. Include a sincere thank you and tell them about your mission. Tell them why they should feel great about supporting a business like yours. Is it small? Woman-owned? Minority-owned? Giving back to a great cause? This is a great time to remind them.
3. Give them a clear call to action and the information they need to make it happen. Wish every customer would share a photo on Instagram? They don’t know unless you tell them. Give them a clear call to action as well as any necessary information such as your handle or brand hashtag.
4. Consider creating a centralized landing page where you can direct them. Got a lot of resources to share? Instead of overwhelming your customers with too much information, try sending them to one online space where they can get access to all the amazing stuff you make (for example, I created DailyPagePlanner.com to make it super simple for my customers). 
5. Tell them your preferred method for customer support. There are a million ways customers can contact us nowadays, and although it’s hard to herd them all to one platform it will help if you tell them where you’re able to best offer support.
6. Tell them where you most appreciate a review. People love to share their opinions! But just like customer support, there are a lot of places where this can occur. If you know that TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google, or Facebook are the places where most people are discovering you, ask your customers to leave reviews for you there. 
7. Include a photo of yourself! It’s possible that your customer has no idea what you look like, especially as an online business owner and especially if you conduct your business on an external sales platform such a Etsy or Amazon. Putting a photo on your Thank You note is a great way to make a human connection and increase the chances that they’ll connect with you elsewhere to continue the relationship. 

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list. How you utilize the card and what you include on it will vary depending on your business, so I hope you’ll take my list and run with it to create your own!

I do not include a discount code on my thank you notes, but that is a popular option and a question I get a lot! If you want to include a discount code to encourage a follow-up order I have two tips:

1. Make sure the code is unique. Avoid things like “FREESHIP”, which are easy for people to guess.
2. Set up a unique code that you can track back to your Thank You notes and don’t mention that discount code anywhere else. This way when you review your sales you’ll be able to see how much revenue has been brought in by including a discount code on your thank you notes, specifically.

HOW TO PRINT 1000 OF THEM FOR $100

I have used VistaPrint.com for the past ten years and have found their pricing and quality to be great. You can view their options for postcards via this link. The more you order, the cheaper it gets per postcard. I recommend creating a design that is rather “timeless” so that you can order a larger quantity. I typically order 1000 at a time and the total is around $100.  You can play around with the sizes and paper options on their Postcard Page to figure out which options will be best for you. Once you know which size of card you plan to order you are ready to start designing.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN DESIGN (FOR FREE!)

If you want to create a card of your own I’d suggest going to Canva.com, create a free account, and use this website to create a thank you note. Canva is a free, online design program that makes it super easy to design customized material for free. Just tell them what you want to design, and they’ll make sure your document is set up with the right print specifications. They even have templates, font layouts, and graphics to help you get started. I recommend designing a postcard with dimensions of either 4″x6″ or 5.5″x8.5″. You can choose between landscape or portrait orientation depending on your preferences. If you sign up using my link you can use Canva Pro free for 30 days, and then get access to a membership rate of $9.95 per month (or $119.40 billed annually). Note that you don’t need “pro” to create your thank you note, but it does give you access to more templates, clipart, and stock photography options. Create a design for the front of the card and the back of the card. Once you have your designs finalized, export them as PDF files and head over to VistaPrint.com to complete your order.

Below is my Thank You card design, with the 2020 Calendar on the front, and all the information my customers will need on the back. I’ve also provided space for adding order details to help with packaging

Again, I know it might seem weird for me to put such an emphasis on something so simple, but I really have seen this move the needle in my business and sometimes the simplest things are the ones that are easiest to overlook. If you are looking for additional resources consider checking out these other posts:

All the Resources I Use for My Small Business – Curious what other programs or subscriptions I use besides Canva and VistaPrint? Head over to this post for the full scoop. 

20 Ways to Grow Your Instagram Following – This blog post and podcast episode have the 20 ways I have seen small businesses fail to lead customers to their Instagram account. It has plenty of more tips like this!

5 Lessons from my 5-Figure Product Launch – What were my biggest takeaways after launching my dream product? I shared it all in this podcast/blog post.