7 Innovative Ways to Thank Your Client during the Holidays
There’s nothing like thanking someone to make them want to be nice to you. It’s positive feedback, just like Pavlov would have used and works on anyone and everyone, including your clients. Saying thank you for their work, time and effort, during the holiday season is a great way to leave a good impression on them to ensure you are remembered when it comes time to hire someone in the new year.
And not only will it leave a good mark, but saying thank you is a great opportunity for giving your clients notice about when you’ll be closed for business, any specials you might have and when you’ll be back at work. With 2007 fast fading into the rear view mirror, it’s time to think about ways you can say thank you to your clients. Here are seven innovative ideas you might like to try:
1. Buy a Sheep … on Their Behalf
Do something good for the world on your client’s behalf and purchase something from Oxfam’s Unwrapped service. You can pay to have a poor farmer’s land irrigated, buy books for school children or invest in a fair trade coffee coop. Last year Cyan and I bought cows on behalf of our clients and named them after major projects we’d worked on. It was amusing, heart warming and something that gets your clients talking and mentioning your name at every christmas and new year party they go to.
2. Print some Custom Tshirts
Thanks to services like Cafepress, you can print out custom tees, hats, cups and all sorts of things for your clients. Add your brand or even better, add something quirky, clever or personable like a phrase (“Best Client Ever”, “I Give Great Briefs” …) and even if your client never wears it, they’ll appreciate the thought, the effort and the uniqueness.
3. Print some Postcards
Customized postcards make a great way to say thank you and happy holidays and with Cyan’s list of Six Clever Postcard Promotion Ideas you can easily use a service like Moo and some photos from Flickr or iStock to print out some gorgeous cards even if design isn’t in your skillset.
4. JibJab Them!
If you haven’t seen JibJab yet, it’s a highly amusing way to send an eCard. You paste someone’s head – yours, your client’s, your client’s boss’ – into a card and send them the ensuing animation.
5. Photoshop your Client into a Famous Movie Poster and Mail it to Them
Have some l33t photoshop skills? Just grab a photo of your client and photoshop them into a famous movie poster, alter the name to something humerous and email it to them with a holiday message. For a photographer I know – Marmaras Shoots, I once photoshopped his head into a Matrix poster and retitled it to the Marmartrix, which got a good response. It takes a little effort, but done with someone who appreciates a laugh will be worth the time.
6. Give a Laptop to a Child, Get a Laptop
The one laptop per child project has now officially launched and for $399 you’ll send a laptop to a needy child as well as one to your client’s less-needy child! The laptops are pretty cool, have everything from a web browser to an RSS reader and they run on Linux. The project has to be one of the most innovative charities I’ve seen in a long time.
7. Get an Engraved Item from Amazon … like a Silver Plated Yoyo
When it comes to gifts, even the most common place item is made extra cool with some customization. Amazon stocks products that come with a free engraving including a Engraved Silver Plated Yoyo for $14.95 or a Variety of Other Products.
Whatever you choose, make sure to include a message that thanks them for everything thats happened during the year, wishes them a great holiday season and is genuine and heart-felt. Remember you reap what you sew. Preparing now will help you in the new year.
3,200 freelancers surveyed globally. In-depth interviews with 10 notable freelancers.
Insights and information you can't afford to ignore!
Find Out More
With over 100 weekly comic strips and counting, Freelance Freedom is an institution around here. Check out of all NC's brilliant work in the archives.
Freelance Freedom Archives
Interested in contributing to FreelanceSwitch? Write for the foremost freelance community and help share knowledge for the benefit of all!
Become a Guest Writer
If you are planning to send out a postcard to your clients, might I suggest adding a coupon on the back of the postcard. This will provide some incentive for your client to begin that project with you that they have been putting off. Depending on the message on the postcard, you can also use it as advertising for potential clients. Thanks for the article!
Wow this is nice idea collis. I’m sure client would be happy and will be nice to you.
Some awesome suggestions, especially the sheep/cow one those are hilarious and viral-esque gifts. I think I may buy a sheep just for fun. I typically just do postcards, but it makes sense to have it something they will talk about and not just something they’ll throw away.
Wow this is cool. Im a freelance to, hmmm I should follow this nice though- Good Job.
Thanks man…great job in your tutorial.
I must say some of these suggestions seem a little unprofessional. There is definitely a difference in german business mentality compared to the american but I wouldn’t ever consider using jibjab or photoshopping my clients into a movie poster.
Other good ideas are:
– Get a bottle of wine in a nice wooden box and design a custom label.
– There are services who offer high-class chocolate also with custom designed labels.
Those two go along nicely with a custom card aswell.
It obviously depends on your budget but we’ve had great success from sending our best clients personalised hampers, in fact we ended up getting the manufacturer of the hampers on board as a client this year too! (Hence why I’ve not posted a link to their website!)
You don’t need to spend a huge amount on the hampers to have something that’s different and impressive, the company we use can print on your logo with each gift and more than that will also include your personal literature for free. I like the idea of the personalised yo-yo for instance but you need something with a “wow” factor. I’ve got something up our sleeve this year for our gifts but that’s top secret for now
Tim
Great list! I also recommend planting a tree in their name. There are several organizations that you can use to do this, including TreesForLife (http://treesforlife.org/) and The Arbor Day Foundation (http://www.arborday.org/shopping/giveatree/ecards/). I like the latter because I can arrange for an emailed card instead of a printed card (it seems odd to plant a tree and then print a card to tell the recipient!).
Great list. Last year, I only got one special something from a somewhat large-ish company: a handwritten holiday card. I hadn’t expected anything, but I can still say a year later that it was just one of those small tokens of appreciation that made all the difference.
You really can be innovative and interesting, but being personal doesn’t hurt either.
Great ideas. Much better than some of the junk that I get that either gets thrown away or just passed on. One of my vendors has started making a donation to Toys-For-Tots each year in our name. I would much rather have that than a 256meg flash drive with their logo on it that will never get used.
How about a Kiva gift certificate?
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=gift&action=giftPromotion
This year I gave some clients the autographed collectors edition of Stephen Covey’s books. They went NUTS. It wasn’t cheap, and I only sent them to my big clients (mangers and such) but I even had one lady cry when she called me back to say thank you.
I got them here: http://www.stephencovey.com/store/
Another great option for giving livestock, including honeybees, is Heifer International:
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/
Ummm, am I the only one that thinks these ideas suck?
Love your ideas!..very unique and personal..^^
Great ideas, totally into suggestion numero uno!
I own a merchandise printing and production company, I’ll be sending my clients a custom printed coffee mug (dishwasher proof, safe, etc) with a warming message and beautiful design on the outer, and I’ll be putting a festive stuffed toy on the inside.
Great blog post
How about an iPod? Seriously! Any one of the following five reasons should give you a pass on your expense report!
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2222228,00.asp
I guess sending my usual round of emails to my wedding clients won’t cut it =x Good ideas for the coming holiday. I’ll spice things up a bit this year ;D
Many companies have restrictions on individuals receiving gifts from outside vendors. Unless it’s a gift for the entire office (e.g., tub of coated popcorn), the person you want to receive it can’t have it.
I have a different take on the gift giving: don’t. Instead, give the “gift” that really matters to the client: exceed their expectations with your work throughout the year. You’ll be remembered when the time comes to do something for them in the future. No coffee mug or cow is going to replace awesome results in the client’s eyes.
If I’m going to give a client a gift, I have to make the money from them to pay for it. I’ve never liked this idea.
Past three years gifts:
Logo’d cupcakes in packs of 6 – they were gourmet cupcakes, all fancy-like with nice packaging. Very well received. The previous year, Logo’d wooden wineboxes with burned in “Thank you” with bottle of wine inside (Of course). Also very well received. My first year doing gifts, I did a beautifully wrapped box of gourmet chocolates and sweets – clients were pleased.
I’m struggling for this year though…I like all the ideas listed above, but i haven’t had that AH-HA! moment just yet.
@findle – why on earth wouldn’t you like this idea. Its the giving season and your clients are the ones that keep you clothed, bathed and fed. A little thank-you-for-helping-me-stay-in-business goes a long way.
It’s more than how I feel about charging clients so I can turn around and give them “gifts” ….many of them also have corporate policies that do not permit them to accept gifts. I thank my clients in other ways by offering them special favors and discounts for long term work. My clients are very happy with me and the extra mile I go for them throughout the year.
Findle: Gifts you give to clients count as a tax deduction. Your clients know this, and know that you’re not billing them extra to cover the gifts.
Well, somehow you have to pay for those gadgets and at least a part of this money you earned with you clients. Personnaly i don’t like free giveaways. They just increase the prices, of course in a “hidden” way, but anyway they do.
I will offer my clients some extra features on my products “for free”. Just some small work for which i normally would charge a fee like i.e. (i’m freelance webdesigner) putting them into a local search engine, put them on google or local maps or update their gallery-plugin to the new version or whatsoever…
I love the idea of buying a sheep or cow. Thats awesome
Great ideas! Thank you!!!
Ive personally come up with many many million dollar ideas, but most of the time dont pursue them myself, let alone seek to convince others.Not out of laziness or ignorance, just the amount of effort compared to a competing idea (ive found some of the simplest/ best ideas are based around mass collaboration/cooperation, which in itself is difficult),also the enjoyability plays a large part of my selection process.
That’s an awesome post mate!!!! it sounds really interesting. thanks for the ideas…….
I always seem to get stuck thinking about thank you gifts for clients. One year I sent of gift baskets with wine and stuff. Those were a hit. But it can get pricey when there’s lost of people to thank lol. Number 7 is kind of cool though.