It goes without saying, your clients have done an amazing job this year.

They’ve been fuelling your business day in and out. They gave you new challenges and kept you awake at night. And let’s not forget their demands causing so much frustration too.

Now it’s time you repay them for their hard work.

WHAT?!?!

Your clients are the lifeblood of your business.

And they have worked hard to stick with you over the last 12 months. They’ve put up with your schedule changes, delays, reports they understood only half of or less. They’ve seen your good and bad side too.

And, they persisted.

Some even sent you more work. Others referred a friend. In January all will happily pay the next invoice.

With the year drawing to a close, it’s time you show them your gratitude. Here are some ideas how.

1. Spotlight Your Best Customers

Confess your love for customers in public. Tell the world what makes each of your clients so great. Putting them in spotlight will make clients feel more valued and perhaps even proud of doing business with you.

Mention them on Twitter for instance or create a dedicated section on your site, perhaps a page or series of blog posts.

Last year Valuable Content created this “best of” roundup. They included anything from clients to vendors, software that helped them deliver the work to books that have inspired them. Hell, they even mentioned the best party they attended.

2. Send Them A Handwritten Note

“Thank you” is a powerful expression. But its effect goes beyond just showing gratitude.

In 2010 study Adam M. Grant and Francesca Gino discovered that a thankful reply increased their participants’ willingness to provide the subject with further assistance. Reason, their subjects have felt more appreciated, needed and “more socially valued when they’d been thanked.”

With a year’s end, instead of simply saying thank you, make your customers feel even more special. Send them a handwritten thank you note. This will make it personal and specific.

The aforementioned 2010 study describes how such a note increased the participants’ attitude towards the sender by 69%!

3. Give A Book That Helped to Transform Your Business

I am not sure about you but for me books define my life, the way I work, values I believe in and much more. If you’re the same, consider sending your clients that one book that has changed the way you did business this year.

Why, because it might do the same for them. And certainly it will give them a sneak peek into your company’s culture.

Oh and if you need to know, a book that had the biggest impact on me in 2014 was an old classic in fact, Edward de Bono’s “Lateral Thinking”.

4. Upgrade Their Service

Nothing works better at building long time loyalty than surprising clients with something extra. If your clients know that you are prepared to go beyond the basic of what’s expected of you, they’ll stick with you for longer.

It also, as Funding Gates suggest, makes clients happier to pay you.

But giving something extra is also a way to show gratitude.

So this December surprise your customers by upgrading their package. Pick your 5 best clients and throw in an additional service to the retainer.

Of course, do the maths first. Calculate your cost of delivering it but remember to also include the value of another years worth of business in the equation.

5. Refer Them New Business

Referrals are invaluable in business.

So look for opportunities in your circles or among other clients and vendors to link them together. Of course you can’t do this at scale but when opportunity arises, use a referral to thank at least that one client.

6. Give Them a Free Link

Chances are that your clients hired you exactly for that, to get more links.

To thank them for their business, link to them from your website or build a high quality link at no cost. Then mark it appropriately in your report and include a little thank you note beside it.

7. Knock Something Off the December’s Invoice

Discount this year’s final invoice. Send it to a client with a note explaining that you did this as a way of showing gratitude for their loyal business.

You don’t have to knock off much to make an impact. 10% or even less, coupled with the element of surprise is still likely to have a strong positive impact on your client’s attitude towards you.

8. Send a Quirky Gift

Let’s be honest, traditional corporate gifts, wine, hampers and many others are boring. They may have worked in the past but in today’s business world you really need to stand out from your competitors.

Sending a client the exact same bottle of wine as your competitor isn’t going to cut it.

For the year’s end, consider sending your clients a quirkier gift.

• A catered breakfast for the office perhaps.
• Or a sweet treat – pastries and orange juice for everyone who work with you.
• A box of delicious coffee beans. After all, isn’t coffee the single most important ingredient of marketing success?
• A 3 months subscription to NatureBox or other healthy snack subscription service.
• A set of CDs to liven their office on Friday afternoons.