I recently came across a survey, by BoomerangApp.com, which showed that closing an email with some sort of “Thanks” will boost response rates. In fact, “Thanks in advance” did a little better than “Thanks” or simply “Thank you”. (By the way, “Best” scored the lowest.)
Was I surprised by these results? A little. But not that much.
As a copywriter, I’ve long understood the power of weaving appreciation into your marketing copy. The more prospects and customers feel you value them, the more responsive they’ll be to your emails, landing pages, ads and other marketing pieces.
I’m sure there are some psychological principles at play here. But what I suspect it comes down to is this: “Thanks” closes the gap; the gap between you and your prospects.
Think about what happens when a total stranger says thank you to you. Don’t you feel in that moment, perhaps just for a fleeting second, that you’re not strangers anymore?
When you’re marketing, you want to achieve that kind of connection. And, whoa, it ain’t easy these days! So a simple thank you can go a long way.
That’s the great thing about this technique. You don’t have to fake it. If you’re a business owner or marketer, you do appreciate your prospects and customers. Very much. You’d be a fool not to. So demonstrating that in your marketing copy isn’t merely a response-boosting trick-of-the-trade, it’s a sincere and authentic thing to do.
So let’s talk tactics. How do you do this when writing copy and content?
As the Boomerang survey indicated, in the marketing writer’s lexicon of power words “thanks” ranks right up there with “you” and “free”. So take advantage of any opportunity to say it — or words like it — in your copy. You can do that in the closing of emails, in direct mail letters, and in key places on your website.
But you don’t always have to use that word. (A website littered with thank yous would be tiring!) There are other ways to show appreciation. Here are a few examples of copy starter lines:
- What we enjoy most about working with our Realtor clients is…
- Congratulations to our client in Vancouver who just reached an important milestone…
- Here’s a customer success story we couldn’t wait to share with you…
- Nothing puts smiles on our faces more than when a customer…
- We’re on your side when it comes to…
- We couldn’t do it without you because…
So weave in a few “thanks” into your marketing messages. If you do, your prospects and customers will naturally become more engaged — and respond accordingly.
