Thanksgiving and Christmas are seasons to share with others our appreciation for their role in our lives. For the at home worker, one of the most important things may well be your clients. Why not send out a 'thank you' to them? The good will you send along may be rewarded beyond what you might expect.

Everyone likes to feel appreciated and your customers are no exception. Given that this is a time of year when people tend to expect to receive greetings it can be a wonderful opportunity to use it to your advantage. How can you do this?

You have several approaches that you may utilize, depending on your own beliefs and background. The first would be a thank you email (or snail mail) that simply thanks the customer for their business during the previous year. This may be unobtrusive, and include perhaps just a link back to your online store or business, rather than a full advertisement if you wish to be conservative in your approach.

You could also choose to send full Christmas or holiday greetings. Admittedly you are unlikely to be aware of the religious denomination of all your clients, but if you are U.S. based then the majority of people celebrate Christmas, and are otherwise unlikely to be offended by receiving a Christmas card. If you are based elsewhere, then you might choose to offer the most common local greeting.

Again the greeting and the thank you may be just that, or may include a little more. A discreet advertisement for your store or business can be inoffensive and still discreet while drawing indirect attention to your store or business.

What do these thank you notes or greetings do for you? First, your customer may appreciate it, and anything that makes a customer feel good in regards to you as a business owner may encourage further business from them in the future. The greeting will also serve as a reminder, so if they have forgotten about your store or business, they may be prompted to visit again.

Another primary use of such a seasonal greeting is the opportunity to offer a customer discount. A discount such as this may be an even greater incentive to re-visit you, especially if you send it in time for them to get any last minute holiday gifts from your online store. The discount may be worded to suggest that it is a loyalty discount. You might also consider the discount itself as your way of thanking your customer for their previous business that year.

Making your thank you more discreet will avoid offending people who don't feel the same about the holidays as you, and also make it seem less like you are abusing the holidays to make a sales pitch. This helps avoid the feeling of spam in the message that you send and so makes it seems more like a genuine thank you and reduces the chance that people will ignore it. Whatever approach works best for you; your customers will appreciate a 'thank you' for their patronage.