Let me tell you about the most important piece of marketing I’ve ever received. It was a plastic grocery bag.
Years ago, when a handful of naysayers were fighting to shut down our community concerts and, honestly, my company along with them, I was at my lowest. Distraught, doubting, heart hurting.
One morning, a white plastic bag came tumbling down the street toward me like something out of a movie, and printed on it in red, over and over, were three words: thank you, thank you, thank you.
I stood there wiping tears off my face. My fuse was relit. I walked into the office that morning full throttle, and we never looked back.
I’m telling you this because gratitude isn’t a November campaign for me. It’s the thing that saved my business once. And it’s also, no exaggeration, the highest-converting marketing strategy I know, if you do it like you mean it.
Why gratitude beats a pie giveaway
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll never turn down pie. But here’s what happens every November: A thousand agents hand out a thousand identical pies with a business card taped to the box, and every client receives it exactly the way it was given: as a transaction.
Meanwhile, the calendar is quietly doing you a favor. January has the lowest home sales of any month, right before sellers pour into the market in February. Those sellers are making their decision over Thanksgiving dinner and holiday math.
According to the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 80 percent of sellers talk to exactly one agent; the one who made them feel genuinely appreciated in November is the one who gets the January call.
So here’s my week-by-week plan. Notice what’s missing from it: asking for anything.
The gratitude marketing plan
Week 1: A note that names a moment
Start with a list of the 25 people who made your year: clients, referral sources, the lender who saved that impossible deal. Then write each one a short personal note. But here’s the part that separates a note that gets kept from a note that gets tossed: name the moment.
Not “thanks for your business.” Instead: “I still think about the day you trusted me to keep going after the first contract fell through. Watching your kids run through that backyard at closing made my whole year.” Specific gratitude proves you were paying attention, and being truly seen is so rare that people hold onto it. Sometimes literally, on the fridge, for months.
Five notes a day for a week and you’re done, and I promise it’ll be the best hour of your workday.
Week 2: The 30-second thank-you video
This one costs nothing and lands like a hug. Pick up your phone, hit record, and talk to one person for 30 seconds:
“Maria! I was just driving past your old street and thought of you. Thank you again for trusting me with the townhouse this year. I hope the new kitchen is treating you well. Give the boys a squeeze from me.”
Then text it directly to her. No editing, no logo, no link.
Do not blast one generic video to your whole database. The entire power of this touch is that it could only have been made for one person. Two or three a day through the week gets you to 20 of these, and every single one will get a reply. When was the last time your email newsletter did that?
Week 3: Give in their honor
Thanksgiving week, put the charitable gesture where your clients can feel it. Giving back has been a foundational principle of my business since Day 1, and November is when it means the most. A few ways to do it:
- Make a donation to the local food bank in your clients’ honor and send a card telling them their year of trust just fed local families.
- Run a “home value check that gives back” through the month: for every valuation you do, donate a meal.
- Rally your sphere around a food or toy drive and let them be part of the giving, because people love an agent who hands them an easy way to do good.
And one small touch I love: Your buyers from this year are about to have their first Thanksgiving in their new home. Mark it. A card, a pie plate, a note that says “I hope this house is full of people you love this week.” You were part of that story. Remind them gently that you know it.
Week 4: The bridge to January
Now, and only now, after a month of giving with no strings, you’ve earned one soft business touch. As November turns to December, reach out with this:
“Curious what your home’s worth going into the new year? Takes me 10 minutes, and it’s a nice number to have for your planning.”
That’s it. No pressure, no pitch.
The sellers quietly doing holiday math will raise their hands, and everyone else just got one more reminder that you’re their person.
Then in the first week of January, while everyone else’s marketing is still hungover, send a Happy New Year text with one personal line about their year ahead. You’ve now touched your best people five times in eight weeks, and every single touch felt like a friendship, because it was one.
Then keep it going: 1 Delight Day a month
My Aunt Bev taught me the secret to all of this. Everyone calls her the Queen of Delighting, because she has spent her whole life doing thoughtful little things that make people feel loved. Gifts aside, her presence is always a present.
So don’t let the gratitude end when November does. Pick one day each month and make it a Delight Day: one thing that exists only to delight your clients. Some months it’s as simple as a direct call, a quick personal video or a note of appreciation.
Mostly it’s a little something:
- A dozen donuts left at the door.
- Pizzas showing up unannounced on a Friday night.
- A Taco Tuesday drop-off with all the fixings and a few sombreros for the whole family.
- A game night bundle where you drop off a board game and ask them to send you an action shot of the family playing.
Our goal in real estate is to get inside their home, so they think of us when the time comes. What better way than creating experiences that involve your presence, without being present?
They can tell when you mean it
One more thing, and it’s the whole thing. Gratitude only converts when it’s real, and people have exquisite radar for the difference. So practice it off camera, too. On my worst days, I say it out loud in the car: “Tiff, you are not going to let anyone or anything steal your joy today.” Then I start listing what I’m thankful for, right down to the air conditioning and the ability to blast Katy Perry with one click.
Fill yourself up with gratitude first, and it spills into every note, video and doorstep drop-off you make. Clients don’t remember campaigns. They remember how you made them feel. Make them feel like that white plastic bag made me feel, and your January will take care of itself.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
