Thanking your customers with an automated thank you email is by far one of the easiest and most effective methods to grow your business. Why?

Because, as your parents and mentors likely always told you, saying “thank you” and showing your gratitude is always an excellent way to please others, especially your faithful customers. But you already know that. By clicking on this post, you’re showing that you recognize the importance of showing your gratitude.

In fact, the simple act of saying “thanks” has a lot of science behind its worth and impact. A number of studies in recent years have concluded that showing gratitude is not only powerful for the person sharing it, but it also has long-term effects on the relationship as well.

Added trust. Stronger bonds and relationships. Positive health impacts all around. Saying “thanks” is not only important in daily life, but it can clearly have huge benefits in the business world as well. That includes having a plan for thanking your prospects and customers at every stage with thank you emails to customers.

Here are just a few real-world business scenarios that we’ll cover where sending a thank you email goes a long way:

• Thank you for your business
• Thanks for your subscription
• Thanks for your purchase
• Thanks for contacting us
• Thanks for your feedback
• Thanks for attending our event
• Thanks for your payment
• Thanks for referring a customer
• And so many more ways to say thank you.

Working each of these into your email program can have a dramatic effect on cultivating the sort of relationships you want with your customers. You’ll find some helpful tips on how to approach each below, and you can download our free thank you email templates that make easy work of the process.

As a plus, you can also download guides for other sales and marketing email templates, including welcome emails, follow-ups, newsletters, sales emails, and more.

Pro tip: Are you ready to put thank you email templates (and others) to work for your business right now? Sign up for a 14-day free trial with Keap. You’ll quickly see how automating your thank you emails can save you from busy work, keep your messages personal, and create the goodwill your business needs to level up.

Many thanks, minimal effort. All thanks to automation.

With the help of a powerful sales and marketing automation platform, thank you emails don’t have to cost you a lot of time. They can be set, ready to pounce into action whenever a lead or customer takes an action that triggers one.

From receiving a customer’s payment to getting helpful customer feedback to a prospect attending a webinar you host, you’re going to want to send a thank you—right away. Automation makes that possible without you having to manually push send on every single one.

It also makes it possible to send out messages that sound exactly like you. Many people hear the phrase “automated emails,” and they assume it will read like a cover letter or a robot. Beep, boop. But nothing could be further from the truth. You just plug in the copy that sounds like you and/or your brand ahead of time (with the help of Keap’s handy email templates and merge tags to personalize information), and your thank you email sends when the time is right.

No pesky robots involved.

Types of thank you email templates you can use, starting today

There are a lot of interesting ways that companies respond and follow up with their audiences using business thank you emails. Some get clever and try to have some fun with the process. Others focus heavily on responsiveness and reassurance, showing their customers that they are heard each and every time they reach out. Some innovative companies even use it as a chance to have that person and the brand engage on another level, either through thought leadership or education.

Whatever approach you choose for your brand, make sure it is one that:

• Fits your business model in a practical way
• Reflects your brand and the core values behind it
• Enhances your company’s customer service
• Clearly conveys that your customer was heard and appreciated

Below, you’ll find a variety of examples of business thank you email types that may be great additions to your customer journey. We’ll share some tips on what to include and some good examples we’ve seen from other companies, examining what makes them work so well.

Thank You for Your Business Email

These days, brand loyalty is rare. So when you have an opportunity to move a customer in that direction, you jump at the chance. That’s where the Thank You for Your Business Email comes in. The question is: When is it the right time to send one?

Some opportunities:

• Anniversary of them becoming a customer
• Anniversary of your business
• Small Business Saturday
• After a busy sales season, like Black Friday/Cyber Monday in some industries
• Just because (because a nice message is always a good surprise)

A good rule of thumb for this email type: Make it more about your customer than it is about your business. Sure, you can talk about what it means to you and your business to have them as a customer, but keep the focus on THEM.

Thank You for Subscribing Email

When creating your very own Thank You for Subscribing Email Template, you definitely want to create gateways to other content and aspects of your brand. Other thank you email types may not be as good of a fit, but this one feels like a great segue to more.

Consider this example from Fontshop:

Source: Really Good Emails

It immediately grabs you with gratitude, which we always suggest. But as you scroll, it provides a lot more. It includes:

• A thanks for subscribing offer
• Access to an archive of past issues
• An interview with their design team and Campaign Monitor
• Other ways to connect with Fontshop, such as a locations map and social channels

Not every company should employ the tactics they did, but we suggest that you make the most of this opportunity. A customer or prospect just asked for more access, so it’s your chance to answer with that plus a lot more.

In keeping with that theme, here are some additional ways to say thanks for subscribing.

Thank You for Your Purchase Email

Look hard—you won’t see an actual thanks in this actual email from Audible. That comes in the subject line: “Thanks, your order is complete.” After that, the email immediately gets right down to business and introduces the buyer to their purchase.

Source: Really Good Emails

A few things we like:

• Radiates utility (quick thanks and here are the details)
• Provide a nice brand voice (“next listen” is a fun way to describe the purchase)
• Includes the order number, which is always a good choice
• Shows a complete purchase summary, including tax and discounts
• Provides other products you may want to consider, based on your purchase

(Side note: Excellent choice for the purchase, but we definitely prefer Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.)

The Thanks for Reaching Out Email Series

Our next two email examples are best described as a series, so we wanted to group them together. Keep in mind that you don’t always have to do both. The second is crucial, as it responds to the content of the customer's reason for contacting you. But why not do both? If your business is dedicated to a responsive customer service model, there is clear value to the first as well.

First: Thank You for Contacting Email

This is the email you automatically get when you send a message to a company. You know—the one that always feels like a canned response. (Hint: It totally doesn’t have to feel like that. In fact, many good companies use this as a chance to educate, entertain, or introduce other resources.)

Here are some elements that can make your version less canned and more helpful:

• Let them know you got their message and say thanks—quickly
• Give them an idea of when they can expect a response (48 hours seems to be a pretty common timeframe)
• Share links to FAQs or community forums that can help too
• Provide any content you’ve produced on your customer service model (this shows accountability)
• Give phone numbers or social channel links if they need to get in touch another way

Second: Thank You Email to Customer for Feedback

As a business, you can expect to share a lot of emails of this type. Some will be positive, and you’ll truly enjoy responding back to them.

However, some will be negative. In some situations, it may be clear that you messed up and deserved the negative feedback. With others, you may have a hard time understanding what triggered the ire of your customer. Below, we’ll address some tips for the positive and the negative.

Tips for positive feedback:

• Be humble and gracious
• Be appreciative that your customer took the time to share the good news
• Be open to sharing any content on your customer service model in the interest of transparency
• Be sure to ask if you can use their feedback as a testimonial

Tips for negative feedback:

• Be listening and internalizing the feedback
• Be comprehensive in investigating the situation
• Be ready to correct the problem or make it up to them
• Be willing to share how their feedback will correct the problem for the future

If you want to explore how to handle negative feedback and complaints further, we have resources that can help.

Thank You for Attending an Event Email

Whether a party or a presentation, it is always nice when someone attends an event you host. It’s both a compliment and an honor, which makes a thank you a must-do. Take this example from Hive.co:

Source: Really Good Emails

Things it’s clearly doing right:

• Provides all the materials from the webinar
• Promises a recording of the webinar to come
• Shares a call to action (CTA) that gives them access to past webinars as well
• Deploys ASAP after the event

It would have been nice if the email referenced one of the webinar’s core takeaways or interactions as well, but that would be our only quibble.

Thank You for Submitting Payment Email

This email type generally applies to company delivery models that include subscription services, retainer fees, payment plans, or ongoing maintenance fees.

An email of this type has two functions, actually. First, it says thanks for doing business with your company. Second, it lets you know what happens next, which can be simple or complicated, depending on the product or service you provide.

Take a look at Green Chef’s approach. It includes:

• Immediate information on timing for future payments
• What’s included in this particular payment, including shipment contents and pricing breakdown
• An opportunity to refer others, saving the customer future money

Source: Really Good Emails

A good addition to an email of this type is a link to blog posts or other content that provides information on related products or services. This is a great way to upsell your customers with your thank you email.

Thank You for Referring a New Customer Email

The more satisfied customers you make, the more they bring other new prospects into the mix. We call these graduated customers “fans” here at Keap, but others refer to them as advocates, brand champions, and a variety of other terms.

Depending on your business’s referral model, this email could be a simple thanks. OR it could be a thanks, plus a reward for sharing a referral.

Either way, here are some details all forms of this email should include:

• Recognition that their referral lead to additional business
• Thanks for their loyalty in sharing the recommendation
• A perk that says thanks, whether an expected referral program reward or a surprise future discount
• A request to use the referring customer as a future testimonial

Thank you emails for business should always be honest and personal

There are two ways to achieve this. The first is to manually type every thank you email yourself. Quick warning: As your business grows, this will become a job unto itself. It will become a time suck, draining your capacity and energy from other tasks that could grow your business into what you always imagined. You may also want to consider a title change to “Chief Thank You Email Officer.”

Sound a bit unsustainable? It certainly is.

The second way is to embrace an all-in-one sales and marketing platform that is proven in its ability to capture leads, convert more, and grow your business. With Keap, you can automate your thank you emails (as well as every other email), so they always sound like you—even if you never pushed the actual send button.

Download free thank you email templates that make the most of automation

To really improve the thank you emails you send to prospects and customers, please download our free guide with templates to use in your own emails, Thank You Email Series Templates.

Then start your 14-day free trial of Keap to see how you can use them to create more goodwill and greater engagement with your audiences.