What to write in a thank you card
Most thank-yous fail in the same way: they thank someone for a category rather than for a thing. "Thank you for your support" could be sent to anyone, and the reader knows it.
The examples below all name something. That's the whole difference between a thank-you that gets kept and one that gets recycled.
To a customer, after a purchase
Sent once, properly — not as the first message in a follow-up sequence.
- Thank you for your order, {firstName}. It was a pleasure putting it together for you.
- Thanks for choosing us, {firstName}. Any questions at all, you know where we are.
- Thank you, {firstName} — we know you had other options, and we're glad you picked us.
To a donor
Say what the money does, in plain numbers if you have them and in plain language if you don't. Never inflate it.
- Thank you, {firstName}. Your donation goes straight into the work — we'll make it count.
- Thank you for giving again this year, {firstName}. Regular supporters are what let us plan ahead.
- Thank you, {firstName}. It's a real difference, and we don't take it for granted.
To a volunteer
Volunteers are thanked in the abstract constantly. Name the hours, the shift, the specific job.
- Thank you for everything you've given us this year, {firstName} — the hours as much as the help.
- Thank you, {firstName}. You've been part of this for a while now, and it shows.
- Thanks for stepping in when we needed it, {firstName}. It didn't go unnoticed.
To a parent or family
Thank them for the thing they actually did — the lifts, the turning up, the sticking with it.
- Thank you for your support this year, {firstName} — the progress we've seen has been a joint effort.
- Thank you, {firstName}. Getting them here every week is half the work, and we know it.
- Thank you for trusting us with them, {firstName}. It's been a pleasure.
{firstName} isn't something you type out. Write the message once with it in, and every card in the send is printed with that person's own name.
Getting it right
- Name the specific thing
- One concrete detail — the exam, the season, the years they've been with you — is worth more than three sentences of warm generality. It proves a person wrote it.
- Use their name, not their title
- A card addressed to "our valued customer" reads like a mailshot, because it is one. Put {firstName} in the message and every card in the send comes out with the right name on it.
- Keep it shorter than you think
- There's less room than a screen suggests: these are printed A6 (105 × 148 mm). Two or three lines fills the space and reads better than a paragraph squeezed in.
- Don't attach an ask
- A thank-you with a renewal reminder underneath it isn't a thank-you. If there's something to ask for, ask another day — the card is doing a different job.
Now pick the card
Personalised thank you cards for the people who matter to your business. We print and post real cards, so a thank-you lands on the doormat.