This Thanksgiving, we’re feeling especially grateful.

As we reflect on another year, we want to take a moment to say thank you to our incredible customers, partners, and community. Your trust and support mean more to us than words can express, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without you.

From all of us, we wish you and your loved ones a happy, healthy, and meaningful Thanksgiving.

You should probably rethink that...

Not because there’s anything wrong with it. It’s perfectly nice. It’s warm. It’s appropriate. And, for all I know, you mean every word of it.

But did you feel appreciated reading it?

That’s the problem.

There are going to be thousands of versions of that message posted and emailed this November. Different logos. Different stock photos of pumpkins. Different arrangements of essentially the same words: We’re thankful for you.

The cold, hard fact is that a generic Thanksgiving post can say all the right things and still feel hollow. That’s because customers don’t experience appreciation through words alone. They experience it through the way a business treats them.

And businesses sometimes get customer appreciation wrong, too.

I’ve experienced that last one firsthand.

As a business owner, I get a lot of marketing messages. And when companies want me to sit through a demo for an expensive product or service, sometimes they’ll offer an equally impressive incentive.

I’ve been offered Patagonia vests. A Nintendo Switch. Gift cards. All sorts of things.

And on multiple occasions, I’ve done exactly what they asked. I booked the demo. I filled out the forms. I sat through the call. They got my time and the information they wanted.

Then the promised gift never came.

And yes, some of these are brands whose names you would absolutely recognize.

The irony is almost too perfect.

They spent more money trying to make me feel appreciated than a simple thank-you note would have cost, and somehow I walked away feeling less valued. Because the gift wasn't really appreciation. It was an incentive. And once they had what they wanted from me, my experience no longer seemed particularly important.

Now compare that with another company I'll actually name: Wix. (So hopefully they won't make me a liar in the future.)

We've been part of the Wix Partner Program for years. Recently, our team earned a new certification through the program, and Wix sent us some genuinely cool stuff. A custom jean jacket, an office ping-pong set and some other things that now live around the RBGS office.

But here's the thing:

The stuff wasn't what made us feel appreciated.

It was everything that happened before it.

It was years of good customer service. Timely emails. People helping us solve problems. Partner resources that actually helped us do our jobs. People on the other side who seemed to recognize that our success using their platform mattered to them, too.

So when a box eventually showed up at our office, it didn't feel like Wix was suddenly trying to convince us that we mattered.

It felt like validation.

They want evidence that the relationship matters.

That might mean responding when you said you would. Remembering something from your last conversation. Fixing the part of your process customers keep complaining about. Asking for feedback and then actually doing something with it. Owning a mistake. Making something easier. Following up when there's nothing else to sell them.

None of those things are particularly extravagant.

But they say something.

I see you. I heard you. Your time mattered. Your feedback mattered. Your business mattered.

So, by all means, tell your customers you're thankful for them this Thanksgiving. We probably will, too.

Just make sure November isn't the first time they've heard it.

Better yet, build a customer experience where you almost don't have to say it at all. We see you.

And I think that's what we're actually trying to create when we talk about customer appreciation.

Customers don't necessarily need another gift. They don't need you to say yes to every request. They certainly don't need another stock photo of a cornucopia with your logo in the bottom-right corner.

They just need to know that the way you do business reflects how much you value theirs.

- Zacharias Wray

P.S. We’d like to hear from you! What is the most validated a company has ever made you feel, and what did they do to create that feeling?

Send your answers to [email protected] to continue the conversation.

Advertiser confidence is strengthening heading into the final quarter of 2026. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) raised its projected U.S. advertising spending growth from 9.5% in January to 12.3% in September, a 2.8-percentage-point increase. Stronger-than-expected advertising performance and growing interest in customer acquisition are contributing to the improved outlook, suggesting businesses may have more opportunities to expand successful campaigns.

Sources: Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

Google is challenging the idea that advertisers must rely entirely on AI-powered campaign types to appear in AI search experiences. In September, Google began testing traditional Search campaigns using exact-match and phrase-match keywords within AI Mode. Although the experiment remains limited, it suggests conventional keyword targeting may continue to play a role in AI-powered search, reducing the rationale for abandoning established campaign strategies simply to gain AI search visibility.

Sources: Search Engine Land, PPC Land

Businesses put a LOT of time, money, and energy into getting new customers. Between the marketing, advertising, follow-ups, and everything in between, there's a lot that goes into getting someone through the door.

But what happens once they're there?

While taking a look at one of our client's online presence, we noticed something that needed a little attention. People were leaving Google reviews, both good and bad, but most of those conversations ended right there.

And honestly, that's a missed opportunity!

Think about it. Someone took time out of their day to open Google, find your business, and share their experience. Whether they left five stars and a glowing recommendation or two stars and some constructive criticism, they cared enough to say something.

So, we got to work on making those conversations a little more meaningful.

For this client, that meant moving away from the usual copy-and-paste "Thanks for your feedback!" and focusing on responses that actually sounded like a person wrote them. Thanking customers for the kind words, acknowledging when things didn't go quite right, and making sure people knew their feedback wasn't just disappearing into the internet.

Nothing groundbreaking. Just showing customers that someone was actually paying attention.

But here's where the bigger picture comes in. You've already invested so much into earning that customer's business. Why wouldn't you put a little effort into keeping them?

Customer retention doesn't always mean offering discounts, launching loyalty programs, or going above and beyond for every little thing. Sometimes it's about the smaller interactions that remind people why they chose your business in the first place.

And no, that doesn't mean the customer is always right. Some expectations are unreasonable, and businesses are allowed to have boundaries, too. But taking a minute to acknowledge someone's experience? That feels like a pretty fair expectation.

For this client, responding to reviews was a small but meaningful way to keep building relationships beyond the initial transaction. Because getting someone through the door is one thing. Giving them a reason to come back is another.

Our takeaway? You can tell customers you appreciate them all day long, but sometimes the best thank-you is simply showing them you were listening.

Here's a little philosophy shift for you: More review platforms doesn't necessarily mean a better reputation.

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking your business needs to be everywhere. Google, Facebook, Yelp, industry-specific sites...the list goes on. But when you're asking customers to leave reviews in multiple places, you might actually be making it harder for them to leave one at all.

Instead, pick a home base.

For a lot of businesses, that might be Google Business Profile. It's often one of the first places potential customers go to check you out, and having a strong collection of recent, genuine reviews can help build trust before someone even visits your website.

That doesn't mean the other platforms don't matter! They absolutely do. But think of them as supporting characters rather than making everyone the main character.

The trick is figuring out where your customers are actually looking when they're deciding whether to work with you. A local restaurant might benefit most from Google, while a business in a specialized industry might find that another platform carries more weight.

Our advice? Put most of your energy into the platform that makes the biggest difference for your business, then maintain a presence on the others that matter.

And if you're not sure which platform deserves the spotlight? That's where we come in. Give us a call, and we'll help you figure out where your efforts will actually pay off.

Have a website or marketing question you’ve been quietly Googling at 11 p.m.? Send it our way - it may appear in the next edition.

This tip is like an onion. It has layers. If you can’t answer in 10 seconds or less how someone can give feedback about your business and how you’re proactively collecting that feedback, then you’ve got some work to do.

We typically see feedback collection evolve in a natural progression:

Of course, everyone’s strategy looks different depending on the business, the volume of customers, and the type of service you provide. But if you follow that progression, you’ll build a feedback system that helps you improve faster, serve better, and grow with a lot less guesswork.

This is just one of the 52 marketing ideas we’re sharing for 2026, with one practical action small business owners can take each week of the year.

Meta's New Business Terms: Should You Be Concerned?

If your business uses Facebook or Instagram, there's a recent policy update worth paying attention to.

Meta's updated business terms, set to take effect October 30, have raised questions about how the platform can access and use content from business websites.

Does this mean Meta can use your website content to train AI? Not necessarily. But it does raise some important questions about who has access to your business's digital content and what they're allowed to do with it.

We broke down what's changing, what's still unclear, and what business owners should know.