This is Leap Day, Feb. 29, and the first Gratitude Monday and time to ask, when is the last time you actually showed appreciation to your clients — and meant it? As legendary coach John Wooden once said, “Although thanks is a rather simple one-syllable word that too often is used without true feeling, when used with sincerity no collection of words can be more meaningful or expressive.”

With marketing expenses rising these days, businesses are under a great deal of pressure to get their marketing right, the first time. Gratitude Marketing is your long-term solution. It helps you engage and connect with your clients.

This will enable your business to grow in a deliberate and measurable way and allow you to better target and select clients with whom you want to work. It will position you to attract clients, not pursue them. This is not any single event but rather a consistent, sound way of doing business to increase client retention, increase referrals and increase revenues.

Here are four reasons why it’s so important to express gratitude in business:

When clients experience kindness and generosity from your business, it makes them want to support you by way of cultivating referrals. What your clients say about you, your company, and the services you offer is ultimately more credible than anything you could say yourself.

The cost of acquiring a new client is high. It’s a lot cheaper to retain than to acquire clients. Gratitude Marketing is simply a way to utilize strategies to extend existing relationships. By digging deeper and nurturing your relationships with your clients, you’re much more likely to retain them.

The No. 1 asset your business has is your client relationships. When you combine relationship-building ideas with consistent nurturing, you create clients for life.

Giving to others is the greatest gift you can give yourself. Studies reveal that when we help others, we release additional endorphins into our system that build our immune system and give us what researchers call a “helpers high.” If you’ve ever served a meal at a homeless shelter or visited the elderly at a retirement community, you know what a wonderful feeling that is.

Clients want to be regularly reminded that they are important to you. It’s not up to your clients to remember you. It’s your job to constantly and consistently remind them of who you are and reinforce why they have a relationship with you.

Experiences are what clients remember. So, perfect your client experience. You have no idea how this will improve your business. There’s an old saying, “If you want the heart to prompt the mind to do what logic points to, a warm, caring attitude is vital.”

For example, Disney has perfected the consistent client experience. Disney knows that if you enhance the customer experience and do that in a fun sociable way, you create clients for life. They understand this so well that they connect on such a deep level with their customers that they build bridges to the next generation, their customers’ children. Disney realizes that it is far less expensive to retain loyal happy customers than it is to acquire new ones.

The success of your business relies on these happy and loyal clients. They may not always remember what you say, but they will remember how your business makes them feel.

If you want your business to grow and thrive, thank your clients. The appetite for a sincere thank you is unlimited!

Michael Sciortino is a keynote speaker, trainer and founder and CEO of Gratitude Marketing. He is the author of Gratitude Marketing: How You Can Create Clients For Life. For information, go to GratitudeMarketingBook.com.