My Mother was Right. AGAIN.

New research proves that thank you notes seal the deal.

When I was growing up, the post-holiday ritual was always the same: After all the presents were opened, we wrote thank you notes to everyone who had sent gifts. It was not negotiable at our home. All Thank You notes had to be completed before dinner.

Before I was old enough to write a proper Thank You letter on my own, my Mother would dutifully take dictation from me. She'd help me compose a proper letter and express suitable appreciation for the lovely gift. By the time I hit third grade, I was taking pen in hand.

Often it was hard work to find pleasure in the well-meaning but not always spot-on gifts. Calls from friends pulled me away. Other distractions loomed. But it was task that had to be done.

It seems my Mother knew instinctively that sending a genuine Thank you to the gift giver was good policy.

What she probably didn't realize was that she was also preparing me for life in marketing.

Fifty years after I wrote my last Mother-required thank you note, Cygnus Applied Research has announced that non-profit donors are more likely to renew their giving ways if they receive acknowledgement of their generosity and are told how their gift was put to use. They also like to see measurable results that their gift helped to achieve.

Emily Post and my Mother wouldn't have been surprised. Kinder, gentler non-profit marketers had long known the power of a well-crafted thank you. But it came as a Eureka moment for many Business-to-Business marketers.

It seems that business buyers like to be thanked for choosing your firm, too. They like to have the wisdom of their decision reinforced. They like to understand exactly how your product/service helped them accomplish what they purchased it to do. And they like to see a quantifiable return from their investment in your product/service.

In other words, they want to receive a thank you letter from your company.

Get on it. Dinner is in an hour.