There are a lot fancy email management tools out there that you can use to connect with potential new clients and business peers. Many of these tools are just downright awesome, with all of the gadgets and conveniences you could ever dream about.

But I was having a reflective moment the other day and thinking about all of my current clients and how I met them. Even I was surprised by the answer. It turns out that every single client I work with now came from a simple text email or a referral from one of the people that I met through a simple text email. Pretty incredible!

One client who has probably netted me at least $40,000 over the last year or so was a result of an email that literally took me about 5 minutes to write. I thought it was kind of cheesy to send a text email, but I did it anyway because I had made “contact 10 new potential clients” one of my checklist items for the day. I didn’t even have a website up at that time. I shot of the emails in about 10 minutes and about 5 minutes after that got a call from one of them. That was a year and a half ago and that relationship is still profitable.

I met David the same way. I just happened to send him an email at the very moment that he was online looking for copywriters. We’ve had an awesome business relationship ever since and, together with this team, have taken a lot of sites to page 1 in Google.

So if you’re just starting online out and wondering where to begin, my advice is to just put yourself out there! Fancy html email programs are great and they can help a lot, but if you’ve got a good product or service to offer, it’s more about getting the word out rather than the format in which the word get’s out in.

One of the best ways to grow a small business is to appreciate the loyal customers that you already have. If you find ways to treat and pay respect to your most valuable clients, you will most likely attract more. (Most people hang out with friends who are similar to them, right?)

Hosting an effective client appreciation event can be a difficult task. You walk a fine line between simply thanking them for their past business, attempting to cement the relationship further and hopefully gaining referrals for future business. All the while hoping that your best customers are having a great time.

Here are some tried-and-true events that can work depending on your customer base and personal marketing style:

One-on-One Dinner Event: Invite your best client and their spouse to dinner (preferably to a high-end restaurant) and ask them to bring one or two other couples. The key to this event is its intimacy. The purpose is simply to thank them for their business no hard selling required. By getting to know you better as a person, they will feel more comfortable recommending you to their friends (who just happen to be enjoying the dinner and getting to know you too!)

Larger Dinner Event: If your customer base is larger, you may want to rent out a restaurant or other local attraction for an evening of entertaining. This gives you the opportunity to thank multiple clients at the same time. You can still have them bring friends if space permits. I would recommend addressing the crowd as a whole and then mingling around the room for mini-conversations throughout the night.

Hosting a Seminar: If your business centers around a service, such as marketing, finance, real estate, etc, give your prized customers the opportunity to learn more about their own businesses through seminars. Bring in top-notch speakers to cover some valuable topics in-depth. If you are in finance, for example, you can host a business seminar that covers retirement planning options, the economy and running a business on a budget. Not only will you be helping your customers build their own businesses, getting information from an unbiased third party can be just the push they need to take the next step with you!

Obviously there are many, many more ideas for hosting a client appreciation event. If you have held a successful one recently, I would love to hear about it!