Today’s Easter Sunday, celebrated by Catholic Christians.

It’s a celebration, an event that’s expected to happen. In some cultures, gifts are given. If yours does not do that, think of Christmas, birthdays or whatever other celebration gives gifts.

Let’s think “business world” now. There’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday and what not. Expected events in time where discounts or gifts are given.

People expect those to happen, companies get ahold of that — and it’s a match. Buyers are willing to knowingly spend on deals, they put out deals. It’s a gift.

How about gifting on unexpected terms? If by gift you imagine a 20% discount, then indeed it won’t be a match between this voucher and your users. As mentioned above, that happens on expected terms.

No, the kind of gift I’m talking about is different. Two of my past articles come to mind as examples.

Either you, as a CEO, start developing a community around you and 5 paying users at first.

Then 7. Then 10.

Then some of these 10 will bring 3 others, since the community is nice. And so on. Effect: you’ll get some friends, connections if you want and more often than not (given that your product is at least good), they will find it very hard to leave.

Or, a less time-consuming habit would be this: reaching out to those that mention your company/product — on Twitter, on forums, on LinkedIn etc. If it sounds like too much, start with 5 interactions per day.

I wrote about it in the piece linked above and yesterday I was one of those 5 per day I preach about. It started with this tweet:

And then here comes a responsible CEO out of nowhere. Other CEOs, please follow this behaviour — it can do nothing but help you

Needlessly to say, the comment was very appreciated, by myself included.

Congrats David and Drift.

The bottom line.

Everyone gifts out when it’s expected — the November sales are just some examples.

You and I can be more than that. We can gift when people are not expecting it and with non-classical gifts.

Why? Connections between yourself and your users will be as strong as kevlar, if done right. Plus, you’ll feel like a better human. What’s to lose?

Everyone gifts out on events. You and I can gift out in the other days of the calendar.

About Ch Daniel

I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency — we help SaaS CEOs reduce user churn. I write daily on this topic and in similar areas. Here are my best pieces.

If I’ve helped you, follow me here and reach out: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube 

I’ve also founded an app that went 0-200K users in its 1st year — chdaniel.com/app

If you want a more of a personal connection, here’s how to have that.

Picture credits: Teng Yu