Thanksgiving is an excellent time to show your customers how much you appreciate their business - and a great time to attract new customers with well-played marketing strategy. Consider the following Thanksgiving direct-marketing ideas to add plenty of trimmings to your return on investment and get a head start on the Christmas marketing season.

Show your appreciation

Many businesses send personalized thank you cards to their customers during the Christmas holiday season, but forego a great opportunity to grab a bigger share of the attention at Thanksgiving. Many people have come to expect Christmas cards from other companies, so a Thanksgiving card of thanks comes as a pleasant surprise and will be remembered as the first card received. You can even begin promoting your big Black Friday sales to gear up for the Christmas season.

Instead of the normal greeting card, try online postcard printing on a high-quality 14-point gloss or 13-point recycled matte paper stock for maximum attention. To make your Thanksgiving thank you cards stand out even more, have your postcards printed vertically or even go with die-cut printing.

If your business likes to be a little off the beaten path, you could try a direct-mail postcard campaign that thanks noncustomers for not choosing your business. Consider this: "Thank you for not choosing Company XYZ for your financial services. Without noncustomers, we'd never have the opportunity to see the look of excitement on new clients' faces when we show them how much we can save them. We'd love to see that same look on your face." You might add that concept to a great discount coupon offer and call to action and attract a slew of new customers.

Give back

The most endeared businesses give back to the communities that feed them, and Thanksgiving is the best time of year to express your gratitude by leading a food drive. Food drives are not only a worth charity and good PR, they're also a great way to get customers in your door. Flyer printing and door-to-door distribution, or postcard printing and mailing, are two of the best ways to get the word out about your food drive. To sweeten the deal, offer a coupon to anyone who donates food. Alternatively, you can enter donators into a drawing for a large grand prize. If you don't have the budget to pull a Thanksgiving food drive off alone, partner with complimenting but noncompeting businesses for your color printing, mailing and prizes.

Another great Thanksgiving marketing idea is to distribute free calendars to prospects. Many businesses do this, but if you get an early jump on your calendar printing you can beat your competitors to the wall, so to speak. Calendars are used by most people nearly every day, so calendar printing is one of the most economical ways to put your ad in front of hundreds or even thousands of people every day of the year.

When designing your Thanksgiving promotional printed materials, follow the holiday's theme, develop a great offer and a compelling call to action, and mix the above ideas in for a return on investment you'll be feasting on for months.