(Our November print issue includes a feature story detailing “10 Steps to Last-Minute Holiday Success.” Today we bring you an excerpt explaining one of those steps: thanking your best customers.)

Michael Buley of Jewelry Ads That Work says if you haven’t been advertising consistently throughout the year, diving into new ad channels in November won’t work. At most, double your ad buy and concentrate instead on thanking your loyal customers.

“The first dollars jewelers should spend at Christmas is to allocate a decent amount of money to thank customers who put bread on their table,” he says.

Identify your top five, 50 or 100 customers and find gifts to send to them — a bouquet, coffee gift cards, a bottle of Jack Daniels, cookies, golf balls. Ask yourself: what can we do to make this person feel really cool? “Spending $5,000 to thank your top customers is better than spending $5,000 on fliers,” Buley says.

Or give your best customers a no-strings-attached gift certificate for $100. “If customers come in with their $100 certificate and they find something for $100 bucks, fine.

You’ve thanked them. But a lot of people end up spending a lot of money.” If they spend $25,000 a year with you, do something really special. After all, asks Buley, “Wouldn’t you pay $400 a year to have these people come back and spend $25,000 again?”