Birthday cards have long been a preferred client-touchpoint strategy for many businesses, and with good reason. A birthday card is a simple way to establish a touchpoint with every client in your business because everyone, of course, has a birthday. Cards are inexpensive, you know exactly when to send each one, and you can even address the envelopes in advance. Plus, they’re thoughtful—who gets physical cards in the mail anymore, right?

But think back to your most recent birthday.

How many pieces of mail did you receive from places like your dentist or bank?

You know the kind—an envelope that looks hand-addressed, a greeting card covered in gender-neutral balloons or fireworks, a printed “happy birthday” message, maybe even a few signatures scribbled on the inside for good measure.

When you got that card in the mail, were you excited?

Did you feel remembered?

Special?

Cared about?

Our guess is… no.

You might have even been a little bit let down, thinking you’d just received a thoughtful birthday card, only to discover it was essentially a marketing piece sent with little thought to you personally.

The card could have been sent with the best intentions, but without any personalization, it can feel almost like a snub—which is the exact opposite effect you want a birthday card to have—especially if you’re a business looking to make meaningful connections with clients.

So if you’re an advisor who wants to grow their practice through relationships that lead to referrals and introductions, we recommend carefully considering your approach to birthday well wishes.

Why Sending Birthday Cards Can Work Against You

With our busy lives and the constant battle for our attention, even a physical, mailed card isn’t enough to feel “special.” If it’s just a generic card with no personal message to the recipient, it feels very… impersonal. Even if it’s been hand-signed.

This is partly because we as consumers recognize it for what it is—a marketing strategy employed in bulk without much thought given to the individual.

Now, there are plenty of marketing strategies that can be employed en masse and still feel thoughtful, or at least interesting and helpful—this just isn’t one of them. The whole point of a birthday wish, after all, is for that individual to feel special, the exact opposite of “one in a mailing list.”

Because of this, sending generic birthday cards can work against you. They send the message that the client wasn’t important enough to acknowledge personally, but that you wanted to make sure they thought of you.

Ouch.

So, should you nix birthday cards altogether?

Not necessarily.

How to Make Birthday Messages Work For You

Keeping the above points in mind, if you write a personalized message on the card, you can hit all the nails on the head—make the client feel important, remembered, and cared about, while also being reminded of you.

The message doesn’t have to be long; it can be one or two sentences. But it needs to show that you actually know this person, and you thought of them specifically while writing the card.

If a hand-written message is too time-consuming to do for every client, then you can send cards only to your top clients, or consider a birthday text instead. A text is super easy to personalize and send, and it’s more thoughtful than a generic card because it shows you took the time to stop in the middle of your day and remember that person. (This is the bare minimum for a birthday message; you can of course personalize the gesture further with a gift, photo, or other ideas you have.)

If you can’t do those things, our advice is to not send cards at all—you’re better off not risking an accidental snub or giving off that “corporate bulk mailer” vibe.

If you’d like to develop a custom client touchpoint strategy for your financial practice, we’d love to help. You can click below or email us to schedule a consultation.