If you do nothing else with greeting cards, send birthday days. I’ll go so far as to say you should consider sending a birthday card to everyone you meet but for some that will be impractical and the argument is much stronger to send birthday cards to select people and around your market niche.
Certainly you should send birthday cards to your best customers, to your hottest prospects, and to your most frequent referral sources. If you go that far, though, why not send birthday greetings to all your customers, all your prospects, and all of your referral sources.
There is no question that birthday cards are appreciated, even if you just send a standard card off the shelf. Of course, as with all contacts or “touches” in relationship marketing the more personal the content the more effective it will be, but birthday cards are suitable for everyone and even someone who doesn’t get it that birthday cards mean good marketing can catch on that this gesture is important.
You can read the literature, and the books, about the car sales people, insurance brokers, real estate agents and others who have risen to and stayed at the top of their fields, nationally, by establishing and consistently maintaining birthday card programs. This concept isn’t something only I espouse, or that card companies tout, the track records are clear for all to see that birthday cards can build and keep a business.
Stores, restaurants and retail shops often have birthday clubs and while one function is to offer something (a free ice cream cone, free appetizer or dinner, a special gift or service) when the card is presented during the recipient’s birth month, the greater win is the recognition by the customer that her or his birthday was noted and acknowledged.
When we implemented a birthday card program in one of our businesses and subsequently e-mailed a long list of past clients and contacts asking for their birthdays (we usually only ask for and get the month and day), we were elated by the massive positive response. A totally unexpected positive result was the number of people who thanked us even for asking and a few who wrote that they were looking forward to receiving cards from us.
So it’s pretty clear that if you don’t include sending birthday cards in your business marketing program you are missing a huge opportunity.
