We all love being wished for on our birthday. We enjoy receiving wishes and gifts. However, isn’t it even better when our favourite brands wish us too? That’s the beauty of an email birthday. They make you feel extra special. There is nothing better than spending a little extra because you get a birthday discount! Therefore, it is really cool if companies start using this as a marketing tool too.

Customers are already aware of the kind of emails that companies send. They are always expecting promotional emails. However, something out of the blue really makes them admire a company’s marketing skills. This could be anything ranging from a great subject line to a loyal customer discount. Therefore, wishing your customer their birthday is a marketing tool you can definitely use. The beauty of this is the automation too. Your customer’s friend may forget their birthday but your software won’t. 

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So, how exactly does an email birthday work? We all know what an email birthday is. It is a birthday email that a company sends to their customer on their birthday. However, this does not just happen. At some point during a customer’s journey with your company, this detail has to be shared by them. It could be during the signup or during the customer’s purchase.  Some brands also require a customer to make an account for buying online. Such information is taken by them during this point. Therefore, as a company, it is upon you to find these touch points.

Finally, all you must do is set up automation. Also, birthday emails are very impressive in terms of email marketing. They apparently generate 342% more revenue than promotional emails. It is a good conversion opportunity that companies should not miss. This is a very organic way to reach your target audience. It can also make your company different from its competitors. 

The Importance and Benefits of Email Birthday 

Honestly, email birthdays are not a compulsion. As a company, you are not supposed to remember your customers’ birthdays. However, it is always great to have an upper hand. Here are some benefits of email birthday:

• Helps bring back old customers: Sometimes, it so happens that some of your customers may actually stop engaging with your brand so much. Probably, they have just started buying from a different brand or they are too tired of the spam. Receiving a good birthday email can help change that equation. Customers love splurging on their birthdays. They also love receiving birthday discounts. Therefore, this is a good chance to get your old or dormant customers back.

• Helps build better relationships: Birthday emails really help establish a good relationship with the customers. It also helps have customer loyalty. Birthdays obviously have a personal touch added to them. They can help you really connect better with your customer. Therefore, sending your customer a birthday wish can really help you build a long-lasting relationship with them.

• Good revenue: Email marketing during birthday definitely generates a lot of revenue. It has a great conversation rate. Therefore, these emails can actually help you generate much more than your daily promotional emails. For instance, a customer may not want to open an email saying “Checked out our new summer collection yet?” However, a customer may want to open an email saying “Here are some cookies for your birthday!” This is the difference between the two.

Pros and Cons

Birthday emails can actually have both advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages of email birthday are:

• They are very easy: It is actually pretty easy to set up email birthdays in your system. They are predicated and have decided dates. Therefore it is very easy to send out birthday emails to your customers.
• They are very beneficial: If statistics are to be considered, email birthdays are a very good opportunity. They do bring in a lot of revenue and conversations. This is because people usually buy around the time of their birthdays. On the other hand, incentives come along with these birthday emails. Therefore, this is bound to get you a good-paying customer.
• Feels personal: Companies are often looking at ways to personalise. This is their chance. What’s more personal than receiving a birthday message from a company you like? Moreover, it is always better when companies address the respective customers by their name. It adds a more human touch to it.

The disadvantages of email birthdays are:

• They can look very general: Some companies do not put in too much effort while designing their birthday emails. It looks very robotic and common. This may not really interest any customer. People might not bother checking such emails at all.
• May not stand out: This disadvantage is completely upon the company’s designing team. Nowadays, there are plenty of birthday emails. So, your company must actually make it unique.

How to Create a Perfect Email Birthday 

Birthdays are a moment of celebration! Therefore, you must create the perfect email birthday for your customer. Here are ways to design a great template:

• Check if your email marketing software has any available templates. If so, try changing it as per your brand guidelines. You may also find various other sources in case you don’t like the available templates.
• Ensure that you really focus on your CTAA CTA is a phrase or word designed to get an immediate response from the reader. As the name suggests, it's usually something that involves a precise action performed by.... Keep it bold and noticeable. It must be able to catch your customer’s eye. You don’t want your customer to keep looking for a CTA.
• Try making it look very celebratory. After all, you are celebrating your customer’s birthday. Therefore, keep it fun and a little light. Add in birthday references and graphics.
• Nowadays, companies also make use of gifs or stickers from pop culture. This helps your brand look relatable yet fun. Therefore, This is a very easy way of saving yourself from the trouble of designing something.
• Have a fun subject line. Your email birthday should really capture your customer’s attention. It must make them want to look. However, don’t come up with bland and big subject lines. That just gets ignored.
• Try personalising it a little. Address it to them with their name. Don’t make it look so automated. Customers like feeling specially treated.
• Offer them some incentives or coupons. Even though small, make it look like you value them. It could just be free shipping or a mere 10% discount. However, keep this keeping in mind your company’s revenue.

Top 4 Email Birthday Examples

Here are some great email birthday examples:

• Puma

This athletic fashion brand has a really cool yet simple way of sending an email birthday. They make use of great bold fonts and colours. This shows off the excitement. Along with that, they also ensure showing off their brand identity by using shoes that look like birthday sprinkles. They also do give their birthday customers an offer on their purchase too. It is simple and quite easy to understand. On the other hand, it also has the perfect look for a birthday.

• Subway

Subway’s email birthday is quite interesting too. They use colours that represent their brand identity – green and yellow. However, their text makes it even more appealing. Offering a cookie on a birthday does sound very sweet. They ensure highlighting their call-to-action button well too. This is yet another example of a very straightforward email birthday wish.

• Chipotle

Chipotle doesn’t stick to its guidelines. The brand really does pay a lot of attention to its birthday emails. It tries to make it as celebratory as possible. They use good birthday graphics as well as leave it a little mystery. They somehow make you definitely want to push that CTA because of their mystery text. This is a great way to drive traffic.

• Sephora

This beauty brand is great at email marketing too. They really do go all the way in terms of personalisation. They address the wishes to you directly and also offer a free gift. The entire look of their birthday email is very much in accordance with the brand guidelines. However, it is personalisation that makes a lot of difference.

In Conclusion

All in all, email birthdays are a great way to communicate with your customers. It helps you reach out to them on their special day. It also helps your company try to make the day a little more special for them. However, you must also ensure a level of personalisation while sending these emails. You don’t want your email to sound like a bot. This is the era of personalisation. People like it when companies go the extra mile to tailor things according to them. Therefore, make use of this aspect. Try to come up with creative templates and good birthday offers. Marketing tools like this can genuinely help you create loyal customers. We all know the amount of strong marketing these loyal customers can bring to your company. 

Do you enjoy receiving birthday emails too? Do you think incentives should be an important part of such emails? Let us know in the comments section below.