Each January at Elysium PA we not only celebrate the excitement of the New Year and what lies ahead, but we also celebrate our birthday, as we were founded on January 6th. And 4 days later, celebrate my birthday as well.
As we are a couple days from my birthday, I’ve started to receive the Happy Birthday Elyse emails from ecommerce platforms, restaurants I frequent, and countless others. There are some who relish their birthdays and enjoy all of the perks, and there are some who could care less about their birthdays and think of the emails as spam. For me, the former would be correct.
If birthday emails aren’t part of your marketing strategy, you’re missing out. And here’s why.
1. Acknowledgement is important
It’s important that your clients and consumers feel appreciated and recognized. A birthday is a great way to express this gratitude for their patronage. Since 99% of people enjoy their birthday, sending an email is a nice, easy gesture.
2. You can set it and forget it
If you set up your CRM or email intake form to include a birthday in the data fields, you can set it up so the email is sent out at whatever cadence you want AUTOMATICALLY each year. If you are including an offer, we recommend a week out or 3 days out. If you’re just sending a wish, the actual birthday works well. Since it sends automatically, there’s nothing for you to worry about once it’s set up. With an email list of millions or even hundreds, let’s be honest, no one can remember each client or consumer’s birthday.
3. Easy Way to Stay Top-of-Mind
The great debate about how much email to send rages on. And we know the most important thing is to send relevant emails. A birthday is a REASON to send an email. No one will get mad at you for sending this email. This is a fantastic way to keep your brand in front of your consumers and even re-engage customers who aren’t active right now. As we mentioned earlier, the email makes your consumer feel appreciated, but it also has a halo effect on your brand. Your brand is showing it cares about its consumers.
4. Fabulous Option to Offer a Bounce Back
Most B2C companies can use birthday emails to offer some sort of incentive. You see retail and food brands do this all the time. Happy Birthday, enjoy a free X on us. We use this for our food and restaurant clients all the time. It’s using the psychological principle of Reciprocity. According to the book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, the author discusses the social norm of reciprocity, that we are hard-wired to respond positively to a gift, even if we didn’t ask for it, or even want it. We automatically feel indebted to the giver, regardless. This is pretty powerful stuff. This means not only can you offer something that drives someone to your business, but psychologically they will want to come in and patronize your business even if they don’t want the offer.
If you are a B2B business, you could offer a service for free, but you don’t have to. A simple, well-designed birthday trigger email will still work well and show that a. you care about the person and b. you have your act together well enough to remember a birthday.
A great 2019 resolution is to get your email marketing strategy on-point. A perfect place to start is with the birthday email. Make sure you’re asking consumers for their birthday. Then make sure you create an on-brand, fun creative piece to make their deal as special as they are!
