Birthday Marketing: The Secret Weapon for Business Success

Everyone loves a birthday celebration, and that’s where the strength of birthday marketing comes in. Running a continuous birthday campaign involves treating customer loyalty by offering special recognition for each customer’s birthday. It sounds complex, but actually, it is a breeze to automate. All you need is a collection of contact details and birthday information. You can collect this through a captive portal WiFi login, email loyalty program, and social media. It is one of the best examples of growing customer loyalty through marketing automation.

So, what should you do as the gift-giving part of your birthday campaign? You can do special offers, provide access to special edition products, or even just send a digital birthday card. Your customers will be taken aback by the kind touch, and who doesn’t love to feel seen and appreciated? Using this type of marketing can transform your relationship with customers. Sold? Brilliant. This guide will get you up to scratch on everything you need to know about using customer birthdays for marketing.

What Is Birthday Marketing?

So, what exactly is birthday marketing? Simple. This type of marketing revolves around reaching out to customers on their birthday to wish them a happy birthday. It sounds simple and is an easy marketing effort to set up. But the impact of birthday emails is enormous - both long and short-term.

Do you know that birthday emails have a 481% higher transaction rate than other marketing emails? In our next session, we’ll cover all the reasons why you should invest in a birthday email strategy. But for now, know that it’s vital for your future business success to understand this type of marketing.

The term is an umbrella phrase covering many different strategy types. It’s a creative marketing type because you can have free rein deciding on birthday rewards. Will you provide access to special edition products? Will you provide extra gifts with the purchase? Or perhaps you’d just like to send a digital card via email? Regardless of which you choose, we’d suggest providing a promotional code or discount at the very least. You should always aim to take advantage of that higher transaction rate.

Marketing using birthday emails is a brilliant and flexible way to connect with customers. As you can see, you have lots of creative licenses here to choose how you celebrate with your customer base. However, the most successful birthday emails include an element of gift giving and help businesses with their higher transaction rate. It is one of the most effective types of marketing you can use. And once you have high customer numbers, these marketing emails roll out almost daily.

Why Is Birthday Marketing Important?

There are a few different answers to the question of ‘why is birthday marketing important.’ As a whole, you should care about this marketing type because it is ridiculously effective. But we’ll go into more detail here about the individual benefits:

• It builds a better relationship with customers.

Everyone wants a better relationship with customers, and marketing that invests in birthdays is ideal. It makes your customers feel heard and appreciated; everyone loves a gift on their birthday. To invest in your customer relationships, marketing using birthdays is perfect.

• It secures higher transaction rates.

As mentioned, birthday emails secure 481% higher transaction rates than any other marketing email. This means that birthday emails are hugely influential in your marketing strategy. It is essential because it gives you higher transaction rates that drive profit.

• It is one of the easiest emails to automate.

A birthday campaign is one of the easiest types of email marketing to automate. Once you collect all the email addresses, you’ll have no issues setting up automation for birthday emails. You can simply use software and marketing programs to do the hard work for you. There’s no need to panic thinking you’ll be manually tracking and celebrating birthdays.

• It blends well with other marketing efforts.

A birthday email also blends exceptionally well with other marketing efforts, including WiFi marketing and captive portals. It goes with everything - from SMS to social media and email marketing, so why not add it to your strategy?

As you can see, birthday marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies. If you want to harness all these benefits, get marketing and celebrate those birthdays with customers.

How To Send Birthday Marketing Campaigns

You now know precisely what birthday emails are and why they are so effective. So, your next job is to learn how to send birthday marketing campaigns. This stage is essential if you want this to be an actionable part of your marketing strategy. If you already have a list of subscribers, you can organize this today in just a few hours.

• Collect birthdays and contact details.

There are a few different ways to do this, the best being through captive portals and email lists. If you are already utilizing customer loyalty programs and strategies, you’ll already have a bank of birthdays and contact details. If not, you’ll have to backtrack to create these systems initially. You could create a QR code loyalty program sign-up, add captive portal WiFi, or use social media to prompt sign-ups.

• Pick software to send out birthday emails.

Next, you need to pick software to send the birthday emails. These birthday emails will automatically be sent to your customers on birthdays. Loads of different software automate sending birthday emails for you, including Omnisend, MailChimp, and us here at Beambox. Pick which software you’d like to use and set it up to run by itself.

• Perfect your email template and update it when necessary.

Finally, you need to perfect your email template. This means writing the perfect message to get maximum benefits from this strategy. Then, update the email when necessary (e.g., once a year or seasonally if you use a specific theme). Then, voila! You have set up a birthday campaign that will run constantly in the background to benefit your business.

4 Ways To Use Birthday Marketing

Only some people love open-ended creativity. And birthday marketing definitely has that sense of open-mindedness. To overcome this, we will provide some prime examples of how you can use this type of marketing. These are the top four ways you can use customers’ birthdays as an effective form of marketing. You can copy or use these ideas to inspire your ideas - the choice is yours.

1. Send Digital Birthday Cards

Digital birthday cards are the easiest method to use in a birthday campaign. This strategy is cheap, cheerful, and uses software automation. If you use this idea, it is purely to build stronger customer relationships. This isn’t promotional or transactional, instead being more of a friendly touch base.

Make sure to include the customer’s name at the top and tailor the card to their interests if you can. You can find out interests and preferences through questions when customers sign up. Even things like favorite flowers, cars, or colors can make a huge difference, as you can personalize their card further.

2. Send Exclusive Access To Special Edition Products

This is more of a promotional style of birthday email. You reward customer loyalty with exclusive access to special edition products. It could be a complimentary personalization of a product. Or a special birthday product that you can reward customers with some kind of collectible draw? The point is that it’s exclusive. And the reason your customer gets access is because of their customer loyalty and your generosity on their birthday.

This idea is perfect if you’d like to make a sale but also make your customer feel special. It can also be a draw of your customer loyalty program if you emphasize the collectible nature of this gift. Special edition products are birthday marketing at its finest.

3. Provide Gifts With Purchase for Subscription-Style Businesses

If you run a subscription-style business, then customers likely make regular purchases. You can get creative with this and offer gifts with purchase on their birthday months. This is a nice touch because it is easy to organize and makes a clear link to rewarding customer loyalty. It doesn’t have to be big - just a magazine, food, or taste session of experience can be a nice touch. You can even get these gifts for free by partnering with other businesses. Of course, this is a total win, win. Just make sure the gifts align with your brand and the interests of your target customer demographic.

4. Send Special Offers or Personalized Discount Codes

Lastly, we have special offers and personalized discount codes. You could knock 40% off any purchase made that day or that week. You can add their name to the discount code to add a personal touch. For instance, HAPPYBIRTHDAYLILY or LILY22. These are great because they look generous but drive sales entirely. Chances are that loyal customers have been eyeing something that your business offers. Whether that is a dress or a delicious new pudding doesn’t matter - you are inviting them to treat themselves. And by offering a discount code, you are making it feel like a complete steal in their eyes.

Final Thoughts: First Steps To Utilize Birthday Marketing

So, how do you take your first steps to utilize birthday marketing? Well, first, you need to establish a list of contact details - email addresses or phone numbers - and birthdays. There are loads of ways to collect these details. For example, you can stick QR code loyalty program sign-ups around your restaurant or prompt contact details with captive portals. Look into how to get these details quickly and regularly. This way, you’ll have a constant flow of new birthdays to use for marketing. Having ways to collect contact details and customers’ birthdays are the basic building blocks you need for this strategy’s foundations.

We can help you with that. As leading experts in WiFi marketing, we offer marketing solutions that you can harness through the simple power of WiFi. You can collect email addresses and birthdays through captive portal WiFi login pages. And by utilizing your WiFi, you can quickly grow other marketing strategies - like birthday marketing. It is fascinating, and you can get started today with our free trial. Minimal risk and high reward is our favorite catchphrase.

Here at Beambox, we are big believers in hospitality businesses, whether big or small. We are passionate about growing businesses of all shapes and sizes using technology like WiFi. It is simple once you start, and we can help you get your foot on the marketing ladder. Beambox has the industry’s most effective WiFi platform, and we love to help businesses with things like birthday marketing. Let’s keep your profits and customer loyalty high. Start your Beambox free trial today, and we’ll help utilize the power of WiFi and birthdays in your marketing strategy.

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