Many email marketers overlook simple ways to stay in touch with their subscribers such as Thank You and Birthday campaigns. As we get older, we like to pretend birthdays don't mean as much to us. But your birthday is the one special day each year when you get to celebrate YOU More

Many email marketers overlook simple ways to stay in touch with their subscribers such as Thank You and Birthday campaigns.
 
As we get older, we like to pretend birthdays don't mean as much to us. But your birthday is the one special day each year when you get to celebrate YOU.
 
As I approached my special day this year I received a steady flow of Birthday messages from some of my favorite brands. Take a look at some of these examples for inspiration:

My Coke Rewards
Eye catching emptying glass reveals bday message; Subject Line: Happy Birthday to You, Tanya

Warner Brothers
20% of my next purchase; Subject Line: "A Birthday Gift for You!"

Macy's
Free Shipping: Subject Line: "Happy Birthday! Celebrate with Free Shipping"

Papa Murphy's
Free cookie dough; Subject Line: "Your birthday is fresh on our minds"

Alaska Airlines
10% off my next ticket purchase; Subject Line: "Happy Birthday - Get 10% off Your Next Flight"

Old Navy
$10 off; Subject Line "It's Your Birthday! Take $10 Off"

There were a lot of nice messages here, but in hindsight, what surprised me the most is how many companies I actively purchase from who missed the opportunity to engage with me on my birthday. Don't overlook how good it makes your customers feel to be acknowledged on their special day. By capturing date of birth (or even just birthday month) as part of your opt-in process, you can deepen your relationship with your subscribers and even generate some incremental sales from birthday promotions. If you don't have date of birth on file, consider conducting a simple data append to enrich your targeting possibilities.
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I celebrated my birthday on Monday and received the usual array of "Happy Birthday's" from family, friends, and even some marketers who have implemented the ever popular "Birthday Email". That is, the email that is automated and sent on every... More

I celebrated my birthday on Monday and received the usual array of "Happy Birthday's" from family, friends, and even some marketers who have implemented the ever popular "Birthday Email". That is, the email that is automated and sent on every subscriber's birthday offering them best wishes and usually some form of special savings. I've often found these types of emails to not only be relevant and timely, but generally affective at driving incremental revenue.

Today though... three days later, I received an additional "Birthday Email" from Dove wishing me a great birthday and 'special savings' ($1 off any Dove Hair care product). While the thought was much appreciated, the timeliness of the email being sent (i.e. three days late), definitely calls into question a few things:

* Data Quality: If you have questionable data quality practices -- reconsider whether you want to setup a program like this one. As we don't support the Dove program it is difficult to know if I received this email late because of data quality issues or because they have not automated the program to run daily vs. weekly.

* Timeliness: Per the above, my suspicion is that the data is actually correct, but the approach taken was to send this campaign weekly vs. daily, which as a subscriber completely takes away the purpose and value of the communication. If you are sending a Birthday email, an Anniversary email, etc... it must be daily and on the day the event occurs. No exceptions.

Here's a copy of the email for those interested:


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