10 Tips for Creating Successful Birthday Emails
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
It’s August which just so happens to be my Birthday month – and with Birthdays comes Birthday emails! Some of the Birthday emails I received were good while others weren’t. Below you will find a list of things to consider when creating your own Birthday emails.
3. Give people time – The best type of Birthday emails are the ones that have coupons in them. But, keep in mind that people may receive lots of Birthday emails so make sure you give the Birthday Boy (or Girl) plenty of time to redeem the offer. You may even consider giving something away for free. I know I took Coldstone up on thier Birthday email offer!
4. Make your Birthday email viral – Instead of including a forward to a friend button add an “Invite your friend to share the offer” or if you are a restaurant “Invite your friends to join your Birthday dinner.” See how Applebee’s does this in their email. 
8. Have a clear subject line – Include the words “Happy Birthday” in the subject line. Make sure people know that the offer is because it is their Birthday. If you do this you will probably see a higher open rate.
9. Avoid age jokes – Keep your emails positive. You don’t have a personal relationship with everyone you are sending to and you don’t know if they will take offence to your age jokes. Its best to avoid them all together. AERewards did a great job of this. The copy in their email read “Just another perk that comes with age.”
1. Use the information you have – If you are collecting your subscriber’s Birthday information, use it! Send them a Birthday email. Also, don't forget to make the offer timely. Don’t send a Birthday email a month in advanced or even worse a month late.
2. Make it pretty - This email will be seen by all your subscribers at some point duing the year, spend some time and make it look good. Pillsbury did a great job of this in thier Birthday email.
2. Make it pretty - This email will be seen by all your subscribers at some point duing the year, spend some time and make it look good. Pillsbury did a great job of this in thier Birthday email.
3. Give people time – The best type of Birthday emails are the ones that have coupons in them. But, keep in mind that people may receive lots of Birthday emails so make sure you give the Birthday Boy (or Girl) plenty of time to redeem the offer. You may even consider giving something away for free. I know I took Coldstone up on thier Birthday email offer!
4. Make your Birthday email viral – Instead of including a forward to a friend button add an “Invite your friend to share the offer” or if you are a restaurant “Invite your friends to join your Birthday dinner.” See how Applebee’s does this in their email.
5. Protect Yourself – If you only want the offer to be used only once by the Birthday Boy make sure you include some type of one time use code. This will prevent your coupon being shared though out different social networks.
6. Give a worth while offer – It’s someone’s Birthday don’t trick them into using your offer. Give them something worthwhile or don’t give them anything at all – avoid fine print.
7. Sent a targeted offer – If you know that I’m a female who normally purchases dresses from your store – don’t send me a coupon for sporting goods. If you have subscriber information use it to your advantage and send something relevant. I normally purchase make-up from Ulta. Do you think it is pure chance they sent be a Birthday email that features make-up? See the email here.
6. Give a worth while offer – It’s someone’s Birthday don’t trick them into using your offer. Give them something worthwhile or don’t give them anything at all – avoid fine print.
7. Sent a targeted offer – If you know that I’m a female who normally purchases dresses from your store – don’t send me a coupon for sporting goods. If you have subscriber information use it to your advantage and send something relevant. I normally purchase make-up from Ulta. Do you think it is pure chance they sent be a Birthday email that features make-up? See the email here.
8. Have a clear subject line – Include the words “Happy Birthday” in the subject line. Make sure people know that the offer is because it is their Birthday. If you do this you will probably see a higher open rate.
9. Avoid age jokes – Keep your emails positive. You don’t have a personal relationship with everyone you are sending to and you don’t know if they will take offence to your age jokes. Its best to avoid them all together. AERewards did a great job of this. The copy in their email read “Just another perk that comes with age.”
10. Test, test, test – As always test your Birthday email. See what offers perform the best, what subject line has the highest open rate, and test to make sure all the subscribers correct personalization.
The great news is ExactTarget makes it easy to automate Birthday emails. If you want to learn more about email marketing automation and about how to automate your marking campaigns download the Art of Automation Guide. If you are currently an ExactTarget customer read about how to set up a Birthday email.
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