4 Birthday Email Marketing Campaigns That Skyrocket Sales

Your guests' inboxes are flooded with emails on a daily basis, with the average email open rate for restaurants hovering around 40%. However, birthday emails tend to draw greater attention. On average, birthday email open rates rise to and often exceed 45%. Guests anticipate birthday rewards. This expectation grants you an opportunity to boost guest engagement and drive revenue.  

Birthday email campaigns allow you to engage with each guest on their special day. You may send an exclusive deal or discount to join in their celebration. They will feel seen by your brand, creating a positive association that bolsters your reputation and bottom line.  

This article provides actionable strategies to create a successful birthday email marketing campaign and how to measure its impact. Now, let the celebrations begin!

Why Do Birthday Emails Matter? 

A birthday email makes your business a part of a loyal customer’s celebratory day. Not only do you connect with them on a personal level, but you also attach a special reward that invites them to visit your establishment in person. It’s a simple strategy to instill more personalization into your customer loyalty campaigns. These are three reasons why such customization is vital for your business: 

1. Increase in Customer Satisfaction: Guests feel seen and celebrated on their birthday when they receive an exciting gift in the form of a special discount. 
2. Boost in Guest Engagement: Birthday promotions invite guests to interact with your brand to receive an exclusive birthday reward.  
3. Improvement for Brand Association: A guest recognizes that you’re thinking about them on their birthday, creating a positive and memorable experience. 

These characteristics lead to increased customer retention. The more satisfied your guests feel, the higher the chances they will become repeat customers and brand advocates.  

Pro Tip: A birthday email marketing campaign should be a part of your overall guest loyalty marketing strategy. Check out our 2024 Loyalty Trend Report to learn how you can stay ahead of competition and remain top of mind for your guests.   

5 Key Elements of Effective Birthday Emails 

Want to learn what makes birthday email so effective? Leverage these five essential components to build your restaurant’s most effective birthday email marketing campaign: 

1. Personalized Subject Lines

The subject line is a customer’s first impression of your email, so it should speak directly to the individual. A 2024 report from Mailjet found that 61% of recipients opened emails with their names in the subject line. Use these four ideas for how you can personalize birthday email subject lines: 

1. Use Your Customer’s First Name: Address your guests by name in the subject line so they feel as though you’re addressing them directly.  
2. Wish Them a Happy Birthday: Mention their birthday so the recipient knows the email is more than standard marketing material.  
3. Tease a Limited-Time Deal: Use the subject line to touch on the potential for unique rewards or deals within the email.  
4. Express Your Gratitude: Share your appreciation for your guests’ continued support and loyalty to your business. 

Subject line word count matters, too. You need to clearly and concisely let your loyal customer know the intent of the email and hint at its content. Around 21% of email recipients open emails with 6 to 10 words—the most of any other word count range.  

Pro Tip: Consider experimenting with different types of birthday email greetings. Such A/B testing can grant you valuable insight into which subject lines resonate more with your unique customers.  

2. Personalized Message Content

A birthday email is most effective when personalized all the way through. While you’re likely not composing each email individually, you can create templates that leave space for customer personalization.   

Additionally, offer guests rewards specific to their buying habits. You’ll need customer data to achieve this personalization. Aggregated insights into customer behavior, habits, and trends illuminate which kinds of deals or rewards will most appeal to them. 

Pro Tip: To help craft compelling emails, explore our white paper that covers the top ten messages that promote guest engagement.  

3. Time-Sensitive and Recipient-Specific Offers

Make your birthday offers only valid for a limited time to create a sense of urgency. Here are three effective ways to offer customers unique birthday rewards: 

1. Free Gifts: Give guests free gifts, like restaurant swag or appetizers, to help them celebrate their birthday.  
2. Discounts: Offer special discounts on menu items when the birthday individual orders or purchases.  
3. BOGO: Invite the guest to purchase one item and receive another free as part of your birthday promotion.  

Leverage customer data to personalize rewards based on their unique buying habits. For example, if a customer favors a specific coffee beverage, offer that drink for free.

4. Appealing Visuals and Design

Colorful graphics, videos, gifs, animations—these are all eye-catching visual decisions that can help draw your customer to the birthday email’s content. It’s important to maintain your brand’s image within each email. The tone of voice, color palette, and graphics should invoke how it feels to engage with your restaurant and brand.

Additionally, consider using a traditional birthday symbol. Birthday cakes, candles, and party hats are all recognizable and clever portrayals of birthday celebrations that you can work into your email’s design.

Pro Tip: Avoid using too many graphics or colors as the email will become cluttered and difficult to read. It should be easy for recipients to skim the email, understand its message and offer, and then decide their next action. 

5. Top-Notch Call to Action

A call-to-action (CTA) consists of language that prompts your customer to take the next step. Usually, it appears as a button near the end of the email, and guests have to click it to access their reward. The CTA must use clear and compelling verbiage. It should also be obvious where clicking the button will take your guest. Use these five ideas for impactful email CTAs: 

1. Redeem My Gift 
2. Get My Treat 
3. Claim My Reward 
4. See My Discount 
5. Order Now 

Reminder: A/B testing and customer data will tell you whether words like “get,” “claim,” or “redeem” are most compelling to your audience. 

4 Birthday Email Marketing Best Practices 

Now it’s time to perfect your email campaigns. With the key components of birthday emails determined, consider these four best practices for structuring and marketing them effectively: 

1. Data Collection and Segmentation

To send birthday emails to loyal customers, you must first have their birthdate on file. Here are two strategies for how you can collect this information: 

1. Ask for a birth date upon signing up for a reward program. Ask guests to input their birth month and day when they sign up for your loyalty program.  
2. Customers must add it to their accounts or profiles. When a guest sets up their customer profile, list a field where they can add their birthday.  

When asking customers for their birthday, add text that explains why you seek this information. Use it to advertise that you send special deals, discounts, and rewards. It also creates transparency into your intent for the information, which can help build trust. 

Pro Tip: Make it optional for guests to provide their birthday information. Some guests simply aren’t interested. You don’t want a birthday requirement to prevent them from signing up for your reward program.  

2. Automation and Timing

Email marketing automation ensures each one of your loyal guests receives a birthday reward without you having to monitor it. You can meet the needs of your growing customer base without an additional lift. This is easiest done with email marketing software and a customizable template. Build a template with fields that automatically populate with personalized details depending on the recipient. 

When it comes to timing, aim to send the email early on the recipient’s birthday. Depending on your guest engagement data, you may also consider sending it a few days in advance. However, take note that birthday emails sent too far in advance are at risk of being forgotten. 

3. Mobile Optimization

Up to 60% of people read email on their mobile devices. Cell phones make emails more accessible than ever. Your guest may also check their email more often due to its easy access. To ensure the most success from your campaign, make birthday emails compatible with mobile. 

4. Testing and Continuous Improvement

Your birthday email marketing strategy is an evolving part of your business. As technology advances and your guests’ preferences change, you must shift your approach to meet present needs.   

Make it a regular practice to collect data on customer behavior. These insights point to trends that could help you find ways to better serve your loyal guests. Additionally, A/B testing, the practice of sending multiple emails with slight variations to see which performs better, tells you which language, style, and email format resonates with your audience.

Pro Tip: When A/B testing, focus each campaign on one email component. It’s easier to pinpoint which variation is most effective when you focus on one part of the email. 

4 Birthday Email Campaign Ideas and Examples 

Ready to celebrate your customers? Use these four birthday email ideas to inspire your campaign:

1. Discount Offers

Grant a special birthday reward when a guest spends over a certain amount. If you offer loyalty rewards, you could also double their point earnings for a period of time. The following example from Applebee’s uses a play on words and a simple ‘Order Now’ CTA to reward their loyal guest:  

2. Free Gifts or Add-ons

Offer your loyal customers a free drink, meal, or other purchase as a birthday gift. This email style is a great opportunity to get creative with birthday-themed graphics. If your offer has an expiration date, make sure to add it. Here is an example from Dutch Bros:

3. Exclusive Birthday Experiences

Reward your loyal guests with a birthday experience to share with their friends and family. If your restaurant offers menu items like hot pot, making your own pancakes, fondue, cooking classes, or any other kind of experience, give your guest a discount.  

Offering birthday rewards in the form of experiences with loved ones helps each guest create a birthday memory at your establishment. It’s another way to create a greater emotional connection between your restaurant and customers.  

4. Birthday-Themed Content

Not every birthday email must come with a special discount or reward. You can also share content or resources relevant to your guest’s birthday celebration. For these emails to be successful, you should aim to send them several days in advance. Take a look at this example from Collin Street Bakery: 

Measuring the Success of Your Birthday Email Campaigns 

Track performance metrics throughout your campaign to determine which strategies worked and which might need improvement. If you don’t, you won’t be able to determine what’s driving results.  

Key Metrics to Track 

Let’s get analytical! While preparing your birthday email marketing campaigns, set up these four key metrics to help measure its success:  

1. Email Open Rate: The number of recipients who open the email when it appears in their inbox. 
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR): The number of people who click a CTA within the email to move to your website or another destination associated with your brand.  
3. Conversion Rate: The number of people who sign up for loyalty programs or take advantage of birthday promotions. 
4. Sales: The number of sales you make because of your birthday email marketing strategy.  

At the conclusion of your campaign, determine the return on investment (ROI). Calculate this number by subtracting your initial investment in the campaign from the revenue earned over its lifecycle. The resulting number is your profit. 

Using Analytics Tools 

Email marketing analytics tools collect and organize all performance data from your campaigns. Leverage tools like Google Analytics and email marketing software to make reporting easy. 

The data aggregated within these analytics tools creates a well-rounded view into your campaign’s performance. You gain insight into which techniques you should use again for future marketing campaigns. You can additionally identify strategies that fell short. Analyze all your data to inform how you run birthday email marketing campaigns going forward.  

Frequently Asked Questions About Birthday Email Marketing 

Birthday email marketing strategies are essential for long-term loyalty and engagement. Take a look at the most commonly asked questions about the topic below to learn more.  

How do you start a birthday email? 

Begin a birthday email by using the recipient’s name and acknowledging their birthday. But there’s more to it than that. Use data to make it personal and don’t forget to use thematic imagery!

What should you include in a birthday email campaign? 

Within a clear, compelling, and on-brand email, offer the recipient a special deal or promotion to help them celebrate their birthday. Or give them ideas about how they can celebrate their special day. 

What is the best email marketing platform? 

Ultimately, the best email marketing platform is the one that fits your needs and budget. Tools like MailChimp and HubSpot are among the most popular. However, it’s worth your time to research and compare the leading tools on the market. 

Is email marketing still worth it? 

Yes, email marketing is still worth it. Guests have easy access to email on their mobile devices, so they check it more often throughout the day.  

Making Sales with Your Next Birthday Campaign 

For your loyal guests, their birthday is a time to celebrate, indulge, and enjoy with loved ones. You can join in on the celebration through birthday email campaigns that offer exclusive deals. Not only does it show your appreciation, but it also incentivizes your guests to visit your restaurant with their loved ones to take advantage of the offer. As a result of your strategic marketing efforts, you’re likely to see a boost in guest satisfaction and revenue. 

Whether you are looking to kickstart a birthday email campaign from scratch or revamp a dated approach, Paytronix offers solutions to help. Contact us to learn how our resources and tools can assist you in creating a successful birthday email marketing campaign.