Rewards and Promotions: Treat Your Customers on Their Birthday [2024]

Updated 30 May 2024.

Here's a fun (and likely unsurprising) fact: the vast majority of people like celebrating their birthdays. Research cited by Benefits and Pensions Monitor shows that 89.4% of Americans enjoy celebrating birthdays, and 90.1% say birthday gifts help them feel more valued. 

So, it is no surprise that birthday marketing — specifically, birthday email marketing campaigns — perform incredibly well. According to MarketingProfs, "open rates for birthday mailings were over three times higher than for mass-promotion mailings sent to the same clients: 56.2% vs. 16.8%."

These numbers tell us that birthday email campaigns can be a huge treat – for both customers and brands. So, it's worth investing the time and effort to make your birthday initiatives shine. Read on for ideas and tips on how to do just that.

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What are the benefits of birthday rewards for your business?

The most significant benefit of birthday rewards programs is that they are a win-win strategy. They focus on the buyer experience, which benefits your best customers while simultaneously increasing revenue and loyalty.  

There are several vital reasons why birthday rewards should be part of your overall loyalty program strategy:

Boost customer loyalty

Firstly, birthday rewards programs increase customer loyalty. 84% of customers opt to stay with a brand that surprises them and takes a customer-centric approach. Who doesn't like being spoiled on their birthday? 

Improve customer retention

Loyalty programs (that include things like birthday surprises) are proven to improve customer retention rates. Even a slight increase of 5% in retention can boost profits by 25-95%.

Gain valuable customer data

Birthday reward campaigns enable you to collect data and insights into customer behavior. You can, for example, track birthday purchases and redemption rates, which can help you tailor future marketing efforts.

By adding birthday rewards to an existing loyalty program, you can personalize customer experiences, gather data on which campaigns resonate with which customers, and re-target loyal customers who redeem rewards.

Read more: 7 Steps To Building A Profitable Loyalty & Rewards Program

Examples of birthday email campaigns and rewards

When you do it right, birthday campaigns and rewards can improve customer retention, loyalty, and engagement. Whether it's sending birthday emails, creating specialty coupons, giving out freebies, or something a little more creative, these examples hit the nail on the head. 

Send a one-off special discount and build excitement

This is a low-hanging fruit of birthday rewards. When implemented correctly, special discounts are known to yield quick results and valuable data. If you're new to birthday campaigns, consider starting things off with a special discount that shoppers can use during the month of their birthday.

It's simple, straightforward, and easy to test. Just make sure to create unique promo codes for each celebrant so you can track who's redeeming your offers.

For example, Target's birthday email, which is sent to members of the Target Circle program, contains a coupon for 5% off the customer's entire purchase.

Offer free products on special occasions

Alternatively, you can give shoppers a freebie on their special day. Some examples of brands that offer birthday freebies include Starbucks and Sephora. Birthday freebies are growing increasingly common. Australian burger joint Hello Harry's openly offers its customers a free birthday burger… with a small caveat that protects the business—the birthday burgers are free up to the value of $12.

Freebies are a great option if you want to encourage your customers to try your products or if you have samples and surplus stock to give away.

Offer creative rewards to encourage engagement

Here's the not-so-great reality of loyalty or rewards programs: while many consumers sign up for them, not everyone participates in all the programs they join. 

A 2018 survey found that almost "two-thirds of respondents actively engage with less than half the loyalty programs to which they are members." The survey found that only 18% actively engage with all their rewards programs.

If your loyalty or rewards program suffers from low engagement rates, consider incorporating birthday rewards to stir things up. When implemented correctly, this tactic can fuel engagement among your members and put your brand back on their radar.

Anna Beck, a Shopify Plus-powered jewelry store with multiple resellers and stores, has done a great job at subtly incorporating birthday rewards into its loyalty program to incentivize customers but not create so much buzz that they risk sign-ups for just that reason.

Members of the program automatically get 20 points on their birthday, but with 100 points for creating a profile and 25 for completing their profile information, it's easy to see how customers quickly earn enough points to reap the rewards.

Thanks to Marsello, Anna Beck has experienced a 728.33% increase in revenue, directly attributable to its loyalty program. Even better, the brand has developed a comprehensive understanding of its customer database and how to convert them into loyal customers. The team had this to say about developing their loyalty program with Marsello:

"​​Through the data, we've found that we have incredibly loyal customers. Once they make their second purchase, they are highly likely to be lifelong customers. Marsello allows us to easily reward those loyal customers for sticking around, it was a no-brainer. Anna Beck has only been an online retail brand for a handful of years, and a loyalty program was the natural next step."

Another great example comes from Smack Bang. The Wellington-based pet products specialist is one brand that's using a powerful loyalty program to its advantage. With a 100% engagement rate and 6x ROI, the addition of loyalty marketing to SmackBang's all-over marketing tech stack really helps the company capture customers' attention time and time again.

Loyalty members earn points for actions such as creating a profile, referring a friend, reviewing products, making purchases, and engaging on social media. Benefits include % discounts and first looks at product releases. 

The Smack Bang team keeps loyalty program members updated with emails regarding product releases, business updates, sales, events, and more! By maintaining regular contact with their customers, they set the expectation that the more loyal a customer is, the better deals they'll get. And we love that SB lives up to this expectation!

Create a sense of mystery and surprise your customers 

Want to keep shoppers on their toes or still trying to figure out which reward type is the best option? Consider offering a range of rewards and surprises that your customers can enjoy during their birthday month.

That's what the lingerie retailer ThirdLove is doing. Members of their 'Hooked' loyalty program get an annual free birthday gift, which remains a surprise until the customer's special day. According to the company's website:

"We're not ones to spoil a surprise! While we won't tell exactly what they are, they'll change regularly and might be a freebie, a discount, or a little something special just for you."

Surprise freebies are a wonderful way to keep your customers excited, but our tip? Don't be tempted to fall into the trap of 'pawning off' your hard-to-sell stock on these customers. Make sure your birthday freebies are worth the hype and keep shoppers wanting more.

Celebrate your business’s birthday and say thanks to your customers

A nice twist to the concept of birthday rewards is to celebrate your brand’s birthday. This is a good way to mark an important milestone, and it gives you the opportunity to thank customers – both new and old.

Bare Wholefoods, a Sydney-based cafe, did just that when they celebrated their 4th birthday. 

To mark the occasion, Bare Wholefoods sent a pre-birthday email to their customers, which included a $10 discount code along with a sincere message of appreciation. The result? The small but mighty campaign saw a 6.59% conversion rate!

By celebrating their own birthday, Rough & Bare was also able to show appreciation to the customers that keep them going – and this is such a powerful message in the wake of significant changes brought about by COVID-19.

Sign off with a personal touch

If you have multiple sales associates who treat customers as their clients, you might want to send birthday emails directly from each team member. This helps strengthen the personal connection between the customer and the salesperson. 

Check out this example from LOEWE. The email is short, sweet, and signed by the customer's sales contact at the store.

Bonus tip: consider combining this tactic with a discount or perk so the email feels personal AND rewarded.

Tips for implementing birthday rewards

We’ve talked about the different types of birthday rewards you can offer; now let’s discuss how you can take your campaigns to the next level. If you’re looking to start or further optimize your birthday rewards initiatives, follow these best practices to ensure that your efforts hit the mark:

Integrate birthday perks with your loyalty or rewards program

While it's certainly possible to offer birthday rewards to non-loyalty program members, your campaigns will perform far better when they're incorporated into your loyalty program.

Roping birthday rewards into your loyalty program enables you to build data-rich customer profiles. Having your shoppers' purchase histories, shopping activities, and birthdays in one place means that you have a clear view of each customer. This, in turn, can enable you to improve and personalize their shopping experiences even more.

LEGO Certified Stores has done this to great success!

By awarding customers points on their birthdays and for purchases, LEGO creates a feeling of scarcity but customers also quickly rack up the points with each purchase. This means that when customers earn a reward, it feels all the sweeter!

Make it easy for people to enter their birthday

A successful birthday marketing campaign starts with data—in particular, your customers' dates of birth. Make sure you collect your customers' birthday details from the get-go to personalize your marketing efforts and improve customer experiences. 

You can, for example, ask them to enter their date of birth when they sign up for your loyalty program or newsletter. That's what Merrell NZ does on its website. The brand has a popup that prompts visitors to leave their name, email, and birthday.

With a 25% sign-up rate, this form is clearly a core component of Merrell NZ's customer engagement efforts.

Automate your campaigns

Keeping track of everyone's birthdays and setting up individual messages isn't just tedious; it's impossible as your business grows. Campaign automation is not only a remarkable time-saver – automation as a whole (along with personalization) has been pinpointed as the future of marketing. 

Thankfully, Marsello has done the hard work for you and already has several pre-made automated flows that are easy to review and enable. One of these automated flows includes a Birthday Flow, which automatically triggers an email sequence to engage customers on their birthday month. This pre-designed email series is populated with a small discount offer and is already tied to your customer database, so there's no need to manually configure the campaign. 

Just take a look at this example from shoe retailer bCODE:

Notice that they’ve given their customers a lovely surprise by automatically adding 5 points to their account to celebrate! We love that this campaign stands out, has a compelling subject line, and gives customers value right away.

Learn more: All of Marsello’s automated campaigns are designed to be easily enabled in just a few clicks.

Test your offers

While we can certainly recommend birthday rewards and ideas, ultimately, the performance of your birthday promotions will depend on your specific store and customer base. That's why you must test and analyze different birthday promotions to see what works best for your business.

As mentioned above, creating unique promo codes makes it easier to monitor the performance of your offers and the customers who are redeeming their rewards.

Take Merrell NZ, which is a pro at testing all of the company's marketing. The team had this to say when we spoke to them about their Marsello-powered marketing.

"Marsello offers automations, loyalty, rewards, email campaign segmentation, SMS. All the tools that we knew we wanted to test in stages as our eCommerce and business grows. Step 1 was swapping from [our old provider] to using Marcello’sMarsello's email marketing campaigns. Step 2, we're using marketing automation. Step 3, it's loyalty!"

It was essential to the team to find an all-in-one tool that they could use to build their marketing functionality while also testing each and every change. And that didn't stop when it came to building their loyalty program and testing their promotional offers!

One way you can use birthday rewards to understand your customer engagement patterns is to test which promo types (e.g., free shipping vs. 20% off vs. $5 off) your customer responds well to. Then, it's easy to apply similar logic to any other promotions and offers that you create in the future!

Integrate SMS marketing

While email is still the most popular channel for sending birthday promos and rewards, SMS is rapidly gaining steam and won't slow down anytime soon.

So, if you're thinking about using SMS marketing, customer birthdays present the perfect opportunity to touch base. Consumers will likely be checking their phones for birthday greetings, and having a timely text from your brand could serve as a pleasant surprise. 

Just remember, SMS marketing comes with a few rules to keep in mind and not every merchant is eligible. To make sure you’re doing everything right, check out our help center on SMS compliance. 

But wait!
What about people who put in fake birthdays?

When you plan your loyalty program, you're setting up incentive structures. And there are always shoppers who game them to get the maximum discounts and offers possible. Here are some ways to avoid birthday rewards abuse.

Apply a "cooling-off" period when people sign up for your loyalty program

Don't let people put in a birthday date within the first month ("What a coincidence, my birthday is TOMORROW!"). This will deter people who want "quick points" or instant freebies and then disappear. If you apply this, make quick mention of it to explain the policy. For example, "Sadly due to abuse of this offer, we won't send birthday offers within 1 month of signing up to our rewards program :(".

Set a spending threshold

When offering birthday discounts, establish a minimum spend for the promotion. That way, you encourage higher spending and ensure the promotion benefits both the customer and your business. Check out this example from the Harry Potter Shop. While the brand offers a generous $10 off, birthday celebrants must spend at least $50 to redeem the coupon.

Set a deadline for reward redemption

Having reward redemption deadlines can help prevent birthday reward abuse by ensuring customers use their rewards promptly instead of letting them pile up indefinitely. It also encourages immediate spending, which is great for cash flow. 

Be mindful of giving away too many points

If you use a points system to reward your customers, make the value of birthday points lower than what they would receive for making an actual purchase. This ensures that the points remain an incentive without being overly generous.

Consider "surprise" freebies

For birthday programs where you give out a freebie, make it a surprise! Don't explicitly say what free item they will receive before they sign up. That way, people will be less likely to sign up for that one specific item, and you can still treat your loyal members.

Ultimately, people will always want to take advantage of free points. The benefits you get from creating positive customer experiences for your loyalty club members will almost always outweigh the potential for rewards abuse. 

FAQs

This is one of our most popular topics, so we get a lot of questions! Here are ones our experts hear the most.

What is a 'birthday marketing strategy'?

A birthday marketing strategy involves using customers' birthdays as an opportunity to engage with them, show appreciation, and offer special promotions or rewards. Done right, birthday marketing initiatives enhance customer loyalty, increase sales, and create positive experiences that drive repeat business.

What is a birthday campaign?

A birthday campaign is a targeted marketing effort designed to celebrate a customer's birthday. It typically includes sending personalized birthday messages and offering exclusive discounts, gifts, or other incentives to make customers feel valued on their special day.

What is a birthday promotion?

A birthday promotion is a special offer or discount for customers on or around their birthday. This could include percentage-off discounts, free gifts, bonus points in loyalty programs, or other exclusive deals that incentivize customers to make a purchase.

How do you keep track of customers' birthdays?

You can keep track of customers' birthdays by collecting their birth date information when they sign up for your loyalty program, newsletter, or during the checkout process. From there, you can manage the data using your CRM software.

What should be included in a birthday rewards program?

The right birthday marketing campaign depends on your brand. That said, a birthday rewards program typically includes personalized messages, exclusive discounts or offers, gifts, bonus loyalty points, etc. 

How do businesses track the effectiveness of birthday reward campaigns over time?

To track the effectiveness of birthday reward campaigns over time, you can use customer relationship management (CRM) tools to analyze customer engagement, purchase frequency, and changes in spending patterns around their birthdays. If you're using Marsello, you can track the revenue generated from birthday automations over time, allowing you to optimize and see the impact of your changes.

Can small businesses without a big budget implement impactful birthday rewards?

For small businesses with limited budgets, impactful birthday rewards can be implemented by offering personalized discounts, exclusive products, or simple gestures like birthday messages that make customers feel valued without incurring high costs.

How do businesses personalize birthday rewards for diverse customer segments?

Personalizing birthday rewards for diverse customer segments involves gathering data on customer preferences and purchasing history to tailor rewards that resonate with different demographics, enhancing the customer's experience and loyalty. Remember: Don't get too granular with your segments—the smaller the segment, the more time-consuming and cost-intensive personalization will be. For smaller businesses, we recommend one simple birthday reward, such as a voucher.

Final words

Birthdays can be a real treat not just for your customers but for your brand, as well. So, take the time to create campaigns that make your customers feel appreciated on their special day.

Need help doing just that? Check out Marsello's customer loyalty features and discover how you can engage each customer on their birthday and beyond.

Make sure to check out our comprehensive loyalty guide to ensure your loyalty marketing is up to date in all areas.