In this article, I’ll be focusing on one specific type of email campaign – the birthday email. However, if you would like to know more about how to get the most out of email marketing in 2020 (and pick up a few bonus stats that will help underpin this article), I would highly recommend that you check out Max’s previous article.
The basics of Birthday Emails
Birthday emails are an incredibly simple marketing mechanism, as they get automatically sent to your subscribers on their birthday (assuming they’ve provided this information). However, they are often undervalued. Let’s have a look at the stats (taken from campaignmonitor.com):
- Birthday emails have a 481% higher transaction rate than promotional emails
- Birthday emails generate 342% higher revenue per email than promotional emails
- Birthday emails have 179% higher unique click rates than promotional emails
Couple the information above with the general stats that Max mentioned in his article and it’s not difficult to see why the birthday email can be a worthy addition to any marketing strategy.
Getting the most out of birthday emails
The most frequent use of birthday emails is to send your subscriber a coupon (or discount code), which will make them feel special but also encourage them to spend some of their birthday money on products that they may have had their eye on.
A few top tips
Even though birthday emails already demonstrate strong stats, there are a few general email marketing tips that could help you boost the power of this mechanism even further:
- Send the offer on the day – according to campaign monitor, 55% of birthday emails are sent to coincide with the subscriber’s exact birthday
- Remind them – according to Experian data, reminder emails demonstrate increase of around 20% in open rate, click to delivered, average order value and revenue per email. Send an automated email to remind your subscriber to use their coupon/code
- Personalise – personalised emails are up to 50% more likely to be opened, so use those merge tags in your subject line and message
- Call to action – make your call to action clear to make sure that your subscribers can easily claim their coupon/code
- Send at the right time – there are two times of day that tend to demonstrate the best open and click through rates: 9-11am and 3-5pm , but every audience is different so you should use your data to work out the optimal send times for your birthday emails
- Preview – yes, birthday emails are automated and are supposed to be simple, but that’s even more reason to check your email doesn’t contain errors
Summary
As you can see, birthday emails are among the most effective types of email marketing. Not only should you benefit from higher interaction rates, you’ll also have an opportunity to sell more products. Add in the comparatively low set up and management investment, and you might find yourself on track to a winning strategy. However, as with all digital marketing efforts, there will be improvements that you can make, so don’t forget to test your strategy.
If you would like help with your email marketing, Coast Digital has a highly experienced team with a history of delivering successful email strategy. We’ll also help you make sure that your emails are GDPR and PECR compliant. Get in touch with us today to find out more.