A birthday reward is the most reliably well-received marketing email a shop can send, and it is the one almost nobody sets up, because doing it manually means keeping a calendar.
Birthdays
The customer’s birthday earns them something. It fires on the day, automatically, with nothing to maintain.
What makes it work is that it is not a sales email. It arrives with something in it, on a day that is about them, from a shop they chose. That is a rare combination in a marketing inbox, and it is why open rates for these are unlike anything else you send.
The half-birthday
Six months after their birthday, a smaller surprise.
This is more effective than it sounds, and the reason is timing. Nobody expects anything six months after their birthday. An unexpected reward lands differently from an expected one, and it arrives in the long stretch of the year where you have no natural reason to be in touch.
It is also, quietly, a re-engagement email that does not read as one.
Dates you define, filled in by them
Beyond birthdays, you can define your own personal dates and let customers fill them in.
The point is that the useful date depends on what you sell:
- A pet shop wants the pet’s birthday, and probably the pet’s name.
- A florist wants wedding anniversaries.
- A garden centre might want when someone moved into their house.
- A baby brand wants a due date, and later a birth date.
These are dates customers are pleased to be asked for, because the reason is obvious and the payoff is theirs. And a customer who has filled in their dog’s birthday has told you something considerably more useful about their buying behaviour than any survey would have got out of them.
Where they enter them
On their rewards page, alongside their balance and history. It is a small form and it sits where an engaged customer already is.
Why it earns its place
Every other part of a loyalty programme responds to something the customer did. This is the only part that reaches out for a reason that has nothing to do with buying, which is exactly why it does not read as marketing.
It is also completely hands-off once configured. No calendar, no list, no monthly task.