15 Great Birthday Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

While family and friends may accidentally forget your birthday (cut them some slack, will ya?), businesses shouldn’t miss a birthday marketing opportunity. After all, who doesn’t love a good celebration?

It’s a chance to engage customers when they’re primed and ready to be rewarded with special offers and gifts. Have you ever heard of birthday marketing campaigns?

If not, here are some birthday marketing ideas for your small business. These marketing campaigns will remind customers that you care and give them a special incentive to buy from your business.

15 Creative Birthday Marketing Ideas & Campaigns

Below are 15 ideas for birthday marketing campaigns that are perfect for small businesses.

1. Surprise your customers with a gift.

No one likes getting older – that’s why we give each other gifts on our birthdays.

The best gifts encourage interaction with your business. For example, a 25% off coupon incentivizes people to shop with your brand. It’s also an exclusive offer that customers can look forward to each year. I know I look forward to my free Starbucks coffee each year on my birthday. When January rolls around, I open my Starbucks app, and a free drink voucher is waiting for me to redeem.

Tip: Take advantage of automation. Businesses like Starbucks leverage their CRMs to trigger automated campaigns based on the date. The offer is automatically sent to the customer when a birthday comes up, so you don’t have to do anything.

Birthday Marketing Campaign Example: Smokey Bones

Smokey Bones is a BBQ restaurant with locations throughout the East Coast. It sends me a free dessert on my birthday every year. It’s a great marketing campaign because I won’t go to Smokey Bones and buy a dessert by myself (although the doughnuts are amazing). It incentivizes me to order a full meal and celebrate with friends and family. At that point, this free dessert is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the bill I’ll rack up.

2. Invest in direct mail.

Direct mail is one of the most effective marketing channels for small businesses. Surprised? Did you know that 90% of direct mail is opened by its recipients? That’s better than emailing and cold calling combined.

You can keep your business at the forefront of your customer’s minds by sending them birthday messages through direct mail. Here are some tips to consider when designing a birthday mailer:

It will motivate customers to return to your store if it’s consistent with your brand and has a strong call to action (e.g., “Buy One, Get One!”). Personalizing these messages creates a pleasant customer experience and develops a stronger connection with your business.

Birthday Marketing Campaign Example: Mattoni Forno

Source

Here’s an example of a birthday mailer from a small Italian restaurant. Notice how it uses the customer’s name and includes an offer for a free entree. The personalized message grabs the customer’s attention, while the exclusive offer encourages them to revisit the restaurant. It’s an effective birthday marketing campaign because it’s timely and speaks directly to the customer.

3. Give a shout-out on social media.

This birthday marketing idea is a no-brainer. Many business owners use social media to blast messages and interact with several customers at once. However, to customers, social media is a tool for interacting with individuals and businesses one-on-one.

Take the time to send people a Facebook birthday message or tweet them your special birthday offers. This marketing campaign may seem labor-intensive, but you can use tools like a social media manager to speed up the writing process. Some of the best social tools (like the one below) have AI assistants that help you compose personalized messages.

Birthday Marketing Campaign Example: Facebook

Facebook is one of the best companies at personalizing its marketing content. Every year, users receive a video like this one that features different posts from their timelines. It brings up old memories people might have forgotten about, and it’s easy to share with friends and family. It’s an effective campaign because it gives people something they want, and more people use Facebook in return.

Watch Now: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Winning Social Media Captions

4. Shoot them a birthday text message.

Texting has a higher open rate than direct mail. Almost 100% of text messages are opened by their recipients, making it an incredibly useful channel for customer communication.

If you have CRM, you should automate business texting with your customers. Like email, your system can automatically text customers on their birthdays with personalized messages. Odds are your customers will see them and want to take advantage of your exclusive offer or deal.

Birthday Marketing Campaign Example: 1-800 Contacts

Subscription and service-based brands benefit a lot from business texting. You might not think about these brands as often as your favorite store or restaurant. Business texting helps these companies connect directly with their customers and remind them to renew their subscriptions or book appointments with your business.

For instance, here’s a text I received from 1-800 Contacts. It features a quick birthday message and a gift of 20% off my next purchase. I don’t buy contacts often, so this is a nice reminder to check my inventory and see if I should buy more.

5. Give them a quick phone call.

If you really want to send a personalized message, call your customers. Take a few moments to chat and wish them a happy birthday. You’ll be surprised how many people will be delighted to hear from you. Just by picking up the phone and thinking of others, you’ll create memorable customer experiences.

Birthday Marketing Campaign Example: Lindner Dental Associates

My dentist calls me on my birthday just to say “hi” and “happy birthday.” She’s never selling anything, but it gives me the impression they care about my business and don’t take it for granted. It’s one of the things that keeps me going back again and again. Well, that and my desire to keep my pearly whites nice and…pearly.

6. Create a standard birthday offer for new customers.

Some people may not be in your CRM, so you don’t know their birthday. Or, they may be a new customer who decided to shop at your business on their birthday.

You should have a standard offer available for these customers. Make it well-known that anyone can come in on their birthday and receive a free “whatever.” Not only will that create a pleasant experience, but it will help you collect customer information. That way, you can record their birthday and have a personalized message ready for next year.

One way to do this is to run a Facebook birthday ad. You can create ads that target specific life events, like birthdays. Customers entering their birthday month will see your ad and learn about your discount. You can also use this ad to direct people to a form where you can ask for their actual birthday. Once you store that information in your CRM, you can use it for future birthday marketing campaigns.

Source

Birthday Marketing Campaign Example: Vander Berg Furniture

Here’s an example of a birthday ad on Facebook. During their birthday month, customers can visit this store and receive 50% off select items. The button on the ad provides directions to the store, encouraging customers to visit in person.

7. Celebrate your business’s birthday.

Don’t forget to celebrate your birthday, too. No, we don’t mean your personal birthday – we’re talking about your business instead.

Throw a special event and invite customers to celebrate with you. Offer snacks or drinks and promote in-store specials once they arrive. If you don’t have a storefront, promote your birthday online and offer special booking incentives during a specified time frame.

Birthday Marketing Campaign Example: Avalon Sunshine

This birthday marketing campaign is from a birthday cake designer. She celebrated her business’s 10th birthday with a store-wide sale and posted about it on social media. Everything in her store was listed for 10$, and all of the proceeds were donated to charity. It was a very clever campaign that gave customers multiple reasons to shop with her.

Birthday Email Marketing Ideas

If you don’t have time to launch a full-scale birthday marketing campaign, you can always engage your customers using email. Email is efficient, scalable, and easy to automate with the right tools.

Here are a few birthday email marketing campaigns that your business should consider.

8. Send a promotional email on their birthday.

Timeliness is a key factor in any marketing campaign, but it’s even more important for birthdays. Other brands will send your customers messages, too, so you have to find ways to stand out in their inboxes.

One way to do this is to be mindful when you send your email. It might get buried under other messages if you send it too early. If you send it too late, customers might not see it until the following day. The best time to send an email is between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on weekdays. These are the times when most people check their inboxes, meaning there’s a higher chance of them seeing your message.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: Men’s Wearhouse

This birthday email was sent to me last year from Men’s Wearhouse. They emailed me at the beginning of the month and then followed up as the month was ending. The email’s subject line read, “Your Birthday Deal Ends Soon,” reminding me that I should act before it’s too late. It was a very timely campaign that made me want to shop at their store and take advantage of this limited-time deal.

9. Share an exclusive promo code or coupon.

Your email list is one of your most valuable marketing assets. These people signed up to receive messages from your brand because they’re interested in your products and services. Your emails should speak directly to your customers, be personalized, and feature discounts and promo codes that are exclusive to this audience.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: GAP

GAP does a great job creating an exclusive offer with this birthday marketing email. It uses a clever tagline to hook the reader and entice them with a 25% discount. You can only get this offer if you subscribe to GAP’s emails, which helps grow their mailing list.

10. Wish your customers an early birthday.

If you want to stand out from other brands in your customers’ inboxes, consider sending an email at the start of the month in addition to their birthday. You won’t have to compete with as many birthday messages, making your email feel unique and eye-catching to the reader. As their birthday approaches, send them a follow-up email reminding them about your offer. That will create a sense of urgency to take advantage of your deal before it expires.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: Hulu

Hulu sends people a free trial for their birthday. In this email campaign, Hulu contacts customers a month before their birthday and follows up to let them know that the trial is still available. It’s effective for people who might have seen the initial offer but forgot to click through to the landing page.

11. Record a personalized video.

Video marketing is effective because it captures people’s attention within seconds of playing. It can be even more useful if you personalize the message and include the customer’s name. Video production tools like VEED make it easy to record simple marketing messages customized to each person on your mailing list.

Tip: Keep in mind there are limitations when using video with email. Not every email provider can handle videos, so it’s best to include your file as an attachment or link to it on a separate website page.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: Shotstack

Here’s a birthday video template for personalizing messages with customers. Your business can create something similar using a free video production tool. You just have to create a background slide, add some music, and include information like your customer’s name and the offer from your business. The video tools will help add animations and other effects to make your message stand out.

12. Give away a free product or service.

If you’re a service-based brand, consider giving away a free version of one of your services. Or, you could offer a complimentary consultation and provide quotes and estimates for free. It’s hard to turn down a free gift, so make sure your offer is at the top of your email. Avoid using phrases like “100% free” in your subject line because that can trigger spam filters. Rather than customers seeing your message, your email will be sent directly to a spam folder because it looks suspicious.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: Puttshack

This offer from Puttshack was hard to ignore. Puttshack is a bar that also has mini golf. For my birthday, they gave me a free round of golf just for subscribing to its emails. It’s a great campaign because it’s something that customers actually want, but not many people will redeem it alone. They’ll bring their friends and family (who remembered their birthday) to celebrate, too. That brings in additional revenue along with the drinks and food that you’ll order when you’re there.

13. Wish a celebrity happy birthday.

Here’s a creative spin on a traditional birthday marketing campaign. Rather than celebrating customers, find a celebrity, influencer, or business leader your customers admire and wish them a happy birthday instead. Ask people to celebrate with you, and include a deal, offer, or promotion that gets them to visit your website. This campaign shares some of your brand’s personality, creating connections with customers through pop culture rather than through your products and services.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: Elephant Stock

Elephant Stock is a custom printing company that creates canvas art prints and other home decor. The other day, it sent me this email celebrating Pablo Picasso’s birthday. Along with this was a 30% discount on Picasso-inspired products. I could click directly into their online store and purchase one of the items in seconds. Email provides the convenience of directing customers to specific pages of your website, so be strategic if you use this birthday marketing idea.

14. Provide product recommendations.

If you’re going to include a discount, you should also provide product recommendations. That helps customers with their buying decision because they won’t have to visit your website to view your inventory. You can use your CRM to view products they previously purchased and promote similar items in your birthday marketing email.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: iEDM.com

iEDM.com is an e-commerce retailer that sells clothing for music festivals. All of its marketing emails include product recommendations like this one. I like how it features customer ratings of its products, so you know you’re looking at the top items from its store.

15. Offer free shipping.

If you sell products online, consider offering free shipping as a gift. It can be more cost-effective than giving away a flat-rate discount and still encourages customers to buy from your store.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaign: goodr

goodr is a retail brand that sells sunglasses online. It offers free shipping on all orders of $50 or more. Most of its products cost about $30, so this deal incentivizes people to buy more than one pair of sunglasses. That increases sales for goodr and rewards customers for making larger purchases.

Birthday Marketing Campaign Tips

Here’s a list of best practices to keep in mind when brainstorming birthday marketing ideas:

• Put your deal front and center. Make what you’re offering and what you want the customer to do clear.

• Avoid spammy subject lines. Phrases like “free!” and “buy now!” may cause your email to be marked as spam and harm your email-sending reputation.
• Personalize your content. Customers want to read messages that feel like they were designed specifically for them – especially on their birthday.

• Leverage automation. Email marketing tools will save you a ton of time creating emails and sending them to customers.
• Record birthdays in your CRM. Your CRM is a powerful tool for storing customer information. The more info you collect, the stronger your marketing campaigns will be.

Brainstorming Ideas for Great Birthday Marketing Campaigns

These ideas should get you started on your birthday marketing campaign. Test out a few strategies and double down on the ones that work. By tinkering and experimenting, you’ll quickly discover how to engage customers on their birthday and generate quick bursts of revenue for your business.