I celebrated my 40th birthday last weekend and MAN, am I excited about the decade ahead. It seemed an appropriate time to bring up birthday emails again!

Birthday campaigns can be a fantastic way to connect with your subscribers, to celebrate a milestone, and to generate revenue. In fact, here are some recent, sexy stats I pulled up from Campaign Monitor about birthday emails.

• 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.

This blog has given love to the birthday email in years past (see 2018, 2019, and 2021), but this week I not only CELEBRATED a birthday… I got to TEACH about birthday emails inside of PRESS SEND. You know my inbox was flooded with birthday offers this month, so today I want to talk about some trends I’m seeing as well as how you can make the birthday email a true powerhouse for your business email marketing mix!

First thing’s first: 

You need a birthday on record for your subscriber in order to send a birthday email.

Make email capture part of your opt-in process if you’re REALLY serious about this. Or make it a part of your onboarding process, allowing subscribers to share more information about themselves to help you make your messages more relevant.

Next, strategize HOW to send a birthday offer:

Some businesses send a monthly batch of birthday emails. The upside of this is that you give your subscribers lots more time to redeem an offer (if that’s your strategy). It also lets you take advantage of the power of a birthday campaign without having integrated systems – pull birthdays that start in 04, import to email service provider, send birthday email as a batch.

The DOWNSIDE is that for people whose birthday is at the end of the month, getting their first birthday email at the start of the month feels WAY off. 

You could also send ON the birthday (55% of businesses do it this way). This is much more relevant and as you’ve heard me say many times, relevance helps solve so many email marketing issues. 

You could also send a birthday series of emails, that help your subscribers go on a journey with your business. Because I teach mostly wineries how to send better marketing emails, I’ll share an idea for a birthday series that works really well in the wine industry.

1. Two weeks before subscriber’s birthday, send a pre-happy birthday email (3 weeks to redeem their birthday offer)
2. Send on their birthday with a reminder to use their special offer.
3. Send a few days after their birthday with a last chance to celebrate with savings.

Strategize WHAT to offer:

Honestly, just birthday sentiments are a nice touch.

But you could offer rewards points, a shipping offer, a birthday bundle, or a discount to use towards your products or services. You could offer a bonus gift when people visit you in person. You could offer the joy of a high-kick gif like Chubbies used to do (their birthday email in 2023 was disappointing, thb).

A note on content:

• Keep it short, festive, and genuine. I love my birthday, but I’m also usually celebrating on my birthday. Which means if your birthday email doesn’t make it super clear what I’m getting and how to take advantage, I’m probably skimming and later forgetting it. 

• Gifs and animations catch the eye and encourage more scroll.

• Strong punchy headlines are a great way to do this if you’re not confident you can pull off an animation.

• Personalization? DEFINITELY. If you have a date of birth for your subscriber then you definitely have their first name too, and there is no word more powerful in any language! Use it in the subject line, personalize the greeting, and make sure your first name is formatted correctly so it doesn’t look like you’re shouting at me.

So, are you doing a birthday email for your business? If you aren’t, I think it might be high time you consider it. Start capturing a birthday for your subscribers, strategize and finalize when you’ll send your birthday email, come up with an irresistible birthday offer, and build your simple, straightforward, festive birthday automation today!