7 Birthday Email Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Own

Birthday marketing emails are a great way to celebrate your customer’s special day and let them know you appreciate them.  They also provide the opportunity to reward customer loyalty by sharing a birthday gift or discount. 

These birthday email strategy statistics show why sending a birthday email is a win-win for your customers and your business:

• 481% higher transaction rates than regular emails
• 342% more revenue than regular emails
• 179% higher click rate than regular emails
• 74% of customers who receive a birthday message think more positively of the business that sent it.

So how do you create a birthday email that your customer will love? Take a look at these examples to inspire your own ideas:

Birthday email marketing examples

1) Seamless

Even if you already have your customer’s date of birth, it is a good idea to ask again for birthday messages. This does a couple of important things. 

Firstly, it checks that you have the correct date. We’ve all filled out a date of birth incorrectly on an online form just to get through the process faster at one point or another. If you don’t check you have the right date, you could miss the increased likelihood of a response that results from a birthday message.

Secondly, it confirms that your customer does want to receive a birthday message. There are plenty of people who, for one reason or another, do not celebrate their birthday or regard it as a private affair for friends and family only. These customers may not be happy to get a birthday message from your business, despite your good intentions.

Finally, asking for your customer’s birthday lets them know that there are birthday gifts and promotions up for grabs if they provide their information.

2) Hulu

Birthdays are a time for treating yourself. This makes them a great time to tempt a lapsed customer back to your service. Besides using their birthday email as a retargeting opportunity, Hulu’s birthday message is also noteworthy for its use of a GIF and the fact that it was scheduled a few days before the date itself. 

A moving image is much more eye-catching than a still one, helping to capture the reader’s attention as soon as they open the email. They are also better at evoking a feeling associated with your message such as fun, excitement, relaxation or comfort.  Of course you can find a GIF online, or you can create your own with a variety of graphic design platforms. 

Scheduling the message a few days before the date itself helps avoid your emails getting lost in all of the other messages a customer will receive on their birthday. Depending on what you are offering, it can also be more helpful to send the offer beforehand so that your customer can redeem the promotion before their birthday and incorporate it into their plans.

3) Pizza Hut

While many marketing emails aim to fit all of the key information above the fold, Pizza Hut does the opposite. Dividing their birthday email into three screen-sized sections is a simple but effective way to add a little interactivity to the message. By not immediately revealing what the offer is, the email builds curiosity and engages more of the reader’s attention by leaving them guessing at what the gift might be.

With its minimal use of text in a large font and vertical scrolling format, this email is also clearly optimized for mobile. More than 50% of all emails are opened via mobile, and this is especially vital for food delivery thanks to the ubiquity of food ordering apps.

4) Curology

Not all of your marketing messages need to offer a sale or promotion, and that remains true for birthday marketing emails. Customers will still appreciate that you took the time to get in touch and congratulate them, and the fact that you didn’t attempt to make a sale can make your message feel sincerer. Curology focuses on showing care for their customer with a message that is focused entirely on them, reinforcing a friendly and caring brand personality.

5) Nintendo

Nintendo presents its offers as gifts to be unwrapped, focusing on the celebratory aspect of the email. It uses mystery and interactive elements to engage readers, as well as a smaller free gift to be redeemed immediately. This gives the customer an immediate reason to click on the email while also providing a larger gift tied to their Nintendo account, encouraging them to log in and check it out.

6) Bonefish Grill

Giving something away for free in your birthday message will always feel like more of a gift than offering a discount. This is especially true if you can give a gift that ties into the celebration theme, in this case a dessert. Offering two gift options increases the likelihood of a customer taking the offer even if they are not a fan of one of the options.

On a less positive note, however, this birthday email asks customers to print out the discount in order to redeem it. Additionally, they will only have one chance to do this before they are locked out of the offer. This is not ideal as customers can make a mistake that prevents them from redeeming the gift, and not everyone owns a printer. There are easier ways to provide an offer like this for restaurants and bars, such as providing a QR code or texting a discount code that customers can bring up on their phone and show to a server.

7) Rent The Runway

Rent the Runway keeps it simple and straightforward, highlighting the value of the offer while also finding a way to tie their products into birthday celebrations naturally. As a clothing store, offering a store-wide coupon is a smart choice. 

Rent the Runway can’t predict what kind of event their customer will be attending to celebrate their birthday, so a more specific offer would only result in some customers being unable to buy something that is relevant to their birthday celebration. While they still might treat themselves to some new clothes, this would miss out on the added incentive of picking out a new outfit for an upcoming event.

This email also manages to avoid leaning too heavily into sales language despite leading with the offer value, and connects their call to action button to the celebration theme.

Give birthday emails your own style

The best birthday emails match a business’ tone and brand image to feel authentic.

Offering a discount is one of the proven strategies to boost sales, but they are not the only way to show your appreciation. Birthday emails that get in touch to sincerely celebrate their special day can be just as appreciated by your customers.

Use these birthday email examples as inspiration to craft your own messages for your customers on their special day.

Be sure to also give your own emails a great birthday email subject line so they get opened!