The Ultimate Birthday Email Guide

Birthday Email

If you’re an online retailer and haven’t started your own birthday club, you’re missing out. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that birthday club emails should be a part of every brand’s marketing toolkit. Why? Because measured against regular promotional email campaigns, they achieve far higher rates for engagement and conversion. Who wouldn’t want that?

	Open	Click	Convert
MailChimp	34.23%	2.66%	0.22%
Klaviyo	58.61%	1.51%	0.10%
Omnisend	25.10%	1.50%	0.07%
Average	39.31%	1.89%	0.13%
Happy Birthday for Shopify	59.86%	31.83%	13.11%

We want you to reap the rewards of running your own birthday club, too. To help you do this, we have analysed data from over 1,000 DTC brands using Happy Birthday for Shopify. Collectively, they have sent over 13 million birthday emails and generated a combined revenue of over $25,000,000! Our analysis gives us unique insights, which we will share with you to help you start your own e-commerce birthday club. Are you ready? Great, let’s go!

What is a Birthday Club?

A birthday club is a personalised email marketing tactic where you celebrate customers' birthdays with exclusive offers on or around their birthday. This could take the form of a unique discount code, access to a special gift or some other form of incentive designed to make them head back to your store and make a purchase. It doesn’t require any third-party data collection tools, and unlike other forms of permission-based marketing, the likelihood of a member unsubscribing is much lower due to the personal nature of the campaign.

Benefits of a Birthday Club

VIP Treatment

Unlike generic promotional campaigns, birthday club emails are highly personalised, relevant, and will make your customers feel special.

Easy Sign Up

Becoming a member of a birthday club is as simple as signing up for an email newsletter. You can even allow potential customers to sign up before purchasing.

Easy to Add On

You don’t need any complicated tech or a developer to get started with your own birthday club, simply install an app, and off you go.

Increased Web Traffic

Birthday emails are proven to increase traffic to your online store thanks to the incentivised CTA.

Increased Sales

In addition to taking advantage of the offer, a customer may also take advantage of stocking up on other products.

Increased Customer Retention

A positive brand experience is likely to increase the likelihood of the customer buying from you again in the future.

Increased Customer Data

Collecting D.O.B data will give you greater insight into your customer demographic, allowing you to make better business decisions.

Increased Segmentation Opportunities

Having access to new ways of segmenting your customer base will allow you to target your members with more relevant offers.

Increased Brand Advocacy

Birthday club members can become vocal supporters via word of mouth and sharing their experiences on social media.

Brands using Birthday Clubs

It’s not just independent retailers who are embracing birthday clubs, well-known brands from across the retail spectrum are using birthday clubs to build deeper relationships with their customers.

Exceptional Stats

Setup up Your Birthday Club

We've put together a simple setup guide to offer you the best practice principles of setting up a birthday campaign.

What format to collect

You need to consider whether or not to ask your prospective birthday club members for their year of birth.  Here are some things to consider: 

Full Format (e.g. dd/mm/yyyy)

Pros: You’ll have more data about your member, which will enable you to create more personalised marketing campaigns outside of their birthday email
Cons: Some customers won’t want to add their year of birth or may add a false year, which will skew your data.

Short Format (e.g. dd/mm)

Pros: It’s quicker and takes away the barrier for those who don’t want to give their year of birth but do want to join your birthday club.
Cons: Less data will make it harder to segment and target your customers by year of birth, should you wish to.

Collecting birthdays on your store

Once you’ve decided on your date format, you’ll need to make it as easy as possible for people to sign up for the club. Luckily, there are multiple ways to encourage customers to become members.  Leading ecommerce platforms will allow you to incorporate your birthday club in many of the following ways:

The order confirmation page — The page that your customer sees after payment
The order status page — The page that your customers use to check on the current status of their order
A Birthday Club sign-up page — A dedicated page on your store that you can link to directly from your main menu and footer sections
Point of Sale order page — If you operate a brick-and-mortar store with a Point of Sale system, then integrating the ability to take a customer's birth date will allow customers to join in person

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Setting the discount

When it comes to setting the type and amount of discount to offer your birthday club members, we recommend trying out a few variations to see which format resonates with your customer base.

When deciding on what “birthday gift” to offer your members, it’s important to consider factors such as sales margins, free shipping rates and other ongoing discounts. For example, if you incentivise signing up to your email newsletter with a 10% discount code then you could consider offering 15-20% off purchases for birthday club members to make it extra special.

As well as the actual value, you can consider the type of discount:

Fixed — E.g. $10 off total order
Percentage — E.g. 10% off total order

Most leading ecommerce platforms will also allow you to specify certain conditions for the discount. For example, you may wish to offer 25% off, but only if the order exceeds $150. Additionally, you may wish to scope the offer to certain products or collections of products.

Customize Your Birthday Club Email Template

Birthday Club emails are all about making a connection with your customer, so unlike regular promotional email campaigns, a birthday club email is ripe for personalisation. Standing out in a crowded inbox is vital for any business. One of the main ways you can achieve this is by customising the from name and subject line. Not all email applications show the full name of the sender (GMail, for example, will show the first 19 characters in the inbox), so it’s important to use this space wisely. Experiment with options and try sending a few test emails to see how they appear in your own inbox. Our research shows that the majority of “from names” are simply the name of the business. We believe that this is a missed opportunity to stand out.

After setting the from name, it’s time to focus on the subject line. As with the from name many businesses neglect to change the subject line and opt for defaults chosen by their email platform or birthday club app — the most common being “Happy Birthday”. In the same way that we believe customising the subject line is important, we also recommend personalising the subject line.

Subject Lines with >85% Open Rate

Happy Birthday {first name}! Your gift inside 🎂
Happy Birthday!
We’re Celebrating You {first name}
🎂Happy Birthday {first name}! 🎂
Happy Birthday from us to you.

The final opportunity to delight your birthday club member comes when they open their email to see what’s inside. Here’s what we recommend for inclusion in your email:

A birthday-themed design that will distinguish this email from other promotional email campaigns that they may receive from you
A personalised birthday greeting making it clear that they are receiving this offer as they are a member of your birthday club
Your “gift” to them clearly stated along with any conditions, e.g. a “use by” date, the value of the gift, and how to claim it
A prominent call to action button (CTA) or link that takes the birthday club member to your store

When to Send Your Birthday Email

The vast majority of birthday clubs send emails on the member’s actual birthday. However, you could choose to send yours in advance and get ahead of the game. Our data shows that 7-10 days out is a popular choice, with 45 days being the longest.

Even if you decide to send “on the day”, you can try out different delivery times to see if it makes a positive difference to your open, click-through, and conversion rates.

The most popular send time is 10am local time
The second most popular send time is 9am local time
The third most popular send time is 8am

Top Tips

Incentive

Be clear about what your new birthday club member will get in return for giving their details. Will they get a discount code, a free gift, or something else?

Promote

Add a link to your birthday club sign-up page in your footer menu or in your social media profiles

Convert

Include a link to your dedicated sign-up page in your order confirmation and order update email templates to encourage memberships

Urgency

Consider a time-limited offer to encourage your birthday club member to take action

Testing

Try a very time-limited offer against a longer/no-limit offer and see which works best for you

Discount

Depending on the types of  products and their price, a fixed amount discount might work better than a %.

Clarity

If your discount applies to a single product or collection use the text to remind your birthday club member of what it applies to and use the button link to take them directly to the single product or collection in your store.

Need more inspiration? The Happy Birthday gallery is regularly updated with the latest and greatest birthday club emails.

Birthday Club Launch Checklist

If you’re an online retailer and haven’t started your own birthday club, you’re missing out. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that birthday club emails should be a part of every brand’s marketing toolkit. Why? Because measured against regular promotional email campaigns, they achieve far higher rates for engagement and conversion. Who wouldn’t want that?

Order Confirmation and Shipping Update Emails

Add details and a clear call-to-action in your store’s email notifications — e.g. order confirmation, shipping confirmation, and customer account invites.

Homepage Banners and Featured Sections

Create prominent banners or featured sections on your homepage dedicated to the birthday club and ensure that the call-to-action is visible and directs users to the dedicated sign-up page.

In-store Advertising & Point of Sale

Make use of counter top adverts and customise your Point of Sale receipt to add details of how to join your birthday club for those that choose not to join at the till.

Social Media Advertising

Run demographically targeted social media ads to reach a broader audience and introduce new customers who are likely to be interested in your products, offers, and birthday club.

Social Media Announcements

Create visually appealing graphics or videos to capture attention on your preferred social media platforms to announce your new birthday club to existing followers.

Campaign Emails

Include details of your birthday club in all outgoing email campaigns highlighting the benefits and how to join.

Previous Customers Email Marketing Campaign

Send a compelling, personalised email to your previous customers announcing the launch of your birthday club, which includes a clear call-to-action (CTA) to join the birthday club and provides a link to the dedicated sign-up page.

That’s it!

Your store, business, and customers are unique, so remember what works for someone else might not work for you. It’s easy to try out different subject lines, button texts, and header images, so keep iterating until you find out what works best for you and your brand.  

Welcome to the club!

Launch your Birthday Club