Birthday emails: Example & best practices

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Birthday emails generate more clicks, more transactions, and more revenue per email than your typical marketing email. But there’s a bit more to them than simply wishing your subscribers a happy birthday.

Birthday emails make subscribers feel valued — not just because you’ve remembered their birthday, but also because they give you the perfect opportunity to reward their loyalty. It makes your brand feel like a friend, giving them a gift on their special day.

In this article, we’ll give you everything you need to create the best birthday emails, including a template, birthday emails examples, and a how-to guide with tips on timing, special offers, and that all-important call to action.

So what are birthday emails?

Birthday emails are automated messages sent to subscribers on or around their birthdays. Offering personal attention and a touch of delight, the goal of a birthday email is to highlight the occasion, offer a special discount, and encourage retention and positive brand equity.

As we’ve already mentioned, these messages are very valuable with a 45% open rate, on average — much higher than an average open rate for emails.

What’s more, the birthday email conversion rate far surpasses the average conversion of campaigns. While the average conversion rate for emails is 0.07%, birthday emails receive a significantly higher 0.72%.

If you’re looking for a way to retain customers, drive word of mouth, and increase storefront conversions, you need a system for sending birthday emails. 

But first, you’ll need a template.

Birthday email template

There are four components of a birthday email:

• Subject line: Keep it catchy and be sure to mention their birthday
• Opening greeting: Start friendly, greeting your subscriber by name on their special day
• Personal message: Include a classic “happy birthday” message or get creative with images, videos, GIFs, memes, and emojis
• An incentive to buy: This could be a coupon code, a discount, or something else 
• Free shipping: This shouldn’t be the gift itself, instead make it a part of the offer
• A clear call to action (CTA) or action button (e.g. “click here to activate”)
• Time to redeem the discount: Make it valid for at least one week after the birthday

With this in mind, your average birthday email template might look as follows:

Subject Line: Happy Birthday (NAME)!

Hey (NAME),

Has it been a year already? Wow, how time flies!

We’re celebrating your special day with an (OFFER) just for you. 

Plus, you get free shipping on whatever you buy. How’s that for a special day?

Click HERE to redeem!

A great example of this email marketing in action is Manchester United’s birthday greeting, which offers a 10% discount along with a friendly, personal message:

Happy birthday examples

There are quite literally hundreds of ways to construct a birthday email. Browsing successful email examples is a great way to get your bearings while gleaning expertise from others.

Claire’s, for example, does an excellent job with bright, eye-catching colors alongside an identifiable voice and tone. The reward here is a £5 discount, which provides a flexible incentive for customers to buy.

Personalization is all but a requirement for emails these days, and for art-deco jewelry brand Rachel Jackson, this element is expertly applied.

Its special offer is followed by a personalized list of birthstones and zodiac signs, which is automatically powered by dynamic content blocks. 

It’s best to experiment with lots of different ideas while crafting your first set of birthday emails. Remember: it’s your brand. Mix, match, and customize content at will.

How to collect and send birthday emails

Although it may sound obvious, many merchants forget the tried and true formula:

No birthdates in your mailing list = no automated birthday emails.

After you’ve decided to start increasing sales with birthday emails, you’ll need to expand your signup forms with an additional field for customer birthdates.

With Omnisend, customizing forms and collecting additional data has never been easier.

Just go to your Omnisend account and in the dialog box, tick a checkbox next to Birthdate, click Add and save all changes. Done!

Alternatively, if you’re collecting Birthdates with Happy Birthday Email, you can collect them on the Order Status Page after a customer places an order. This is a great way to collect additional pieces of information about your customers without slowing down the checkout process.

How to build a better birthday email

You have a goal, a heading, and a solid collection tool. Now you need to create and deploy your content at scale.

Here are some hints for building fun, functional, and highly converting happy birthday emails.

Pick the right timing

Even during birthdays, timing is everything.

Don’t irritate new visitors by displaying a popup right after they land on your page. This is bound to get on everyone’s nerves and likely won’t convert at all.

Instead, you should wait for the perfect moment to entice customers to leave their birthdates.

We’d suggest:

• A delay of 60 or 120 seconds. If a visitor stays long enough on a page, it’s worth sending an automated popup to collect a lead. Of course, you’ll need to offer something in return. A 20% discount or free shipping is a tempting incentive.
• Showing a popup after the visitor scrolls through 50% of a page. Again, don’t forget to offer something in return.
• Showing a popup after the visitor’s second or third-page view. This is a great indicator of interest, and a good moment to ask for their email and birthdate.
• Showing a popup before exit, also known as exit intent popups. These ask people to subscribe just before they leave your site, so they’ve had time to find out what you offer.

In terms of popup style, try testing several options to measure engagement and conversions. You can always choose a classic popup (which appears automatically), or a signup box which appears when visitors click a widget.

However, it’s best not to limit yourself to classics alone. You may want to implement gamification elements that appeal to modern audiences.

Wheel of Fortune is a gamified signup form, and it’s extremely effective. Not only does it achieve around three-times more conversions than regular forms, but it can also generate positive brand equity with a chance to win a discount.

Now that you’ve set up sustainable data collection, let’s proceed to the next step — crafting an irresistible offer.

Free shipping and a coupon they can’t resist

Birthdays are synonymous with gift-giving, so when the big day rolls around, become a part of the big day with a genuinely worthwhile gift.

This gift could be virtually anything, so long as it’s valuable. It might be a 20% coupon off orders over $100, $15 off orders over $50, or something else along those lines. The more generous you are, the better your conversion rate will be.

Remember that your discount will look even more attractive if you combine it with free shipping, just like Alternative did in the example below.

Most importantly, try not to be cheap.

Offering a $3 discount or no discount at all might actually hurt your reputation and give your brand a bad rap. In the worst-case scenario, it might make customers unsubscribe.

For example, here’s a happy birthday email from movie rental service Redbox. Notice a birthday offer? Neither do we:

Yikes.

As you might imagine, this wasn’t well received at all. Here’s a genuine response from the actual customer:

“Seems like they are always giving away a coupon code for a free rental because it’s Tuesday, garbage day, or 3 days before Easter. But here, on an actual day where it makes sense to give a free rental, they just say how they hope I am having a joyful day.”

Create a clear call to action

Every email must have a clear call to action — and the birthday email is no exception.

You know the drill. Write a good sentence, use unique colors with visual appeal like bold or italics to draw attention.

For a simple fix, consider using a button like ecommerce brand Fancy:

If you do use buttons, be sure you’re still writing a short, pithy CTA. This might be something like “Claim Your $30 Coupon Now,” “Redeem Your Birthday Gift,” or even just “Shop Now.”

Keep the message short

The best birthday emails are short and simple. Simply wish the subscriber a happy birthday and explain its special treat — nothing more, nothing less.

There’s no space for long copy here. Fancy’s above exemplifies this well in their emails:

Use GIFs

Static emails are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. For outstanding messages that separate you from the crowd, you’ll need to consider dynamic content — including GIFs.

GIFs present the perfect opportunity to add personalization, color, and interest to your messages. Use them to make birthday emails more festive, and lean into the emotional side of your brand to foster genuine customer relationships. Bonus points for being on brand, just like Artifact Uprising:

The best birthday emails take time to cultivate interest and dynamism in recipients. If you already have birthday emails in your arsenal and want to take things up a notch, GIFs may be the next step along your journey.

These birthday email examples are a great place to begin, but they won’t and shouldn’t take the place of a personalized campaign. Take what you need, and no more. Copycatting doesn’t always result in higher conversion rates.

Birthday emails: final words

The benefits of birthday emails are clear in terms of open rates and conversions. But to make the most of this once-a-year opportunity, there are some important steps to take:

• Collect birthdates promptly without adding too many additional form fields — and test different forms to see what works best
• Opt for time-based or scroll-based popups instead of ones that appear as soon as a visitor arrives
• Try gamification elements like Wheels of Fortune to capture birthdates
• Be generous, give good discounts, and provide free shipping
• Make sure your birthday email has a clear CTA
• Be clear and straight to the point

This may sound like a lot, but it’s a breeze with Omnisend. Enjoy birthday email templates, powerful form and email builders, and easily automate birthday emails.