So I’m moving up another age digit soon. I don’t really mind getting older because I know that I’m getting wiser every year and making myself better.
At the beginning of the month, I received a bunch of emails from some retailers that I’ve done business with. They issued me coupon codes for discounts as a birthday gift/offer. I don’t really remember this happening in years past and I like the idea.
Everyone has a birthday, right? What’s the difference between giving all your customers a private sale, individually or having a sale for everyone? There’s really no difference except that you make your customer feel more special. There’s no downside.
Maybe they weren’t planning on buying anything from you beforehand but you’ve now given them a reason. Maybe they’ll want to treat themselves with a gift or maybe they’re expecting money from others for their birthday.
I like that the coupon code/offer came at the beginning of the month, too. A husband can maybe forward to the email to his wife with a “hint, hint” kind of note attached to it and the person/people buying gifts now have a chance to use that offer code.
This is just so smart… I mean, people are going to spend money somewhere, right? Why not with your store? All you have to do is ask and give them some incentive.
Implementation
To get this birthday offer working, you need to do a few things.
1. An Email List
First, you need an email list and a host for your list. My favorite is GetResponse. They make it really easy to build, host and send offers to a list.
2. Add Customers to Your List
Second, make sure everyone who places an order with you is put on your customer e-mail list. When they check out, have a checkbox (checked by default) where you ask if you can send special offers to them. If they’re already buying from you, why wouldn’t they want to be informed about specials?
3. Birthday Profile
Third, the customer profile needs to include their birthday. Don’t ask for the year but ask for the month and day. Get that into the profile they have on your website.
If you’re using WooCommerce, then the Woocommerce Extra Registration Fields plugin can be used to include their birthday. They’ll put it in when they are creating their account.
4. Monthly Reminder
Next, add a reminder in your calendar to have the special offer email sent out. Get a message created with images of your products and a happy birthday message. Run a report for all the birthdays that month and then send the message to that group.
Make sure you have the coupon code set up and that it’s working, too. Have it valid for just the current month.
Conclusion
This idea is simple and it’s effective. It’s a private sale for every one of your customers for one month a year. Like I said, they or someone they know is going to be spending money for them for their birthday, so why shouldn’t you get a piece of that action? All you have to do is ask by presenting your offer.
You’ll also be sending each of your customers a special message once a year and that’s some good, personal communication that can only strengthen the relationship between you and your customers.
