How to Send Automated Birthday Emails That Generate Sales

Sending aotomated birthday emails isn't just a nice gesture—it's a strategic move that can yield incredible results for your business. When you remember and celebrate a customer's birthday, it shows that you care about them as an individual, not just as a transaction. This personal touch goes a long way in building trust and strengthening the bond between your brand and your customers.

Today, we're going to walk you through a game-changing strategy: collecting customer birthdays and seamlessly syncing them with Klaviyo. This opens up a world of possibilities, including creating personalized happy birthday automations that can supercharge your customer retention efforts. Let's dive in!

What is an Automated Birthday Email?

Birthday email automation is a powerful marketing tool that allows you to send personalized, timely messages to your customers on their special day. 

It's a hands-free approach to celebrating birthdays and creating meaningful interactions with your audience. 

The process begins by collecting your customers' birthdays through various means, such as sign-up forms, surveys, or, as we discussed earlier, through tools like Reconvert on your thank you page. 

Once you have this valuable data, you can set up an automated system that triggers an email to be sent on the customer's birthday. This ensures that your well-wishes arrive right on time, without you having to manually send them out.

Key Elements of a Birthday Email Automation

Effective auotmated birthday emails all share similar charcteristics:

• Personalization: A crucial aspect of a successful birthday email is personalization. Address your customer by their name, acknowledge their special day, and consider including a tailored offer or gift. Use past shopping history to suggest relevant product reccomendations.
• Engaging Content: Craft a message that resonates with your brand's tone and style. Keep it warm, friendly, and genuine. You might also want to include eye-catching visuals or GIFs to make the email visually appealing.
• Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): If you're including an offer or discount, make sure the CTA is prominent and encourages the recipient to take action. This could be a 'Shop Now' button or a unique discount code.
• Opt-out Option: Always provide an option for customers to opt out of birthday emails. While most will appreciate the gesture, it's important to respect individual preferences.
  

Benefits of Implementing a Birthday Email Automation

According to Omnisend, birtday emails boast an impressive 45% open rate, a 12% click rate, and a 3% conversion rate on average. But here's the thing: you can aim even higher. With the right approach, you can elevate these numbers and significantly boost your revenue from email campaigns.

Birthday emails leave apersonal touch lasts. See, most email strategies focus on the immediate aftermath of a customer's first purchase. After a while, it tends to fade away. That's where birthday emails come in. They offer a chance to rekindle the relationship and make it personal. There's nothing quite as personal as celebrating someone's birthday. This sets you apart from competitors and forms a long-lasting connection with your customers.

Efficiency is another major benefit of birthday email automation. It saves you time and effort by automating the process. Once set up, birthday emails will be sent out automatically, ensuring no one's special day is missed. 

As a bonus, automated birthday campaigns provide valuable data on customer behavior and preferences, which can be used to refine your marketing strategies and offers. Showing genuine care for your customers fosters loyalty and can lead to long-term relationships with them. 

In a nutshell, birthday email automations are a tool that allows you to efficiently send personalized birthday messages to your customers, creating a memorable experience and driving positive results for your business.

How to Set-Up Automated Birthday Emails

Now that we understand the importance of birthday email automations, let’s run through how you can set them up on your Shopify store for maximum impact.

1. Be Smart With Your Collection Strategy

First things first, you don't want to annoy your customers by asking for their birthday multiple times. That's just bad practice. So, we'll set up a smart widget in a non-intrusive way on your thank you page.

Asking for customer birthdays on your thank you page works so well because it’s non-intrusive. You don’t risk annoying customers with pop-ups before purchase - which can distract shoppers and negatively impact your conversion rate. 

2. Install Reconvert: Your Secret Weapon

Reconvert is a powerhouse app in the Shopify ecosystem. It's the number one Shopify upsell app and trusted by over 30,000 stores, including 3,000+ Shopify Plus stores. This app allows you to effortlessly create post-purchase upsell funnels and optimize thank you pages.

The installation process is straightforward. Once you've set up Reconvert as the post-purchase upsell app on Shopify, you're ready to roll. A few clicks, and you're in.

3. Activate the Upsell Funnel Extra Results

Reconvert's Quick Activations feature is a game-changer. This allows you to build a one-click-purchase upsell funnel in seconds. This feature allows oyu to offer relevant products to customers immedatly after they complete thier purchase. Simply set your maximum post-purchase discount you're prepared to offer, and Reconvert will automatically create a tailored funnel displayed on all orders. It's a best practice that's highly recommended.

4. Add the Birthday Widget to Your Thank You Page

Next, let's configure your birthday collection widget. Your thank you page is the goldmine for collecting birthdays. Reconvert’s intuitive editor makes it a breeze to add widgets, ensuring you capture this valuable data seamlessly. Simply drage the widget to where you want it - to collect maximum birthdays, we reccomend placing it at the top of your thank you page.

5. Sync ReConvert with Klaviyo

Now, to the magic. Syncing birthdays with Klaviyo is as easy as pie. Head over to the general settings in Reconvert, select Klaviyo, and paste your public API key. Voilà! Now, every submitted birthday will automatically appear in your Klaviyo account.

6. Running a Test Order

To see it all in action, run a test order. As you complete the process, you'll experience the power of Reconvert's post-purchase offers and the seamless birthday collection.

7. Check Your Birthday Email Automation in Klaviyo

Head to Klaviyo ensure everything is working properly. Your customer's birthday (or the birthday that you entered) will now be securely stored in your profiles section, ready for you to utilize in your marketing strategies.

Best Practices for Birthday Email Flows

Now that you've set up a system for capturing birthdat emails, let's talk about how to create a flow that'll delight your customers, and bring in sales for your Shopify store.

1. Send Fresh Content Annualy

Regularly refreshing your birthday flow is a crucial step. Consider it as a way to keep things exciting and relevant for your customers. Imagine receiving the same birthday offer year after year—it might lose its charm. By making annual updates, you can introduce new titles, offers, or even add a fresh twist to the content. This ensures that each year's birthday email feels like a special, unique treat.

2. Offer Something Special

When it's a customer's birthday, it's an extraordinary occasion. The discount or offer you present should reflect that. Think about providing something exclusive and genuinely valuable. Whether it's a substantial discount, a limited-time offer on a premium product, or even a complimentary item, make it clear that this is a gift that stands out. Show them that you've put thought and effort into making their day memorable.

3. Send an Early Birthday Gift

Timing is key. Sending a birthday gift a couple of weeks in advance is a strategic move. It's a way of capturing your customer's attention before the flood of birthday messages hit their inbox. By being early to the party, you position yourself ahead of the competition and give them ample time to explore your offerings and make a purchase.

4. Send Post-Birthday Reminders

Sometimes, life gets busy, and even the most well-intentioned customers might overlook their birthday gift. That's where post-birthday reminders come in. Sending one or two gentle nudges after their birthday can reignite their interest and prompt them to take action. It's a thoughtful touch that shows you genuinely care about them enjoying their special treat.

Remember, these best practices work in tandem to create a comprehensive and engaging birthday email flow. Implementing them can significantly boost the effectiveness and impact of your birthday emails.

Pro Tips for Extra Impact with Birthday Email Automations

Just beacuse you're creating an email automation, doesn't mean your campaigns have to be impersonal. Here's two smart ways to level-up your birthday emails for better results:

1. Let Customers Choose: Give your customer the power to pick their own discount. Set up options and segment based on their shopping choices. By offering choices, you not only empower your customers but also tailor the experience to their preferences.
2. Personalize Further: Include their name and age in the discount code. It's a small touch that can yield big results. This extra level of personalization shows that you've put thought and effort into their birthday celebration.

Automated Birthday Email Examples

Let's quickly cover a couple of birthday email automation examples from real-world brands to give you inspiration for your own campaigns.

1. NeedSupply

Needsupply employs a funny approach with their birthday email automation - they deliberately miss the customers birthday and follow up with a ‘aw snap we missed your birthday’ email. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box like this - it’s a great way to differentiate yourself from other brands sending birthday emails.

2. Nike

Nike uses a slightly different strategy - they celebrate the customer's birthday for the entire month. This is a fantastic way to expand the timeframe for when you can send relevant birthday emails. You could build out four or more emails to celebrate your customers special day.

3. Drizly

Drizly uses customer birthday information to celebrate half-birthdays. Like needsupply Drizly differentiates themselves from regular birthday emails. This strategy shows how you can use customer birthday information to market at different time-points. Plus, customers are much more likely to open an email like this as it’s unusual and not competing with other brand’s on their actual birthday.

Start Sending Automated Birthday Emails Today

In this guide, we've covered the entire process, from setup to synchronization. Now you have the tools to not only collect birthdays but also leverage them for highly personalized marketing campaigns. Stay tuned for our next video, where I'll show you how to create a Happy Birthday Flow that will truly set you apart from the competition. Remember, this is about more than just birthdays—it's about building lasting customer relationships. See you in the next one!