Birthday Automations
Ah, the birthday automation, one of the essential automations for an e-commerce!
Implementing it doesn't just mean sending wishes, but building a strategy to bring value in a special moment and strengthen the relationship with the brand.
In this article, we will analyze how to implement Birthday Automations with a targeted approach, exploring techniques and strategies to maximize their effectiveness.
1. Obtaining the birthday date
Collecting birthday dates represents the first crucial step in implementing an effective birthday automation strategy. This process begins with optimizing subscription forms and using engagement tactics to encourage sharing of this personal information. It's a delicate balance between privacy respect and offer personalization, where transparency and perceived value play a fundamental role in convincing the user to share such data.
What are the strategies to obtain the birthday of leads and clients?
Let's discover them together.
1.1 Requesting the Date of Birth in the Newsletter Form
Asking for the date of birth in the newsletter subscription form, where an incentive such as a discount voucher is generally offered, is a direct and effective method to collect this information.
A good practice, however, is not to ask for too much information at this stage, so as not to compromise the form conversion rate.
In some markets, such as in fashion, the most important information to request is gender, so it may be necessary to use another step.
1.2 Use a dedicated pop-up
An alternative approach is the use of targeted pop-ups, to be shown exclusively to monitored users whose date of birth is unknown.
These pop-ups, appearing in specific contexts or after certain user actions, can request only the birthday date.
Asking for this information in a second step compared to the first contact is often perceived as less invasive. After all, the date of birth is very personal information!
The use of dedicated pop-ups allows customization of the message and makes it relevant by illustrating the benefits that the user will obtain by providing the information, thus increasing the likelihood of obtaining a positive response from the user.
1.3 Email "Fake Birthday"
A creative technique to collect customers' birthday dates is sending a "fake" birthday email on a random date.
The subject and the preview text must make it seem like the email is real.
Subject: Happy Birthday!
Preview Text: Here's the gift we have thought for you.
This email, which can be inserted into a welcome or reactivation automation, seems at first glance like a birthday greeting email and attracts a lot of attention precisely because it arrives on the "wrong" day.
Once the email is opened, it confesses the "joke", but also explains that we really like to celebrate and value customers on their birthday.
For this reason, we invite the user to enter their date of birth, perhaps offering an immediate incentive in exchange for the information.
This last precaution allows us to avoid "crafty" customers who enter a fake birthday date very close, in order to immediately receive the incentive.
However, even if this happens it doesn't matter much: a sale is always a sale.
2. Birthday Automations
The actual birthday automation has as its trigger the date of birth.
However, starting from this date, we can build different strategies from the classic wishes, to implement a pre-birthday or post-birthday automation.
2.1 Classic Birthday Automation
This automation sends personalized wishes and special offers on the day of the birthday.
The emails may include unique discount coupons, with an expiration date that should be at least a week after the birthday.
In this way, the sequence can continue with follow-up messages that remind about the expiration date and suggest products based on historical purchase behaviors.
Dynamic product recommendations allow us to easily suggest products that are most likely to interest the customer.
Consider that the average user, on that date, may receive multiple birthday communications from many brands: think about how to add a unique touch that identifies your company, to increase the emotional impact.
2.2 Pre-Birthday Automation:
This strategy is very interesting in sectors related to personal image such as beauty or fashion.
It involves predicting a sequence of emails that starts before the birthday, offering products or services that the customer may want to use for their special day.
For example, a beauty salon could send an offer for a special pre-birthday treatment, while a clothing e-commerce could suggest outfits for the party.
Levers such as: "Be beautiful on your birthday!” or “Receive it in time to celebrate!" can be used.
The goal is to be relevant and useful, encouraging purchases before the big day.
2.3 Post-Birthday Automation:
This strategy stands out by sending communications after the birthday, avoiding the congestion of messages that the customer might receive on the same day.
An example could be: "We forgot your birthday! Here's a special way to make it up to us."
This approach can catch attention and opens the door to interactions with the customer on a day when they are calmer and more likely to shop online, compared to their actual birthday when they might be away from home or celebrating.
Which one of these is the best strategy?
Obviously, it depends!
Each of them requires a deep understanding of its audience and the ability to personalize the offer to maximize the effectiveness of birthday automation.
3. Integration with the global strategy
Birthday email Sequences are Full-Sand-Mill automations: this means that they involve both Leads in the Funnel and customers in the Repurchase Wheel.
This doesn't mean that the content has to be the same for all audience segments.
For example, synergies can be studied with the VIP Program and Loyalty Programs.
In birthday emails, we can include conditional blocks to remind specific benefits to VIP segments, we can give bonus points to users who are close to a certain Loyalty Program threshold to allow them to unlock a reward.
For VIP members, we could also consider sending a paper letter to give special wishes, maybe with a complimentary product sample.
Remembering a friend's birthday is important to build a strong and lasting bond.
It's clear that, even though we send wishes to everyone, we want to give a special gift to our closest friends. It will be the same with our VIP customers, the friends who love to visit our e-commerce site more often!
Conclusion
Birthday automations represent important Full-Sand-Mill automations.
They are a means to create significant emotional connections with leads and customers on their unique and special day.
Through strategic data collection, offer personalization, and integration with loyalty and VIP programs, companies can deepen the relationship with customers and increase engagement and sales.
In this article we have analyzed different strategies to obtain the date of birth and to use this valuable information in the best way. Are you ready to implement them?
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