When it comes to diving into the world of email marketing, there may be no better way to break the ice than with a Birthday Club. Studies show that people typically go out more on their birthdays, spend more on their birthdays, and celebrate with friends more often on their birthday.
Who doesn’t like to hear, “Happy Birthday!”?
For businesses such as restaurants, ice cream/candy shops, entertainment centers, bowling alleys and golf courses its a natural to tie a businesses data collection efforts to a customer’s birthday. They’re going to be celebrating somewhere, why not invite them to celebrate at your business?
Thanks to technological advancements, specifically the iPad, collecting birthdays from customers has never been easier. Whether the device is mobile and in the hands of an employee or locked down in a kiosk, the ability for customers to enter their own information, clearly and legibly, makes a birthday club strategy one of the more simple initiatives a business can undertake.
Bowling/Entertainment
A new entertainment/bowling center in Nampa, Idaho opened in January 2012 and immediately began a campaign to build its customer database. In the first 60 days of opening, 250 names, emails and birthdays were collected via a kiosk and iPad near the point of sale. What has followed is an automated birthday campaign that delivers a personal invitation for a free game of bowling and rental shoes ($7.50 value) on their special day. The first message is delivered via iContact 2 weeks before the date and then a reminder is sent 4 days before the customer's big day. In a building chock full of interactive devices and video games, the Birthday Club kiosk fits right in.
Golf
As an upscale public golf course operator in the southeast US began a birthday club in May of 2011. By offering a free round of golf on a player’s birthday (with one full paying partner) they collected over 350 customer birthdays in 6 months. They are now seeing the results of this effort with an average of 10-15 coupons redeemed per month, a number that continues to grow. By tracking the total dollars spent along with each redemption, they can attach a value to the Birthday club marketing effort and easily calculate the return on its investment.
Restaurants
For many national chain restaurants, the birthday club has been around almost as long the birthday itself. A free dessert (and usually a song) is pretty standard for patrons celebrating a birthday. This makes competing for birthday business pretty easy; simply offer something a bit more attractive than a free dessert (really, more cake?) and replace the over worked wait staff singing out of tune with a little peace and quiet.
Perhaps the best part about a Birthday Club marketing program is that its completely automatic and year round. It's always somebody's birthday. With most ESPs featuring a field for birthdays among their autorepsonders, just capture names and dates and let the party begin.
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