Customer Loyalty: 4 Ways To Send Birthday Marketing Messages And Benefit

In our last blog, “Why Retailers Must Acknowledge Every Customer’s Birthday”, we stressed the importance of recognising these special occasions, not just because shoppers especially love to self-indulge around this time (although that alone is reason enough), but because the customer loyalty gained from a warm, personalised birthday message is an invaluable tactic in winning over lifetime customers.

Customer loyalty has become the hub of retailers’ long-term goals in recent years and so loyalty clubs are growing at a rapid pace in almost every sector. Customers have now begun to expect special treatment from their favourite stores in return for their loyalty, so don’t let competitors steal your customers by opting out of birthday benefits, you’re not only losing out on potential birthday splurges, but also potential sales from the entire party posse!

Take a look at the 4 most commonly used customer loyalty systems below to see which best suits your business.

e-Clubs

Birthday messages by email are hands down the most commonly used loyalty scheme among retailers; whether it’s a large business sending out data-driven automated birthday messages or smaller retailers sending emails old school-style, email can obtain great results if strategically formatted.

Why email?

• Low cost
• Easily automated
• Can be integrated with existing loyalty systems
• Extensive templates available
• Ability to include marketing images

Nowadays email is used by almost everyone. In fact, more than 3.2 billion email accounts exist today, 95% of online consumers use email and 91% check their email at least once a day. The problem is that email is only opened by a fraction of subscribers, so the trick is to win them over in the subject line with a little personalization, i.e. including the customer’s first name along with the offer.

It doesn’t take a psychology expert to establish that personalizing an email will set it apart from spam and other bland promotional emails. The main body then gives you the added chance to swoon them over with birthday relevant product marketing – party outfits, birthday pampering packages, breaks away, celebratory food/drink offers, the newest tech gadgets, whatever’s relevant to your business. Smart and simple!

Text clubs

Everyone’s fully aware of the extensive advantages of mobile marketing, so why not acknowledge customers’ birthdays with a simple text. They have a 98% open rate after all! Bulk SMS solutions are low cost, easy to automate and delivered to the customer instantly! Take a look at Text Republic’s bulk SMS packages for more info here.

Why Use A Text Club?

• Low Cost
• Easy to Automate
• 98% open rate
• Personal
• Instant

Mobile marketing platforms allow you to automate and schedule messages well ahead of time so there’s minimal planning and work involved for the retailer. As there is no template, layout or images needed for a text, it is often the favourable option amongst busy retailers.

Personalization isn’t quite as important with SMS marketing as the message will be opened regardless, but it is a notably warmer approach which is important for local businesses. Sending a short and sweet birthday well-wish accompanied by an exclusive offer, discount or freebie is more than enough to win over a lifetime customer.

POS Notifications

Many fast-paced, business chains opt for automated point of sale birthday notifications, ie. customer swipes their loyalty card and the cashier is notified to give them an assigned birthday treat. POS notifications are most commonly used amongst food and beverage retailers. They’re a great time-saver from the business end of the spectrum in the sense that there’s no verifying coupon codes, getting handed email print offs or acting the bouncer and asking for proof of age.

POS notifications work best when used in conjunction with another loyalty system such as email or SMS as they might need a little reminder that their freebie is waiting for them in store.

Direct mail

If you’ve already disregarded direct mail over the assumption that it’s time-consuming and costly, don’t jump the gun without at least giving it a test run first.

The reason for this is that people are bombarded with marketing messages every day across multiple digital channels – email, social media and mobile, and as a result most messages go unopened and unnoticed. Nowadays, because the majority of businesses have converted to digital marketing, if someone receives a direct mail it’s almost always opened.

Creating cheerful single-sided birthday vouchers is not as expensive as you think (if your local printer doesn’t rip you off of course), and as it’s a very direct, personal approach, it is still very much a strategy widely used today, particularly by local businesses.

So there you have 4 perfectly adaptable loyalty systems that will pull you out of party pooper mode and into party mode; now get whipping up those brilliant birthday benefits!

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Phonovation Support

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