Birthday emails are the perfect blend of integrating automation and personalization in your email marketing campaigns. It’s the ideal opportunity to personalize your content and automate it at scale.

Sending out automated, personalized birthday emails to your customers is effective when it comes to improving brand trust while also making your customers feel seen on their special day. And, of course, these campaigns inevitably lead to easier sales — Birthday emails generate 342% higher revenue than other promotional emails. 

This blog post will walk you through why personalization in email marketing is crucial and why birthday emails are a quick win for your brand. We’ll also take a look at how you can use Benchmark Email to easily create a birthday email campaign in a few quick and easy steps.

Why You Should Use Personalization in Email Marketing

Humans like being remembered as much as they like being acknowledged. Research shows that more than 60% of North American customers and more than 80% of European customers say that they would respond favorably to personalized emails.

Personalization Makes Customers Find and Purchase Products Faster 

Sending personalized emails to customers can lead to more engagement and interaction. Around 52% of customers now expect offers to be personalized. They want brands to understand their preferences.

Personalization Improves Customer Experience 

Apart from increasing brand loyalty, personalized emails are a way to enhance customer experience. No one thing is guaranteed to get results, but remember: people like being treated as a person instead of a number.

Being referred to by their name, receiving personalized offers, and even simple birthday messages will go a long way for your customers. Traditional mass emails sent to customers are not doing your brand’s image any favors — they are more likely to be ignored, or deleted immediately.

Why Personalized Birthday Emails?

Personalized birthday emails have one big advantage that most other forms of marketing do not: timing. It’s important that your email is short and sweet, but critically, it must be timely. If you don’t send it on time, then you might as well not send it at all. Use an automated email marketing tool to create personalized birthday emails that customers will actually open.

Here’s how Benchmark makes it easy to create and send a quick and efficient birthday email campaign:

How to Send a Birthday Email Campaign Using Benchmark Email

1. Sign up and log in. Create an account, use the credentials to log in, and explore the dashboard.

2. Select “Contacts,” then “Create New List” and “Regular List.” You need to create a list with all the details of your customers to batch-email them on their respective birthdays. Benchmark Email’s automation system will do this — all you have to do is input the details.

3. Select how you’d like to add your birthday contacts to this list. You can import customers’ details from other tools or files, add them manually, or copy and paste.

4. Name your list, then select “Next.”

5. Add your birthday contacts. Ensure the details are correctly spelled to avoid sending them to wrong or non-existent email addresses.

6. Back at the main login page, select “Automation Lite.” Your list has been saved. Now it’s time to automate it to send emails according to the dates you’ve input. 

7. Select “Create New Automation,” then select “Contact List Automation” and “Next.”

8. Name your automation and add a description. Like lists, you can create as many automations as you need.

9. Select the list you just created.

10. Scroll down, and under “Trigger Selection,” click “Send birthday, anniversary, and other annual emails.” Here, you can automate the emails for different occasions, customer engagement frequency, and anything else. 

11. Select the send date.

12. Scroll down and fill out the Sequence Email Details.

13. Click “Save and Next.”

14. Fill out the Email Details, Delivery Time, and Tracking, and click “Save and Next.”

16. Select the type of email you want to create. This is the fun part. Using the Plain Text Editor, the Drag & Drop editor, or the Code Editor, you can customize the email and create designs for your content. With the Drag & Drop editor, you can try several layouts and templates and get creative. Or, you can choose a blank layout and upload your own images or use images from Benchmark Email’s library. You can also choose from several pre-built email templates.

17. Preview the email, then click “Save and Next.” Make sure your email looks exactly as you want it to, and make any changes required.

18. Select “Activate Automation.”

19. Then confirm and click “Activate.” And you’re all done! 

Automate Your Emails for Greater Efficiency and Success 

In addition to an email on your customer’s birthday, personalized birthday email campaigns can also include countdown emails (counting down to their birthday with offers, wishes, or product recommendations) as well as follow-ups for un-purchased items in their cart. With automated emails, you can create and trigger several different types of birthday emails before, on the day of, and after your customers’ birthdays. 

If a customer opens your emails and clicks links often, it means they are interested in your product, and they will likely enjoy receiving relevant recommendations or offers. Using a personalized subject line, greeting, and a CTA can improve your conversions and boost your marketing efforts in the long run. 

Use Birthday Email Campaigns to Improve Reach and Conversions 

As a business, you have to learn what kind of emails a customer is positively responding to and use that to personalize their experience. Birthday email campaigns not only help in setting you apart in the customer’s mind but also in retaining their attention and giving them a reason to interact with your business. 

Personalizing emails will make your customer feel valued and listened to — which is what everyone wants, not only on their birthdays but at all times! With Benchmark Email, you can automate and personalize birthday emails for a tailor-made outreach campaign. Sign up for our free plan today and give personalized birthday emails a try!