Everyone has a birthday…even your customers.
But I am willing to bet that you’re missing out on one of the greatest chances to not only acknowledge their special day, but also to offer them an incentive to make a repeat purchase.
People love being pampered on their birthday. I myself look forward to reminding everyone I know that April 19th is a day to be celebrated!
If you sit down and do the math, you’d be surprised by how easy it is to appeal to a person’s shopping desires on their birthday. If you take the time to send a coupon, gift card or a notification that they have a FREE gift waiting for them at your store, to just 10 past customers a month, and on average they spend $50 every visit, you’re looking at an estimated $500 extra dollars in easy sales a month!
What if they choose to take advantage of your offer, and since they are out celebrating the big day with three of their closest friends, they bring them to your place of business and the friends end up spending $50-60 each?!
Can you see how the numbers begin to add up?
Asking people for their date of birth is easy (WARNING: Avoid making people feel old – ask only for the month and day). Especially, when you notify them that it’s your store’s policy to make sure every customer is treated to something special on their birthdays. Start keeping track of the days on an Excel spreadsheet. Then you can keep all that information organized by month. So on the 30th or 31st of each month, sit down and start addressing your customized envelopes. Be sure to include all of your contact information in case someone forgets about your offer. Also, don’t forget to acknowledge them as a past customer. You don’t want them to think that you garnered their contact info using a list broker. Maybe even include a short hand-written note asking them if they enjoyed their last purchase.
OK. That last sentence just sparked another idea!
In the same Excel spreadsheet you use to track the birthdays, also annotate what they bought. This way you are developing an individualized greeting that will create a high-impact message. If they happen to make more visits in between their birthdays, I’d even go so far as to update their purchase on each visit. Sounds time-consuming, but doing so will result in a huge return on your investment!
People always have a little extra cash to spend on their birthday. They feel like treating themselves!
It’s your job as a savvy marketer and business owner to point them in the right direction.
photo credit: Will Clayton via photopin cc