10 Best Happy Birthday Emails & Strategies Behind Them

Time to blow out the candles, cut the cake, and throw the party! A birthday is a celebration like no other: it represents an important milestone in life and marks a perfect occasion to gather with family and friends (and treat yourself with a gift from your favorite brand).

For companies, a subscriber’s birthday is an exceptional opportunity to drive customer engagement with the help of birthday emails. That’s exactly what we’re going to cover in this article. 

Join us to unveil the power of happy birthday emails, learn how to make the most effective birthday email templates, and pump up the inspiration fuel with some of the best birthday email examples!

What Are Birthday Emails & Why Do I Need Them?

On the surface, birthday emails are exactly what the name implies: happy birthday messages for your clients. Sounds like a simple courtesy at first, yet happy birthday emails are actually much more than meets the eye: they’re a significant tool that helps to enhance customer loyalty and drive sales as a result.

What makes birthday emails stand out is the fact that compared to other widely celebrated occasions (such as Christmas or Easter), birthdays are highly personal. This, in turn, brings 3 major benefits:

1. Happy birthday emails are immensely effective. Compared to promo newsletters, they boast an enormous 481% higher transaction rate, 342% higher revenue per email, and 179% higher unique click rate! This places them among the most successful email marketing tools.
2. Birthday emails are perfect for developing consumer-brand relationships. A well-crafted happy birthday email is much more than just another marketing message: it feels warm, friendly, and close to the heart.
3. They might be fit for reactivation purposes. Even the most quiet subscriber may react to a birthday email, especially when it’s personalized from the start (don’t worry, we’ll show you how to do it).

How to Make A Birthday Email Campaign?

Now you know how powerful birthday emails can be. But how to correctly send them, especially if you work with hundreds (or thousands) of clients? Create an automated campaign! Prepare your happy birthday emails and set them up in 3 steps:

1. First, you need to collect the most important data: your subscribers’ birthdays. Ask them to indicate their date of birth during the signup, or send a specific email inviting them to share their birthday and receive something exclusive on the special day.

2. Next comes the time to craft the birthday email templates. This is where the strategies, tips, and examples listed below will come in handy: follow them through to design your most captivating birthday emails that will definitely leave an impression!

And if you require an effective tool to create a birthday email template, you can count on the capabilities of Blocks! Our AI-powered email builder provides everything you need to design excellent templates quickly, easily, and conveniently.

Don’t feel like doing everything from the ground up? We’ve taken care of that too! Simply head to the template gallery, choose the email template from the respective category, and get straight to customization. Let the imagination flow!

3. Finally, all that’s left is to set up the triggers, run the tests, and adjust the timing to automate the workflow. And with that, happy birthday messages for your clients are ready!

10 Birthday Email Tips & Strategies

Let’s unleash the full potential of your birthday email templates and make them as effective as they can be! These 10 tips and strategies, complete with excellent birthday email examples from real-world brands, will become your guide on the way to conquering the inboxes.

Adopt a Simple & Direct Approach (St. Ives)

At times, a simple approach is definitely the best (especially when it falls in line with your brand identity). Keep the happy birthday email short, and underline the occasion with a straightforward design. After all, not every message needs lengthy paragraphs and complex visuals to stand out!

Here’s a happy birthday email example from St. Ives to illustrate this tip: it congratulates the subscriber directly through a couple of sentences and effective visuals.

Personalize (Tommy Hilfiger)

A truly personal holiday deserves an individual approach. With this in mind, make use of personalization to craft an eye-catching and unforgettable happy birthday email! Here are 3 particular ways on how to do it:

• Address the subscriber by name. This alone may increase the chance that your email is opened by 35%! Indicate the name right in the subject line to draw attention and make the message feel personal even before the subscriber opens it.
• Make an individual offer. Analyze the buying habits of your subscriber and offer something exclusive for their birthday. This may be, for example, a personalized coupon or a very specific gift.
• Craft a unique birthday email for special customers. VIP clients deserve exclusive treatment, especially on their birthdays. With this in mind, create a one-of-a-kind birthday email to congratulate your special customer directly and fully show your gratitude.

A birthday email example by Tommy Hilfiger demonstrates this approach. It uses personalization right from the subject line (“Jarvis, celebrate with 20% off for your birthday 🎁 ”) and features an exclusive promo code.

Place Emphasis on Festivity (Blocks)

Design your birthday email template to bring a sense of celebration and amp up the festive spirit! Include a joyful email copy and all the elements closely associated with birthday: from present boxes and party hats to cakes, confetti, and more.

We at Blocks have prepared a birthday email template that fully encompasses this strategy! Decorated with holiday attributes (and even including a gift card), this template will become a perfect starting point for your birthday campaign.

Stay on Brand (Nintendo)

Brand identity is crucial for all your marketing communications, and happy birthday emails are no exception. Include all the elements that are closely associated with your brand:

• corporate colors;
• logos and visuals;
• mascots and familiar characters;
• tone of voice;
• and more!

Yet even with all the branding, remember to center the birthday email template around the subscriber first and foremost: above all, it’s their special day, and you are here to make it brighter.

Here’s how Nintendo maintains brand identity in this happy birthday email example, with the distinct style and a character from one of Nintendo’s flagship games.

Offer a Free Gift (Dutch Bros)

Can you even imagine a birthday without gifts? Add value to your happy birthday email by including one! Reveal the gift from the get-go, or create a sense of surprise and keep it a mystery until the subscriber claims it.

A birthday gift in your email may come in 2 variations:

1. A gift that the subscriber receives with the purchase. This would serve as a pleasant addition to their next order. Remember to keep the threshold reasonable, though: something like a “$1 gift for a $100 purchase” will most likely be considered unfair and cheap.
2. A 100% freebie. It’s way better when a gift comes without any extra conditions! This might feel like an actual birthday present from your brand (and not just a simple bonus).

A birthday email example by Dutch Bros perfectly illustrates the latter option. Its email offers the subscriber a birthday drink absolutely for free, no strings attached.

Make the Gift Easy to Redeem (Gymshark)

There’s no point in a gift if the customer can’t easily claim it. Provide clear instructions for subscribers on how to redeem their gift or use a coupon. These may take the form of a:

• small step-by-step guide that indicates exactly what and how should be done;
• clear CTA that leads directly to the required webpage.

Make all the preparations beforehand and check every element to avoid any troubles. Otherwise, a miracle won’t happen, and subscribers may simply abandon your gift.

Take a look at the happy birthday email example by Gymshark. It features not just the discount code itself, but also clear and direct instructions on how to use it on the website.

Celebrate With Humour (FitFlop)

Here’s an amusing fact: 91% of people globally prefer brands to be funny. And a celebration filled with joy and laughter gives every reason to stick to a humorous approach!

Fill your birthday email with little jokes in the email copy and visuals to lighten up the subscriber’s mood. Take your brand’s tone of voice into consideration and create a message that’s sure to bring a smile!

FitFlop goes all out in its happy birthday email example and includes a visual joke in the image and a fun little remark “No need to limit yourself to just one pair…”.

Create a Touching Message (Mint)

Every business relies upon customers, and a birthday is an excellent opportunity to show how grateful you are to them. Craft a touching birthday email template that’s filled with sincere appreciation:

• thank the customer for using your goods or services; 
• show how much you value your customers’ trust;
• express that you look forward to their support, etc.

Of course, it’s important not to turn the email into a tearjerker: make it nice and delightful, without immense emotions.

That’s exactly the case with the birthday email example by Mint which features touching poetry and cute imagery.

Use GIFs (Hulu)

Your happy birthday email template feels a little too static? Set it in motion through the use of animated GIFs! This visual element will add dynamics and make the email even more celebratory.

Animated GIFs are perfect to enliven the birthday email with a pinch of action. On top of that, they serve as an excellent tool to show off the goods, gifts, and even the brand design itself.

And it doesn’t have to be strictly custom-made either: you may use an already existing GIF if it suits the purpose! For instance, here’s a birthday email example by Hulu that features an animated sequence from the popular TV show, “Seinfeld”.

Send a Reminder (Subway)

It’s been a couple of days, yet the subscriber still hasn’t claimed their birthday bonus… If that’s the case, remind them about it!

Make the whole email about the unclaimed gift and spark a sense of urgency by indicating how limited the offer is. Use the subject line, email copy, and visuals to remind the customer about the deadline and propel them to act fast.

Here’s how Subway reminds the subscriber about the gift. The email starts with the subject line that reads “Hurry, your birthday cookie is going to crumble soon…” and features a colorful “Get Reward” call-to-action.

Conclusion

Just like the occasion itself, happy birthday emails are a big deal. A well-crafted birthday campaign will not only cheer up the subscriber but also help you build long-term brand relationships and drive sales.

Ready to create yours? These key takeaways will get the ball rolling:

• keep the birthday email simple;
• personalize starting right from the subject line;
• underline the spirit of festivity in your happy birthday email template;
• make the birthday email touching, humorous, or maybe even both;
• offer a gift and make it easily redeemable;
• keep the birthday email template in line with your brand design;
• use animated GIFs for additional dynamics;
• send a reminder if the subscriber doesn’t redeem the gift for a while.

And to make the process of email design smooth, fast, and resource-efficient, use Blocks! Craft your top-notch birthday email templates in a matter of minutes, even without any code or design knowledge.