Who doesn’t love a good birthday celebration? While some family and friends may accidentally overlook your birthday on occasion (cut them some slack, will ya?), businesses shouldn’t miss such a special occasion. It’s a chance to engage with customers and potential customers on one of the few occasions when they’re actually primed and ready to be rewarded with special offers and gifts. Ever heard of birthday marketing campaigns?

If you’re not already, here are some ideas for using your customers’ birthdays as an opportunity to market your small business, remind them who cares, and give them a special incentive to buy from you.

7 Creative Birthday Marketing Campaigns to Get Customers in the Door on Their Big Day

1. Send an email

The emails below are ideal examples of what successful birthday marketing looks like in the average customer’s inbox. These guys truly get birthday marketing. Their birthday marketing emails feature adorable copywriting, strong calls to action, and birthday offers for their customers.

GAP

Omni Hotels

Sephora

Pretty slick, huh? We thought so too. While you may not have the same high quality design capabilities at your fingertips, you can replicate most of what you see in your normal email template as long as the incentive is compelling and the copy is cute.

2. Invest in direct mail

While low-cost, many small businesses report direct mail (or even hand-written cards) to be incredibly effective in keeping their business top-of-mind with customers. Adding a personalized note, or sending on such a special day as a customer’s birthday adds a certain “wow factor” that’s undeniable.

3. Give a shout-out on social media

This business birthday marketing idea may not be quite as intuitive as the others. Many local business owners think of social media as a way to blast out messaging and interact with several customers at once. But to customers, it’s a way to interact with individuals and businesses one-on-one. Take the time to send a special Facebook birthday message, or tweet customers special birthday offers. This birthday marketing campaign idea may seem a little labor-intensive, but when you compare it to taking the time to write out birthday cards and mail them, it could actually save a lot of time and effort for a similar return.

4. Shoot them a text message

You have no excuse not to be texting customers who have opted in to text messages on their birthday. Given the right CRM system and text service, this can be completely automated. Once you put in the original time to set up automated b-day texts, the rest of the work will be done for you. Don’t forget to include a generic special offer in these that customers can take advantage of any time of year.

5. Give them a quick phone call

This one may seem like another more manual option, and it is, but talk about a personal touch for a birthday marketing campaign! My dentist calls me on my birthday just to say, “hi” and “happy birthday.” She’s never selling anything, but it gives me the impression they care about my business and don’t take it for granted. It’s one of the things that keeps me going back again and again. Well, that and my desire to keep my pearly whites nice and…pearly.

6. Promote generic birthday offers to everyone

Instead of targeting specific customers on their exact birth dates, make it well-known that anyone can come in on their birthday and receive a free “whatever.” This birthday marketing campaign takes some of the pressure off if you haven’t yet invested in a CRM system or if you’re just getting started building your loyal customer base.

One way to do this is to learn how to run a Facebook birthday discount ad. You can also use this as an opportunity to use a CTA that pushes customers to a form to enter their information in. Now you’re filling in your CRM with the exact data you need.

7. Celebrate your OWN birthday. No, not yours…your business’s

Throw a special event, and invite customers to come celebrate with you. Offer snacks or drinks, and promote in-store specials once they arrive. If you don’t have a storefront, promote your birthday anyway, and offer special booking incentives during a specified time frame.