Happy Birthday – The Business of a Daily Holiday

Happy Birthday! – two of the most exciting words for nearly everyone on the planet! Everyone loves a good birthday, but no one loves them more than holiday based companies like American Greetings, Carvel, Cold Stone ice cream.

Who is celebrating their birthday today?

There are over 7 billion people in the world and each of them have a birthday… which means there are nearly 20 million birthdays every day. Yes, it would be hard to reach everyone in the world… so let’s just look at some US figures for a moment.

There are currently 313 million people in the United States, and this number is growing annually. This means there are almost one million birthdays are celebrated every day. Just reaching 1% of this audience would bring in over 10,000 leads every day.

How can you start making money with birthdays?

To start taking advantage of the birthday craze you won’t need to start a whole new business that focuses on deserts, presents and decorations… instead you can implement simple birthday notifications and emails into your existing business.

Last week I celebrated my birthday and along with it came a bunch of “Happy Birthday” emails I continually get year after year. Most of them are from online forums and send out the usual happy birthday template, but I’m sure a lot of people enjoy getting them.

I’m actually surprised more businesses aren’t taking advantage of this opportunity. Sure, one happy birthday email doesn’t mean a lot to one person… but if you are sending out hundreds or even thousands of them daily they can bring in a nice extra chunk of revenue and sales to your business.

The big problem with the majority of these automated happy birthday emails is that they really provide no value or call to action from the company. Why do most people get excited when they receive a birthday card? For the potential of a gift card or cash inside of course!

Of all the birthday emails I got, only a couple of them actually had a call to action or gift within them. I noticed this is a common trend among dealerships, as both my Hummer and Lexus dealerships both sent an email with a call to action. One included a $25 discount and the other included a complimentary car wash.

If you currently have a database of customers or subscribers on your mailing list and have their birthdate on record, be sure to start implementing a “Happy Birthday” to your business. Don’t forget the extra added gift that we all really want!