Celebrating Customer Retention With Birthday Messages

I just read a great article online recently that was filled with 21 ways to improve customer retention through relationship marketing programs. And great timing on my end for that topic, because I'm working on a customer retention project with one of my biggest clients - while my own mailbox seems to be filling up with customer retention efforts in honor of my upcoming birthday.

Some examples:A predictable yet perfectly executed birthday greeting, from my local Hallmark store arrived in my mailbox yesterday. They send me something similar every year. You'd expect a greeting card store to send a pretty card - and so they do. You'd expect the personal touches on the envelope that make it look like a "real" card, sent from "someone I know" - the live stamp, the handwritten font for the addressing areas, and a closed-face envelope. This mailing delivers it all - along with a coupon for 20% off my next purchase at the store.

Next up ...

Here's a nice email offer with a printable coupon for $5 off, from my local Famous Footwear store. I have one of their frequent buyer/membership cards. The email subject line was "Happy Birthday from Famous Footwear--Take $5 off." Pretty straight-forward. (My birthday, btw, is over a month away. This email came today.)

And here is something I'd never seen before, which also arrived by email this 

morning ...
It's a very unexpected, birthday-inspired email from a charity I've given to in the past -  the American Cancer Society. What I absolutely loved about this email was the subject line: "Who is the official sponsor of your birthday?" - and the whole campaign concept of a birthday sponsor. I also liked the brevity of this email. No long discourse, just a "Learn More" button to take me to the next step, where I can give a gift to the charity online.

When you remember that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers and clients, you can see why customer retention programs are not only a cost-effective and profitable strategy but in today's economic environment they're a necessity.