Nobody loves me...and I am getting older...

Subjects: Creative offers
Principle: Recognizing Birthdays' value for businesses
Potential Worth: 2-5% of additional sales and profit

Once again we talk about one of my favorite unexploited source of revenue and profit: birthdays.

If a business has 1,000 customers, statistically, 3 of them have their birthday each single day. What a fantastic opportunity to reach out, bind more closely with customer and make some extra sales in the meantime...

Case in point: last week it was my XXth birthday (ehi, I need to keep some mystery around my persona...). Of course, I was in spending mood: what better way to silence the inner voice the reminds me that I am getting old than spending money? I was really in the mood, I really wanted to spend, go out for a gargantuan dinner and drag with me an army of friends.

Can we imagine an easier target for a marketing mailing? I was a sitting duck, a cow waiting to be milked. I was eagerly awaiting for a cascade of coupons in my snail mail inbox, for a never ending stream of e-mails coupons eager to get the lion share of my easy money.

But the sad reality was different: nobody loves me… nobody even wants my money…

I did not get a single targeted offer at me, nothing, nada, zippo. What a pity…

Imagine the owner of a restaurant that is smart enough to start collecting the birthday (day and month, not year…) day of his/her customers. How? Just asking with sincerity, as Claude Hopkins and Jay Abraham advocate in their books. “Dear guest, we would like to extend you, for your birthday, every year, a special gift. But in order to do that, we need to know the day and month of your birthday: would you please share with us that information?”. Downside: nothing (how can somebody get angry at a request made with tact and politeness?). The worst that can happen is to get a “No, I prefer not to give you that information”. Big deal…

And the restaurant would be sure to get a bunch of extra customers: actually, why not suggesting me to bring a party of 5 or more to get a 20% discount? And if the party is of 10 or more, extra discount.

And we can go on and on… what about my hair stylist: don’t I want to look cool for my bday? Car wash, sir? New clothes, of course ! Banana Republic, The Gap, where are you guys? I got money, I want to waste it (ehhmm , spend it…), just come and get it.

The Bible (best selling book of all times, we can quote it right?) says “Ask and you shall receive”. What a great formula. And in our marketing world, it seems that nobody is asking for the money of the birthday-boys (or girls). Why? Because it requires the discipline (and understanding) in building a database, one step at a time, one name at a time. And obviously this is not considered important, valuable by close to 100% of businesses...

Some basic math to evaluate the business impact: if I go to a restaurant twice a month, that is 24 times a year and the birthday offer gets me one extra time, that increases by 1/25=4% the business a restaurateur can get from one guest. Not life changing, sure, but not to be laughed at: remember that there is no risk associated...

That’s all for today: next time, maybe, we will have a posting on anniversaries… wedding anniversary, graduation anniversary… keep them coming…

Till next time,

K in USA