Offering Birthday Specials

If you were to Google “free meal on birthday”, you would get countless articles and blog posts highlighting restaurants that offer free meals to customers on their birthday. Everything from lists of major chains who offer deals, down to local influencers highlighting regional restaurants that offer birthday specials. Here’s why you should celebrate your customer’s birthdays with them:

Gain customer and brand loyalty

Offering birthday freebies or coupons can increase your customer-base and brand loyalty. Customers dining with you on their birthday will rarely dine alone, often bringing large parties into your restaurant for a meal. This is a great way to build brand loyalty with guests who have already eaten with you, and begin to build customer loyalty with those dining with you for the first time as part of a birthday. 

Offering freebies or birthday specials does not have to mean reduced profits for your restaurant. Many restaurants with loyalty programs use birthdays as an opportunity to collect data (like email addresses) and use them as marketing tools. For many large restaurants, in order to get a birthday offer, you must sign up for the establishment’s loyalty program. This is mutually beneficial because it allows the restaurant access to the consumer to send them offers, and to the consumer with a coupon or incentive of a free item. Often times, coupons make us spend more than we would without a coupon.

For example, you could offer customers a free dessert on their birthday if they are a member of your loyalty program. Then, if the coupon code is used, you can further incentivize spending by offering the customer additional rewards, enticing them to dine with you again in the future.

Increased engagement on campaigns

Automated birthday email campaigns with surprise coupons and offers are an excellent way to engage with your customers. According to Experian, birthday emails have 179% higher unique click rates than regular promotional emails. Customers love deals and personalization, and your restaurant can provide both. Emails with the recipient’s name in the subject line are 17% more likely to be opened.

Additionally, ‘mystery’ birthday offers generate 502% higher revenue than regular promotional offers. A ‘Mystery Offer’ is typically a coupon that encourages the customer to purchase goods, and find out how much they save at checkout. Some restaurants share that customers will get a discount in a certain range (i.e. 15% - 40% off), while others offer a fixed discount rate, but as a secret until checkout (i.e. the offer is always 20% off). This can be a great creative solution to both increase your engagement and revenue.

If you’re thinking about implementing a birthday offer or loyalty program, Sherane Chen LLC would be glad to help! We have expertise in increasing your restaurant’s revenue through marketing all while taking the burden of marketing off your plate. Contact us today or call (386) 627-3628 for a consultation!