Bad Form.

I just received a fairly obvious form letter from a site that managed to acquire some of my personal information;

Dear Sean,

I notice your birthday is coming up on 1 October 2006.

How's that for destroying a sentence? Read it out loud just to accentuate the absurdity. Imagine calling up a friend and saying "Hey Bob, I just remembered that your birthday is coming up next 2 JULY 2007." You'd probably get some odd looks.

Being casual can be a great way of initiating a conversation with a prospect - if it's sincere. If there's a pitch, then make it honestly. If you're going to wish someone a happy birthday, then make it seem genuine. It doesn't help when the email ends with;

P.S. If 1 October 1980 is not your birthday, please change this information in your profile.

If you have so little faith in the information in my profile then why bother using it at all? The information obviously came from me, so if I gave you false details then I probably had a good reason for doing so.

All you need to do is remember that there's an actual person on the other end of the line, and treat them appropriately. Easy, no?