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API Version 5

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Birthday Trigger (Basic Scheduled Trigger)

Last Updated: 31/7/2025     Tags: triggers, trigger, example, birthday, basic
  • Switch Version
  • V5
  • V4

Sending a 'Happy Birthday' email to your subscribers is a great way to keep your subscribers engaged. Most clients use incentives to lure their subscribers on their birthday such as discounts, coupons or freebies. You can choose to send a birthday trigger to your subscribers on the day or any amount of days leading their birth date.

st=>start: Begin e=>end: End op1=>condition: Subscribed List X op2=>condition: Birthday op3=>condition: Sent Activity Y op4=>operation: Send Trigger st(right)->op1(yes, right)->op2(yes, right)->op3(no, right)->op4->e op1(no)->e op2(no)->e op3(yes)->e

Suggested Set-up
Send Date / Time User defined.
Repeat Select 'Daily' to trigger once per day.
Target Expression subscribed list X and birthday tomorrow and (not sent activity Y last 364 days)
or
subscribed list X and birthday today and (not sent activity Y last 364 days)
Learn more about these target expressions

Instructions

Step 1: Activity Set-up

Begin by either setting up a new activity, or editing an existing activity. We recommend keeping your triggers separate from other emails in their own campaign folder.

If you are setting up a new activity, click the 'New Activity' button in a campaign folder to set up a new activity. A setup screen will appear.

New Activity

If you are editing an existing activity, simply navigate to the setup screen by either clicking 'setup' in the activity card actions or within the activity header.

Setup and Target

A modal window will appear with activity options. From here you can set the following options:

  • Distribution Type: Scheduled trigger
  • Date: Select your own date and time for when you wish the trigger to start. The most important part is the time as this will be used by the repetition option to determine when to send the trigger each hour.
  • Trigger Interval: Choose 'Hourly', 'Daily', 'Weekly' or 'Monthly' depending on your intended trigger schedule.
  • Subscriber Send Frequency: In this field, you can pick an option between 'send only once' or 'send once' every day/weeks/months/year. In this example, we will pick 'send only once' as a follow-up to target new subscribers that were sent a 'Welcome' activity the day before.
  • Send Limit: You can use this field if you know how many recipients an activity should be sent to each time and you don't want to send it if there are more recipients than expected. If you leave this field blank, then this send limit won't apply. For instance, if there are 500 in this field and it targets subscriber list X which includes 1000 subscribers, the activity will not be sent at all.
    Note: send limit should only be used for triggers and not immediate or scheduled broadcasts

Save the changes you make by clicking the save button.

Step 2: Edit Activity Content

You can then begin editing your activity content. View the V5 User Guide for tips on creating your activity content.

Most clients use incentives to lure their subscribers on their birthday such as discounts, coupons or freebies. This is also a good opportunity to try multivariate or a/b split testing on your content to find out which combination performs better.

Step 3: Set Target Expression

Click on the 'target' link within the activity header, the target expression builder will appear. Simply paste the following target expression into the input field at the top:

subscribed list X and birthday tomorrow and (not sent activity Y last 364 days)

This target expression will target those within subscriber list X (change to a subscriber list ID), who has a birthday tomorrow, and who has not received the activity Y (change to the current activity ID) in the last 364 days. In this example we included 364 days to ensure the subscriber does not receive the birthday trigger more than once in a year.

If you wish to target a subscriber on their birthday, rather than the day before their birthday, you can use the following target expression:

subscribed list X and birthday today and (not sent activity Y last 364 days)

This target expression will target those within subscriber list X (change to a subscriber list ID), who has a birthday today, and who has not received the activity Y (change to the current activity ID) in the last 364 days. In this example we included 364 days to ensure the subscriber does not receive the birthday trigger more than once in a year.

For more information on target expressions and more birthday target expression options, please refer to the Target Expression Reference.

If you set a frequent repetition cycle, remember to exclude subscribers who have already received the activity, otherwise the trigger will contine to send to the same subscribers. You can do this by adding not sent activity X last Y days to the target expression (where X is the activity ID).

Approve and Deploy

Approve and deploy your activity to initiate the trigger. If you have scheduled a date/time in future, it will commence broadcasting the trigger on that date/time.

  1. Click on 'Approve' to approve the activity. A pop-up modal will appear showing your target expression, revision ID and your schedule.

Approve Welcome v1

  1. Once approved, a 'Confirm Deployment' button should appear in the activity panel. Click on the button to confirm your target expression, revision ID, schedule and the throttle limit.

Deploy Welcome v1

  1. After it's been deployed, two red buttons showing 'Cancel Deployment' and 'Suspend' should appear. The throttle rate will be displayed together with the number sends that have yet to be broadcasted.

Confirm Deployment

Several sample triggers are available, please refer to the Trigger Examples.

Step 1: Activity Set-up

Begin by either setting up a new activity, or editing an existing activity. We recommend keeping your triggers separate from other emails in their own campaign folder.

If you are setting up a new activity, click the '+' icon in the top right of a campaign folder

If you are editing an existing activity, navigate to the activity you wish to trigger and select the 'Edit' button in the top right corner of your screen.

A modal window will appear with activity options. From here you can set the following options:

  • Date: Select your own date and time for when you wish the trigger to start. The most important part is the time as this will be used by the repetition option to determine when to send the trigger each day.
  • Repeat: Choose 'Daily'.

Save the changes you make by clicking the save button.

Step 2: Edit Activity Content

You can then begin editing your activity content. View the V4 User Guide for tips on creating your activity content.

Most clients use incentives to lure their subscribers on their birthday such as discounts, coupons or freebies. This is also a good opportunity to try multivariate or a/b split testing on your content to find out which combination performs better.

Step 3: Set Target Expression

Click on the Select Recipients... button under Distribution Settings. Click the 'Advanced' tab and paste the following target expression into the field:

subscribed list X and birthday tomorrow and (not sent activity Y last 364 days)

This target expression will target those within subscriber list X (change to a subscriber list ID), who has a birthday tomorrow, and who has not received the activity Y (change to the current activity ID) in the last 364 days. In this example we included 364 days to ensure the subscriber does not receive the birthday trigger more than once in a year.

If you wish to target a subscriber on their birthday, rather than the day before their birthday, you can use the following target expression:

subscribed list X and birthday today and (not sent activity Y last 364 days)

This target expression will target those within subscriber list X (change to a subscriber list ID), who has a birthday today, and who has not received the activity Y (change to the current activity ID) in the last 364 days. In this example we included 364 days to ensure the subscriber does not receive the birthday trigger more than once in a year.

For more information on target expressions and more birthday target expression options, please refer to the Target Expression Reference.

If you set a frequent repetition cycle, remember to exclude subscribers who have already received the activity, otherwise the trigger will contine to send to the same subscribers. You can do this by adding not sent activity X last Y days to the target expression (where X is the activity ID).

Approve and Deploy

Approve and deploy your activity to initiate the trigger. If you have scheduled a date/time in future, it will commence broadcasting the trigger on that date/time.

  1. Click on 'Approve' to approve the activity. A pop-up modal will appear showing your target expression, revision ID and your schedule.

Approve v1 Approve v2

  1. Once approved, a 'Confirm Deployment' button should appear in the activity panel. Click on the button to confirm your target expression, revision ID, schedule and the throttle limit.

Deploy v1 Deploy v2

  1. After it's been deployed, two red buttons showing 'Cancel Deployment' and 'Suspend' should appear. The throttle rate will be displayed together with the number sends that have yet to be broadcasted.

Confirm Deployment

Several sample triggers are available, please refer to the Trigger Examples.