How to create a campaign that sends out on a contacts birthday

The below article provides a step-by-step guide on how to create a campaign that is triggered to send out on a contacts birthday.  This could also be applied to various different scenario's such as Anniversaries, Contract Renewals etc.

To achieve this you would need to setup the following:

  • A Business Object to have the field required for the trigger (i.e. Date of Birth, Renewal Date etc.)
  • One Group to pull a list of contacts on a daily basis
  • Seven Campaigns.  One would be required for each day of the week to recur on a weekly basis

The below example shows how to create a campaign that will send out on a contacts birthday.

Add a new Business Object

Add a new Business Object
  1. Go to Tools, Business Objects , Click on Add Attribute
  2. Fill in the Attribute Name and the Display Name
  3. Select the Data Type relevant to the event,  (i.e. Date for a DOB field)
  4. Click on Save and Close

Create the Group

Create the Group

For this to work you will need to add two contact rules to the group one to match the day and one to match the month, this way the contact will only appear in the group once a year.

  1. Go to Audience, Groups
  2. Then select Add New Group
  3. Type in the Name and click Add

Add the first rule to match the Day

Add the first rule to match the Day
  1. Click on Add Rule
  2. Select Contact Rule
  3. Add a Description and select the new Contact field
  4. Next select the Operator to be 'Is Equal To'
  5. Enter datepart(d,GETDATE()) - This statement will get the contacts where their day matches today
  6. Click Add

Add the second rule to match the Month

Add the second rule to match the Month
  1. Click on Add Rule
  2. Select Contact Rule
  3. Add a Description and select the new Contact field
  4. Next select the Operator to be 'Is Equal To'
  5. Enter datepart(m,GETDATE()) - This statement will get the contacts where their month matches today
  6. Click Add

Saving the Group

Saving the Group

Once you have added the two rules you need to make sure that the clause used is AND, this can be selected from the drop down menu as circled.  This will then get all of the contacts where their DOB day and month matches today's date.  Once you have setup the rules relevant to your campaign click save.

Creating the Campaigns

Creating the Campaigns

Go to Campaigns and Add a New Campaign.  

  1. Set the Action Type to Static Recurring  -  Making sure the Recurrence Interval is set to 1 week, so it sends on a weekly basis.  You can set the 'Don't Send if Received in the Last:' to 51 weeks, just to make sure they are not sent again within the same year.
  2. You will need to make sure that the End Date is set far enough in the future so that the Campaign sends all year round.
  3. You will need to add the new Group to the Audience and set the rest of the Campaign up as normal.  (Entering the Alias, Reply-To, Attach the email etc)

Once you have done the first campaign and saved it you will then need to create another six campaigns so you have one for each day of the week.  You can then copy the first one you have made but just make sure that you have the correct email design attached and most importantly change the start date to correspond to the correct day, so the campaign send on the right day.

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