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Birthday & Holiday Campaigns

What it is​

Birthday campaigns trigger on the birthday stored in each recipient's profile - every year, on their birthday, the campaign fires.

Holiday campaigns trigger on a calendar date you choose (e.g., December 1 for a Christmas send) and send to everyone on the bound list on that date.

Birthday campaign setup​

  1. Go to Automated Campaigns in the left navigation.
  2. Click Add Automation.
  3. In the modal, set Select What To Send, Select An Image Template, Select A Message Template, and Select A Mailing List. Ensure recipients have a birthday field populated.
  4. Under When to Send, choose On Recipient's Birthday as the Sending trigger.
  5. Click Save.
  6. On the automation row, click Preview to review the rendered mailer.
  7. Toggle the automation ON.

Holiday campaign setup​

  1. Go to Automated Campaigns in the left navigation.
  2. Click Add Automation.
  3. In the modal, set Select What To Send, Select An Image Template, Select A Message Template, and Select A Mailing List.
  4. Under When to Send, choose On a Holiday as the Sending trigger, then select the holiday from the Select Holiday dropdown.
  5. Click Save.
  6. On the automation row, click Preview to review the rendered mailer.
  7. Toggle the automation ON.

Tips & best practices​

  • thanks.io automatically triggers birthday sends 10 days before the recipient's birthday to account for delivery time. No manual timing adjustment is needed.
  • Ensure the birthday column is in your CSV. Missing birthday data means the trigger never fires.
  • Use %FIRST_NAME% to personalize the greeting.
  • For Holiday campaigns, create the campaign at least 1–2 weeks before the send date.
  • Birthday campaigns recur annually - you don't need to re-enable them each year.

Limits & gotchas​

  • Duplicate Prevention applies.
  • Holiday campaigns send to all active recipients on the bound list on the trigger date - make sure your list is current.
  • If a recipient's birthday is less than 10 days away when they are added to your list, the campaign will not fire for that birthday - it is too close to the scheduled send window. The campaign will fire on the following year's birthday.