How do I send birthday or renewal emails every year?

Sound familiar?

You'd like every patient to get a warm birthday email from the clinic, without you remembering anyone's birthday. Or you want to email members when their membership comes up for renewal each year. Or you want a "we haven't seen you for six months" email that goes out from each person's last appointment 🎂.

What's happening

Use a workflow built on Each person's own date, and choose A date on their contact record… as what starts each person's clock. Pick the date, such as Date of birth. Tick This date comes round every year (birthday, renewal) and the workflow runs again for each person every year, on their own date.

Everyone gets their emails on their own timeline. Nobody is ever "late".

Why it works this way

Birthdays and renewals are personal. Everyone's date is different, so the emails have to run on each person's clock, not on one shared date. And because the date comes round every year, the workflow has to come round with it. Without that, a birthday workflow would only ever work once per patient 🎈.

What to do now

1. Go to Email Workflows (https://app.co-kinetic.com/email-workflows), click + New Workflow / Quick Email, choose Full Workflow, and pick a purpose (Patient Journey starts you on the right card).
2. On the Setup step, under How does this workflow run?, choose Each person's own date.
3. Under What starts each person's clock?, choose A date on their contact record….
4. Under Choose a date field…, pick Date of birth or Last appointment. For a renewal date or anything else, type a name into + Add a date field… (for example "Renewal date") and press Add.
5. For birthdays and renewals, tick This date comes round every year (birthday, renewal).
6. Is there a deadline? Usually No deadline for birthdays. Choose Yes, their date plus a number of days if you want emails timed before a deadline, for example "your birthday offer ends in 7 days".
7. Leave If a contact has no date as Hold them and show a flag on the workflow.
8. Choose your audience, then click Create Workflow & Add Emails →.
9. Add your emails and set each one's timing: a number of days after their date (0 days for the birthday itself), or, if you set a deadline, a number of days before it.
10. Press Preview as a joiner, check the dates, then switch the Active toggle on.

[SCREENSHOT TO CAPTURE: the Each person's date block with "A date on their contact record…", the date field picker and the "This date comes round every year" tick box]

Getting the dates onto your contacts

• Date of birth and Last appointment are already fields on every contact. You can type them in Edit Person (Audience → Manage Contacts, then the pencil ✏️), collect date of birth on your email collection form, bring them in with a spreadsheet import, or sync appointment dates from your practice management software.
• A date field you added yourself (such as "Renewal date") can be filled in by importing a spreadsheet with a column for it, or by sending it in from another system.
• Anyone without the date is held, never guessed. The workflow card shows a flag such as "⚑ 3 contacts have no date". As soon as their date is added, their emails are scheduled.

If you want more detail

• Birthday emails go out during the day. An email set for "their date" lands that day, in your time zone, during sending hours. It won't arrive the evening before.
• Each year starts fresh. After someone's date has passed and their emails are done, the workflow sets them up again for next year. Last year's emails don't stop this year's.
• If someone's date changes, their upcoming emails move to the new date. Emails already sent are not sent again.
• Your limits and priority still apply. If someone's birthday email can't go because they've reached their limit, it waits and tries again on the day. Consider setting the workflow's priority to High so it isn't crowded out.
• Unsubscribed contacts are never emailed, whatever workflow they're in.
• Birthday vouchers are a separate tool. This workflow sends birthday emails you write. To give a voucher on someone's birthday, use a date-based promotion in the Revenue Hub.

The question behind the question

"Is this worth setting up?" A birthday or renewal email is one of the few emails patients are pleased to get, and it takes ten minutes once. After that it runs every year for every patient, including the ones who join your list next month. It's the kind of quiet, personal touch that keeps a clinic in mind 💌.

The next question is usually...

• How do I check who gets which email, and when?
• How does email timing work when a workflow runs around a date?
• How do I add people to a date workflow from another system, with their own date?
• How do I add contacts and create audiences in Co-Kinetic?

Still stuck? This usually means...

• Lots of contacts are held. They don't have the date on their record yet. Add Date of birth to your email collection form, or import the dates from a spreadsheet.
• Your date field isn't in the list. Type its name into + Add a date field… and press Add.
• The birthday email came round only once. Check that This date comes round every year (birthday, renewal) was ticked when the workflow was set up. If it wasn't, create the workflow again with it ticked.
• You wanted to give a voucher. That's a date-based promotion in the Revenue Hub, not an email workflow.
• Anything else. Tell us in the chat with the workflow name.