How to Build a Birthday Reminder Workflow in Sparkforge

By Sparkforge Support Team ·Last reviewed May 3, 2026

The Birthday Reminder trigger fires automatically at 8AM on each contact's birthday in your account time zone. Pair it with email, SMS, or wait steps to send personalized greetings or promotions without manual list management.

The Birthday Reminder workflow trigger automates birthday outreach. It scans every contact's date of birth field at 8AM in your account time zone and fires for any contact whose birthday is that day. You do not need to enroll contacts manually — the trigger handles it.

Why use a Birthday Reminder workflow

Send personalized greetings without manual tracking.
Deliver birthday-only promotions or discount codes.
Strengthen customer relationships with a no-effort touchpoint.
Increase repeat purchase rates around birthdays.

Use cases by industry

Salons and spas: birthday discount on a service.
Restaurants: free dessert or appetizer voucher.
Fitness gyms: guest pass or one free session.
Pet services: birthday photo and a treat coupon.
Real estate: simple, sincere greeting (no offer needed).

Set up the workflow

Step 1: Create or open a workflow

From the subaccount, open Automation > Workflows and either create a new workflow or open an existing one.

Step 2: Add the Birthday Reminder trigger

Click Add New Workflow Trigger, select Birthday Reminder, and confirm.

Step 3: Customize the trigger

Optional filters let you fire the workflow only on certain months, only for tagged contacts, or a set number of days before or after the birthday using a Wait step.

Step 4: Save the trigger

Save before adding actions — unsaved triggers can drop their configuration.

Step 5: Add actions

Common actions for birthday workflows:

Send Email — personalized greeting with optional offer.
Send SMS — short message with the offer code.
Wait — delay until a specific hour or several days out.
Add Tag — mark contacts who received the greeting for follow-up reporting.

Step 6: Customize each action

Use custom values like {{contact.first_name}} in the email subject and body. Build the offer code into the message or pull it from a custom field.

Step 7: Test the workflow

Use the Test Workflow option with a contact whose birthday is set to today. Verify the email and SMS render correctly with the right tokens.

Step 8: Save and publish

Toggle the workflow to Published. The trigger fires at 8AM the next day for any matching contact.

Step 9: Monitor and optimize

Check workflow stats weekly: send rate, open rate, click-through rate, and offer redemption if you tagged it. Adjust subject lines and offer types based on what converts.

Timing the message

The trigger fires at 8AM by default. To send at a different hour (say, noon), add a Wait step set to 4 hours after the trigger fires. To send the day before, add a Wait step set to delay until "-1 day" relative to the birthday.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the Birthday Reminder trigger fire?

It fires at 8AM in your account time zone on each contact's birthday. Use a Wait step inside the workflow if you want the message to send at a different hour.

Do I need to manually add contacts to the birthday workflow?

No. The trigger scans every contact's date of birth field automatically and fires for matching contacts on the right day.

Can I send a birthday message a few days early?

Yes. Add a Wait step inside the workflow with a relative date like minus 3 days, or use a filter to fire only on a specific number of days before the birthday.

Can I limit the workflow to certain months or tags?

Yes. Use trigger filters to restrict by month, contact tag, source, or any other contact property.

What contact field does the trigger check?

It checks the standard Date of Birth field on the contact record. Make sure forms and imports populate that field for the trigger to work.