Automation Example: Send a Recurring Anniversary Message (Which Displays & Updates the Number of Years)

Details

This automation example is fairly similar to one titled "Automation Example: Send a Recurring Anniversary Message With a Custom Message". However, the example outlined in the guide below differs in that it sends the same message each year & it also updates the text slightly from "year" to "years" (plural), after the first year has passed.

If you need to send a recurring message (email or SMS) on an annual basis which contains the number of years and also adjusts the text plurality automatically, this is the guide for you! Some examples for this use case could be:

• Send a thank you or promotional message to members of your VIP program after each year of membership - and include the number of years within the message
• Send an annual SMS to remind a contact to book their dental appointment - and include the number of years within the message ("It's been X years since your last appointment!")
• Congratulate a customer on their purchase (of a home, air conditioner, car, etc) each year on the anniversary to remind them about something (a service, an upgrade, etc)  - and include the number of years within the message

What This Example Will Cover

In this example, we're going to send an email to our VIP customers after every year of membership (though you could just as easily adjust it to be an SMS message).

The message we send will contain several wildcards; the contact's 'first name', the 'number of years' they have been a member and a string of text to indicate the correct time period ('year'). The automation will also automatically change the plurality of the text from 'year' to 'years' after the first year has elapsed, so that our message still reads nicely. After all, let's automate as much of this as possible!

How-to Guide

Part 1: Create the List & Fields To Store Contact Data

Let's begin by creating a new list for our VIP Club & adding the various fields we need to store the data we're going to use for our automation.

1. Select Lists and Forms from the sidebar.
2. Click Create a List.
3. Select the icon to create a new Blank List.
   
4. Once created, click the option to Edit List & Create Forms. You'll now be taken to the form editor.
   
5. Let's first rename our list to something more descriptive then 'Blank List'. To do so, click Details.
   
6. Give your list a more appropriate name and click Save. For our example, we're going to call our list 'VIP Club Members'.
7. Now we'll add some more fields to the list. On the right hand side, click Add New Fields.
8. We'll start by adding a field to capture to contact's first name. Select the First Name field type and click Add. 
9. Next, we'll add another new field to capture the date when the contact became a VIP. Click Add New Fields again.
10. Scroll down and select the Date Picker field type and click Add.
11. Give the field a name. For our example, we're going to name the field 'Membership Start Date' and set the option underneath to Date must be in the future. If you're going to be adding or importing contacts with dates in the past, change the option to a date range instead and then adjust the range to suit your needs. 
    
12. Click Save.
13. Now we'll add a field to store the number of years since they joined. Click Add New Fields.
14. Scroll down and select the Number field type and click Add.
15. Give the field a name. For our example, we're going to name the field 'Number of years'.
    
16. Click Save.
17. Next we'll add the final new field - this one's for storing the phrase 'year' (or 'years'). Click Add New Fields.
18. Select the Text Field field type and click Add.
19. Give the field a name. For our example, we're going to name the field 'Year/s'.
    
20. Click Save. You should now have several fields on your list, as shown.
    
21. As we'll be manually adding our contacts (or importing them from a spreadsheet), we're not going to bother customising the appearance of the form here. Click Save (top right) to save your changes.
    For every VIP club contact that's been a member for less than 1 year, you would enter "year" (singular) into the 'year/s' field. For the VIP club contacts that have been members for more than 1 year, you would insert the text "years" (plural) into the 'year/s' field.
22. Select Dashboard from the sidebar to return to the home screen. Nice work on creating your new list and fields! In the next section, we'll work on creating the message.

Part 2: Create Your Message

In this section we're going to create the message that gets sent to the contact by the automation every year. For our example, we're using an email message - but this could be an SMS instead if you prefer.

1. Select Messages from the sidebar.
2. Click New message to select & start from a template, or copy an existing message and open it for editing.
3. Edit your email message as required - remember, you can add links, images and more if desired. Within the text of the message, we're going to insert several wildcards to personalise it. Follow the instructions to insert a wildcard - in our case, we've repeated this process several times to insert the recipients 'First name', 'Membership Start Date', 'Number of Years' and the text for 'Year/s'. Here's a screenshot from our example:
   
4. When done, click Save and give your Email a name & subject.
   You can also personalise the subject with wildcards. Here's a screenshot from our example:
   You may like to save your message into a special 'Automations' folder - that way you and your colleagues will know what it's used for and are less likely to delete or alter it without knowing what will be affected.
5. When done, select Dashboard from the sidebar to return to the home screen. Nice work on creating your message. Next, we'll setup the various automation steps.

Part 3: Setup the Automation

1. Select Automation from the sidebar.
2. Select the Advanced Automation tab.
3. Optional: Create a new folder to save your automation into.
4. Click New Workflow.
5. Give your workflow a Name (eg. 'VIP Club Anniversary Message').
6. Click Save.
7. Click New Step.
8. In the first section, set the action to be A trigger against the following list, then select your recently-created list (the one you created in Part 1 of this guide).
   
9. In the second section, set the trigger as Time-based and select your date field in the dropdown that appears; in our example, the date field we created in Part 1 of this guide was called 'Membership Start Date'. Set the frequency to Every 1 Year(s) and then the delivery time according to what you need. For our example, we'll set the Delivery time to 1 days before at 1700. This will send the email to the contact at 5pm, every year, one day before the anniversary of their Membership Start Date.
   
10. In the third section, enable the Send the contact the message option and select your recently-created email from the dropdowns provided.
    
11. Do not change or set any options in the fourth section.
12. Click Save. You'll now be taken back to the main page for the automation.
13. Let's create the second and final step. Click New Step.
14. In the first section, set the action to be A trigger against the following list, then select your recently-created list once more.
    
15. In the second section, set the trigger as Time-based and select your date field in the dropdown that appears; in our example, the date field we created in Part 1 of this guide was called 'Membership Start Date'. Set the frequency to Every 1 Year(s) and then the time according to what you need. For our example, we'll set the Delivery time to 1 days after at 0200. This will trigger the automation a few hours after the anniversary of their Membership Start Date.
    
16. In the third section, ensure all options remain unchecked. As we do want to change a value on the contact's record, click Add/Edit in this section. A popup dialog will open.
17. In the left dropdown, select the 'Year/s' field. Change the middle dropdown to set to and then type 'years' (without the quotes) in the third field. When this automation step runs, it will tell the system to change the text in this field from whatever it is, to 'years'. Although this step will run each & every year, it won't actually be changing anything after the first year has passed - as it will have already changed the 'year' text to 'years' at that point.
18. With the popup window still open, click New Field. A new row will appear.
19. In the left dropdown, select the 'Number of years' field. Change the middle dropdown to increment by and then type '1' (without the quotes) in the third field. When this automation step runs, it will tell the system to increase the number of years by 1. So if a contact has been a member for 5 years, the system will set it to 6 years next time the automation step runs ...neat! Your popup window should now look something like ours:
    
20. Click OK to close the popup window. Do not change or set any options in the fourth section.
21. Click Save. You'll now be taken back to the main page for the automation again.
22. If you wish, you can rename the automation steps by hovering over the name & clicking the pencil icon that appears there. We've named ours as follows - so it's very clear to you and your colleagues as to what it's doing.
    
23. With everything ready to go, click Save at the top to go back to the main Advanced Automation homepage.

Part 4: Activate Your Automation

1. Select Automation from the sidebar.
2. Select the Advanced Automation tab.
3. Finally, click the ellipsis (...) next to the automation and choose Activate.

Next Steps

Your automation is now setup to run and will apply to any valid contact that has a valid anniversary date. To add contacts to your list, you can import them (eg. from a spreadsheet) or manually add them one by one.

Of course, you can also edit the email message any time as well.