Automation Example: Send a Recurring Anniversary Message With a Custom Message

Details

This automation example is fairly similar to one titled "Automation Example: Send a Recurring Anniversary Message (Which Displays & Updates the Number of Years)". However, the example outlined in the guide below differs in that it can send a different message each time and requires a separate automation step for each message.

If you need to send a recurring message (email, SMS or a combination of both) on an annual basis which varies each time it's sent, 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
• Send an annual SMS to remind a contact to book their dental appointment - and adjust the tone or urgency of the message as time goes on
• Congratulate a customer on their purchase (of a home, air conditioner, car, etc) each year on the anniversary and remind them about something (a service, an upgrade, etc).

What This Example Will Cover

In this example, we're going to send an SMS message to our VIP club members after every year of membership, from 1 to 3 years (though you could extend this).

The message we send will contain two wildcards; the contact's 'first name' and an 'anniversary message' with a discount code which varies from year to year. We're also going to get our automation to change the anniversary message each year. 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 of Birth field type and click Add.
11. Give the field a name. For our example, we're going to name the field 'Anniversary date' and set the option underneath to Date must be in the past. Later, we'll configure the automation to change this date forward by one year, each time the previous message is sent.
12. Click Save.
13. Now we'll add the final new field - this one's for storing the anniversary message. This is the message we're going to change each year... but as mentioned at the start, we can be smart about it and get the automation to make this change for us automatically (because, why not)! Click Add New Fields.
14. Select the Text Field field type and click Add.
15. Give the field a name. For our example, we're going to name the field 'Anniversary message'.
16. Click Save. You should now have several fields on your list, as shown.
    
17. Because 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 to save your changes.
18. 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 SMS - but this could be an email instead (or a combination of both) if you prefer.

1. Select Messages from the sidebar.
2. Click New SMS.
   If this is your first time using SMS within our platform, you'll need to enter your mobile number (and a verification code that we'll send you), before you can create an SMS.
3. Enter the text for your SMS message. In the case of our example, we're going to make sure we insert two wildcards within our text; one is the contact's first name and the other is the custom anniversary message. That way, the message can vary from year to year as our contacts work their way through our automation sequence each year. Remember you can insert wildcards into your SMS text using the + icon.
   Try and keep your SMS messages brief, as longer messages can cost more. Also note that wildcards will vary the length of an SMS. For example, a longer first name like 'Christopher' will use up more characters than 'Jo', so message costs can vary from contact to contact depending on the other text you add to your SMS. Furthermore, as your anniversary message is also a wildcard, this too will vary the message length - but we'll get to setting up this field later on in the guide. Here's a screenshot from our example:
   
4. When done, click Save and give your SMS a name.
   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 SMS').
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 'Anniversary date'. Set the frequency to Once and then the delivery time according to what you need. For our example, we'll set the Delivery time to 0 days before at 0800. This will send the SMS to the contact at 8am, every year, on the date of the 'Anniversary date'.
   
10. In the third section, enable the Send the contact the message option and select your SMS from the dropdowns provided.
    
11. Also within this same section, we want to add some text into the 'Anniversary message' field- as it's currently an empty field. To do so, click Add/Edit. A popup dialog will open.
12. In this dialog, select your 'Anniversary message' field from the first dropdown & change the middle dropdown to set to.
13. In the last field, enter the text you'd like to display within the SMS as your anniversary message. For our example, we'll use this text: 'congrats on your 1yr anniversary with the XYZ Donuts VIP club! Your discount code: XYZVIP10'.
    A longer SMS will cost more, so try to keep this message short - as it's being placed inside your SMS along with the rest of your text from Part 2 of this guide.
    Remember, this text is getting added to the end of your SMS in place of the wildcard, so ensure the wording reads nicely once it's all joined together. So for our example, if our message was being sent to a contact called John, the SMS he receives would read as follows: 'Hi John, congrats on your 1yr anniversary with the XYZ Donuts VIP club! Your discount code: XYZVIP10'.
14. With the popup window still open, click New Field. A new row will appear.
15. This time, select your date field ('Anniversary date' in our case) from the first dropdown. Change the middle dropdown to set to current date/time.
16. Click OK to close the popup window.
17. Do not change or set any options in the fourth section.
18. Click Save. You'll now be taken back to the main page for the automation.
19. Optionally, rename the automation step you've created 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.
    
20. Let's now clone the step to save time. Click the copy icon next to the automation step you just created, then click Yes, copy.
21. Scroll down to locate your duplicated automation step and click the pencil (edit) icon to the right hand side. The cloned automation step will now open for editing.
22. Leave everything as-is, except for the third section. In this section, we want to alter the Anniversary message to say something else. Click on your existing message in this section and the popup window will open again. Adjust the message to your desired two-year anniversary message (we've provided our example below).
    
23. Click OK to close the popup window.
24. Click Save. You'll now be taken back to the main page for the automation again.
25. As per earlier, optionally rename the second automation step by hovering over the name & clicking the pencil icon that appears there.
26. Let's now clone the second step. Click the copy icon next to the automation step you just created, then click Yes, copy.
27. Scroll down to locate your duplicated automation step and click the pencil (edit) icon to the right hand side. The cloned automation step will now open for editing.
28. Leave everything as-is, except for the third section. In this section, we want to alter the Anniversary message to say something else. Click on your existing message in this section and the popup window will open again. Adjust the message to your desired three-year anniversary message (we've provided our example below).
    
29. Click OK to close the popup window.
30. Click Save. You'll now be taken back to the main page for the automation again.
31. As per earlier, optionally rename the second automation step by hovering over the name & clicking the pencil icon that appears there. Looking good! Here's what we've got so far...
    
32. 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.

If you ever need to change the core of the SMS message, open it for editing and make the required changes. To edit the anniversary message, remember that you'll need to do this from within the automation steps.