Some of the world’s largest companies send their customers a special email on or just before their birthday. These emails are often filled with a discount, free gifts and more.

In this Mailchimp tutorial, learn how to create an automated birthday email. This email will be sent out automatically to any customer that has shared their birth date with you. If you don’t already have your customers’ birthday information, you can add a birthday field to your signup form so that you can at least collect it going forward.

Setup an Automated Birthday Email in Mailchimp

Once you’re logged into your Mailchimp account, head on up to the top left-hand corner and click on Create (the pencil icon). Click on Email and then select the Automated tab.

From there you’ll see a few different automated email options.  Choose the Say ‘Happy Birthday’ option.

Next, give your campaign a name and select the audience that you would like to send the email out to.  Click the Begin button.

Play around with the settings under Trigger, Schedule, Filter by segment or tag and Post-send action.  These settings will help determine when the email is sent out.  Then, click on the Design Email button.

On the next screen, enter the name of your email.  This name is an internal name – your audience will not be able to see it.

Next, enter your subject line, preview text, from name and from email address.  Click Next.

This is where the fun really begins.  Browse through the email layouts and themes and choose one that works for you.  Once you find one that you like, click on the Next button.

You will then be taken to the design section where you’ll be able to enter your own content by swapping out the blocks within the layout or theme that you chose.  To edit a block, simply click on it and then edit the settings on the right-hand side of your screen.

Once you’re done editing your automated birthday email, hover over Preview and Test in the top menu and click on Enter Preview Mode.

Go ahead and preview your email and its header info.  You can even test what the email will look like on desktop as well as mobile to ensure that it looks good on both devices.  To get out of the preview mode, click on the ‘X’ in the top right-hand corner.

In addition to previewing the email here, you can also send a test email by going back up to Preview and Test and selecting Send a Test Email.

Make any last edits and then click on Save and Continue.  Double check that the settings all look correct and then click Next.  Again, review the information and then click on Start Sending.

And, you’re done!  Your automated birthday email is all set and ready to go.  Be sure to check out our other Mailchimp tutorials and subscribe to our YouTube channel for even more digital marketing tips, tricks and tutorials.