Please Note:
This article is aimed specifically at Merchants who have enabled our Klaviyo integration and have selected the option within the settings to send out their Birthday emails via Klaviyo.
If you have chosen to send out your Birthday emails via Klaviyo, then you will need to set-up a Birthday Flow in your Klaviyo account.
This article will walk you through setting up your Birthday Email Flow which will control when the Birthday Email gets sent to your customers.
Article quick links
- Create the Birthday email Flow
- Configure the Birthday email Flow
- Set-up your Birthday email in Klaviyo
- Configure the content of your Birthday email
- Add the Birthday Discount Link (if using auto-generated discounts)
- Almost done! Liven the Flow!
- Growing your Birthday Club with Klaviyo Forms
- Advanced Birthday Flow examples
- Need any help?
Create the Birthday email Flow
This flow can be simple, containing only one message; be both a half-birthday and birthday flow; or include many splits for enhanced personalization. In this set-up guide, you’ll learn how to create a simple birthday flow
The intention of this Flow is that customers who have a date in the Birthday field will enter into this Flow automatically on or x number of days before their Birthday (you can specify).
Let's get started!
In Klaviyo, select the Flows link from the left-hand sidebar menu:
Within the Flows view, click on the Create Flow button located in the top right-hand corner of the page:
Start by clicking on the Happy Birthday Email preset option on that page:
You will then be shown a summary of the Flow that you are about to create and configure:
Edit the Name of the Flow if you would like to call it something else and make sure that the Birthday field is selected as the Trigger.
Please Note:
The Birthday field will only be present in the Trigger dropdown list if you have at least one customer in your Klaviyo account with a birthday as a custom property. If you do not see a Birthday field in the Trigger dropdown list, create a new test customer in the Happy Birthday app manually and then that data will be pushed through to Klaviyo and will create the Birthday field. To find out how to create a test customer in happy Birthday, please read our guide on how to add Birthday sign-ups manually
Click on the Create Flow button to create this date property-triggered flow.
Configure the Birthday email Flow
You will se that your Flow already contains a Trigger and an Action:
You now need to customise the Flow properties that control when the Birthday email is sent.
Click on the Trigger in the Flow:
On the left-hand side, click on the FLOW TRIGGER / Date Property section:
This will open up the properties of the Trigger:
Within these properties you can configure:
- Whether the Flow should start on or before the persons birthday
- The time of day the Birthday email should be sent
- Whether there should be a delay until a specific day of the week
- When the flow should repeat
Choose when you want to start the flow, on or before the person’s birthday and the time of day the email should be sent.
We recommend setting this to earlier in the day and using Recipient’s Local Timezone. Here, we keep the default as 8 am.
For how often you want the flow to repeat, choose Yearly.
Click on the Save button to save your properties, and then Done to exit the trigger set-up.
Your flow is not yet complete, but we recommend saving it before moving onto the next step. Click the Save and Exit button in the top right-hand corner of the page:
This will return you to the Flows screen in Klaviyo.
Set-up your Birthday email in Klaviyo
To begin customising your Birthday email in Klaviyo, go to the Flows screen once again and find the Birthday email Flow that you just created in the list of Flows and click on the Edit Flow button:
Click on the Email action container within your Flow:
We recommend that you turn off Smart Sending for this Flow from within the Settings. You will see this option on the left-hand side of your Flow settings:
Click on the Settings cog icon and then turn off Smart Sending:
Configure the content of your Birthday Email
The next step of this flow is to configure the content of your Birthday Email. To do this, click on the Edit button from the left-hand side of the screen:
You will be presented with a screen where you can set-up the layout and messaging of your birthday email:
If you are familiar with setting up email templates in Klaviyo, now is the time to go ahead and create your Birthday Email Template.
If you are new to Klaviyo, then please see Klaviyo's getting started with email templates guide to help you to get started with email templates.
Add the Birthday Discount Link (if using auto-generated discounts)
Once you have created your birthday email and configured your email settings, there is one more optional step that you may wish to undertake.
If you wish to offer a discount to your customers as part of their Birthday email, then we recommend that you use the auto-generated birthday discount feature that is built into the Happy Birthday app.
This feature will generate a unique Birthday Discount Link for each customer that signs-up to your Birthday Club. The feature ensures that a new unique discount will be generated each year for that customer. There is no need to change static discount codes or worry about the code being misused if it gets out into the public domain.
We've put together a separate guide explaining how to include the Birthday Discount Link into your Klaviyo email template. Please read our guide on adding the birthday discount link to your Klaviyo Birthday email template for more information.
Almost done! Liven the Flow!
Once you've customised your Birthday Email Template, your Klaviyo Birthday Email Campaign is ready for launch! All you need to do when you are ready is to liven the Email action within the Birthday Email Flow.
To do this, open the Birthday Email Flow, click on the Email action, and in the bottom left-hand side of the page, change the Send Status to LIVE:
That's it! Sit back and enjoy delighting your customers on their birthday!
Growing your Birthday Club with Klaviyo Forms
If you use Klaviyo forms on your site to gather subscribers for your mailing list, then why not also collect the subscribers birthdate within the same sign-up form? With our new Klaviyo Forms feature, new subscribers that contain a birthdate in their profile will automatically be pushed straight into the Happy Birthday app.
To find out more, read our guide on growing your Birthday Club with Klaviyo Forms.
Advanced Birthday Flow examples
If you'd like some suggestions about more advanced Birthday Flows, then please take a look at these Birthday Flow examples from Klaviyo
Need any help?
We appreciate that our integration with Klaviyo can be a bit tricky to set-up, so if at any time you need help, then please do just get in touch and we'll be more than happy to help!