Birthday texts

What it does

A birthday text goes to a contact on their birthday, from your business phone number, at the time you choose in your business's local time. Each person gets at most one birthday text a year.

Owners and admins set it up in Contacts, on the Automations tab. The words live on the Templates tab next to it.

The one you already have

If your business has a phone number connected, Marketli created an automation called Birthday text, switched off, with this message:

Happy birthday {{first_name}}! Wishing you a great day from all of us at {{company_name}}.

Open it to change the send time or who gets it, then switch it on. Nothing is sent until you do.

Who gets it

• Contacts whose birthday is today and who have a mobile number.
• Only the statuses you tick. Current clients and Past clients are ticked to start with; you can add Leads and Contacts.
• Never archived contacts, and never anyone who has replied STOP to your number.
• Birthdays come from each contact's record. Add them on the contact, in the edit window on the Contacts list, or with an import that has a date of birth column. An import fills in missing birthdays without changing anything else.

When it sends

• On the day, at the time you pick (7:00 am to 7:00 pm), in your business's timezone. The automation shows which timezone it is using; change it in Company settings.
• Anything not sent by 8:00 pm is skipped, so nobody gets a birthday text the next morning.
• A birthday on 29 February is wished on 28 February in other years.
• Switching it on only affects today's and future birthdays. It never catches up on past ones.

The message

• {{first_name}} is the person's preferred name when they have one, otherwise the first word of their name. You can also use {{name}}, {{company_name}} and {{sender_name}} (the sign-off name you type on the step).
• The text must name your business, with {{company_name}} or the name itself. A text that doesn't say who it's from is not sent, and shows as skipped in the run log.
• Only one birthday automation can be on at a time, so nobody gets two.

Let AI write each one

On the text step, switch on AI writes each one to send a short, personal message instead of the same words to everyone. Add a tone note if you like (for example warm, short, no exclamation marks).

• The AI only sees the person's first name, your business name, the sign-off name and your tone note. Nothing else about the person is used.
• Every message is checked before it goes: one standard text, plain characters, the word birthday, their first name and your business name included, no links, numbers or opt-out wording.
• If a message fails a check, or the AI can't be reached, your template is sent instead, and the run log says why.
• Up to 1,000 AI-written texts a month are included. After that your template is sent until the next month.

Seeing what happened

The run log under your automations lists each birthday text: who it went to, and whether it was sent or skipped and why (for example opted out or no phone). The text itself appears in the conversation for that person's number.