Bring back past clients automatically
“Clients come in once or twice and then drift away, and I don't have time to personally reach out to hundreds of people.”
Lead Management
Send client birthday offers without remembering them
“I know a birthday message brings people back in, but I never remember and I'm not trawling a spreadsheet every week.”
The short answer
Let the system that already stores client birthdays send the message for you. Most booking and CRM tools collect a date of birth at intake and can trigger an email or text on the day without anyone checking a list. Set it once and it runs every year, reaching clients on the one day they are most likely to book something for themselves.
- ~1 hour/week back (estimated)
- 25 minutes to set up
- Easy difficulty
How we estimated that: Assumes an hour a month currently spent checking dates and sending individual messages, where it happens at all. This is a model, not a measurement — check it against your own numbers, because if the assumption does not match your business the figure will not either.
What you'll need
- Your booking system or CRM
If it already collects a date of birth at intake, check for a birthday or date-based automation before paying for anything.
We have not checked this tool's pricing ourselves yet, so we are not quoting it. Confirm current cost with the vendor. - Mailchimp free tier
Date-based automations exist on the free plan, with a contact limit above which it becomes paid.
Free until: 250 contacts and 1,000 email sends/mo on the Free plan (daily limit 500 emails). Sending is paused when limits are exceeded.
Watch the pricing: Essentials from $13/mo for 500 contacts (1,000 monthly sends); Standard from $20/mo for 500 contacts (6,000 monthly sends). 14-day free trial on Standard/Essentials reverts to paid unless downgraded. Overages apply on paid plans if contact/email limits are exceeded.
Pricing checked 2026-08-02 — source. - Klaviyo free tier
Stronger segmentation, free up to a contact and send ceiling.
Free until: Up to 250 active profiles, 500 email sends/month, $5 credit of mobile messages/month (SMS). Email support is limited to the first 60 days.
Watch the pricing: Paid plans scale by contacts/sends: e.g. Email plan starts at $20/mo (up to 500 contacts, 5,000 monthly email sends). Email + SMS plan starts at $35/mo. When free limits are hit, sending stops until upgraded.
Pricing checked 2026-08-02 — source.
We are not paid by any tool listed here. If a cheaper or better option exists, that's what you'll see.
Pricing above was checked on 2026-08-02. 1 of these 3 entries is still unverified. Vendors change their terms without notice, and free tiers do get withdrawn. We take no money from any vendor listed here. If something on this page is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
How to set it up
- Check whether you already collect date of birth
Most clinical intake forms do, for treatment eligibility. If it is on the form it is in the system, and you may need no new tool at all.
- Add the field if it is missing, and ask for day and month only
Year is not needed for a birthday message and asking for less gets more people to fill it in.
- Build one message and keep it short
A line that sounds like a person, and one clear thing they can do. A specific offer with an expiry outperforms a generic greeting because it gives a reason to act now.
- Set the trigger to fire on the day, in the morning
Find date-based, anniversary, or birthday automation in your tool. Morning beats evening — people book while the day still feels like theirs.
- Exclude anyone with a booking in the next fortnight
Someone already booked does not need an incentive to come in, and sending one costs you the discount for nothing.
- Send yourself a test with your own birthday set to tomorrow
Then change it back. Automations that fire on a date are the easiest kind to get silently wrong.
Common questions
- Is a discount necessary?
- No, and it is worth testing without one. A message that simply remembers the person performs well on its own. If you do add an offer, put an expiry on it or it will sit unused.
- What does it cost?
- Often nothing if your booking system already holds the birthday and can trigger on a date. Otherwise an email tool with a free tier covers it until your contact list outgrows the ceiling.
- Will this feel intrusive?
- Not if it is one message on the day and nothing else. It reads badly when it arrives days late, or when it is obviously a mail merge with the name in the wrong case.
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Tools change — if something here is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
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