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Trigger events: Date-based

When using our automation tool, there are multiple trigger types to choose from: email signup, contact import, field change, link click, and date-based. A date-based trigger fires a workflow based on a date stored in a contact’s record like a birthday, anniversary, appointment date, etc.

Date field formats

To import dates for contact fields like birthdates, use any of the following formats:

  • MM/DD/YYYY
  • M/D/YYYY
  • MM-DD-YYYY
  • YYYY-MM-DD

If you do not use one of the acceptable date field formats listed above, then your import will likely fail. Below is a list of some of the date field formats that we know for sure will cause import errors:

  • MM.DD.YYYY
  • YYYY/MM/DD
  • YYYY.MM.DD
  • M-D-YYYY
  • M.D.YYYY
  • YYYY/M/D
  • YYYY.M.D
  • DD/MM/YYYY
  • DD-MM-YYYY
  • DD/M/YYYY

How to use the date-based trigger

To select the date-based trigger, follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to your Automation tab.
  2. Click on the Create new workflow button.
  3. Click on Choose your trigger event.
  4. In the panel on the right, select Date-based.
  5. Click on the Next button.
  6. Select a date field from the list. If you have not created a date field yet, you’ll need to do that first.
  7. Once you’ve made your selection, click on the Next button.
  8. Select whether you’d like the workflow to fire annually on the anniversary of the date in the field or whether you want it to fire once on the specific date.
  9. Click on the Next button.
  10. Click on the Confirm button.

When do date-based automations fire?

By default, campaigns in date-based workflows send at 12:00 am Pacific time. This can be offset, which has the potential to add confusion. As a result, when we talk about date-based workflows, there’s three important times to keep in mind: the cutoff time, the trigger time, and the send time.

Looking at the screenshot below, a contact whose birthday is January 1st will trigger this automation at 12:00 am Pacific time on January 2nd. The mailing will send three days later at 12:00 am Pacific on January 5th. The cutoff time to add this contact to the audience with the correct date in their Birthdate field is 7:00 pm Central / 5:00 pm Pacific on January 1st.

Send time

Send time refers to the date and time that an automated campaign is sent from our servers. It can match the trigger time, but it doesn’t always. The first step of a workflow can be Wait, which pushes the mailing back to step two of the workflow. When this happens, the send time is offset from the trigger time by the number of hours, days, or weeks in the waiting period.

In the screenshot above, the send time has been offset from the trigger time by three days. The send time is indicated by the green box, while the trigger time is indicated by the orange box.

Trigger time

The trigger time is when the workflow “starts its clock” and is determined by two criteria: the date in the contact’s field and the Start workflow box outlined in orange above.

The trigger time does not have to match the date in the contact’s field. If you click on the Start workflow box, you can set the automation to fire before, on, or after the date in the contact’s field. In the example above, the workflow will be triggered one day after the date in the Birthdate field. Once a contact triggers the automation, they proceed to step one of the workflow.

Cutoff time

In order to trigger the workflow, contacts must be in the audience, with the correct date in their field before 7:00 pm Central time / 5:00 pm Pacific time the night before the trigger date. Contacts who are added after the cutoff time will not be eligible to trigger the workflow, as this is when our system begins preparing the list of contacts who will trigger the workflow at midnight.

Date-based automations and integrations

If you are adding contacts to your audience through an integration, the API, an SFTP sync, or any other type of audience sync, you run the risk of contacts missing the cutoff time and failing to trigger a date-based workflow. As a result, we recommend offsetting your trigger time by 1 to 3 days, so that contacts are less likely to miss the workflow’s cutoff time.

Additional resources