A birthday message that arrives on the day leaves nobody time to act on it. Your team cannot prepare an in-stay surprise, and the guest cannot book a table or claim an offer. The Birthday audience filter can match guests whose birthday is a set number of days away, so the message goes out with enough notice.
The four ways the Birthday filter can match
The Birthday filter has a single dropdown with four options.
Today. Matches guests whose birthday falls on the day the audience runs.
Days ahead. You enter a number in the Days from now field, and the filter matches guests whose birthday is exactly that many days from today. The field defaults to 1.
Exact. You pick a Month and a Day, and the filter matches guests with that birthday.
Between. You pick two Month and Day pairs, and the filter matches birthdays that fall between them.
Every option has an Exclude selected checkbox that inverts the filter, so you can remove the matching guests from an audience instead of keeping them.
How Days ahead works
It matches exactly, not within a window. Setting Days from now to 3 matches only guests whose birthday is exactly three days away. It does not match everyone with a birthday in the coming three days.
Each guest is reached once. A Recurring Broadcast that repeats daily re-evaluates its audience on every run, so each guest falls into the audience on one day only: the number of days ahead you chose.
The turn of the year is handled. Counting forward from late December into January works as you would expect, as does counting across a leap year.
The other options are unaffected. Today, Exact, and Between behave the same way whether or not you use Days ahead.
How to set this up?
Open the audience builder and select Add Filter.
Choose Birthday.
In the filter's dropdown, choose Days ahead.
In Days from now, enter how many days before the birthday you want to reach the guest, for example 3.
Tick Exclude selected only if you want to remove these guests from the audience rather than target them.
Save the audience.
Use the audience in a Recurring Broadcast that repeats daily, so it is re-evaluated each day and reaches each guest at the point you chose before their birthday.
Examples
Three days ahead. A birthday offer or discount code, sent early enough that the guest can book something before the day.
Seven days ahead. A week of notice on who is celebrating soon, so there is time to prepare an in-stay surprise for guests who will be with you on the day.
One day ahead. A short message the day before, for guests who are already in-house.
What this does not do
It matches one day, not a spread. To cover a range of days, add several Birthday filters or use the Between option.
The day count follows Bookboost's date. Guests in distant time zones can shift by a day around midnight. This is the same behaviour as the Today option.
Guests born on 29 February are matched only in leap years.
A birthdate has to be on the guest's profile. Guests with no birthdate stored cannot be matched by this filter, whichever option you use. To find them, use the Missing profile info filter.
Common questions
Does this match everyone with a birthday in the next few days?
No. It matches only guests whose birthday is exactly the number of days away that you set in Days from now. For a spread of days, add several Birthday filters or use the Between option.
Will a guest be reached more than once?
No, as long as the audience runs once a day. The audience is re-evaluated on each run, and a guest matches on one day only.
What happens to birthdays at the turn of the year?
They are matched correctly. Counting forward from late December rolls into January, and leap years are handled.
Do I need to change my existing birthday audiences?
No. Audiences using Today, Exact, or Between continue to behave exactly as before.
What to do next
See Audience filters: guest and profile, where Birthday sits alongside the rest of the group.
Getting help
Open Help at the bottom of the left menu and choose Talk to Us, or email support@bookboost.io.