Automate Birthday Wishes with Zapier and Google Calendar

In the digital age, personal touches like sending birthday emails can make a significant impact in maintaining relationships with clients, colleagues, and friends. Harnessing the power of automation tools like Zapier, in conjunction with Google Calendar, can streamline this process and ensure that you never miss an opportunity to send those important birthday greetings.

Firstly, what is Zapier? Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your favorite apps, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, and more. You can connect two or more apps to automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration.

Here’s a simple guide on how to use Zapier to send automated birthday emails using Google Calendar:

1. Before setting up your Zap, ensure that you have your contacts' birthdays stored in a Google Calendar with notifications.


2. Navigate to the Zapier website and create an account or log in if you already have one.


3. Click on ‘Make a Zap’ to start creating your automated workflow.


4. Choose Google Calendar as your trigger app and select ‘Event Start’ as the trigger event. This tells Zapier to initiate an action when a Google Calendar event is about to begin.


5. Connect your Google Calendar account and choose the specific calendar where you track birthdays.


6. Set up the trigger by specifying that it should only run for events with the word ‘Birthday’ in the title (or another identifier you've used for birthday events) and set the time before the event for Zapier to trigger, such as 1 day before.


7. Now, select your email service provider (such as Gmail) as the action app.


8. Choose ‘Send Email’ as the action to be performed by Zapier once the trigger condition is met.


9. Connect your email service provider account and compose the email template you wish to send. Remember to personalize your message and use the correct name field pulled from the Google Calendar event.


10. Test your Zap thoroughly to ensure that everything is working correctly.


11. Once fully tested, turn your Zap on, and you now have an automated system in place to send out birthday wishes to your contacts!

Additional tips:

• Personalize your emails further by including merge tags that can pull information such as the recipient's name or age directly from your calendar event.


• Monitor your Zaps' activity in your Zapier dashboard to ensure it's running smoothly.

Using Zapier to automate birthday emails is not just convenient; it also adds a personal touch to your professional and personal communication. It’s a simple set-up that can translate into lasting relationships and consistent outreach.

For those looking to optimize business processes or personal workflows, our development and technology consulting services can help you integrate and maximize tools like Zapier and Google Calendar. Contact us to discover more about automating and streamlining your daily tasks.