The Start Block determines what criteria your contact needs to meet to enter the work flow. You will determine the criteria by selecting a trigger type, and configuring your audience. 

1. Workflow trigger options.
   • Subscription event: Trigger workflow when contacts subscribes to one, many, or all contact lists.
   • Contact Property Update (CPU) event: Trigger workflow when a contact property is updated.
2. Segment your audience (optional)
   • Select or create a segment from your existing segments.
   • Create a custom Filter: segment your audience by creating a segment that is only available within the workflow. 

Example start block configurations:

• Contact subscribed to any contact list and is located in France.
• Contacts subscribing to the contact list "Newsletter".
• Contacts subscribed to either "Newsletter" or "Promotions" and belong to an "Engaged User" segment.

Once you have configured your start block to define what criteria you audience must match to enter the workflow, you will start designing the customer journey. 

Automatically sends a predefined email to contacts upon reaching this stage of the workflow.

• Edit design: Customize your email template content.
• Campaign Name: Provide a name to identify your campaign.

Allows managing your contacts within specified lists:

• Subscribe to a list: Adds and subscribes the contact to a selected list.
• Add to a list and resubscribe: Adds the contact and resubscribes if already present.
• Add to a list without subscribing: Adds the contact without altering subscription status.
• Unsubscribe from a list: Removes contact subscription from the selected list.
• Delete from a list: Completely removes the contact from the selected list.

Enables updating existing properties of your contacts:

• Select the contact property you wish to update from available properties (e.g., age, city, birthday).
• Define the new value to be applied.

When using the condition block, you can evaluate the contact against criteria to determine which route in the workflow they will enter by selecting a segment. 

• The criteria for the condition is set by segments or custom filters
• Contacts that don't meet any conditions will go through a default "fallback" path.

Example:

A condition can be applied to determine if the contact has recently engaged by creating a filter using "Has opened an email in the last X days." If the recipient has opened an email sent within the last X days, they will exit the workflow. If they haven’t opened any, they will receive a new email.

The event block waits until an event has occured before the contact moves further along in the workflow. To configure the event block you will need to select:

• The event type: subscribe, unsubscribe, or contact property update.
• Configure the fallback timer: This ensures that a contact is never stuck in the workflow because the event never occurs. 

This block allows you to determine when the contact will move to the next step in the journey by setting a delay timer, custom date filter, or date property timer. 

• The Delay Timer allows you to delay the next step in the workflow by minutes, hours, or days.
• The Custom Date Timer will delay the next step based on a set date. Once you select the date, you will determine if you want it to be a one time occurrence, or happen on a recurring annually/monthly basis. 

• The Date Property Timer allows you to delay the next step based on a contact property date. (e.g., birthday).

If you want more precision on when the email sends, all three timer types allow you to specify at what time of day you would like the email to send, and on what days of the week you would like the email to send. 

The exit block represents the end of a workflow for contact. A workflow can have many exit blocks for each path represented in the workflow, and each exit block allows you to determine if the contact should be allowed back into the workflow if they match the start block trigger criteria again.

With Mailjet’s automation builder, you can easily create workflows that trigger on recurring dates—perfect for birthdays, membership anniversaries, or renewal reminders. 

Below is a step-by-step example for setting up a birthday email workflow:

Workflow Structure Overview

The workflow consists of three main steps:

1. Trigger: When the contact's birthday is updated.
2. Timer: Wait until the next yearly occurrence of the birthday.
3. Action: Send a birthday email.

1. Define the Trigger (Contact Property Update)

Start by creating a new workflow and selecting the trigger "Contact property update".

• Set the contact property filter to birthday (date-time property).
• Apply a segment: Add a condition for “Is in list” and select the contact list you'd like to target (e.g., MyFirstTest).

2. Add a Timer (Wait Until Next Occurrence)

Add a Timer block after the trigger.

• Choose the birthday property.
• Set it to "Activate on next yearly occurrence".

• Optional: Specify a time of day, day(s) of the week, or apply a delay if needed.

3. Configure the Email (Send Email)

Add a Send Email block after the Timer.

• Create your birthday email template.
• Example subject: “🎂 Happy Birthday from all of us!”

4. Enable Yearly Looping

Connect the end of the workflow back to the Timer to ensure it repeats every year on the contact's birthday.

📝 Tips

• Run tests with dummy contacts to verify the flow.
• You can reuse this setup for other recurring events like anniversaries, renewal reminders, or loyalty milestones.