Why One Member Is Getting Three Birthday Emails, and How to Fix It

 "How hard can it be to send a happy birthday email?"

That’s what most marketers might think. However, in the world of credit union marketing, where legacy systems, complex member relationships, and intricate data structures prevail, even the simplest automations can become unexpected challenges. 

In this blog post, we’ll walk you through a real-world example of how something as seemingly innocuous as a birthday email exposed hidden data issues, and how we solved them.

The Challenge: When "Simple" Isn’t So Simple.

A credit union approached us with a goal: improve member engagement by sending out automated birthday emails using HubSpot.

What sounds like a straightforward task quickly revealed the importance of understanding and structuring data correctly. In preparing the workflow, we identified a key consideration: some members had multiple memberships associated with the same contact email address. Without accounting for this, a birthday automation could have led to multiple emails being sent to the same person on their birthday.

Although this never occurred in practice, because we had planned for it, it highlighted an often-overlooked complexity in credit union data structures. It also reaffirmed the importance of designing with nuance from the start.

The Root Cause: One Contact, Multiple Memberships

Here’s what we uncovered:

• Many credit union members had multiple memberships, even for the same person (e.g., one for an indirect auto loan, another for a savings account, or a joint account with a spouse).
  
  
• Each membership was associated with the same email address.
  
  
• HubSpot's workflow logic, by default, sent emails based on member records, not on deduplicated contact intelligence.
  
  

In short, HubSpot was doing precisely what it was instructed to do: sending a birthday email for each membership record that had a matching birth date. But for the actual human on the receiving end, it felt like spam.

The Solution: Smart Workflow Filtering

To fix the issue, we created a smarter birthday workflow. Here's what we did:

1. Data Modeling: We ensured that member records were properly associated with a unique contact record.
   
   
2. Custom Workflow Logic: If a contact was associated with multiple memberships, we used API calls to identify:
   
   
   • Which membership had the oldest open date
     
     
   • Whether the birth dates matched across records
     
     
3. Single Send Rule: Only the oldest membership record with today’s birthday triggered the email, preventing duplication.
   
   

The Outcome: One Email, Many Happy Members

With this approach, the workflow behaved exactly as intended:

• One birthday email per person
  
  
• No duplicates
  
  
• Better trust and professionalism for the credit union
  
  

Why It Matters for Credit Unions

For marketers in financial services, the devil is in the data. Legacy core systems and fragmented digital tools make it easy to miss edge cases like this one. However, member trust is fragile, and even minor automation missteps can erode your credibility.

This story is a great reminder: clever marketing starts with smart data. And HubSpot, when configured correctly, gives you the flexibility to adapt.

Final Takeaway

If your credit union is using or considering HubSpot, don’t just assume that "simple" workflows will be simple. Make sure your automation logic reflects your data reality. And if you’re not sure where to start, we’re here to help. Reach out here