1. Create an email
Building an email in Klaviyo is extremely simple with their drag and drop builder. You can also follow the same steps below to create an email for a flow since their email builder is the same for both types of emails.
To get started with creating an email in Klaviyo, click on "Email Templates" then click "Create Template". This will bring you to their email builder. This is a good way to get familiar with building an email in Klaviyo before learning to set up flows and send campaigns.
Here are the key elements to create emails that engages subscribers and converts customers:
Subject Line: The subject line is the main text an email subscriber sees in their inbox before they open the email. You want your subject lines to generate curiosity & interest for the reader to read the email.
Preview Text: The preview text is the additional information after the subject line that gives the reader more context on what the email is about within their inbox.
Navigation Bar: The navigation bar is typically in every email and directs the reader to key pages on your website.
Banner: A banner in an email is typically a short section above the header of the email to share more important or urgent information you want to draw readers' attention to.
Header: The header is the first thing a recipient sees when they open an email so it's important for it to be eye-catching and clearly communicate the purpose of the email. A header typically includes a call-to-action button directing the reader to your ecommerce store.
Body: The body is the main section of an email and contains the majority of the content such as images, text, and links to products. The body of an email should be well-organized, easy to read, relevant and valuable to the recipient.
Footer: The footer is the bottom section of an email and typically includes additional information such as the sender's contact information, social media links, and links to unsubscribe or manage email preferences. The footer is important for compliance with the laws and regulations and also provide additional information that can be useful to the recipient.
You can find email templates in Klaviyo or use a tool like Backbone to generate customized email templates for each of your email campaigns flows.
2. Set up segments
In Klaviyo, segments are different types of audiences you can create. You can think of segments as different ways to group your email list.
For example, you can create a segment of only email subscribers who have made 2 purchases.
To set up a segment in Klaviyo, click on "Create List/Segment", and select "Segment".
Segments are created from different types of audience properties and behaviors, which are called "conditions" in Klaviyo.
Properties are characteristics of your email subscribers, such as where they live or when they joined your email list. Common properties that you will use in creating segments are:
- Created: This is the date the individual joined your email list
- If someone is in or not a list: This is whether an individual is on a specific email list
- Behaviours are actions that your email subscribers do, such as opening an email or purchasing a product. When creating a segment in Klaviyo, you can select behaviours using the "what someone has done or not done" condition. A few common behavioral data you will use are:
- Has or has not made a purchase
- Has or has not opened an email in _____ days
- Has or has not clicked an email in _____ days
Here are a few basic segments you'll want to create in your Klaviyo account to start:
- Broad Audience (Opened 1x L180): This is a segment of email subscribers who have opened or clicked an email in the last 180 days
- Engaged (Open 1x L90): This is a segment of email subscribers who have opened or clicked an email in the last 90 days
- Engaged Recent Purchasers (Open 1x L90): This is a segment of email subscribers who have opened or clicked an email in the last 90 days & have made at least once purchase
- Engaged Non-Purchasers (Open 1x L90): This is a segment of email subscribers who have opened or clicked an email in the last 90 days & have never made a purchase
3. Send your first campaign
In Klaviyo, campaigns are manually sent marketing emails to a specific list or segment.
To build your first campaign, start by clicking on the "Create Campaign" button, select "Email Campaign" and name your campaign.
Next you'll need to select who will receive the email. This is where you'll select a specific email list or segment to send this email to.
It is generally a good practice to enable Smart Sending and Google Analytics. Smart Sending prevents email subscribers from receiving emails from you too often. Google Analytics tracking will integrate your Klaviyo email marketing data into Google Analytics automatically.
Next, you'll move on to the Email Builder to create your campaign, where you can follow the steps in Step #1 of this article.
Lastly, select the time you want to schedule your campaign to be sent out, or send it out immediately.
4. Set up an email flow
Email flows are an incredibly important part of any successful email marketing strategy because they generate automated revenue for your ecommerce store.
To set up an email flow, first navigate to your Klaviyo account and click the "Create Flow" button. You can also select "Browse Ideas" to look through Klaviyo's Flow Library which as pre-built flow templates.
Next, you'll need to configure your flow. There are a few key elements to setting up your flow properly:
Flow Trigger: The flow trigger determines what sets the flow in motion & gets a subscriber to enter the flow. For example, a flow that is triggered by the metric "Added To Cart" means that a subscriber will enter the flow when the add a product to cart.
Klaviyo provides a few different types of triggers. These are the 3 most common ones you'll get started with:
- List-triggered: Triggers when someone is added to a specific email list.
- Segment-triggered: Triggers when someone is added to a specific segment.
- Metric-triggered: Triggers when someone takes a specific action.
Flow Filters: The flow filter determines which subscribers enter the flow. For example, the same flow with the filter "has placed an order zero times over all time" means that a subscriber will only enter the flow if they have never made a purchase.
Klaviyo provides a few different types of triggers. These are the most common flow filters you'll use:
- Has placed an order _____ times over all time: This determines whether you want non-purchasers, one-time purchasers, or returning customers to enter the flow.
- Has entered the flow ______ times in the last _____ days: This determines how often you want someone to enter the same flow.
- Has placed order 0 times since entering this flow: This determines whether customers should exit the flow once they've made a purchase
Next, you'll start adding steps to the flow by adding in emails & delays. This determines what and when emails are sent to subscribers who enter the flow.
Lastly, you'll start building each of the emails within the flow using Klaviyo's email builder. You can find email templates in Klaviyo or use a tool like Backbone to generate customized email templates for each of your flows.
Here are the top 8 flows all ecommerce brands should set live first to generate predictable, automated revenue:
- Welcome Flow: Introduces email subscribers to your brand & converts them to make their first purchase. Learn more about how to build an effective Welcome Flow here.
- Browse Abandoned Flow: Converts shoppers who are browsing your products into customers. Learn more about how to build an effective Browse Abandoned Flow here.
- Add To Cart Flow: Converts shoppers who are adding products into their cart into customers. Learn more about how to build an effective Add To Cart Flow here.
- Abandoned Cart Flow: Converts shoppers who are starting checkout into customers. Learn more about how to build an effective Abandoned Cart Flow here.
- Post-Purchase Nurture Flow: Thanks customers after they've made a purchase and nurtures them. Learn more about how to build an effective Post-Purchase Nurture Flow here.
- Replenishment Flow: Reminders customers to repurchase a product they may be running out of. Learn more about how to build an effective Replenishment Flow here.
- Cross-Sell Flow: Introduces customers to other products they may like to get them to make another purchase. Learn more about how to build an effective Cross-Sell Flow here.
- Winback Flow: Re-engages customers who have not made a purchase in a while. Learn more about how to build an effective Cross-Sell Flow here.
Many of these flows are also available as a pre-built flow in Klaviyo's Flow Library. You can use a tool like Backbone to build you a customized email flow plan & flow email templates for your business.
5. See your email marketing performance
Obviously, once you've sent some emails, you'll want to be able to see how your email marketing campaigns and flow perform!
Navigate to Klaviyo's Dashboard and click "Performance" to see a high-level summary of your email marketing performance.
Here you can see the total amount of revenue you have generated from Klaviyo and the percentage that it makes up of your total ecommerce store revenue. You can also see a summary of each of the email flows and the amount of revenue they have generated.
To see your email campaign performance, click on the "Campaigns" tab. Here you'll be able to see a summary of your average engagement & revenue per recipient for your campaigns. You can also see a list of all the campaign you have sent, along with their open rate, click rate and revenue.
You can also click on any campaign to see more detailed performance of each individual campaign.
Becoming an Klaviyo Pro
As you progress in your email marketing skills, it is important to not only know how to use an email marketing automation platform like Klaviyo, but also how to build & execute a strategy that can effectively generate revenue from email marketing.
Our Beginner's Guide To Email Marketing covers everything you need to start doing email marketing for your ecommerce brand.
Here is a summary of the top skill sets you need to master to become a great email marketer:
Building & Optimizing Email Flows
Email flows should make up between 10-20% of all of the revenue for your ecommerce store. So mastering the strategy to build and optimize email flows is a critical skill for any email marketer. You want to start by making a list of all the email flows your ecommerce store needs, then building each of the emails in the flow.
You can use a tool like Backbone which will automatically create a prioritized list of email flows for your business along with customized email layouts.
Planning Email Marketing Calendars
Your email marketing calendar is your hub to plan and execute all of your email marketing projects. In other words, it is a plan for all the email campaigns and flows you will create and send each month. You want to plan an email marketing calendar each month that includes promotions, product launches, seasonal campaigns and email flows that you will be building and sending each day of the month.
You can use a tool like Backbone which will automatically generate a custom email marketing calendar for your ecommerce store each month easily.
Designing Emails That Convert
Lastly, as an email marketer, you want to make sure you're sending emails that engage your email subscribers and convert them into customers. This means designing emails that are eye-catching and optimized to get clicks and conversions. Pay attention to the layout and design of your emails and A/B test constantly to improve these metrics.
You can use a tool like Backbone which will automatically create a customized email layout for each of your campaigns and flows, that you can then export to Figma to design conversion-optimized emails.