Data-backed steps to grow faster with email & SMS
best practices based on an analysis of 143k brands
We analyzed 143K brands to better understand the actions that are driving growth and success. Now, we’re giving you data-backed best practices and next steps you can use to drive impact right away.
Table of contents
Executive summary
Best practices from top-performing brands
01
SMS marketing
02
Maximize your SMS revenue
Segmentation
04
Segment to increase order rate
List growth
03
Build your audience faster
Start driving more impact today. Sign up to get started with Klaviyo, or upgrade your account to get more sends.
Get started now
05
Multi-channel campaigns
Fuel growth with multi-channel campaigns
06
Automated flows
Drive more revenue per recipient
07
Priority checklist
Start growing like top-performing brands
08
What’s next?
How Klaviyo helps you succeed
Upgrade now
Table of Contents
Learn more
The 2024 benchmark report
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08
Executive summary SMS marketing List growth Segmentation Multi-channel campaigns Automated flows Priority checklist What's next
Get started
Quarter-over-quarter engagement rates are relatively steady—especially in email.
Most industries saw only marginal changes from one quarter to the next across average open rate, click rate, and placed order rate. The exception to this: some industries, like food and beverage, saw higher placed order rates and revenue per recipient in Q4 2023, but the largest increases are less than $0.04 in RPR, primarily in SMS marketing.
These days, shoppers expect sales all year, not just on Black Friday—year round, brands often compete for consumer attention with clever discounts and limited-time offers.
What does this mean for the wider ecommerce industry?
Brands that want to excel beyond the average will need to go beyond discounts to develop smarter digital relationships. Effectively using customer data for smarter segmentation and better personalisation is key to standing out. (Keep an eye out—more tactical advice on this later in the report.)
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
The fastest-growing brands on Klaviyo are seeing over 240% annual growth in Klaviyo-attributed value (KAV). Here’s what these brands are doing to drive those results—and how you can do the same.
If you aren’t using SMS, start now
Grow your list(s)
Segment your campaigns
Drive more revenue with campaigns
Add more automated flows
Segmentation increases click rates, order rates, and deliverability. Your active profiles are the most important part of your list. Active profiles are subscribers who have engaged in the last 180 days. Keep that part of your list growing, and active, with segmentation. Creating more segments helps you increase your campaign volume by sending smaller, more targeted campaigns to specific audiences.
Quickly grow your owned marketing revenue by launching SMS, and sending weekly SMS campaigns. Launch a pop-up form targeted to your email subscribers encouraging them to join your SMS list. Set up an SMS welcome series and send at least one campaign per week.
The bigger your audience, the more revenue you can bring in. You should have at least two sign-up forms live, but don't stop there. Encourage your email subscribers to join your SMS list, build a VIP audience, and add consent at check-out to get started. Use forms to grow your list and your first-party database so you can segment even further.
Across channels, top-performing brands send at least 12 campaigns per month across email and SMS. You can drive more growth with even just one campaign per week, and easily increase campaign volume with segmentation. Campaigns with an element of urgency work best, like product launches and limited-time offers. Gut-check your campaigns by asking, “Would I want to receive this?”
Flows drive the most revenue per recipient (RPR) because they send automatically based on someone’s behavior. One secret to flows is more flows, not necessarily complex flows. Maximize flow revenue by adding more automations across the customer journey. Start with welcome flows for email and SMS, browse and cart abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, sunset, and VIP flows.
Most of the strategic recommendations in this guide are based on your brand’s list size:
A list size under 20,000 subscribers.
Entrepreneur
20K
Small business
20-200K
A list size between 20,000 and 200,000 subscribers.
Enterprise
200K+
A list size bigger than 200,000 subscribers.
See the best practices in action
Otherland grows revenue from Klaviyo flows 157% in first quarter with Klaviyo SMS
Bearpaw grows their email list 48% YoY with Klaviyo
Marine Layer grows revenue 40% YoY using email, SMS, and POS integration
Otherland increased flow KAV 157%, grew their welcome flow revenue 3.3x after adding SMS, and drove 3.8x the median SMS campaign RPR for accounts like theirs.
Implementing targeted pop-ups increased form conversion rate to 2.7x the median for their closest 100 peers, and a custom SMS welcome flow helped contribute to a 40% growth in KAV.
An omnichannel marketing approach with Klaviyo as the hub has helped Marine Layer sustain growth for nearly a decade.
Read their story
Back to top
Prev
Next
Your SMS marketing checklist
Use a multi-step form to collect both email and phone numbers. Use the Klaviyo AI form optimization tool to A/B test form timing for optimal conversion. If you’re importing historic SMS consent, make sure you are not reconsenting profiles that have recently unsubscribed.
Best practices & strategic guidance
Follow the best practices below to grow your SMS list, optimize your SMS flows, build SMS campaigns, and drive more revenue.
Launch at least 2 flows actively sending SMS. Besides the SMS welcome series, which should be SMS-only, these can be SMS-only or combined email & SMS flows. Prioritize the following flows: Send your first SMS campaign. Send 4 SMS campaigns per month, at least one per week. Segment your SMS sends to increase volume to 2-3 per week with personalized messages. Maintain a 7% SMS click rate.
• Welcome series • Abandoned cart • Order confirmation
• Back-in-stock • Price drop
SMS forms and list growth
SMS flows
For attribution purposes, always include a shortened or branded link in SMS messages within flows. In Klaviyo, the “automatically shorten links” button is checked by default in your account. Do not uncheck it, and you’ll be good to go. To avoid sending text messages outside of normal marketing communication hours, turn on SMS quiet hours for all SMS messages in your flows. Use Smart Sending in SMS messages within flows, or filter them effectively to avoid any overlap across other flows. This is especially important if you have multiple abandonment flows live (i.e., browse, cart, and check-out abandonment). Include virtual contact cards in your SMS welcome series to allow subscribers to save your contact. Adding your brand logo helps the user immediately recognize your brand to help cut through all the noise in the text message inbox. Adhere to local compliance laws and regulations regarding what kinds of marketing messages you can send via text and when.
SMS campaigns
For attribution purposes, always include a shortened or branded link in SMS campaign messages. In Klaviyo, the “automatically shorten links” button is checked by default in your account. Do not uncheck it, and you’ll be good to go. Do not put links at the beginning of a campaign. Campaigns with links at the beginning of the message have a 2% lower median click rate. If you are considering using MMS—adding images or gifs to SMS—consider running an A/B test to see whether SMS or MMS will prove more effective for a given audience or campaign. MMS is more expensive, and 95% of A/B tests show that SMS performs the same or better in terms of click rates and order rate—at a reduced cost. When considering if you should use MMS vs SMS, keep in mind that MMS also gives you more characters to work with, so if you are planning on sending a longer message (especially with emojis) it might make sense to send it as an MMS. Testing what works best for your brand and the type of message is important.
If you do nothing else: Send at least one SMS campaign per week
While top-performing brands execute multiple tactics to see results, adding SMS as a channel is a top strategy to accelerate your business growth. If you aren’t already, start sending at least one SMS campaign per week.
Setting the stage matters: When adding the SMS channel, make sure you turn on an SMS welcome flow. This is a critical early step in launching your SMS program because it sets expectations with your audience. Not sure what to send? Get actionable SMS copywriting tips, or use SMS AI to generate optimized, compliant SMS copy suggestions in seconds.
Start sending texts
3 SMS campaigns use cases from Fast Growing Trees, Otherland, and Linksoul
More inspiration & use cases
How to improve your SMS campaign click rates:
Write shorter SMS messages. Shorter SMS messages, in terms of characters and new lines, earn higher click rates. Personalize your SMS campaigns. Personalized campaigns earn higher click rates. This can be as simple as adding in a first name, or more complex like targeting specific content to specific segments. A/B test emojis in SMS messages. Campaigns featuring emojis, on average, earn lower click rates and are generally more expensive. Consider A/B testing what works best for your brand.
Klaviyo compliance settings
The Klaviyo defaults are set with compliance in mind. The compliance settings are best handled by teams with an outside counsel that want to adjust their SMS marketing to match regional normals. If you are new to SMS marketing, you'll find leaving the defaults enabled makes it easier.
Quick tip
Regulatory risk & importing SMS consent
People who initially consented to SMS but later unsubscribed pose regulatory risk. To minimize risk, aim to import your SMS subscribers into Klaviyo as soon as you download the list from your previous provider. Learn more about importing SMS consent.
• Drop the contact card a few messages into your welcome series. Offer value in the first few messages before you ask someone to save your number in their phone.
Write shorter SMS messages Shorter SMS messages, in terms of characters and new lines, earn higher click rates. Personalize your SMS campaigns Personalized campaigns earn higher click rates. This can be as simple as adding in a first name, or more complex like targeting specific content to specific segments. A/B test emojis in SMS messages Campaigns featuring emojis, on average, earn lower click rates and are generally more expensive. Consider A/B testing what works best for your brand.
While top-performing brands execute multiple tactics to see results, adding SMS as a channel is a top strategy to accelerate your business growth. If you aren’t already, start sending at least one SMS campaign per week. Setting the stage matters: When adding the SMS channel, make sure you turn on an SMS welcome flow. This is a critical early step in launching your SMS program because it sets expectations with your audience. Not sure what to send? Get actionable SMS copywriting tips, or use SMS AI to generate optimized, compliant SMS copy suggestions in seconds.
Launch at least 1 form collecting SMS consent. Use click to text for mobile forms. Collect SMS consent at check-out––whether you use Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento 2, or another platform. Collect SMS consent through Facebook Lead Ads and send those contacts to Klaviyo. Launch an SMS-only welcome series flow. Include a virtual contact card in your welcome series. Virtual contact cards can reduce unsubscribe rates by 3x, according to Klaviyo research. Drop the contact card a few messages into your welcome series. Offer value in the first few messages before you ask someone to save your number in their phone.
Launch at least 1 form collecting SMS consent. Use click to text for mobile forms. Collect SMS consent at check-out––whether you use Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento 2, or another platform. Collect SMS consent through Facebook Lead Ads and send those contacts to Klaviyo. Launch an SMS-only welcome series flow. Include a virtual contact card in your welcome series. Virtual contact cards can reduce unsubscribe rates by 3x, according to Klaviyo research. Drop the contact card a few messages into your welcome series. Offer value in the first few messages before you ask someone to save your number in their phone. Launch at least 2 flows actively sending SMS. Besides the SMS welcome series, which should be SMS-only, these can be SMS-only or combined email & SMS flows. Prioritize the following: Send 4 SMS campaigns per month, at least one per week. Segment your SMS sends to increase volume to 2-3 per week with personalized messages. Maintain a 7% SMS click rate.
Launch at least 1 form collecting SMS consent. Use click to text for mobile forms. Collect SMS consent at check-out––whether you use Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento 2, or another platform. Collect SMS consent through Facebook Lead Ads and send those contacts to Klaviyo. Launch an SMS-only welcome series flow. Include a virtual contact card in your welcome series. Virtual contact cards can reduce unsubscribe rates by 3x, according to Klaviyo research. Drop the contact card a few messages into your welcome series. Offer value in the first few messages before you ask someone to save your number in their phone. Launch at least 2 flows actively sending SMS. Besides the SMS welcome series, which should be SMS-only, these can be SMS-only or combined email & SMS flows. Prioritize the following flows: Welcome series Abandoned cart Order confirmation Back-in-stock Price drop Send your first SMS campaign. Send 4 SMS campaigns per month, at least one per week. Segment your SMS sends to increase volume to 2-3 per week with personalized messages. Maintain a 9% SMS click rate.
Drop the contact card a few messages into your welcome series. Offer value in the first few messages before you ask someone to save your number in their phone.
Welcome series Abandoned cart Order confirmation Back-in-stock Price drop Send your first SMS campaign.
The bigger your audience, the more revenue you can bring in. You should have at least two sign-up forms live on your website, but don't stop there. Encourage your email subscribers to join your SMS list, build a VIP audience, and add consent at check-out to get started. Use forms to grow your list and your first-party database so you can segment even further.
Your list growth checklist
Launch at least two on-site forms deployed (i.e., pop-up with teaser plus embed). Maintain an average monthly submit rate > 3.0%. Collect consent at check-out.
Follow the best practices below to grow your list size and collect more first-party data that you can use to personalize both your retention and acquisition strategies.
For entrepreneurs
Add a footer form: For site visitors who scroll to the bottom of your website, incentivize sign-up by offering updates on new products and promotions. Why? This is a non-obtrusive, low-commitment, but effective way to encourage a new site visitor to express interest in building a relationship with your brand. What: Given the footer form’s position on the website, ask for an email address only to improve the volume of opt-ins. Consider offering a promotional discount to new subscribers here if you also offer one in other lead capture methods.
If you do nothing else: Publish at least two forms to expedite list growth
High-growth brands have at least two forms live on their site—typically one pop-up and one embedded form.
Form conversion rate matters: The top 10% have a 3.6% conversion rate—and they’re continually optimizing it. What to do next: Launch at least two forms on your site—one for new visitors and another targeting email subscribers, encouraging them to join your SMS list. Then, A/B test offers to increase conversion. Learn how to build and customize your sign-up forms.
Launch more forms
4 list growth use cases from Creekside Nursery, Bear Paw, Caden Lane and Leonisa
Small businesses
Enterprise brands
Select a segment to dive deeper:
Ask for email consent during check-out: This is a method to collect email marketing consent at the time a shopper is placing an order. Why? When customers complete the check-out process, they already have to enter their email address. This is an excellent opportunity to ask customers if they would also like to receive email marketing. What: Include a checkbox, default unchecked, where a customer can indicate they would like to receive marketing follow-up from your brand––for both email and SMS.
Launch an exit intent pop-up form: Trigger a pop-up form on exit intent to incentivize sign-up by offering updates on new products and promotions alongside a discount. Why? For new site visitors who have not yet subscribed or become “identified” to your business, capturing their information for future marketing is critical to building your brand’s audience. Once you have their email, you can work to convert these visitors into paying customers through flows and campaigns. What: Ask for an email address and a phone number for SMS marketing. Offer a promotional discount your brand is comfortable with to acquire this new lead (common incentive: 10% off a first purchase, with an expiration of 7 days to create urgency). If there’s information that would help you personalize future marketing—pet type, skin care problem, etc.—you can also collect that here. Adding more fields to your form may reduce completion rates, so A/B test before committing to a direction. Note: Consider using an exit intent pop-up for first-time visitors. Always use a teaser-style form to improve opt-in rates as shoppers continue returning to your site.
For small businesses
Prioritize experimentation within your mainstay forms.
Optimize your forms with AI: Klaviyo AI’s forms display optimization feature tests multiple versions of your form to find the highest-converting display time. No need to run A/B test after A/B test to find the best display time—Klaviyo AI does this for you, then sets the winning form live.
Experiment with different types of forms: Consider A/B testing fly-out forms to grab attention and promote key products or bundles when existing customers land on your website. Target these forms to segments for cross- or up-sell opportunities, where the CTA is to view a given item or add to cart. This is a great and low-lift way to personalize your web experience.
Experiment with your homepage sign-up form: Drive the majority of your new sign-ups with your homepage sign-up form by adjusting: Pop-up timing: how soon the form appears after a visitor lands on your site Content: different incentives, or no incentive Targeting: different forms for customers who have not opted into marketing vs. net-new leads
For enterprise brands
Take advantage of your high visitor volume and drive incremental conversion gains by experimenting with more nuanced aspects of your forms.
Coordinate your use of ad networks with Klaviyo
Sync your subscriber list to a custom audience in Meta and Google, then create a lookalike audience to find similar shoppers. This will drive more high-quality traffic to your website.
Personalize ever further with Klaviyo's API
Add a footer form: For site visitors who scroll to the bottom of your website, incentivize sign-up by offering updates on new products and promotions. Why? This is a non-obtrusive, low-commitment, but effective way to encourage a new site visitor to express interest in building a relationship with your brand. What: Given the footer form’s position on the website, ask for an email address only to improve the volume of opt-ins. Consider offering a promotional discount to new subscribers here if you also offer one in other lead capture methods. Ask for email consent during check-out: This is a method to collect email marketing consent at the time a shopper is placing an order. Why? When customers complete the check-out process, they already have to enter their email address. This is an excellent opportunity to ask customers if they would also like to receive email marketing. What: Include a checkbox, default unchecked, where a customer can indicate they would like to receive marketing follow-up from your brand––for both email and SMS. Launch an exit intent pop-up form: Trigger a pop-up form on exit intent to incentivize sign-up by offering updates on new products and promotions alongside a discount. Why? For new site visitors who have not yet subscribed or become “identified” to your business, capturing their information for future marketing is critical to building your brand’s audience. Once you have their email, you can work to convert these visitors into paying customers through flows and campaigns. What: Ask for an email address and a phone number for SMS marketing. Offer a promotional discount your brand is comfortable with to acquire this new lead (common incentive: 10% off a first purchase, with an expiration of 7 days to create urgency). If there’s information that would help you personalize future marketing—pet type, skin care problem, etc.—you can also collect that here. Adding more fields to your form may reduce completion rates, so A/B test before committing to a direction. Note: Consider using an exit intent pop-up for first-time visitors. Always use a teaser-style form to improve opt-in rates as shoppers continue returning to your site.
Coordinate your use of ad networks with Klaviyo.
Sync your subscriber list to a custom audience in Meta and Google, then create a lookalike audience to find similar shoppers. This will drive more high-quality traffic to your website. If you’re using Meta, Google, or other channels for acquisition, create an on-site form targeting traffic coming from those platforms. This way, you can create a consistent experience from your ad back to your website. For example: If you are offering a 5% discount on your Facebook ad, create a pop-up form that reiterates that offer for traffic coming to your site from Facebook.
High-growth brands have at least two forms live on their site—typically one pop-up and one embedded form. Form conversion rate matters: The top 10% have a 3.6% conversion rate—and they’re continually optimizing it. What to do next: Launch at least two forms on your site—one for new visitors and another targeting email subscribers, encouraging them to join your SMS list. Then, A/B test offers to increase conversion. Learn how to build and customize your sign-up forms.
Prioritize experimentation within your mainstay forms. Experiment with your homepage sign-up form: Drive the majority of your new sign-ups with your homepage sign-up form by adjusting: Pop-up timing: how soon the form appears after a visitor lands on your site Content: different incentives, or no incentive Targeting: different forms for customers who have not opted into marketing vs. net-new leads Experiment with different types of forms: Consider A/B testing fly-out forms to grab attention and promote key products or bundles when existing customers land on your website. Target these forms to segments for cross- or up-sell opportunities, where the CTA is to view a given item or add to cart. This is a great and low-lift way to personalize your web experience. Optimize your forms with AI: Klaviyo AI’s forms display optimization feature tests multiple versions of your form to find the highest-converting display time. No need to run A/B test after A/B test to find the best display time—Klaviyo AI does this for you, then sets the winning form live.
Use embedded Klaviyo forms to personalize banners or sections of your site, or leverage Klaviyo’s group membership APIs for more robust and holistic web personalization powered by Klaviyo data. (Note: This feature requires Klaviyo CDP.)
Use UTM targeting to personalize form experiences based on the source of new traffic.
If you’re using Meta, Google, or other channels for acquisition, create an on-site form targeting traffic coming from those platforms. This way, you can create a consistent experience from your ad back to your website. For example: If you are offering a 5% discount on your Facebook ad, create a pop-up form that reiterates that offer for traffic coming to your site from Facebook.
Introduce quizzes for more sophisticated lead capture.
Prioritize forms and quizzes for progressive profiling, to collect more information on both new and existing subscribers and enhance omnichannel personalization.
Use UTM targeting to personalize form experiences based on the source of new traffic. Introduce quizzes for more sophisticated lead capture. Prioritize forms and quizzes for progressive profiling, to collect more information on both new and existing subscribers and enhance omnichannel personalization.
Your segmentation checklist
Send 3/4 of campaigns to segments rather than lists. Use 8 or more unique segments per month for campaign sends. Use a tiered engagement segmentation strategy, or an RFM segmentation strategy.
Segmentation is a highly useful tool for achieving 3 key priorities:
Focus on a “less is more” approach when developing a segmentation strategy and target your fully engaged audience—those recently subscribed, or often opening and clicking emails—to maximize reach. If you’re new to segmentation, start here:
Build loyalty with your budding VIPs: Create a segment of customers who have purchased at least 3x. Then, foster a more personal relationship that will also increase their future average order value (AOV) and lifetime value (LTV). You can do this by sending them advanced notice of new releases or promotions, allowing them to pick out their own bundle of 2+ products to receive 5% off the bundle, inviting them to feature their favorite products on their social media in exchange for a free gift, sending them a survey to ask what more they would like to see from your marketing content, or sending them a survey to ask what products or services they most need right now in your company’s product category.
For regular weekly campaign sending, implement a tiered engagement segmentation strategy that looks like this:
Send 70% of campaigns to engaged profiles:
Send 10% of campaigns to the whole list:
Send 20% of campaigns to a broader audience:
When shaping a more advanced campaign strategy and building your audiences around engagement, consider recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM). As you build Klaviyo-recommended RFM segments, remember that segmentation is only half the battle. You also need to alter the language in your messages for that specific segment. Here are a few examples:
If you do nothing else: Make segmentation a critical part of your campaigns
The top 10% of fast-growing brands make segmentation a critical part of their campaigns, which keeps their spam and bounce rates low.
Segmenting by engagement level matters: Top-performing brands often implement a tiered engagement segmentation strategy in which they send 70% of campaigns to engaged profiles, 20% to a broader audience, and 10% to the whole list. Not sure where to start? Pick a few high-value segments, like repeat purchasers, new shoppers, or high-value customers, and craft campaigns specifically for them. Find more ideas in our best practices guide on creating an engagement-based sending strategy.
Build more segments
3 successful SMS & email segmentation use cases from Jenni Kayne, Huda Beauty, and Compass Coffee
For email, maintaining a good “sender reputation” so your emails land in recipient inboxes
For SMS, segment your most engaged SMS subscribers, and send messages to them multiple times per week
Across both channels, personalize messages to drive higher engagement rates
If the majority of your recipients do not open or click your emails, inbox providers will assume you’re sending spam and start to filter your emails to spam folders for all recipients. Using segmentation to only send to your engaged subscribers, or to simply exclude those who’ve stopped engaging from regular sends, is key to maintaining strong email deliverability.
Don’t ignore the rest of your SMS subscriber list, though. Aim for at least one SMS message to folks on your SMS list each week, monitoring engagement rates to see which parts of your audience respond best to which types of messages––and build segments from there.
Personalized emails and texts have significantly higher engagement rates compared to generic, one-size-fits-all marketing. Your key to personalized marketing is creating tailored audiences for strategic sends. By using segmentation to define a specific audience that you believe will be most interested in specific content you have prepared, you can deliver more personalized messages at scale.
PRIORITY #1
PRIORITY #2
PRIORITY #3
Launch location-specific campaigns: As you grow your customer base, begin to segment your audience by location. Send emails about an upcoming pop-up location to your Brooklyn base, if that’s where you will be. Or, let folks in Texas know they can find your new goods in H-E-B.
Keep baseline relationships in both email and SMS: Make sure each person on your email and SMS list, no matter how you are segmenting, is getting at least one message in that channel each week.
For high rollers and brand enthusiasts (VIPs): Prioritize advocacy and continued nurturing to ensure ongoing loyalty and repeat sales. Keep them coming back for more.
Retain and leverage
Perks, exclusivity, advocacy prompts
High rollers
Recent Frequent High value
Recent Frequent Low value
Recent Not frequent High value
Recent Not frequent Low value
Recent Frequent
Recent Not frequent
Core marketing audience
75% of your time goes here
Brand enthusiasts
Increse average order value
Related products, volume discount
Potential High rollers
Increase frequency
Tease perks, replenishment
Potential enthusiasts
Increse AOV or frequency
Best sellers, related products
Nearly theres
Nudge over the line
Sell value, FOMO, mild discounts
Waiting for wows
Push over the line
Limited deals, best offers
For “nearly theres” (prospects): Be more assertive. Know the pain points, highlight the value prop, and be persuasive to ask for that click
For potential enthusiasts and potential high rollers (customers): Be more delicate with your messaging. Entice them to come back for more, or for similar products.
Build your main campaign audience
Use this logic in Klaviyo to build your main campaign audience: Is consented to receive email marketing AND has been created in the last 90 days OR has opened at least one email in the last 90 days OR has clicked at least one email in the last 90 days
Focus on a “less is more” approach when developing a segmentation strategy and target your fully engaged audience—those recently subscribed, or often opening and clicking emails—to maximize reach. If you’re new to segmentation, start here: Build loyalty with your budding VIPs: Create a segment of customers who have purchased at least 3x. Then, foster a more personal relationship that will also increase their future average order value (AOV) and lifetime value (LTV). You can do this by sending them advanced notice of new releases or promotions, allowing them to pick out their own bundle of 2+ products to receive 5% off the bundle, inviting them to feature their favorite products on their social media in exchange for a free gift, sending them a survey to ask what more they would like to see from your marketing content, or sending them a survey to ask what products or services they most need right now in your company’s product category. Launch location-specific campaigns: As you grow your customer base, begin to segment your audience by location. Send emails about an upcoming pop-up location to your Brooklyn base, if that’s where you will be. Or, let folks in Texas know they can find your new goods in H-E-B. Keep a baseline relationship in both email and SMS with those who signed up for those types of messages: Make sure each person on your email and SMS list, no matter how you are segmenting, is getting at least one message in that channel each week.
For regular weekly campaign sending, implement a tiered engagement segmentation strategy that looks like this: Send 70% of campaigns to engaged profiles only: Here's what to send to this segment: Send 20% of campaigns to a broader audience: Here's what to send to this segment: Send 10% of campaigns to the whole list: Here's what to send to this segment:
When shaping a more advanced campaign strategy and building your audiences around engagement, consider recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM). As you build Klaviyo-recommended RFM segments, remember that segmentation is only half the battle. You also need to alter the language in your messages for that specific segment. Here are a few examples. For “nearly theres” (prospects): Be more assertive. Know the pain points, highlight the value prop, and be persuasive to ask for that click. For potential enthusiasts and potential high rollers (customers): Be more delicate with your messaging. Entice them to come back for more, or for similar products. For high rollers and brand enthusiasts (VIPs): Prioritize advocacy and continued nurturing to ensure ongoing loyalty and repeat sales. Keep them coming back for more.
The top 10% of fast-growing brands make segmentation a critical part of their campaigns, which keeps their spam and bounce rates low. Segmenting by engagement level matters: Top-performing brands often implement a tiered engagement segmentation strategy in which they send 70% of campaigns to engaged profiles, 20% to a broader audience, and 10% to the whole list. Not sure where to start? Pick a few high-value segments, like repeat purchasers, new shoppers, or high-value customers, and craft campaigns specifically for them. Find more ideas in our best practices guide on creating an engagement-based sending strategy.
PRIORITY #1 For email, maintaining a good “sender reputation” so your emails land in recipient inboxes: If the majority of your recipients do not open or click your emails, inbox providers will assume you’re sending spam and start to filter your emails to spam folders for all recipients. Using segmentation to only send to your engaged subscribers, or to simply exclude those who’ve stopped engaging from regular sends, is key to maintaining strong email deliverability. PRIORITY #2 For SMS, segment your most engaged SMS subscribers, and send messages to them multiple times per week: Don’t ignore the rest of your SMS subscriber list, though. Aim for at least one SMS message to folks on your SMS list each week, monitoring engagement rates to see which parts of your audience respond best to which types of messages––and build segments from there. PRIORITY #3 Across both channels, personalize messages to drive higher engagement rates. Personalized emails and texts have significantly higher engagement rates compared to generic, one-size-fits-all marketing. Your key to personalized marketing is creating tailored audiences for strategic sends. By using segmentation to define a specific audience that you believe will be most interested in specific content you have prepared, you can deliver more personalized messages at scale.
Standard snackable content Less targeted promotions
Highly relevant or unique content, such as content from a guest writer or influencer campaign content Most promotions Most traffic-driving events
Large promotions Large traffic-driving events
Recent Not Frequent High value
POTENTIAL High rollers
NEARLY THERES
BRAND ENTHUSIASTS
Increase Average Order Value
POTENTIAL ENTHUSIASTS
Increase AOV or frequency
WAITING FOR WOWS
Core marketing audience 75% of you time goes here
Has been created in the last 90 days OR Has opened at least one email in the last 90 days OR Has clicked at least one email in the last 90 days
Here's what to send to this segment:
Highly relevant or unique content, such as content from a guest writer or influencer campaign content
Most promotions Most traffic-driving events
When shaping a more advanced campaign strategy and building your audiences around engagement, consider recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM). As you build Klaviyo-recommended RFM segments, remember that segmentation is only half the battle. You also need to alter the language in your messages for that specific segment. Here are a few examples.
As you build Klaviyo-recommended RFM segments, remember that segmentation is only half the battle. You also need to alter the language in your messages for that specific segment. Here are a few examples:
Across channels, top-performing brands send at least 12 campaigns per month. You can drive more growth with even just one campaign per week, and easily increase campaign volume with segmentation. Campaigns with an element of urgency work best, like product launches and limited-time offers. Gut-check your campaigns by asking, “Would I want to receive this?”
Your multi-channel campaign checklist
Send 2 email campaigns per week to your engaged segment. Send 4 additional segmented email campaigns for a total of ~12 sends per month. Monitor and maintain high engagement with email campaigns: Send at least 1 SMS campaign per week. Monitor and maintain high engagement with SMS campaigns:
Your content strategy and style ultimately depend on your business goals, industry norms, and brand voice. But 3 types of campaigns can help every brand establish a differentiated cadence to drive traffic and conversion.
If you do nothing else: Send 12 campaigns per month
The fastest-growing brands send an average of 12 campaigns per month across email and SMS. Examples include flash sale announcements, new product drops, holiday-specific offers, company wins, or community highlights.
Campaign optimization matters: The top 10% of brands drive a 2.54% median click rate and a 0.52% order rate with campaigns. A/B test, segment, and optimize to make your campaigns more impactful. Need help planning your calendar? Follow our strategy guide for best practices on building your campaign calendar.
Launch your campaigns
3 ways to increase email & SMS frequency from Aura Bora, Proozy, & Linksoul
What: Write short but attention-grabbing blog posts that reference your products and offer novel value to your subscribers. Educating customers on how to use a product, or giving subscribers inspiration on trends related to your product line, can generate excitement and interest. Examples:
• 47% open rate • 2.15% click rate • 0.41% order rate
• Maintain a 7% SMS click rate
Why: Subscribers are more likely to stay subscribed, and engage with your content, if you don’t exclusively promote what you sell in every interaction. Pair useful information like this with traffic-driving events and conversion-driving promotions, and you’ll strengthen your relationships with consumers in a way that translates to higher customer lifetime value (LTV). When and how: Aim for 1-2 emails a month that focus on novel content (not squarely product promotion) and adapt your cadence and promotion channels based on engagement. Snackable or long-form content, such as blogs, are best to promote via email. If your brand is active on social media, try promoting a new Instagram story or content-based post via SMS.
Campaigns that offer snackable content
Campaigns that feature traffic-driving events
What: Drive traffic to your website by sending marketing campaigns that promote something new and different, or introduce a sense of urgency—without offering a discount. Examples:
Why: The key to increasing average order value (AOV) and LTV is getting customers back on your website. Many brands default to leading with discounts and incentives to drive traffic, but that’s not always the best strategy. Send email and SMS campaigns without a discount incentive to diversify your marketing tactics, increase conversion opportunities, and protect your margins. When and how: Aim for 2+ messages a month that focus on traffic-driving events. Experiment with email and SMS to see which channel drives the highest RPR for your brand. SMS can be a great way to capture attention and drive subscribers back to your site.
Campaigns that mainly promote products
What: It's important to regularly promote your products—individually, together, and by category. Product promotion campaigns can include discount promotions or other incentives that support your business needs. Examples:
Why: The average person needs to see a brand, product, or service 7x in messages before they buy. Keeping your products top of mind using targeted email, SMS, and mobile push is critical for nurturing your customers and subscribers to buy. When and how: These campaigns will be a consistent part of your weekly marketing cadence. Each week, pick two products or product categories to promote. Draft a campaign template that visually features the product, alongside a hook that piques interest by communicating why someone should buy. Experiment with highlighting a really strong product review or a description of the product that highlights key benefits. Depending on the size of your customer base, you can use segmentation to send these campaigns only to those most likely to express interest based on recent activity levels, past product views, or purchases.
Across channels, top-performing brands send 12 campaigns per month. You can drive more growth with even just one campaign per week, and easily increase campaign volume with segmentation. Campaigns with an element of urgency work best, like product launches and limited-time offers. Gut-check your campaigns by asking, “Would I want to receive this?”
Send 2 email campaigns per week to your engaged segment. Send 4 additional segmented email campaigns for a total of ~12 sends per month. Monitor and maintain high engagement with email campaigns: • 47% open rate • 2.15% click rate • 0.41% order rate Send at least 1 SMS campaign per week. Monitor and maintain high engagement with SMS campaigns: • Maintain a 7% SMS click rate
What: Write short but attention-grabbing blog posts that reference your products and offer novel value to your subscribers. Educating customers on how to use a product, or giving subscribers inspiration on trends related to your product line, can generate excitement and interest. Examples: Why: Subscribers are more likely to stay subscribed, and engage with your content, if you don’t exclusively promote what you sell in every interaction. Pair useful information like this with traffic-driving events and conversion-driving promotions, and you’ll strengthen your relationships with consumers in a way that translates to higher customer lifetime value (LTV). When and how: Aim for 1-2 emails a month that focus on novel content (not squarely product promotion) and adapt your cadence and promotion channels based on engagement. Snackable or long-form content, such as blogs, are best to promote via email. If your brand is active on social media, try promoting a new Instagram story or content-based post via SMS.
The fastest-growing brands send an average of 12 campaigns per month across email and SMS. Examples include flash sale announcements, new product drops, holiday-specific offers, company wins, or community highlights. Campaign optimization matters: The top 10% of brands drive a 2.54% median click rate and a 0.52% order rate with campaigns. A/B test, segment, and optimize to make your campaigns more impactful. Need help planning your calendar? Follow our strategy guide for best practices on building your campaign calendar.
Beauty tutorials for hair and makeup products Styling guides for clothing Dog park etiquette for pet products Birthday party ideas for kids’ products A weekly cleaning schedule for cleaning products
What: Drive traffic to your website by sending marketing campaigns that promote something new and different, or introduce a sense of urgency—without offering a discount. Examples: Why: The key to increasing average order value (AOV) and LTV is getting customers back on your website. Many brands default to leading with discounts and incentives to drive traffic, but that’s not always the best strategy. Send email and SMS campaigns without a discount incentive to diversify your marketing tactics, increase conversion opportunities, and protect your margins. When and how: Aim for 2+ messages a month that focus on traffic-driving events. Experiment with email and SMS to see which channel drives the highest RPR for your brand. SMS can be a great way to capture attention and drive subscribers back to your site.
Company updates New product launches New seasonal collections Announcing low inventory on a favorite product Announcing a product that has become a new trend or is a new bestseller Price drops on products or collections New collaborations Press highlights
What: It's important to regularly promote your products—individually, together, and by category. Product promotion campaigns can include discount promotions or other incentives that support your business needs. Examples: Why: The average person needs to see a brand, product, or service 7x in messages before they buy. Keeping your products top of mind using targeted email, SMS, and mobile push is critical for nurturing your customers and subscribers to buy. When and how: These campaigns will be a consistent part of your weekly marketing cadence. Each week, pick two products or product categories to promote. Draft a campaign template that visually features the product, alongside a hook that piques interest by communicating why someone should buy. Experiment with highlighting a really strong product review or a description of the product that highlights key benefits. Depending on the size of your customer base, you can use segmentation to send these campaigns only to those most likely to express interest based on recent activity levels, past product views, or purchases.
Sell off inventory you’d like to move Drive up sales for an exclusive time period Increase conversions with an audience that may need an extra push
Your automated flow checklist
Aim for an average flow order rate of 2.6%. Keep flow bounce rate under 0.35%. Launch multiple flows, prioritized based on your list size:
If you do nothing else: Aim for at least 7 live automated flows
Top-performing brands have at least 7 flows live, including a welcome series for both email and SMS, plus browse and cart abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, sunset, and price drop flows.
Automation breadth matters: utomation complexity—like splits and experiments—is useful, but it’s not as impactful as simply adding more flows. Launch at least 7 flows, then annually audit and update them. Spend the rest of your time on campaigns or incorporating additional flows. What to do next: Take a look at the flows you’ve implemented already, and identify places along the customer journey that you could automate by launching a new flow. Need inspiration? See examples of the top automations that drive strong engagement.
Launch more flows
3 SMS and email automation use cases from Callie’s Hot Biscuit, Every Man Jack, and Tatti Lashes
• Welcome series • Abandoned cart • Post-purchase • Review request
For entrepreneurs: Set up at least 2-4 flows to capture and convert traffic. Those flows should be:
For small businesses: The fastest-growing small business accounts on Klaviyo have these 7 flows in common:
For enterprise brands: The fastest-growing enterprise accounts on Klaviyo have 10 or more flows live. To get to 10, create flows that support brand investment in integrations—like your loyalty program, price drop alerts, and more.
• Welcome series • Abandoned cart • Browse abandonment • Win-back • Review request • Post-purchase • Back-in-stock
• Welcome series • Abandoned cart • Browse abandonment • Win-back • Review request • Post-purchase • Back-in-stock • Cross-sell flow • +2 specific to bespoke integrated data sources or business needs
To get the most out of your flows, keep these best practices in mind when setting them up.
Treat your flow strategy as a nurture program
Think of your flow strategy as a nurture program to grow LTV. Flows drive incremental revenue by engaging with every customer as they show increased or decreased interest with the brand. The same way you would want to interact with a customer visiting your store in person, flows help brands automate timely and targeted touchpoints that strengthen consumer relationships, fostering long-term engagement.
Visit site
Subscribe
View product
Add to cart
Start checkout
Purchase
Use product
Become a fan/promoter
Become a churn risk
Customer research
Site bounce
Welcome series
Browse Abandonment
Cart Abandonment
Checkout Abandonment
Review Request
Review thank you: Positive review
UPSELL
THANK YOU
CUSTOMER WINBACK
Negative review response
Review thank you: Negative review
The customer journey visualized
The customer lifecycle, nurtured by flows
1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7.
Advanced lifecycle touchpoints
Customer loyalty flows: Catalog interest flows:
Shipping and fulfillment flows:
Received delivery In transit Out for delivery
Flows drive the most RPR because they send automatically based on someone’s behavior. One secret to flows is more flows, not necessarily complex flows. Maximize flow revenue by adding more automations across the customer journey. Start with welcome flows for email and SMS, browse and cart abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, sunset, and VIP flow
Aim for an average flow order rate of 2.6%. Keep flow bounce rate under 0.35%. Launch multiple flows, prioritized based on your list size: For entrepreneurs: Set up at least 2-4 flows to capture and convert traffic. Those flows should be: • Welcome series • Abandoned cart • Post-purchase • Review request For small businesses: The fastest-growing small business accounts on Klaviyo have these 7 flows in common: • Welcome series • Abandoned cart • Browse abandonment • Win-back • Review request • Post-purchase • Back-in-stock For enterprise brands: The fastest-growing enterprise accounts on Klaviyo have 10 or more flows live. To get to 10, create flows that support brand investment in integrations—like your loyalty program, price drop alerts, and more. • Welcome series • Abandoned cart • Browse abandonment • Win-back • Review request • Post-purchase • Back-in-stock • Cross-sell flow • +2 specific to bespoke integrated data sources or business needs
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Customer loyalty flows: Catalog interest flows: Shipping and fulfillment flows:
Collect customer birthday → happy birthday flow Timestamp a profile property with someone’s first purchase date → first purchase anniversary flow
Top-performing brands have at least 7 flows live, including a welcome series for both email and SMS, plus browse and cart abandonment, post-purchase, win-back, sunset, and price drop flows. Automation breadth matters: Automation complexity—like splits and experiments—is useful, but it’s not as impactful as simply adding more flows. Launch at least 7 flows, then annually audit and update them. Spend the rest of your time on campaigns or incorporating additional flows. What to do next? Take a look at the flows you’ve implemented already, and identify places along the customer journey that you could automate by launching a new flow. Need inspiration? See examples of the top automations that drive strong engagement.
Discover: someone signs up to learn more about your brand, hear about special offers, and get notified about new launches with different strategic lead captures → welcome series flow Convert: someone clicks to browse, but doesn’t add to cart or purchase → browse abandonment flow Convert: someone adds to cart or starts check-out, but doesn’t complete their order → cart abandonment and check-out abandonment flows Engage: someone places an order and could benefit from education or tips on using your product → customer post-purchase flow Engage: an order gets delivered → review request flow Nurture: use Klaviyo’s predictive analytics to send an email before a customer’s predicted next purchase dates, plus another email 5 days following that date containing cross-sell or up-sell content → “expected date of next order” flow Nurture: send a retention offer if someone goes 180 days without ordering → win-back flow
Price drops on a product someone browsed and/or added to cart recently → price drop flow To allow shoppers to sign up for stock alerts when products come back in stock → implement the right Klaviyo form and a back-in-stock flow
An order gets fulfilled → shipping confirmation flow If you have an integrated third-party tool for shipment tracking:
• Received delivery • In transit • Out for delivery
Site Bounce
Welcome Series
Customer Winback
Upsell
Thank You
Discover: someone signs up to learn more about your brand, hear about special offers, and get notified about new launches with different strategic lead captures → welcome series flow Convert: someone clicks to browse, but doesn’t add to cart or purchase → browse abandonment flow Convert: someone adds to cart or starts check-out, but doesn’t complete their order → cart abandonment and check-out abandonment flows Engage: someone places an order and could benefit from education or tips on using your product → customer post-purchase flow
Engage: an order gets delivered → review request flow Nurture: use Klaviyo’s predictive analytics to send an email before a customer’s predicted next purchase dates, plus another email 5 days following that date containing cross-sell or up-sell content → “expected date of next order” flow Nurture: send a retention offer if someone goes 180 days without ordering → win-back flow
Collect customer birthday → happy birthday flow
Timestamp a profile property with someone’s first purchase date → first purchase anniversary flow
Price drops on a product someone browsed and/or added to cart recently → price drop flow
To allow shoppers to sign up for stock alerts when products come back in stock → implement the right Klaviyo form and a back-in-stock flow
• +2 specific to bespoke integrated data sources or business needs.
This list of key actions is based on our analysis of what the fastest-growing brands are doing to achieve success in any given month, excluding BFCM. It’s broken out by business size, with top priorities highlighted for each. The more of these items you check off the list, the more your account will look like that of the top tier brands. Ready to grow faster this month? Follow the checklist below.
Priority 1: Expand methods for acquisition, leveraging both on-site forms and ad audience integrations, with a focus on measuring subscriber growth. Priority 2: Set up key flows to help nurture new leads toward a first purchase.
Overall: Grow your list and drive first purchases.
FOR Small businesses
Overall: Grow your list, optimize first-purchase motion, and drive repeat purchases.
Priority 1: Invest in end-to-end lifecycle marketing automation through multiple channels to generate incremental revenue and maximize conversions, with a focus on increasing RPR. Priority 2: Use segmentation to power more personal omnichannel experiences across email, SMS, social ads, and web to increase repeat purchase rate and LTV.
FOR Enterprise brands
Overall: Experiment to optimize first- and repeat-purchase motions, while increasing the number of segments receiving unique content at their own frequencies of outreach.
Priority 1: Identify parts of your funnel, or customer journey, that appear to be underperforming, either through historic timeframe comparison or a comparison to industry peer benchmarks.
for Entrepreneurs
Overall: Grow your list and drive first purchases. Priority 1: Expand methods for acquisition, leveraging both on-site forms and ad audience integrations, with a focus on measuring subscriber growth. Priority 2: Set up key flows to help nurture new leads toward a first purchase. Priority 3: Establish a weekly campaign sending schedule to learn what recipients respond to most and drive sustained engagement. Here are some ideas of the types of campaigns to send:
for Small businesses
Overall: Grow your list, optimize first-purchase motion, and drive repeat purchases. Priority 1: Invest in end-to-end lifecycle marketing automation through multiple channels to generate incremental revenue and maximize conversions, with a focus on increasing RPR. Priority 2: Use segmentation to power more personal omnichannel experiences across email, SMS, social ads, and web to increase repeat purchase rate and LTV. Priority 3: A/B test content within campaigns and forms, and experiment with using email vs. SMS for different content pushes to learn what your audiences respond to best. Optimize engagement at each stage of the customer journey, using industry benchmarks to make sure you are out-performing competitors.
for Enterprise brands
Overall: Experiment to optimize first- and repeat-purchase motions, while increasing the number of segments receiving unique content at their own frequencies of outreach. Priority 1: Identify parts of your funnel, or customer journey, that appear to be underperforming, either through historic timeframe comparison or a comparison to industry peer benchmarks. Priority 2: Invest deeply in segmenting and personalizing the end-to-end customer experience, with a focus on optimizing areas that appear to be underperforming, across email, SMS, social ads, and web. Priority 3: Engage in active A/B testing. Experiment with: subject lines and preview text, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, email content and copy, sending time and frequency, and personalization.
Priority 3: Establish a weekly campaign sending schedule to learn what recipients respond to most and drive sustained engagement. Here are some ideas of the types of campaigns to send:
• Company updates • New product launches • New seasonal collections • Announcing low inventory on a favorite product
• Announcing a product that has become a new trend or is a new bestseller • Price drops on products or collections • New collaborations • Press highlights
Priority 3: A/B test content within campaigns and forms, and experiment with using email vs. SMS for different content pushes to learn what your audiences respond to best. Optimize engagement at each stage of the customer journey, using industry benchmarks to make sure you are out-performing competitors.
Priority 2: Invest deeply in segmenting and personalizing the end-to-end customer experience, with a focus on optimizing areas that appear to be underperforming, across email, SMS, social ads, and web. Priority 3: Engage in active A/B testing. Experiment with: subject lines and preview text, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, email content and copy, sending time and frequency, and personalization.
Successful email & SMS programs drive 50% of revenue for brands, and we’re here to help you hit that benchmark and grow beyond it. Whether you need documentation to conquer a particular challenge, courses to master a new channel, customer stories and best practices for inspiration, a community to brainstorm solutions, or 1-on-1 coaching, we’re here to help. Explore more Klaviyo resources to find exactly what you need.
The Blog
The Research
The Academy
Daily thought leadership and success stories to inspire your next move.
Proprietary industry research you can’t find anywhere else––so you can build data-backed strategies that work.
Free playbooks and online courses served up curriculum-style to build your confidence and grow your business.
The Help Center
The Community
1-on-1 Help
Step-by-step Klaviyo how-to guides to solve any problem you’re facing, fast.
Access a group of like-minded marketers ready to help, to build, and to grow together.
Need 1-on-1 help? We’ve got a team of industry professional on-call and ready to dive in.
Successful email & SMS programs drive 50% of revenue for brands, and we’re here to help you hit that benchmark and grow beyond it. Whether you need documentation to conquer a particular challenge, courses to master a new channel, customer stories and best practices for inspiration, a community to brainstorm solutions, or 1-on-1 coaching, we’re here to help.
Explore more Klaviyo resources to find exactly what you need.
