Table of Contents
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Executive summary
Multi-channel campaigns
01
05
SMS marketing
Automated flows
02
06
List growth
Priority checklist
03
07
Segmentation
What’s next?
04
08
SMS marketing
Maximize your SMS revenue
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.
Your SMS marketing checklist
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:
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.
• Welcome series
• Abandoned cart
• Order confirmation
• Back-in-stock
• Price drop
• 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.
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.
SMS forms and list growth
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.
Quick tip
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.
Regulatory risk & importing SMS consent
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.
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.
Quick tip
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.
Klaviyo compliance settings
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.
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.
Quick tip
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.
How to improve your SMS campaign click rates:
If you do nothing else: Send 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.
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.
Start sending texts
More inspiration & use cases
3 SMS campaigns use cases from Fast Growing Trees, Otherland, and Linksoul
Start driving more impact today. Sign up to get started with Klaviyo, or upgrade your account to get more sends.
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Table of Contents
Get started now
Upgrade now
Executive summary
Multi-channel campaigns
01
05
SMS marketing
Automated flows
02
06
List growth
Priority checklist
03
07
Segmentation
What’s next?
04
08
Executive summary
Best practices from top-performing brands
Add more automated flows
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.
Drive more revenue with campaigns
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?”
Segment your campaigns
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.
Grow your list(s)
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.
If you aren’t using SMS, start now
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 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.
Grow your
list(s)
If you aren’t using SMS, start now
Segment your
campaigns
Drive more revenue
with campaigns
Add more
automated flows
Quarter-over-quarter engagement rates are relatively steady—especially in email.
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
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.
What does this mean for the wider ecommerce industry?
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.
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.)
Most of the strategic recommendations in this guide are based on your brand’s list size:
Entrepreneur
Small business
Enterprise
20K
20-200K
200K+
A list size under 20,000 subscribers.
A list size between 20,000 and 200,000 subscribers.
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.
Start driving more impact today. Sign up to get started with Klaviyo, or upgrade your account to get more sends.
Get started now
Upgrade now
Table of Contents
Get started now
Upgrade now
Executive summary
Multi-channel campaigns
01
05
SMS marketing
Automated flows
02
06
List growth
Priority checklist
03
07
Segmentation
What’s next?
04
08
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
01
Executive summary
Best practices from
top-performing brands
02
SMS marketing
Maximize your SMS revenue
03
List growth
Build your audience faster
04
Segmentation
Segment to increase order rate
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
Start driving more impact today. Sign up to get started with Klaviyo, or upgrade your account to get more sends.
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