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
Segmentation
Segment to increase order rate
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.
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.
Best practices & strategic guidance
Segmentation is a highly useful tool for achieving 3 key priorities:
PRIORITY #1
PRIORITY #2
PRIORITY #3
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.
For entrepreneurs
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 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.
Quick tip
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
- 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
Build your main campaign audience
For small businesses
For regular weekly campaign sending, implement a tiered engagement segmentation strategy that looks like this:
Send 70% of campaigns to engaged profiles:
Send 20% of campaigns to a broader audience:
Send 10% of campaigns to the whole list:
Here's what to send to this segment:
Here's what to send to this segment:
Here's what to send to this segment:
- Standard snackable content
- Less targeted promotions
- Highly relevant or unique content, such as content from a guest writer or influencer campaign content
- Large promotions
- Large traffic-driving events
- Most promotions
- Most traffic-driving events
For enterprise brands
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.
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:
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.
Core marketing audience
75% of your time goes here
High rollers
Retain and leverage
Perks, exclusivity, advocacy prompts
Recent
Frequent
High value
Recent
Frequent
Low value
Brand enthusiasts
Increse average order value
Related products, volume discount
Potential High rollers
Increase frequency
Tease perks, replenishment
Recent
Not frequent
High value
Recent
Not frequent
Low value
Potential enthusiasts
Increse AOV or frequency
Best sellers, related products
Recent
Frequent
Recent
Not frequent
Nearly theres
Nudge over the line
Sell value, FOMO, mild discounts
Waiting for wows
Push over the line
Limited deals, best offers
If you do nothing else: Make segmentation a critical part of your campaigns
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.
The top 10% of fast-growing brands make segmentation a critical part of their campaigns, which keeps their spam and bounce rates low.
Build more segments
More inspiration & use cases
3 successful SMS & email segmentation use cases from Jenni Kayne, Huda Beauty, and Compass Coffee
Learn more
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
List growth
Build your audience faster
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.
Best practices & strategic guidance
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.
Select a segment to dive deeper:
For entrepreneurs
Small businesses
Enterprise brands
For entrepreneurs
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.
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.
Quick tip
- 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.
Coordinate your use of ad networks with Klaviyo
- 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.
For small businesses
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.
For enterprise brands
Take advantage of your high visitor volume and drive incremental conversion gains by experimenting with more nuanced aspects of your forms.
- 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.
Quick tip
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.)
Personalize ever further with Klaviyo's API
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.)
If you do nothing else: Publish at least two forms to expedite list growth
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.
High-growth brands have at least two forms live on their site—typically one pop-up and one embedded form.
Launch more forms
More inspiration & use cases
4 list growth use cases from Creekside Nursery, Bear Paw, Caden Lane and Leonisa
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
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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Upgrade now