Is your email open rate below 25%? Are you struggling to see a ROI (return on investment) when it comes to your email marketing efforts? Chances are, warming your Klaviyo account will help! What does that mean? Warming is building up your sender reputation. It is a process of showing that your domain and IP address are a trustworthy source of information and NOT spam.
My name is Amy and I am an Australian Klaviyo expert. I can tell you that if your open rate is 25% or less, there is a very high chance your emails are not even making their way into your customer’s inbox. More than likely they are going directly to spam. A death sentence for your campaigns.
Migrate your existing list
When you’re starting out with a new email service provider like Klaviyo, it’s important to avoid being marked as spam from the get-go. One way to do this is by migrating your historical data from your existing email service provider. This will help increase your email open rate and stop emails from going to spam. Plus, it will also help you build a foundation for future success with Klaviyo. You can accomplish this by importing your list into Klaviyo using one of two methods: Importing Your List or Migrating Your Existing List. Where possible it is suggested to use the migration process however this is not always possible depending on your current ESP.
Klaviyo has guides to help you migrate from these platforms:
Mailchimp
Bronto
Constant Contact
Campaign Monitor
Exact Target
Listrak
Sailthru
Create the segments for the best chance of engagement
One way to stop your emails from going to spam is by creating engaging segments. You can do this by finding commonalities among your subscribers and grouping them together. This way, you can send targeted content that is more likely to be opened and clicked on. As a result, you’ll see more opens, clicks, and conversions.
As a bare minimum, having engaged 30, 60, 90 & 120 days as well as unengaged and VIP will help you to warm your Klaviyo account.
Target your campaigns to engaged segments
When you’re first starting to use Klaviyo, the best way to warm your account is to start by sending campaigns to your 30-day segment or people who have subscribed in the last 15 days. By gradually increasing the number of people you’re emailing, you can avoid being marked as spam and increase your chances of getting more opens, clicks, and conversions.
Segment criteria:
30-day engaged segment (initial warming – can send up to 1 email per day): send campaigns to this segment only for at least 2 weeks. Continue until you are seeing an open rate of at least 20% consistently. Do not send to more than 10,000 subscribers at once.
Definition= If someone is or is not in a list > person = is > in = [Name of list]
AND
What someone has done (or not done) = clicked email, at least once, in the last, 30 days
OR
If someone is in or is not in a list > person = is > in = [Name of list] > and was added = in the last, 15, days
Email open rates below 20% may be a sign that your reputation is being negatively impacted, and you may have to pause ramping up to the next engagement segment.
60-day segment (Send up to 3 emails per week):
If after two weeks of sending to a 30-day engaged segment your engagement rate continues to increase, you can broaden your audience to a 60-day engaged segment as long as this does not substantially increase your sending list size. You can send fewer emails during this period. If your open rates fall below 20%, return to your 30-day segment.
Definition= If someone is or is not in a list > person = is > in = [Name of list]
AND
What someone has done (or not done) = opened email, at least once, in the last, 60 days
OR
What someone has done (or not done) = clicked email, at least once, in the last, 60 days
OR
If someone is in or is not in a list > person = is > in = [Name of list] > and was added = in the last, 30, days
90-day segment (send up to 2 emails per week):
Create a 90-day segment for subscribers who have clicked on an email in the last 90 days or subscribed in the last 60 days. Again, your open rates should be 20% or higher, if not, return to the previous segment
Definition= If someone is or is not in a list > person = is > in = [Name of list]
AND
What someone has done (or not done) = opened email, at least once, in the last, 90 days
OR
What someone has done (or not done) = clicked email, at least once, in the last, 90 days
OR
If someone is in or is not in a list > person = is > in = [Name of list] > and was added = in the last, 45, days
120-180 day segments (weekly emails):
After a few weeks of targeting your higher engaged audience, expand your criteria to either 120 or 180 days. Engagement rates must stay above 20%.
Segment criteria:
Definition= If someone is or is not in a list > person = in > in = [Name of list]
AND
What someone has done (or not done) = opened email, at least once, in the last, 120/180 days
OR
What someone has done (or not done) = clicked email, at least once, in the last, 120/180 days
OR
If someone is in or is not in a list > person = is > in = [Name of list] > and was added = in the last, 60/90, days
Turn on high engagement flows
Now that you have created and sent to all your engaged segments, it’s time to turn on your automations or flows. You should only turn on flows that have historically performed well.
3 flows that generally have high engagement:
- Welcome flow
- Cart abandonment
- Browse abandonment
If you have data from a previous platform here are the metrics you should be looking for:
- Open rates above 40%
- Click rates above 1%
- Unsubscribe rates below 0.1%
- Complaint rates below 0.1%
If there is no previous flow history follow these steps:
- Welcome series: after 2 weeks of sending campaigns from Klaviyo
- Abandoned cart: after 30 days of sending campaigns from Klaviyo
- Browse abandonment: after 30-60 days of sending campaigns from Klaviyo
Winback, re-engagement, and sunset flows are typically low engagement flows, so turning them on may pose a high risk. These flows should not be turned on until both ramping and warming have been completed.
Monitor Monitor Monitor
For your email marketing to be successful it’s important that you learn how to analyse the data. You need to see how many people are opening your emails, clicking on the links, and eventually converting. By doing this you can determine what is and isn’t working.
The first part of your analysis should be:
- If you see that people are not opening your emails then you need to find a way to make your subject lines more enticing or maybe you are not sending emails at an optimal time
- If your subscribers are opening but not clicking, maybe you do not have a clear call to action, your images may be too big and taking to long to load or your content is not solving a problem.
- If you are getting good open and click rates but low or no sales then your website might need an audit.
You should also:
Review your flows
Regularly check your flows’ open, unsubscribe, and spam complaint rates to gauge the engagement with these emails. More info here.
Monitor campaigns
It’s important to check how your engagement metrics have changed over time. This report will help you monitor emails that have been Marked as Spam, Hard Bounce rates, and look into campaigns that are responsible for any spikes in behaviour.
Warming your Klaviyo account can feel like a tedious daunting task but it doesn’t need to! These are a few things you can look at to assist along the way. Follow the steps listed above or book your free 15-minute consultation to discuss how I can help you with a management program, Klaviyo training or an account audit.