Klaviyo in Practice! How to Set Up Welcome Emails and Post-First-Purchase Emails
CRM is an extremely important strategy for generating revenue in a commerce business. Shopify has a variety of CRM apps, and Klaviyo is one of the most popular.
This article is a practical guide to automated email marketing using Klaviyo, covering how to implement welcome emails and post-first-purchase emails. If you want to understand the full picture of CRM on Shopify and how to use Klaviyo, please refer to the article below.
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The Importance of Welcome Emails and Post-First-Purchase Emails
Sending automated emails immediately after a newsletter sign-up or a first purchase is highly effective. It is well known that customers who make a repeat purchase shortly after their first purchase tend to have higher LTV (Lifetime Value).
Sending automated emails right after a newsletter sign-up or first purchase likely helps build the habit of visiting your store and regularly using or purchasing your products.
Now, let's walk through how to design these important welcome emails and post-first-purchase emails, and how to implement them in Klaviyo.
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Designing Your Welcome Email Scenario
A welcome email is a strategy that sends multiple emails immediately after a newsletter sign-up to encourage subscribers to make a purchase and become loyal fans. Below, we'll walk through how to design your welcome email scenario.
Scenario Planning Sheet
Use a spreadsheet or similar tool to organize what timing you will send emails, what kind of emails you will send, and what actions you want recipients to take.
Here is an example of a scenario planning sheet.
Here is an explanation of the items to consider within the scenario planning sheet.
Target Audience
Consider whether the subscribers who signed up for your newsletter have made a purchase before or not, and whether you should segment them by attributes such as gender.
Overall Scenario Goal
Set an overall goal for the scenario for each target segment. For welcome emails, the scenario goal is often to drive the first purchase.
Timing and Purpose
Determine the timing and purpose of each individual email. A typical welcome email pattern is a scenario where the first email conveys your brand concept, the second introduces representative products, the third showcases social proof, and the fourth directs subscribers to your community. Use this as a reference.
Content Elements and CTA
Organize the content elements and CTA (Call to Action) for each email in line with the email's purpose. You can have multiple CTAs, but too many will confuse subscribers, so it's best to keep it to one main CTA and two or three secondary ones.
Products to Feature in Emails
You will often want to feature products within your emails. Good choices include popular products (which can be personalized based on attributes like gender) and products that tend to lead to higher LTV when purchased for the first time.
Designing Your Post-First-Purchase Email Scenario
Similarly, organize the content for your first-time buyer email series in a scenario planning sheet. Skipping items that overlap with the welcome email section, let's focus on the items that require special consideration for post-first-purchase emails.
Target Audience
It is common to vary your scenario based on which product was purchased or customer attributes (such as gender or preferences).
Overall Scenario Goal
In most cases, the goal will be to encourage a second purchase or to guide customers toward a subscription.
Timing and Purpose
If you are sending review request emails through a review app, you need to schedule them so they don't overlap. It is also possible to integrate your review app with Klaviyo and branch the subsequent scenario based on whether the review score is high or low.
Products to Feature in Emails
It is common to propose a mix of products that customers are likely to buy next based on each product they purchased, along with products you want to recommend from your side.
How to Set Up Welcome Emails in Klaviyo
Now let's actually configure automated emails in Klaviyo. Below, we'll show you how to set up a welcome email using Klaviyo Flows. Post-first-purchase emails can essentially be set up in the same way.
Creating a Flow
In Klaviyo, go to Flows and select Create Flow.
Klaviyo provides many Flow templates. Searching for "Welcome" will display template flows for following up with new newsletter subscribers, so choose the one you like.
Entering Basic Flow Information
Create a name for your Flow. For the Trigger, select which list subscription should activate this Flow.
Customizing Your Flow
The Flow provided by Klaviyo will be displayed. Modify it to fit your own scenario.
Editing the Trigger
The target audience settings you defined during scenario creation can be customized in the Flow Filters within the trigger settings.
For example, if you want to add the condition "has never made a purchase" in addition to "subscribed to the Newsletter list," select What someone has done (or not done), Placed Order, zero times, over all time.
On the other hand, if you want to add the condition "has made a purchase before" in addition to "subscribed to the Newsletter list," select What someone has done (or not done), Placed Order, at least once, over all time.
Editing Flow Emails
Click Edit on each email to navigate to the editing screen.
Entering Basic Information for Each Email
Enter the required information for each field.
Sender name: The name displayed as the sender
Sender email address: The email address displayed as the sender
Subject: The email subject line
Preview text: The preview text shown in the inbox
For the subject line and preview text, write compelling copy that encourages opens. Including numbers or personalizing with the recipient's name can increase open rates (variables available for personalization such as names and company names are listed here).
Editing the Email Content
Click Edit content to enter the email editor. The elements available for editing emails are listed under Blocks. You can choose from text, images, buttons, products, and more.
Selecting a Block allows you to edit it on the left side of the screen.
Styling such as colors and sizes can be edited in Block Styles.
Once the email is configured, use Preview to check the appearance. You can send a test email to verify, or review it within the Klaviyo dashboard.
Once all editing is complete, save by clicking Save Content.
Setting Email Delivery Timing
Set the delivery timing for each email according to your scenario. Select the Time Delay between emails and configure the interval on the left side of the screen.
If you don't want to send emails in the middle of the night or during certain hours, select Delay until a specific time of day and set the earliest hour for delivery. Similarly, if you don't want to send on certain days of the week, use Delay until a specific day(s) of the week and deselect the days you want to exclude.
Advanced Settings for Each Email
Each email has settings for Smart Sending, UTM Tracking, and Additional Filters.
Smart Sending
Smart Sending is a feature that skips emails to prevent recipients from receiving them in rapid succession over a short period. If you don't need this feature, turn it OFF. When turned off, emails will be sent without skipping even if they occur in close succession. You can check or change the skip window for Smart Sending under Account > Settings > Email.
UTM Tracking
UTM Tracking is a parameter setting for Google Analytics. With UTM Tracking enabled, you can identify in Google Analytics which email a customer came from.
By default, the settings are as follows.
utm_source: Flow name (the name of the overall Flow)
utm_medium: email
utm_campaign: Flow email name (the name of each individual email)
Reference
You can also change the default values for UTM Tracking.
Additional Filters
With Additional Filters, you can set filters to apply to specific emails in addition to the filters applied to the overall Flow. For example, you can configure it to skip an email if the recipient has not opened the previous email or a specific email.
Going Live with Your Emails
Once all settings are complete, set the emails to Live. That's all there is to it!
Continuously Improve Based on Data
After sending, you may find that performance is not as strong as expected. In that case, it may be necessary to revisit your scenario. Based on the goals and KPIs for each email, optimize your email content and delivery timing as needed.
In Klaviyo, you can track metrics such as delivery count, open rate, and revenue for each individual email. As explained earlier, setting up UTM parameters allows for detailed analysis in Google Analytics as well. Since email is a key revenue driver, always set up UTM parameters and continuously work to improve performance.
Summary
In this article, we introduced how to design and implement welcome emails and post-first-purchase emails in Klaviyo.
By using the content covered here as a foundation and implementing your own original scenarios and content based on customer and order data, as well as social media and advertising data, your automated emails will grow into a powerful tool that contributes to building a loyal fan base and generating revenue. We hope this serves as a useful reference for you.