How To Set up Klaviyo Flows (A Step by Step Process)

Written by: Chris Donald

Email marketers are renowned for strategizing effective and high-performing email marketing campaigns. But email marketing is not all about sending flashy promotional and seasonal emails. Brand marketing through emails also entails setting up subtle campaigns that establish a virtual conversation with the client and always keep your brand on their radar.  So here is everything you need to know about setting up klaviyo flow. 

What Is Klaviyo Email Flow?

Automated email workflows are renamed to Flows within the Klaviyo platforms. Flows are actions or sequences of action that are set in motion after an external trigger. Data gathered from eCommerce platforms can also trigger these flows into action.

What Is The Importance Of Having A Klaviyo Flow?

A carefully structured flow can ping the subscribers at the right time and give them the much-needed impetus, turning them into loyal customers.

A thorough analysis of customer behaviour and browsing patterns can help you create highly personalised Klaviyo email flows using action and segment triggers.

Birthday and anniversary emails can also set a semi-personal relationship with the customer and keep them returning to your store. 

Steps To Setup klaviyo flows

Steps To Setup klaviyo flows

Klaviyo is an intuitive software that makes things easier with visual cues, guides, walkthroughs, and pre-built templates. Building a flow in Klaviyo is the same. After you have entered all the details about your company, it asks you to connect your eCommerce platform. Now, you can access your Klaviyo dashboard, where you will find the Flows tab on the left-hand side toolbar. 

You can check our Klaviyo email marketing agency offerings that includes setting up automated email flows.

Pre-built Klaviyo flows And Suggestions

suggested and pre-built flow in klaviyo

Clicking on the Flow tab opens a new page in your dashboard that displays suggested and pre-built flow templates and drip campaigns. These campaigns are optimized and A/B tested for maximum efficiency.

You can use these flows from the get-go to design your email campaigns. To make things simpler, Klaviyo even suggests email content for these campaigns. Then, all these things can be edited or deleted to create your custom flow. 

Initially, Klaviyo only lists the six most essential email flows. 

  • Welcome email series 
  • Customer Appreciation series 
  • Abandoned cart series 
  • Product review series 
  • Browse Abandonment series
  • Customer win-back series 

Most start-ups and eCommerce brands rely on these six automated campaigns to increase their engagement and email open rates. However, you are not limited to these campaigns only. 

Flow Library for more pre built flows

Clicking on the Browse Ideas options will take you to Klaviyo’s pre-built flow library, where you can find multiple flows for each action.

For example, you can find various flows for building customer loyalty and nurturing leads. Or, you can browse reminder email flows to keep the brand on top of your customer’s minds using strategically designed drip campaigns. 

browse more email flows in klaviyo

Again, if you are dissatisfied with all of Klaviyo’s templates, you can click “Create from Scratch” in the upper right-hand corner to create your new customized flow.

But, you will need to A/B test it and run a few test campaigns to test its efficacy truly. Amateur email marketers need not fear this option, as Klaviyo uses a template-building wizard to guide you through the process. 

Choosing A Flow From the Library

Choosing A klaviyo Flow From the Library

  • Click on Browse ideas.
  • Use the search bar to find flows.
  • You can also filter the flows based on individual eCommerce integrations. Click on the integration option and choose your eCommerce platform.
  • By default, Klaviyo only shows flows compatible with all the platforms and can send SMS and emails.
  • Scrolling down, you will find another section titled Browse by Goals. You can also find flows using this section. 

Choosing a trigger

Clicking on the create from scratch option will open a new page. Here, you will be prompted to enter the name for your email flow and attach a tag to it for easier identification.

After the christening process, Klaviyo starts a pseudo-wizard that guides you through the flow creation process. 

how to choose a trigger in klaviyo

To begin with, you have to choose a trigger that will automatically launch the campaign. You can choose from 4 different trigger options. These options are-

List 

List-triggered enters people into a flow based on which list they are added to. The most common example of list-triggered flows is a welcome email series. Welcome emails are automatically triggered whenever a new subscriber is added to your email list

Segment

Similarly, the segment trigger will activate whenever a subscriber is added to a new segment. From a customer’s perspective, segment-triggered email flows might initially not be evident.

For example, when customers choose a particular plan, they will receive guides and walkthroughs for features available in that plan. 

Metric

Metric triggers work along with the analytics tools present in Klaviyo. For example, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, and product review emails are all metric triggered. In addition, a single metric trigger can launch two automated email campaigns.

For example, the Placed Order metric instantly begins the post-purchase email campaigns and starts the timer for delayed product review emails. 

Date Property

Date property triggers specific emails for specific dates. These triggers are used to send appointment confirmations and reminders, birthday, anniversary, and subscription reminder emails. 

Price Drop

As the name suggests, price drop-triggered emails are launched when a particular product’s price drops by a certain percentage. Often, price drop email campaigns require an opt-in where the customer explicitly requests the brand to inform them about price drops. However, this trigger is only available for Magneto 2, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Shopify store integrations. 

Choose the trigger you want to use. It will open a new side panel where you will have further refine the trigger by adding extra information. 

How do these Klaviyo triggers and filters work?

Whenever your subscribers take any action, Klaviyo jumps in and compares that action with all the triggers and filters. Following the brief comparison, one of the two things will happen. 

  • If the person qualifies, they enter the klaviyo flow and receive the emails or SMS scheduled for them.
  • If the person does not meet the criteria, they are filtered out, and none of the flow components will trigger any subsequent emails or SMS for them. 

To be extra cautious, Klaviyo checks the action against these triggers and filters just before the message is scheduled. If the check fails, the subscriber is automatically removed from the flow. Klaviyo repeats the checking process before every single component of the flow. 

Klaviyo triggers and filters:  Additional Components 

Triggers and filters are the funnels that bring a customer into the klaviyo flow. Flow components add that extra automated flair that enhances the functionality. Before learning how to add these components to a discharge, let’s understand the various features available to you. There are three types of elements you can enter into a Flow canvas. 

Each component also has an active status. Draft action status means you are still editing the part and tweaking the settings. During this status, the flow will not get triggered, and no one will be scheduled for that specific action. But, if you change the position of the component in an active flow, it will be skipped entirely. 

Once the settings are done, you can change the status to Manual. With manual action status on, you can test out the flow manually. It means no messages will be automatically triggered. Instead, you are responsible for checking the schedule and performing the actions one by one. Finally, the Live status indicates that the component is good to go. 

Below, you will find all the components of the flow. 

components of the klaviyo email flow

Action 

Action components perform a pre-defined or specific task after the trigger. It can be sending an email or updating customer data in their subscriber’s profile. First, you have to set the status of the active component to live, draft, or manual. 

Time 

Next, you must set a time delay between the trigger and the action or two moves. Time delays are a must-have if you schedule multiple emails and messages within the same flow. Finally, the action status can be toggled between live and manual. 

Logic

Logic components are further divided into the trigger and conditional splits. Trigger split branches the flow of the subscribers into a different direction based on specific actions of the customer. And conditional logic splits the flow into other branches based on a pre-defined set of criteria. 

Adding these components to the flow is pretty straightforward.

  • Select the component from the sidebar and drag it into the empty canvas. 
  • The component will gain a green border, indicating that it can drop in the flow. 
  • After fixing it to a flow, use the action panel to configure it by adding emails, switching on smart sends, and enabling UTM Tracking. 

example of the klaviyo flowYou can also add the time delays using a similar drag-and-drop feature. But then, you have to set the time after which the following action will be performed.

For example, in the welcome email flow, we have established a delay of 3 days after the first email is sent. And after the second email, we set another time delay of 4 days before the third and final email. Similarly, you can set time delays in minutes, hours, days, and even months. 

Time delays can be adjusted even after adding them to the flow. You need to change their action status to manual before making the changes. And, no, this change will not affect the previously scheduled actions.

But, if you need to make changes to them, you must pause the flow and fix it manually. You can also set time delays to function only on specific days of the week. It enables you to tune in on customer behaviour and strategically plan to maximize the engagement rate of the email. 

Updating Action Statuses under Klaviyo Flow

how to update action status in klaviyo flows

To finish the flow, you must change all action statuses to live. You can manually convert all the action statuses of individual components. But, this process is cumbersome for longer and more complicated flows.

To easily convert all action statuses, go to the flow builder’s upper right corner and click on Update Action Statuses. Then, select the status from the drop-down menu. Remember, once you choose Live, the whole flow instantly becomes live. 

Review the Klaviyo Flow Analytics 

Review Flow Analytics in klaviyo

Building and launching a flow is accessible. However, the key to unlocking the true potential of the flow lies in understanding its performance analytics. 

  • Open the flow builder and select the flow you want to analyze.
  • Click on Show Analytics on the overhead menu to open the performance page. 
  • Here, you will find all the essential metrics relating to that specific flow. 
  • The timeframe for these performances can also be adjusted. 
  • Clicking on the View All option open another report which displays all the recipient activity. 
  • If you notice a drop in the performance of your flow, you can click on the Cancel All option to remove all the messages. Or, you can individually select the messages and click on Cancel. 

Conclusion 

Going through this guide, you must feel confident about creating excellent email flows in Klaviyo. That’s pretty amazing, but you need to curb your enthusiasm. While the flow creation process is easy, the initial data analysis and post-launch optimization stages are challenging.

Therefore, if you are pretty new to email marketing, we suggest you outsource this process to an established email marketing company. Then, once the flows are correctly set, they will be raking in higher engagements and click rates throughout their lifespan. 

About Author

Chris sent his first email campaign in 1995. He’s worked directly with Fortune 500 companies, retail giants, nonprofits, SMBs and government agencies in all facets of their email marketing and marketing automation programs. He’s also a BIG baseball fan, loves a good steak, and is mildly obsessed with zombie movies.

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