One of the key features of Klaviyo is the ability to create flows, which are automated email sequences triggered by specific actions or events. In this article, we'll dive into the details of Klaviyo flows and how they can help you improve your loyalty email marketing campaigns.
What is a Flow?
Klaviyo flows are automated email sequences that are triggered by specific actions or events. For example, common flow triggers can include when a customer signs up for a newsletter, makes a purchase, or abandons their cart. Flows can be used to send a series of emails over a period of time, with each email building on the previous one to create a cohesive and effective email campaign.
Klaviyo flows are made up of a series of "triggers," "filters," and "actions." Triggers are the events that start a flow, filters are the conditions that determine whether someone should receive an email, and actions are the emails that are sent as part of the flow.
Benefits of Klaviyo Flows
There are several benefits to using Klaviyo flows in your email marketing campaigns. The two biggest reasons to utilize flows for your loyalty marketing efforts are:
Personalization: Klaviyo flows allow you to create personalized email campaigns that are tailored to your customers' behavior and preferences. By using triggers and filters, you can ensure that each customer receives emails that are relevant to their specific situation.
Automation: Klaviyo flows are completely automated, which means that you can set them to run in the background, freeing up time and resources for other tasks. This means you can focus on other areas of your business while your marketing campaigns continue to run and generate results.
The elements of a Flow
Trigger
Triggers are the events that start a flow. There are several different triggers that can be used in Klaviyo, like: signup, abandoning a cart, placing an order, and more.
You can also use easyPoints properties to trigger flows, as we’ll review in a bit.
Filter
Filters are the conditions that determine whether someone should receive an email as part of a flow.
Filters can be based on a variety of factors, including the customer's location, the items they've purchased, their behavior on your website, and more. For example, you might use a filter to send a specific email only to customers who have made a purchase in the past year.
Action
Actions are generally the messaging that is sent as part of a flow. For example, an action represents a specific email that is sent at a specific time. You might send a welcome email when someone signs up for your newsletter, followed by a discount code a few days later, and a reminder to use the code a few days after that.
There are additional actions you can include in a flow:
SMS - you can send text messages to subscribers; however, keep in mind that this service is only available in the US, UK, and Canada currently.
Updated profile property - have Klaviyo create, modify, or remove a property
Notification - send a notification email or SMS message to yourself or your team when a specific event occurs in your flow
Webhook - trigger an HTTP request to an external web service or application, enabling you to integrate Klaviyo with other tools and automate tasks.
Timing
The Timing Delay action in Klaviyo flows allows you to add a delay or pause between actions in your flow. This is useful for creating a more natural and personalized customer journey, as well as for spacing out your communications to avoid overwhelming your customers with too many messages at once.
To use a Timing Delay action in Klaviyo, you simply drag and drop the action into your flow and set the desired delay time. You can choose to delay the next action by a specific number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks, or you can choose to delay until a specific date and time.
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that if you set a consistently updated Date Property as your flow trigger, you can’t set a timing delay after the update has gone through as Klaviyo will consider the flow trigger no longer active.
How to create a flow in Klaviyo
Creating a flow in Klaviyo is a simple process that can be broken down into four steps:
Choose a trigger: Choose the event that will trigger your flow. This could be a sign up, an abandoned cart, a specific product being added to a cart, or any other event that you want to use as a trigger.
Set up filters: Set up any filters that you want to use to determine who should receive your emails. For example, you might want to send a specific email only to customers who have made a purchase in the past year.
Create your actions: Create the messaging that will be sent as part of your flow and position them appropriately within the flow. Accommodate various journeys within a flow by building branches with splits.
Activate your flow: Once you've set up your trigger, filters, and emails, you can activate your flow and start sending emails to your customers.
Check the following article for examples of flow creation.