Great questions @Taylor Tarpley! 

To your first question:
I always suggest that folks think about putting in an expiration on all of their coupons codes/running promotions. Creating an expiration obviously creates a sense of urgency for your customers, but more importantly, shows the true value of the coupon or that given promotion. You want your customers to see that these types of sales/promotions are something special and they should act on them fast.

With this in mind, it’s not only important to think about how long you run your promotion, but how many coupons you saturate your audiences with. You do not want to keep pushing coupons every month to the same audiences, but rather strategically plan out your coupons to align with key customer dates (e.g., anniversaries, VIP status reached, birthdays, etc.), and also key seasonal times of year (e.g., Black Friday/Cyber Monday, Spring Sales, end of year/stock purge sales, etc.). You can align your expiration periods to the type of coupon or promotion as well. For example, “Flash Sales” have coupons that last 24 hours or less, while maybe “Spring Sales” have a coupon that expire at the end of the month. Play with the types of promotions, expirations, and frequency you use them with.

To summarize, you want these coupons to feel special and important, and you want your customers to then act by using them. 

To the second question:
In addition to our handy guide to warming your sending infrastructure, I always recommend that folks stay active and vigilant throughout this process. You need to stay on stop of your engagement rates in real time! You need to ensure that your lists (even if they are ones that you have sent to before with a tool prior to Klaviyo), are actively engaging with your emails. Stop sending to segments or lists that are starting to show this unengagement (i.e., not opening, chronic soft bounces, or not clicking your links in your emails). Segment out these subscribers, so that you do not continue to encounter issues as you warm. 

It may also be a good time to verify that your subscribers lists are valid and cleaned. Review and remove any email addresses that have not provided consent, look to be incorrect, or have never opened any of your emails ever.

And as we note in our guide, slow and steady wins the race! Be mindful of your cadence and do not rush into sending many emails in a short period of time, otherwise you could damage your reputation before you even begin. We provide guidance on this timing in the first 90 days, but use your own data and judgement. If you are seeing subscribers just not engaging, pump the breaks, and adjust your sending cadence. 

 

Love this question about coupons, @Taylor Tarpley! I’m with Jenn here - I think expiration dates for coupons are a great idea. 

In addition to everything Jenn shared above about creating urgency and demonstrating the value of your offers, it can also help create a better customer experience! Let’s say you include a small coupon code in your Order Confirmation flow as a thank you for purchasing. A customer could go through that flow countless times, depending on the number of orders they’ve placed. In Klaviyo, flows will send the same coupon to a recipient as long as the coupon hasn’t expired -- so by setting an expiration date, you can ensure a fresh code gets sent out as a thank you for each order.