Strategic advice

Most people set up profiles, segments, and events to power sends. Properties personalize the email. Segments decide who gets it. Events tell a flow when to fire. But somewhere in that setup, it's easy to stop asking what the data is actually telling you about the people receiving it.I asked four Klaviyo Champions to open up their own accounts and share what happened when they stopped treating their data as backend plumbing and started asking what it actually said about their customers. Between them, they cover four building blocks most of us touch every day: profiles and properties, segments, flow engagement, and event tracking.What they found didn't always match what they expected. A return they assumed meant churn. A no-show list that was actually a growth opportunity. A quiz answer that changed a product roadmap. A winback flow that revealed apathy instead of neglect.Here's what four brands learned when they stopped treating their data as a formality and started treating it as a con

Maybe it was sending to the wrong segment, forgetting to exclude recent purchasers, building a flow that didn’t work the way you expected, missing a personalization error, or learning the hard way about deliverability, timing, or testing.Share your story and the lesson you took from it below. Your experience might help someone else avoid the same mistake! 

Deciding what to hand off to Customer Agent isn't really a setup problem. It's a trust problem of figuring out what you're willing to let AI own, and what still needs a real person no matter how good the tool gets. I found that out for real in June, when our full-time CS person had to take an unexpected leave of absence.Customer Agent picked up the tickets that would've buried the skeleton crew we had left, so the team we did have could keep their heads above water instead of drowning. And it kept getting better the whole time, because every ticket it touched that stretch was basically free training data.Getting to that point wasn't easy, though. Setting up skills felt overwhelming at first. There were a lot of options, a lot of decisions around tone and guardrails, and it took us a minute to find our footing. That's what this piece is about: not the setup, but the judgment calls that came after it.Which workflows should you trust Customer Agent with first?We'd actually beta tested Cus

Not the "read the docs" answer, but the thing you actually had to learn.We have 350+ integrations in the catalog and most people set up the ones they need and move on. But there's usually a layer underneath that takes a little more digging like the event that's worth passing through, the property mapping that unlocks better segmentation, the integration pairing you didn't realize was possible until someone showed you.So I'm putting it to the community: what's your #1 tip?It could be:A specific integration you're getting unexpected value from A custom event or property you'd tell every brand to set up A way you're combining two integrations that most people don't think to connect Something in the API catalog that flies under the radarDrop it below and let's build the list! 

Learn how to clean up your Klaviyo account this summer for a more successful BFCM. Nothing says summer like long weekends, OOO replies, and a Klaviyo account full of disengaged profiles.Every summer I have a version of the same conversation with clients. Someone notices their open rates are softer than usual, clicks have flattened, and they're not sure if it's seasonal or something they should actually worry about. Most of the time, it's both.Summer is when engagement quietly softens. The list you've built over the past year starts carrying more weight than it should, and the fixes that would have taken a weekend in July turn into a scramble in October. The good news: a slower summer period is the right time to get ahead of it. Why does list hygiene matter before Black Friday Cyber Monday?Inbox providers use engagement signals to decide where your email lands. When a meaningful chunk of your list stops engaging, those providers start treating you like a sender they're less sure about.

Have you ever opened a test email in dark mode and thought, "That looks nothing like the version I designed"?I know I have.One minute, everything looks perfect in the email editor, and the next, your logo disappears into the background, your carefully chosen brand colors look completely different, and your CTA button suddenly blends into the rest of the email.The frustrating part is that you didn't necessarily do anything wrong.Dark mode has become a standard viewing preference for many subscribers, but inbox providers still handle it very differently, and that variation is the root of most dark mode frustration. Some invert colors aggressively, some partially adjust elements, and others ignore certain styling altogether.Over the years, I've spent more time than I'd like troubleshooting dark mode issues, and I've learned that success isn't about making every email look identical everywhere. It's about making sure your message stays readable, recognizable, and trustworthy, no matter how

We are well beyond the days of relying on batch-and-blast email sends and constant discounting to drive revenue. In my experience, those tactics might create short-term spikes, but they usually come at the expense of margin, list health, and long-term engagement.What I've seen work better is personalization that helps customers find the right products faster and gives them a reason to add more to their cart without immediately reaching for a promo code. The data backs this up: brands that shift away from batch-and-blast to personalized sends consistently see stronger revenue lift.At Black Diamond Equipment, we have a customer base that spans several different activities including climbing, skiing, hiking, and trail running. There's overlap between those audiences, but there are also very different purchase behaviors depending on where someone is in their outdoor journey.Because of that, personalization has become less of a "nice to have" and more of a profitability strategy. When we se

Not sure what emails to send? You’re not alone. Most ecommerce brands don’t have a tools problem. They have a “what do I send?” problem. Use this ecommerce email marketing framework to plan campaigns for launches, slow weeks, restocks, and holidays. I run email and SMS marketing for Mint & Lily, a personalized jewelry brand. Over the past several years, I've built and optimized dozens of Klaviyo flows, written hundreds of campaign emails, and spent more time than I'd like to admit staring at segmentation logic at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday.And here's what I've learned: the hardest part of email marketing is not the platform. It's not the design. It's not even the copy. The hardest part is sitting down and deciding what to send and who should receive it.Most small ecommerce brands I talk to have Klaviyo set up. They've connected their store. They might even have a welcome flow running. But when it comes to campaigns, they freeze. They wonder if their idea is good enough, if they're emaili

Short answer: A back-in-stock flow in Klaviyo automatically emails customers when a product they requested becomes available again. To set it up: connect your ecommerce platform, verify inventory tracking in your catalog, capture the correct variant data via a signup form, and build a flow with a "Subscribed to Back in Stock" trigger plus a conditional split that checks real-time availability before sending.You've got a product that sells out fast. That's a good problem…until you realize you're losing customers who would've bought if they'd known it was back.A back-in-stock flow helps capture sales you’d otherwise lose by automatically notifying interested customers the moment inventory returns. This guide walks you through the complete setup for Shopify and Klaviyo, plus a troubleshooting checklist for when products restock but emails don't send.This looks like a lot, but the actual build takes under an hour – here's what you actually need to know! 👇What a back-in-stock flow doesA ba