This is embarrassing to admit but we have never engaged via email marketing with our Shopify customers. It used to be easy… they just found us. But no more. Trying to escape from Amazon and get control over our sales. Here’s the context… and I would REALLY appreciate your input.
Healing the Heart Pet Loss is our site launched in 2014 and recently updated.
Our flagship product is a pet remembrance picture frame gift set… most often purchased as a gift to be shipped directly to a grieving pet lover. It is personalized and handcrafted. A set of our customers are very loyal… we are their go-to source when they need this item.
Downside is the need for this product is limited to the pet loss event.
Our customer list currently shows 1109 people. Here’s a segment breakdown:
7% are subscribed
76% have purchased at least once
10% have purchased more than once
24% have not purchased
I am a newbie to Klaviyo and anxious to get going. My intention is to “reintroduce” us to our list, communicate regularly and offer new pet related photo products...not just for pet loss.
What strategic approach would you recommend? Where should I start? I have a story.
Amazon refugee needs help
+2Best answer by Byrne C
Hi
Welcome to the community. I took a look at your site, and I first wanted to say that I think what you’re doing is really awesome. Our pets are so important to us, and I think your frames provide a beautiful way to remember them. Excited to see what other products you plan to launch!
In regards to sending to these 1109 contacts, Klaviyo technically allows you to send to any email profiles you have, as long as they’re not unsubscribed or suppressed. Have you synced these profiles into Klaviyo yet via Shopify, or manually uploaded them yet? If you’re having trouble with this process, let me know, and we can get into it.
When beginning to send emails for the first time with Klaviyo, we recommend “warming” your sending domain, which essentially means to slowly ramp up how many people you send each campaign to, so inboxes get used to you as a sender over time. This is called the platform introduction process, which you can read about here. The good news is that if your email list is under 2000 people, you can actually avoid this, and just begin to send emails to your email list.
It is important to note that since you mention only 7% of profiles in your list are subscribed, the other members will have the status “never subscribed”. This doesn’t mean that we block you from sending emails to them, but it does mean that we can’t be 100% sure that they want to receive emails from you. In order to see which of these people are interested in continuing to receive your emails moving forward, you might want to send an 2-3 campaigns to your list over the course of a couple weeks, and after those campaigns have sent, create a segment of everybody who opened your emails. Since those people have recently demonstrated interest in your store, you can target them (and your subscribers) in future campaigns you send. It’s important to find and segment your engaged profiles, because continuing to send multiple emails to those who don’t open them isn’t good for deliverability - it can make inboxes suspicious of you, and bounce your emails/send them to spam.
You’ll also want to think about your sending strategy. Sending to a consistent audience (no major changes in size or makeup in a short time) on a set schedule is a good thing - inboxes like that, and it helps you be viewed as a reliable sender by both inbox providers and your actual customers alike. I’d recommend sending at least one campaign a week, around roughly the same day each week.
I’m a bit hesitant to give advice on content, or what sort of story you should tell your email list - you know your brand best, and what voice you’d like to take with your customers, so I’ll leave that to you. That being said, with brands such as yours, I’d imagine that subscribers are looking more to hear about your story, customer testimonials and ways to connect with your business more than they’re looking for coupons, sales and deals. Just something to keep in mind!
I know this is a huge wall of text, so if you have any questions about any of the above, don’t hesitate to let me know! Since you’re new to Klaviyo, I’d also recommend our Academy, where you can take our free product certificate course, which will help you get really familiar with our platform. Best of luck moving forward!
+27Hi
Welcome to the community. I took a look at your site, and I first wanted to say that I think what you’re doing is really awesome. Our pets are so important to us, and I think your frames provide a beautiful way to remember them. Excited to see what other products you plan to launch!
In regards to sending to these 1109 contacts, Klaviyo technically allows you to send to any email profiles you have, as long as they’re not unsubscribed or suppressed. Have you synced these profiles into Klaviyo yet via Shopify, or manually uploaded them yet? If you’re having trouble with this process, let me know, and we can get into it.
When beginning to send emails for the first time with Klaviyo, we recommend “warming” your sending domain, which essentially means to slowly ramp up how many people you send each campaign to, so inboxes get used to you as a sender over time. This is called the platform introduction process, which you can read about here. The good news is that if your email list is under 2000 people, you can actually avoid this, and just begin to send emails to your email list.
It is important to note that since you mention only 7% of profiles in your list are subscribed, the other members will have the status “never subscribed”. This doesn’t mean that we block you from sending emails to them, but it does mean that we can’t be 100% sure that they want to receive emails from you. In order to see which of these people are interested in continuing to receive your emails moving forward, you might want to send an 2-3 campaigns to your list over the course of a couple weeks, and after those campaigns have sent, create a segment of everybody who opened your emails. Since those people have recently demonstrated interest in your store, you can target them (and your subscribers) in future campaigns you send. It’s important to find and segment your engaged profiles, because continuing to send multiple emails to those who don’t open them isn’t good for deliverability - it can make inboxes suspicious of you, and bounce your emails/send them to spam.
You’ll also want to think about your sending strategy. Sending to a consistent audience (no major changes in size or makeup in a short time) on a set schedule is a good thing - inboxes like that, and it helps you be viewed as a reliable sender by both inbox providers and your actual customers alike. I’d recommend sending at least one campaign a week, around roughly the same day each week.
I’m a bit hesitant to give advice on content, or what sort of story you should tell your email list - you know your brand best, and what voice you’d like to take with your customers, so I’ll leave that to you. That being said, with brands such as yours, I’d imagine that subscribers are looking more to hear about your story, customer testimonials and ways to connect with your business more than they’re looking for coupons, sales and deals. Just something to keep in mind!
I know this is a huge wall of text, so if you have any questions about any of the above, don’t hesitate to let me know! Since you’re new to Klaviyo, I’d also recommend our Academy, where you can take our free product certificate course, which will help you get really familiar with our platform. Best of luck moving forward!
+2Byrne C… thanks so much for your thoughtful response! Let me digest and I will reach out to you with specifics.
Joan
+2Byrne C… Me again. Question about branded sending domain. How beneficial will it be for me to set up a branded send domain for healingtheheartpetloss.com? My current email has been around forever but with no emailing history for the website?.. other than my conversations with active customers. And my email does not relate directly (visually) to healing the heart?
To answer your earlier question about profiles… yes there are 1106 that show as active in Klaviyo.
So I’m thinking my focus should be on content for this “warming process” you describe. That’s aside from the nuts and bolts. Yes?
+27Hey
A branded sending domain is always a good idea, and will be required once your business gets larger, and you begin to send over 5000 emails per day. This is a requirement that Gmail and Yahoo enforce, because they want to ensure that all bulk senders are legitimate. Branded sending domains allow both inboxes and individual recipients recognize that your emails are actually coming from you, and help ensure that your emails land in the main inbox, rather than spam. The image below shows what receiving an email looks like if the sender doesn’t have a branded sending domain:
You’ll see the “via klavioymail.com” tag at the end of the email address, showing that the email was sent via a Klaviyo domain, and not your own. Branded sending domains will allow you to get rid of this, and emails will be shown as coming from your domain.
Part of the setup of your branded sending domain will occur in Klaviyo, and part of it needs to happen within your DNS provider. This article here explains how to set up a branded sending domain.
+2Byrne C… Hello again. I need a little clarification on the guidance you’ve given me related to the “warming process” I checked out the info in help and was more confused than when I started.
Tell me if I understood you correctly about how I should proceed:
- With my list of 1100, I can send my first email to all (without segmenting). I have the template made. Also have the branded sending domain.
- You referred to 1 campaign a week … to me that means 1 email per week. Is that right? So, if I get this going NOW, I’ll have 3 emails that go out in Sept. and can then segment into who wants to hear from us going forward??
I need to get the Klaviyo lingo straight!
Thanks in advance :)
+27
Happy to answer your questions!
- If your list is around 1100 people at this time, you won’t need to warm your sending domain. We only require that if your list is over 2000 people.
- 1 campaign means 1 email, correct. A campaign is an email (or a text message) that you send to a list or segment of your profiles. Once you send a few campaigns, and a number of people who have opened them, you can segment those people and begin to target them, that’s correct!
+2Thanks for clarifying… however new questions arise:
My Shopify list shows 1106 but as I look at the email campaign I have set up, the list size in Klaviyo shows only 75. I know the list goes back many years and in many cases only 1 or 2 purchases. (Understand that pet remembrance items are not frequent purchases). Not sure how it got sorted to 75.
But...Shouldn’t I be sending to all 1106 just to see what happens? And if so, how do I get the complete list in Klaviyo?
Thanks :)
+27Hi
Sorry for the late response! Hopefully the answer below will help clarify things, even if you have begun sending already.
Most likely, your list only shows 75 if you have 75 people who explicitly subscribed. That being said, when you connected Shopify with Klaviyo, it did still sync all 1106 of your customers. They’ll just be profiles that exist outside of a list. If you want to create a segment of every profile that’s not unsubscribed/suppressed, you’d make a segment with the definition, “Person can receive email marketing.” After that, you can select that segment and send them a campaign, if you want to email them all. Note that while this WILL allow you to successfully email every single person who’s not explicitly unsubscribed, you’ll likely be emailing people who haven explicitly subscribed either. Just something to note.
If you want all these people into one list, I’d recommend exporting them as a CSV file from Shopify and then uploading that CSV file to the list of your choosing in Klaviyo. This article goes over how to do so.
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