How to create and send an email campaign

You will learn

Learn about the basics of email campaigns, including what they are and how to send them in Klaviyo.

An email campaign is a one-time send to a pre-established target group of contacts — think regular newsletters, sale announcements, or promotional sends. An individual campaign can be created and sent immediately, or a campaign can be prepared and then scheduled to send at a later time.

Before you begin

Before you start sending, do the following things:

• Create a list or segment of engaged subscribers
• Spend time creating a series of base templates that you can leverage for all future campaigns — this can be a big time saver (think a base newsletter template set with your logo, colors, header, footer, and preferred layout)

Campaigns vs. flows

In Klaviyo lingo, it is important to distinguish between flows and campaigns.

Build a new email campaign

Klaviyo’s campaign wizard guides you through the steps for creating your campaign.

1. Navigate to the Campaigns tab
2. Choose either:
   
   • Create campaign to define all the campaign details yourself.
   • View library to quickly launch a campaign with pre-built drafts tailored to your goals. Select an email draft, then click Create & customize. Continue with the Add recipients section below.

Set up your campaign

If you clicked Create campaign, configure the following options in the sidebar:

• Campaign name
  The date of the campaign is auto-populated as the name of the campaign, but this can be changed to whatever you'd like. A campaign name is required.
• Campaign type
  Select Single channel to create an email campaign with the campaign wizard.
• Date
  Choose a date for the campaign on your calendar. You will confirm when to send it in the scheduling step.
• Type
  Select Email. Other channel options, such as SMS or push, depend on what is available for your account.
• Tags
  Optional tags that can help organize your created campaigns.

Once you have chosen your options in the sidebar, click Continue to create your draft and move to the Recipients screen.

Add recipients

The next screen covers who you send to, and details about how you send. A campaign needs at least 1 recipient in order to send, otherwise it will be automatically canceled.

1. Choose an existing list or segment to target. Klaviyo recommends sending primarily to engaged subscribers (i.e., those who have opened or clicked an email recently). If your flows have recorded opens or clicks, you can use that activity to create an engaged segment.
2. If you want to send to multiple lists or segments, select them under Send to. You can include a maximum of 25 lists or segments in a single campaign. Learn more about Klaviyo's multi-list sending feature.
3. Make note of the expected recipient count — this estimate removes duplicate profiles, excluded profiles, and suppressions.
   

4. Optional:
   
   • To avoid sending to certain groups, click Don't send to and select the lists or segments to exclude.

• To avoid sending recipients too many emails at once, turn on Smart Sending to skip profiles who have recently received an email from your account.
  

1. Click the gear icon to edit the name and tags of the campaign if desired, then click Save.
2. In the Tracking section of Recipients, turn Include tracking parameters on or off to enable or disable UTM tracking.

3. Click Next to save your recipient and tracking settings and continue to Message.

Create the email content

The next screen in the wizard is where you build your email template. Create a new template or choose a template from the template library. At this step, you can also choose to add a variation to your email to A/B test your campaign.

1. Double-check the subject line, sender name, and sender email address; you can add a different reply-to email address if you would like responses to go to a different inbox (for example, if you want your Klaviyo email to come from a personal email but responses to go to a support inbox).
2. Select how you would like to create campaign content:

• Email: saved
  Choose one of the templates you have created and saved before shown on the right.
• Email library
  Browse the library for different drag-and-drop template options.
• Text Only
  Click the action button and select Switch to text only editor. If you'd like to send a text-only email, this is the option you're looking for. This is a good choice for sending an email that looks like it came directly from you rather than your organization.
  

• HTML
  Click the action button and select Switch to HTML editor. If you have your own HTML email template you're importing, or you want to code an HTML template from scratch, this is the option to choose.
• Create a blank email
  Click Create to start a blank template in the drag-and-drop editor and make changes to your design.

Schedule and send your campaign

The third and final screen of the wizard allows you to review, schedule, and send your campaign. To add a variation to your email to A/B test your campaign, return to Message before scheduling.

1. After editing your campaign's content, click Next.
2. Review all sections and correct any issues that are indicated in the sidebar. If everything is ready, click Schedule or send at the top of the page.
   

3. Select Send now to start sending immediately, or select Schedule and configure the sending strategy, date, time, and time zone.

If you schedule for later, choose when Klaviyo determines your recipients. With Determine recipients at send time (or Determine recipients at start of sending) enabled, Klaviyo finalizes the audience once, shortly before sending begins; later changes to your lists or segments will not change that audience. With this option off, Klaviyo determines recipients when you schedule the campaign. In either case, Klaviyo applies your exclusions and chosen settings. For campaigns targeting hundreds or thousands of recipients, this process can take several minutes during high-volume sending periods.

1. Click Send now or Schedule message to confirm your choice.

Sending can take longer than a few minutes, depending on your sending strategy and the time needed to prepare the campaign. Learn more about campaign schedule and send options.

Learn how to cancel a campaign or edit or reschedule a campaign.

Example email campaigns

• New or featured
  Highlight curated products that are new or in-season, or feature what's new with your company or organization.
• Storytelling
  Your business or organization is one of many out there. Explaining what makes it unique, and featuring the people "behind the brand," can build brand loyalty and community by helping your subscribers feel more connected to what you do and who you are.
• Highlight interesting content
  Provide a short lead into a recent blog post, or another piece of content you’ve created, and send subscribers a link to read more. Developing your company's voice as a relevant go-to source for new and interesting content in your industry is a great way to keep subscribers and customers coming back for more.
• Promotions
  Announce a special promotion or sale your business is offering. Even better if it's exclusive to email subscribers — creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity drives action.

Review your results

Your first few campaigns are critical for building healthy email deliverability. Use Klaviyo's campaign reporting tools to see how your campaign performed and identify areas of improvement. Learn about deliverability and the importance of sending to engaged subscribers in order to maximize your revenue over time.

Additional resources