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:
   
   1. Create to define all the campaign details yourself.
   2. Library to quickly launch a campaign with pre-built drafts tailored to your goals.
3. Choose Email.
4. Click Continue.

Set up your campaign

When you click Create campaign, the sidebar allows you to choose the following:

• 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.
• Type
  The option of email, SMS, or push, depending 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 move onto the Recipients screen or click Save draft to return to the Campaigns tab.

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 you already have flows sending in Klaviyo, then you have enough data in your account to create an engaged segment. 
2. If you want to send to multiple lists/segments, select which lists/segments you would like to include or exclude. You can send a single campaign to a maximum of 15 segments/lists. 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, add a segment under Don't send to. 
     
   • 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.
     

     The option to skip based on message type is only available for SMS campaigns.

5. Choose whether recipients who have recently received another message via this channel should be skipped or not. 
   
6. Click the gear icon to edit the name and tags of the campaign if desired.
7. In the sidebar, click the Tracking tab to enable or disable tracking parameters (i.e., UTM tracking). Make sure to click Save to save your changes.
   

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:

• Saved templates
  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
  Use the drag-and-drop editor to make changes to your design and click Next.

Schedule and send your campaign

The third and final screen of the wizard allows you to review, schedule, and send your campaign. At this step in the wizard, you can choose to add a variation to your email to A/B test your campaign.

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. Schedule or send your campaign.

Select when you would like to send your campaign and it will be queued and sent within a few minutes after the time you set. You can either send immediately or send at a later date and time. Learn more about campaign schedule and send options.

When you schedule a campaign email, Klaviyo begins to add in the recipients, determining who to include based on any excluded lists and the settings you've chosen. For campaigns targeting hundreds or thousands of recipients, this process can take several minutes during high-volume sending periods. Learn how to cancel 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

• How to create and schedule an SMS or MMS campaign
• How to cancel a scheduled or sending campaign
• Understanding available campaign analytics

Learn about another way to send emails:

• Getting started with flows