How to show or hide template blocks and sections based on dynamic variables

You will learn

Learn how to show a particular block or section in an email to certain recipients using the template editor’s show/hide logic builder.

You can use this to display different content to, for example, those in certain loyalty tiers or who purchased a particular product. This feature allows you to target your email content based on information about your subscribers, so each recipient has a highly personalized marketing experience.

Before you begin

Both the logic builder and the custom-coded show/hide conditions below are used in drag-and-drop templates. If you have a saved HTML template, create a drag-and-drop copy first. You need permission to edit templates.

1. Go to Content > Templates and select Email: saved.
2. Open the HTML template’s three-dot menu and select Clone to drag and drop.
3. Select Converted templates. When the status is Ready to use, click the converted template’s name to open it in the drag-and-drop editor.

Your original HTML template stays unchanged. Review the copy’s layout and dynamic content before adding show/hide conditions. Learn more about converting an HTML template to drag and drop.

You can show/hide content based on:

• Profile data (i.e., profile or custom properties)
• Event variables, when both of these conditions apply:
  • Event-triggered (also called metric-triggered) flows
  • Custom-coded show/hide blocks

Before you craft your email, you must have the data you need in your account. In other words, you must have 1 event or profile with the property you want to use.

Craft your message

1. Add a block or section to an email template.
2. Select the block or section, then select the Display tab.

3. Under Show/hide logic, select Use logic builder.
4. Under Condition type, select Properties about someone. Choose a property, select its data type and comparison operator, and enter a value if the condition requires one.
   • You can create a simple condition with a single criterion, or a more complex condition with several criteria connected by AND or OR. Learn more about AND versus OR connectors.
5. Use the Add condition button to add additional conditions, if desired.
6. Select Save.

Click Preview and check profiles that meet and do not meet your conditions, including profiles without the property. Confirm that each sees the intended content.

AND vs. OR in show/hide conditions

When evaluating show/hide logic, conditions connected by AND are evaluated before conditions connected by OR. Consider the order your logic will be evaluated when writing it to ensure it is interpreted as you intend.

As an example, consider the following condition:

Following these criteria, see whether the block is visible for some sample recipients:

Use cases for show/hide blocks

Loyalty program banner

If you have a loyalty program, show active participants how many points they currently have. Offer contacts who haven’t yet signed up for the program an incentive for joining. To set this up, you’ll need 2 banners.

Show loyalty program participants with a positive points balance a banner with this show/hide condition:

Loyalty points > is greater than 0

If your integration leaves loyalty_points unset for people who have not joined, show them a banner with this condition:

loyalty_points > is not set

Adjust the criteria based on the data available in your account. The “is not set” condition also matches empty or false values, including numeric 0. If program members can have 0 points, use a membership property to distinguish members from people who have not joined.

Personalized imagery

If you collect information about how your subscribers use your product, show them imagery that relates to them.

For example, a brand that sells backpacks might ask whether subscribers use them for commuting, travel, or hiking. Depending on their answer, this brand could show imagery of their products in those environments.

To set this up, you’ll need 3 image blocks showing your product in 3 different settings.

Show commuters a picture of a biker wearing the backpack during a commute with this condition:

Bag preference = Commuting

Show travelers a picture of one of your backpacks in a busy airport with this condition:

Bag preference = Travel

Show everyone else a picture of one of your backpacks in a scenic outdoor landscape with this condition:

Bag preference > doesn’t equal > Travel AND Bag preference > doesn’t equal > Commuting

Notice that the last image isn’t just targeted at hikers; anyone who isn’t a commuter or traveler will see it. It’s important to account for recipients who may not have this property set, so your email looks great for everyone.

Product-specific notes

Communicate product-specific information to cart abandoners, to give them key information that might influence their purchase decision. For example, if you are running out of a product, add a text block with a low-stock warning that only appears for people with that item in their cart with this condition:
'ITEM_NAME' in event.Items
Replace ITEM_NAME with the exact product name. This example assumes your trigger event has an Items list containing product names; use the variable and structure from your own event data.

Location-specific messaging

Location-specific conditions can only evaluate text; they cannot evaluate distance from a zip code. Show a custom banner to residents who live in a certain area, like those in the same town as your brick-and-mortar pop-up shop with this condition:

City = Boston

Troubleshooting show/hide blocks

If your show/hide block isn’t rendering as expected, select the block or section and click Edit logic. Select Convert to code, review the confirmation, and click Convert. Inspect and adjust the code, then click Save.

Check how the property is stored and choose the appropriate condition type. Text comparisons distinguish the number 22 from the text value “22”. However, Number conditions in the logic builder convert numeric text, such as “22”, to a number before comparing it. Values that cannot be converted to numbers evaluate as 0, so check for missing or nonnumeric values when troubleshooting.

Converting text to numbers

For custom-coded numeric comparisons, convert numeric text to a number using the |multiply filter. Add the filter directly after the variable name. For example, if your Age property stores age as numeric text:

person|lookup:'Age'|multiply:"1" > 21

Booleans stored as text

If your true/false data is stored as text, not as a boolean, or if you are referencing a property that contains both booleans and text, you can use these structures to cover all scenarios. Include all spellings and capitalizations that are present in your data.

Comparison symbols in condition values

In the logic builder, condition values cannot contain comparison symbols such as =, <, or >. These values produce a validation error when you save. This restriction applies to the value you enter, not the property name. Other punctuation, such as spaces or an @ symbol, is not blocked by this validation. Property names and text values are case-sensitive, so match your data exactly.

Custom coding show/hide blocks

If you prefer more control, or if you’d like to build a condition using event data, dates, or booleans, custom code your show/hide blocks rather than using the logic builder. To start from scratch using code, select the Use code button from the show/hide logic settings.

Converting logic to code is not reversible.

To convert an existing condition, click Edit logic, then Convert to code. Review the confirmation and click Convert. After editing your code, click Save.

If you choose to use code, make sure you have a strong understanding of Django, programming logic, and Klaviyo’s data types. Klaviyo’s support team is not able to provide direct support or troubleshooting for custom code.

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Learn more about supported condition structures.

Show/hide conditions based on event data

If your email is sent as part of an event-triggered flow (e.g., an abandoned cart or order confirmation flow), you can show/hide blocks based on the details of that flow’s trigger event. So, in an abandoned cart flow with the trigger Started Checkout, you can custom code show/hide conditions based on a cart’s value or the specific items the customer added. Learn more about event variables.

Understand how data is stored

Before configuring your show/hide condition, check to see how your data is stored. There are 5 data types in Klaviyo:

• Text
• Number
• Date
• Boolean
• List

How your data is stored will influence which show/hide conditions will work for you. Learn how to identify data types in your own account.

Craft your message

The first step to adding custom-coded show/hide conditions in a message is to build the email template. This section will walk through a specific example, but you can follow the same steps to set any block to display based on your own criteria.

For example, if your company sells leather bags, you may collect customer preferences for how they use their bags with a sign-up form, as shown below.

You can then display a different image based on your customer’s bag preference. For example, if the customer’s preference is “Work,” the bag will appear in an image next to a laptop. If the customer’s preference is “Outdoors,” the bag will appear near a scenic overlook on a hiking trail.

1. Create a campaign or flow message.
2. Add an image block.
3. Upload the work-related image to the block.
4. Click Display from the image block’s customization menu.
5. Under Show/hide logic, select Use code.
6. Add this condition: person|lookup:'Bag Preference' == 'Work'.
7. Click Save.
8. Close the block settings panel.

This block will show only to people who have selected “Work” as their preference.

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Next, add in the outdoor image to a new block under the work-related image. Follow the same steps as before, but this time, use the condition person|lookup:'Bag Preference' == 'Outdoors'.

This block will only show to people who have selected “Outdoors” as their preference.

Finally, add in an image to appear for anyone who hasn’t selected either “Work” or “Outdoors.” Use a more generic image, and this condition: person|lookup:'Bag Preference' != 'Work' and person|lookup:'Bag Preference' != 'Outdoors'.

Here, != means "does not equal", so this condition looks for people who have chosen something other than “Work” or “Outdoors,” or have never selected a preference.

Once you’ve configured each of the blocks, preview your message using 3 profiles. These profiles should be subscribers who meet one of each of the image criteria:

• Customer who chose “Outdoors”
• Customer who chose “Work”
• Customer with no preference or a preference other than “Work” or “Outdoors”

You can use these steps to show or hide blocks based on profile data. For event data, use a metric-triggered flow and reference properties from its trigger event.

Create a show/hide condition with profile data

If you are building a custom-coded show/hide condition based on a profile property, replace the sample variable from the tables in the conditional logic reference (e.g., person|lookup:'Favorite Color') with your profile property.

To find the correct variable to use:

1. Select a text block, then click Personalization to open the personalization menu.
2. Choose an option from the menu to add it to the text block.
3. Copy the variable from inside the tag. Remove the curly brackets and fallback or formatting filters that you do not need for the comparison, such as |default:''. Keep any lookup filters that select the property.
   For example, in the screenshot below, the full tag is {{ person|lookup:"Accepts Marketing"|default:"" }}. The variable name is person|lookup:"Accepts Marketing", so select that portion to use in your show/hide condition.

Create a show/hide condition with event data

You can use event data to show or hide a block if your message is part of an event-triggered flow. Only data within the trigger event can be used in a show/hide condition.

To identify event variables:

1. From the template editor, click Preview.
2. For a saved template, under Preview data source, click Event. In a metric-triggered flow message, the trigger event’s data is selected automatically.
3. If an event dropdown is available, select the metric that will trigger your flow. Use the arrows to choose a sample occurrence of the event.
4. Scroll through the Event properties to find the data you’d like to include.
5. Click the property name to copy the tag.
6. Paste the tag into a text block or text editor.
7. Remove the curly brackets (i.e., {{ and }}) and fallback or formatting filters that you do not need for the comparison. Keep any lookup filters that select the event property.
8. Use the variable that remains in your show/hide condition.

In the screenshot below, you’ll see the tag {{ event|lookup:'Item Count' }}. You’ll only need the text event|lookup:'Item Count' for your show/hide condition. Note that your data may use a different structure, like {{ event.extra.line_items.0.title }} or {{ event.ShippingAddress.address1 }}. Use the variable as it appears in your event data.

Customize your show/hide conditions

Learn how to build custom show/hide conditions using the conditional logic reference. This resource contains sample conditions, which you can customize using your own profile and event data.

Additional resources