How to create a multilingual SMS campaign using Smart Translations

Learn how to create and send an SMS campaign in multiple languages, depending on the language preferences of your audience. Klaviyo can translate a campaign’s content to 60+ languages.

Localizing campaigns is great if you have or plan to expand to an international customer base. Sending messages in each subscriber’s preferred language allows you to reach a wider audience which can increase overall engagement.

Smart Translations are also available for email campaigns.

Before you begin

You must have a paid Klaviyo account to use Smart Translations. Enable Smart Translations from your account settings and choose the profile property that identifies each subscriber’s preferred language.

If you haven’t already, learn the basics of how to create and send an SMS campaign. This article mainly covers translation features for campaigns.

Translate an SMS campaign

1. Create a campaign or edit an existing draft campaign.
2. On the Recipients step of the campaign wizard, make sure to add lists or segments to your campaign’s audience that you know have multiple language preferences.
3. On the Message step, write the message you want to send to customers. Add an image if desired.
4. Click Translate in the message editor. If this campaign already has translations, continue with Review and edit translations below. You can also reopen existing translations from the Review step: expand Translation and click Review, or Edit if a warning appears.

Set up translation languages

1. Under Written in, select the language of your original message.
2. Select any recommended languages you want under Translate to. Use Additional languages to select other languages.
3. Choose a Default language for recipients whose preferred language is unknown or unavailable for this campaign. This can be the original language or one of your selected translation languages.
4. Click Translate to generate the translations.

Review and edit translations

If a translations overview opens, click Open next to a translated language to open its editor.

1. If you selected multiple languages to translate into, click the arrows at the top to switch between languages.
2. Click the edit button next to the message text to see the full message and its translation.
3. You can manually edit the translated text if needed by clicking into the message in the edit view. Click outside the message after editing to save your changes.
4. To add a language, open the language dropdown and select it under Add new translation. To remove the selected language, choose Remove followed by the language name, then confirm with Remove. If it is the default language, select a new default before confirming.
5. Once you’re done, click Done.
6. Return to the campaign’s Review step. Expand Translation to check the original language, default language, and translation status. Resolve any translation warnings before sending.
7. Click Schedule or send. Choose when to send the campaign, then click Send now or Schedule message to confirm.

Editing original content after translating

If you edit the original content of the message after you’ve already translated it, a warning will appear on the Review step in the Translation section.

To correct any potential translation errors:

1. Click Edit in the Translation section to reopen the translations. If a translations overview opens, click Open for the language you want to review.
2. Select a language with changes. To update all out-of-sync items for that language, which are highlighted in yellow, click Update translations. Review the updated translation before sending.

Alternatively, use the 3-dot menu next to an out-of-sync item to choose how to handle it:

• Re-translate - translates any changed text
• Ignore - keep the existing translation and mark it as up to date with the original content.
• Edit - manually modify the element

Repeat for each language that needs attention. When you have finished reviewing the translations, click Done and return to the campaign’s Review step.

Translations for cloned messages

If you clone a campaign with translations, the new campaign will keep all translations from the original which you can freely edit. Learn how to clone a campaign.

Additional resources