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

Enable Smart Translations from your account settings.

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 top right.
5. Select the original language that the content was written in. This will default to your account language.
6. Select what languages you want to translate your campaign into by checking the box next to each language. The recommended languages are based on the preferred languages of your campaign’s audience. This section will also include any languages you chose in your translation settings.
   
7. If desired, click the dropdown under Additional languages to view and select more languages.
8. If desired, choose a Default language for when a customer’s preferred language is unavailable. This can be different from the original language.
9. Click Translate.
10. On the next step, review the text message that will be translated. You can manually edit the text if needed. You can also click the edit button next to a listed image to change it to one appropriate for the selected language.
11. Click the edit button next to the message text to see the full message.
12. If you selected multiple languages to translate into, click the arrows at the top or use the dropdown to switch between languages.
13. If you want to add more languages or remove the currently selected language, click the name of the language.
14. Once you’re done, click Done.

Editing original content after translating

If you edit the original content of the message after you’ve already translated, a warning will appear at the top of the editor notifying you that your edits will affect translation.

To correct any potential translation errors:

1. Click Review translations next to the warning message.
2. Click Update translation to update all out-of-sync blocks which are highlighted in yellow.
3. To individually edit an element, click the pencil icon and choose from the following:
   • Re-translate - translates any changed text
   • Match source - matches image or URL to the original source
   • Edit - manually modify the element
   • Ignore - keep element as is

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

Learn more about editing and scheduling campaigns:

• How to edit or reschedule a campaign
• How to cancel a scheduled or sending campaign