You will learn
Learn about guided warming in Klaviyo, which makes it easy to warm your sending infrastructure.
Warming your sending infrastructure trains inbox providers to view you as a “good sender.” This is essential any time you move to a new email service provider (ESP). In Klaviyo, we aim to make this as seamless as possible by offering guided warming to accounts who meet the prerequisites listed below.
- A domain that has been registered for at least 30 days AND
- You’ve used the domain to send email already (e.g., you used this domain in the past with a prior email service provider or with Klaviyo in your from address).
Conversely, if you are a new Klaviyo account without engagement data or not using a Klaviyo-built integration, you will want to follow the modified platform introduction process.
In this article, you will learn more about guided warming and whether or not you qualify. During guided warming, Klaviyo will inform you of whether or not your campaign sending practices align with the stage of warming you are in. If you exceed the appropriate audience size, Klaviyo will alert you and automatically exclude unengaged audiences in an effort to adequately warm your account.
Before you begin
Guided warming will not appear in everyone's account; rather, you must meet certain prerequisites. To see guided warming notifications, you must meet the following qualifications:
- Recently created a new account
- Have at least 5,000 active profiles
- Have engagement event data (i.e., at least 100 email clicks or opens within the last 30 days) in Klaviyo (for new customers, this can be synced from a previous ESP as long as it is one of the following: Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, or ExactTarget)
- Sent at least one campaign to greater than or equal to 1000 recipients in the last 30 days (including those sent on one of the four qualifying ESPs mentioned above)
If you are in the process of warming and have at least 5,000 profiles but do not meet the other prerequisites for guided warming, you will still be informed that you are in the warming process. In this case, you will see a banner on the campaign sending page informing you that your account is in warming and a status (e.g., 10% through warming) to help you track your progress.
About guided warmingAbout guided warming
If you meet the above qualifications, you will be notified on the campaigns page and via a banner on the campaign builder stating that you are in the process of guided warming. During guided warming, Klaviyo will optimize your audience to help you maintain good deliverability as you ramp up.
As you add lists or segments to send to or exclude from receiving your campaign, Klaviyo will instruct you on best practices to refine this audience. When Klaviyo sees that your audience aligns with best practices for warming your account, then you will see a success message as displayed below.
Alternatively, if Klaviyo determines that sending to your selected recipients will harm your deliverability and the amount of contacts you are sending to needs to be refined, unengaged subscribers will automatically be excluded from receiving your campaign and a banner will inform you of any changes that were made. This unengaged audience is not a segment that you create; rather it is a “smart audience,” that is maintained by Klaviyo and automatically updated at each stage of your warming progress.
Moreover, if Klaviyo determines that 90% or more of your audience is unengaged, you will see the following notification, urging you to exclude unengaged recipients and reassess who you send to. More specifically, we recommend sending to an engaged segment.
We highly recommend that you follow these guided warming suggestions if they appear in your account. That said, you can choose to include the unengaged audience by toggling off the guided warming setting. For example, if you have a legal obligation to contact everyone who has purchased a particular product, or if you are sending to an uploaded list of profiles that you do not have engagement data for in Klaviyo, then you may need to ignore this suggestion.
When you do so, a confirmation box will appear with more information on why excluding these profiles is important. If you wish to proceed despite this warning, click Ignore Guidance. Note that this is not a best practice, and we recommend abiding by the suggestions to maintain good deliverability.
Guided warming will continue over time as you send with Klaviyo or if you create a new root domain for your branded sending domain, to ensure that you reach the right audiences to maximize deliverability. As you progress, the recommendations will evolve depending on the stage of warming you are in.
When you finish the warming process, you will see a success message appear. The message will inform you that you have completed warming and can gain additional information on how to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Note that if you have qualified for warming but did not send an email in the last 45 days, you will see the warming notifications dismissed. Once dismissed, guided warming cannot be re-enabled.
How to know where you are in the warming process
Warming progress is displayed as a percentage in Klaviyo. This percentage depends on your current audience definition, the number of campaigns you have sent with an audience of over 1,000 profiles, and any qualifying sends (i.e., campaign sends that boost your deliverability).
To see where you are in the warming process, click into your Campaigns tab for a status, or look at the right-hand corner of the Guided Account Warming box of your campaign builder when sending your next campaign. For example, a banner similar to the one below will display when you are 0% of the way through warming your account.