How to create and refine campaigns with Composer

Use Composer to develop a campaign from an idea, an existing email, or a design you want to build on. You can work on the message, layout, and audience in the same conversation, then save a campaign draft in Klaviyo.

You will learn

Learn how to give Composer a useful starting point, reuse your content and brand styles, choose an audience, and refine a campaign before sending it. The examples follow a restock announcement and show how to adapt the same idea for email, text, and push.

The campaign preview brings the message and its proposed audience together. You can develop both before saving the draft.

Before you begin

Open Composer in Klaviyo. Have the product information, offer details, and destination link you want to use available. If you already have an email design or an audience in mind, you can bring those into the conversation too.

Composer can use the brand information saved in your account, including your voice and visual styles. You can add directions for a particular campaign without redefining your whole brand. A restock announcement might be brief and direct, while a product introduction needs more explanation.

To create text or push messages, set up the corresponding channel in your account first. SMS and MMS require a configured sending number. Creating campaigns uses your Composer plan's capacity; usage varies with the request. See How your Composer plan works.

Start with your campaign idea

Tell Composer what you are announcing, who it is for, and what you want those customers to do. Include the details that would change the campaign, such as a particular product, an offer deadline, or an audience you want to exclude. You can add more information as you work.

For a restock email, you could start with:

Create an email announcing that our Trail Pack is back in stock in forest green. It's for customers who have shown interest in our backpacks. Lead with the restock, use a product photo, and make the main action “Shop the Trail Pack.” Here's the product page: [product URL].

Replace the product and link with your own. If there is an offer, include its actual terms. If there is no discount, a restock can be the reason to visit the product page; you do not need to turn it into a sale.

The first preview gives you something concrete to work with. You might like the design but want a different audience, or find that the headline introduces the product when it should announce its return. Explain that change in the same conversation. You do not need to rewrite the original request each time.

If you are still deciding what to send, ask for ideas before requesting a draft:

Suggest 2 ways to announce this restock: one for customers who already know the Trail Pack and one for customers who are new to it. Explain what each message should focus on.

Choose the direction that fits your campaign, then ask Composer to create it.

Build on your brand and existing content

Reuse an email design

An existing template is a useful starting point when you want to retain your usual header, layout, and footer. Name the template or previous campaign clearly, and explain which parts should carry over and which should change.

Create a new restock campaign using the design from our “Spring essentials” email. Keep the header and footer. Replace the collection grid with one Trail Pack photo, a short restock announcement, and a button linking to the product page.

Be explicit about whether you want a new campaign or changes to an existing draft. Reusing a design and updating the original campaign are different requests.

The Campaign brief also lets you supply assets for individual messages. Use Attach assets to choose a saved template or a recently used template, then add instructions describing how you want to use it. Choosing the actual template gives Composer a specific design to work from.

You can use this approach even when most of the email is already right. Describe a focused change, such as replacing the featured product or adding a section, instead of asking Composer to redesign the whole message.

Use a screenshot or artwork as a reference

A screenshot communicates appearance: the order of sections, image placement, spacing, or overall style. Explain what you want Composer to take from it. If you like the arrangement but not the colors or copy, say so.

Use this screenshot as a layout reference. Keep the large product photo above the headline and the single button below the description. Use our brand colors and the Trail Pack restock copy.

A screenshot is not the original editable template. Review how Composer has recreated the design, particularly the text, buttons, and image proportions. If your reference contains words embedded in artwork, changing a text block will not change those words inside the image. Supply updated artwork or ask for the wording to be recreated as editable text, then inspect the result.

For content in another app, connect the app to Composer and identify the design or product information you want to use. Keep the source specific enough to distinguish it from similar assets.

Make brand feedback concrete

“Make it more on-brand” leaves several possible changes. Describe the difference you want the reader to see or hear:

Keep the product photo and layout. Make the copy more direct: announce that forest green is back, explain the bag's everyday use in one short paragraph, and remove the playful slogans.

Review the actual logo, colors, fonts, and wording in the result. Saved brand information is context for generation, not a guarantee that every choice will be right.

Choose who should receive the campaign

The audience and the message should make sense together. Someone who has browsed backpacks may need a reason to choose this one. Someone who recently bought the same bag may have little use for a restock announcement.

You can name an existing list or segment in your request, or describe the customers you want to reach. Composer can use an existing audience or propose a new segment using the information in your account.

For the restock campaign, a follow-up might be:

Use our “Engaged backpack shoppers” segment. Exclude customers who bought the Trail Pack in the last 30 days.

The segment name and 30-day period are examples. Use your own audience and choose an exclusion period that fits the product. A repeat purchase may be appropriate for a consumable product sooner than it would be for a backpack.

Understand the proposed audience

In the campaign preview, look at the included and excluded audiences together. An exclusion should remove people you do not want this particular message to reach; it should not accidentally remove the customers the campaign is intended for.

Hover over a list or segment name to inspect its details. Depending on the information available, you can see an existing segment's conditions and profile count. A proposed segment is marked Drafted for you and can show its conditions, estimated size, and the reason it was suggested.

Read the conditions as a description of a person. For the restock exclusion, the important distinction is “bought the Trail Pack,” not “placed any order.” Excluding everyone who ordered recently could also remove someone who bought a different product and might still want the bag.

If the definition does not match your intent, ask for the specific correction:

The exclusion should apply only to purchases of the Trail Pack in the last 30 days, not purchases of any product. Update the proposed audience.

Use the profile count to assess the size of the group, but do not treat it as the number of messages that will be delivered. A segment's membership and the recipients eligible for a particular send are different. Review the recipient estimate and sending settings in the campaign before sending.

When you click Create draft, new segments used by that campaign are saved to Lists & Segments along with the campaign. You do not need to save those segments separately. To build an audience without creating a campaign, see How to create segments with Composer.

Develop the message and design

Open the campaign preview and consider what a customer would understand from it. For the restock email, the subject line should make the return recognizable, the opening should identify the product and color, and the main button should lead to the product being announced.

If the email spends most of its space describing your company, explain that the recipient already knows the brand and needs the restock details first.

Change the emphasis

Suppose the preview opens with a long lifestyle introduction and places the restock announcement below it. You could ask:

Put “The Trail Pack is back in forest green” at the top. Move the product photo directly below it, followed by the Shop the Trail Pack button. Keep a short paragraph about everyday use below the button.

The request changes the reading order: the customer sees the news, recognizes the product, and has a clear next action. The supporting description remains available for someone who wants more detail.

Review the revised preview to see whether it achieves that emphasis. If the structure is right but the headline is not, keep the layout and ask for a few headline alternatives. Choose wording that accurately represents the product and offer.

Composer can create a content A/B test for a new email or SMS campaign message in the same conversation. Ask explicitly for a test: requesting several subject lines or messages gives you alternatives to consider, but does not by itself configure an A/B test.

Create a campaign A/B test

Choose the difference you want to learn about before asking for variations. For the restock email, you might compare a subject line that announces the return with one that emphasizes the bag's everyday use. Keep the offer, audience, and email body the same so the result is easier to interpret.

Create a new email campaign A/B test for the Trail Pack restock. Variation A should use the subject line “The Trail Pack is back in forest green.” Variation B should use “Your everyday bag, back in forest green.” Keep the email body, offer, and audience the same.

Review every variation in the campaign preview. Check that the intended element differs, the remaining content stays consistent, and each variation has the correct product information and links. Ask Composer to revise a particular variation if it does not match your plan.

Composer creates content tests for new email and SMS messages with default settings: 20% of the audience receives the test, clicks determine the winner, and the winning variation goes to the remaining audience. Review the saved campaign's test settings before sending. To change the test settings, add a test to an existing message, or set up a send-time test, use the campaign editor.

This test-creation workflow does not apply to push messages. Creating the campaign draft does not send or schedule the test; complete your content, audience, test-setting, and timing checks before using the sending or scheduling controls.

For test settings and results, see How to A/B test an email campaign. For advice on choosing what to compare, see Best practices for A/B testing reference.

Check the design on mobile

Use the Desktop and Mobile views to examine the email. Look at the relationship between the image, headline, body copy, and button. A layout that feels compact on desktop can become a long sequence on a phone.

For the restock example, check whether the announcement and main action remain easy to find. If secondary products push the restocked item far down the message, you could remove that section or ask Composer to move it below the main content.

Check factual details while refining the relevant section: the product name and image, price or discount if included, availability, dates, and link destination. Correct the source information in the conversation when necessary so subsequent revisions use the right details.

Adapt the campaign for another channel

You can develop related messages in the same conversation. Name the channel and explain what that version should accomplish. Sharing the campaign context helps you keep the product, offer, and destination consistent while adapting the content.

SMS and MMS

For a text message, focus on the information someone needs to recognize the announcement and act on it:

Create an SMS version of the Trail Pack restock announcement. Mention forest green, keep the message direct, and link to the same product page.

Read the text preview, then check message length, links, and required message content in the campaign editor. If you want an MMS, ask for an image and check that the image adds useful information. A clear product photo may help someone recognize the color; a full email screenshot usually contains too much small text to serve that purpose.

Push notifications

For a push notification, give Composer the main news and the action you want the recipient to take:

Create a push notification announcing that the Trail Pack is back in forest green. Use the title to announce the restock and the body to invite customers to shop.

Inspect the title and body together in the iOS and Android previews. Avoid spending both fields repeating the same sentence. Check the destination in the campaign editor so tapping the notification takes the customer to the intended place in your app or on your website.

Treat each channel's audience as its own decision. Someone's inclusion in an email segment does not establish that they can receive your text or push message. Also check how the drafts are organized when you save them: developing messages in one conversation does not by itself set up a coordinated sending sequence.

Save your work and finish the campaign

When the content and audience are ready to save:

1. Open the campaign preview and review the version you want to keep.
2. Click Create draft. Klaviyo saves the campaign and any new audience segments it uses, then opens the saved campaign for editing.
3. Complete the remaining edits and sending settings in the campaign editor. For email, this includes the subject line, preview text, sender details, links, and message content. For text or push, review the corresponding channel settings and destination.
4. Preview and test the saved message, confirm the intended recipients and send time, then use the campaign's scheduling or sending controls when you are ready.

Creating a draft does not send or schedule the campaign. If your conversation produced several drafts, review the content, audience, and timing of each one before sending.

You can make direct edits in Klaviyo or ask Composer to help with an existing draft. Identify the draft you want to change and describe the revision. When Composer presents an update proposal, Update applies the proposed changes to that existing item; Create draft creates a new draft. Read the proposed change before applying it so you know which campaign you are changing.

You are responsible for the content you send. Review generated claims and assets, and consult Using Composer responsibly for guidance on AI-generated content and disclosures.