Updated on Feb 4, 2022
Contents
What Is Klaviyo?
Klaviyo is a popular email marketing service for eCommerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. It sounds like “klavio” or “klayvio”. Founded in 2012, they’re now the go to email marketing solution for eCommerce store owners. Their biggest strength is in their close integration with Shopify, advanced segmentation and automation features. They’re a very well funded company with $150 million raised last year in Series B with Summit Partners.
Table of Content
- Full Klaviyo Review
- Klaviyo Pricing
- Different Types of Email Marketing
- Klaviyo Results
- Free Klaviyo Training
Klaviyo Review
If you’re running a Shopify store that’s generating revenue and you’re not using Klaviyo, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. In this Klaviyo Review you’ll learn more about the software and how you can more make more money with Klaviyo.
The amount of power that you can achieve with Klaviyo and the level of integration that you can achieve with Shopify just can’t be matched with email service providers like Mailchimp or Infusionsoft.
So if you’re comparing the Klaviyo pricing plans with Mailchimp or Aweber, it’s just not relevant. The more appropriate would be Dynamic Yield or Nosto if you’re a larger company. For smaller ones, there is Conversio which has some overlapping features (read more in this Conversio vs Klaviyo comparison) and Omnisend.
Klaviyo Pricing
Klaviyo pricing generally starts at $20 for 400 contacts, $60 for 2000 contacts, $150 for 10,000 contacts, $500 for 30,000 contacts, $1,200 for 100,000 contacts, $1,700 for 150,000 contacts.
Klaviyo Results
If you’re already running a successful front end campaign (e.g. Facebook/Instagram advertising, Google Ads, etc.), and not doing anything on the back end, then just having any email marketing in the back end will make a massive difference to the business (assuming your customers were at least somewhat satisfied with their first purchase). It doesn’t really matter whether you’re using just any email service provider or Klaviyo.
Your level of results from using Klaviyo will largely depend on what stage you’re at with your business, your customer’s experience, and what you’re already doing on the email marketing front.
The Different Levels of Email Marketing
No Email Marketing in Place
I’m always surprised by just how many 6 and 7 figure businesses, and occasionally 8 figure Shopify businesses, have absolutely no email marketing in place at all and rely mainly on making just the front end sales. In terms of businesses that have the most to gain from Klaviyo, this comes in right at the top just because of the sheer amount of untapped opportunities and the bigger the business, the more the leverage.
To illustrate quickly, instead of having a lifetime customer value of say, $140.00, you might get it to $190.00 through your email marketing efforts. This gives you up to $50.00 extra to spend on customer acquisition and grow more rapidly.
Occasional Email Marketing
The next level up would be customers that are using Shopify and Mailchimp (with a plugin in between since Shopify decided to cut Mailchimp off) and using Mailchimp to send a standard 10% discount code for signing up and then some newsletters here and there and maybe an email to let customers know about a new product release.
Typically growing from nothing to 6 or 7 figures in revenue will involve a lot of things breaking and will require the entrepreneur’s attention to be split between a lot of different areas with not much bandwidth left for other activities. But recognizing that at least something should be done with email, this ends up being the “good enough for now” solution until better numbers can be dialed in for the front end activities and things get a bit calmer or systemized.
Foundational Email Automation
Next is that you’re already on Klaivyo, you’ve got your welcome series, some Klaviyo segmentations, and automations set up. You’ve gone through some of the tutorials and have most of the foundations in place. You send out product launch announcements.
You’re seeing a sales bump and see that this stuff actually works. But you know that a lot more can be done and you’re still leaving money on the table.
Advanced eCommerce Email Marketing
A good metric to keep in mind at this stage is to see how much revenue from email marketing contributes to the overall online sales mix.
A number that I typically use is 30% to indicate whether email as a channel is doing well. If your email sales is 10% of total online sales, then there’s room for improvement. As with any rule of thumbs, there are exceptions to the rule. For example, if you’re dropshipping from China, you can get a bump from advanced email marketing but the amount of leverage will be reduced compared to a branded company that fulfills quickly and delivers a solid product.
To get to this stage, you’ll have not only figured out your customer avatars but also have very sophisticated segmentation and automation that delivers highly relevant content. Doing this right is a beast and typically most eCommerce companies that have scaled will have a full team working either in-house or email marketing agency involved. You’ve got the creative team (copywriter, graphic designer, videographer), the implementation team (klaviyo specialist, email technical specialist) and a project manager to oversee the operation. The project manager should be someone that can connect customers at different stages of the sales cycle to content that will help prospects move to the next stage and typically work in concert with the front end advertising team.
If this sounds overwhelming, another option is to go with an outside email marketing consultant to help maximize your Klaviyo marketing and train your team if you plan on taking email marketing inhouse.
Free Klaviyo 101 Training
Get the most out of your Klaviyo software with the following:
Free Ecommerce Email Auditing
Are you already on Klaviyo and generating at least $5 million a year in revenue? You can get a free email marketing audit by sending me an email (rui @ ruizhidong.com) with your Shopify store name.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this post or email me.