Klaviyo is a multi-channel marketing platform designed to help you grow your business through marketing automation. It was founded in 2012 by Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen.
Klaviyo offers both email and SMS marketing services and has more than 265 thousand businesses relying on it. In this article, we will discuss some of Klaviyo’s most prominent features and its pricing plans to help you determine whether or not it is an answer to your business needs.
Features offered by Klaviyo
The best part about Klaviyo is that most of the features that are available in its paid plans are also available in its free plan. We liked Klaviyo, particularly for its easy-to-navigate user interface.
There are also other features that make a case for it. Following are some of Klaviyo's features to help you get a better understanding of what the software has to offer.
Email Editor and templates
Klaviyo offers only eight pre-made templates, which is less compared to other email marketing software like Sendinblue, Cyberimpact, and Mailchimp. However, the drag-and-drop email editor designed by Klaviyo is a winner.
The best part about it is its ease of use. Different elements that one might want to add to one’s email are given in the form of blocks.
All you need to do is drag the block and drop it at the right place on the editor. Once you have added a block you will see options to edit it. The editor also allows you to preview your email as it would appear on the desktop and/or phone.
Segmentation
With Klaviyo, you can create segments of your contacts based on their properties as well as their behaviours. You can even create segments based on someone’s proximity to a certain location.
The behaviours you can use to create segments include receiving an email, clicking an email, marking an email as spam, unsubscribing, etc. The properties that you can use to segment your contacts include their first name, their phone, items they viewed, etc.
To create a more targeted segment, you can add AND/OR conditions. Apart from that, Klaviyo also lets you create segments based on predictive analysis. Although the only option available is predicted gender.
Analytics and reporting
Klaviyo’s analytics are pretty elaborate. There are four main sections in which the analytics are divided into.
The first is an overview dashboard that helps you see how your Klaviyo activity is contributing to your marketing. The second section shows key metrics like bounced emails, clicked emails, dropped emails, etc.
- Annual Fee : $0
- Interest rate on purchases : 19.99%
- Rewards Type : Cashback, Gas
- Cash Advance : 22.99%
- Balance Transfer : 22.99%
You will find these metrics in the metrics section in the form of a list. If you click on any one of them, Klaviyo will display the data related to that metric on a chart. You can also apply advanced filters and choose to see this information about all of your contacts or only a segment of your contacts.
The third section is custom reports which let you perform a deep dive analysis and create a CSV report. There are a lot of business questions that you can answer with this feature.
When you click the “Create Custom Report” button, Klaviyo will give you multiple report ideas that may be beneficial for your business. You will also get the option to create the report from scratch.
The fourth section under analytics is “benchmarks.” Here you can specify the industry you work in and compare your accounts with your peers in the same industry. This can help you identify areas of improvement and keep you moving in the right direction.
Automation
The ability to send automated messages is an essential marketing tool. Klaviyo helps you achieve this with its Flows feature.
Klaviyo lets you browse different automation flows. Such as preventing lost sales, building customer loyalty, sending order updates, and encouraging new purchases. You can also set a goal yourself and create an automation flow from scratch.
We loved how Klaviyo simplified the process of creating an automation workflow from scratch. When you select the Create from Scratch option, Klaviyo will show you a sidebar from where you can select triggers and apply AND/OR conditions. When you are done applying the conditions, Klaviyo will show you options to select an action to complete the automation process.
Support
Klaviyo offers several support options including Live Training, message support, community forum, chat support, courses, and a help centre. In the help centre, you can find guide articles related to almost everything. The live training is available from Monday to Thursday and the chat option can be used on weekdays.
Klaviyo’s pricing plans
Klaviyo offers one free and two paid plans. None of the plans offer unlimited contacts or the capacity to send unlimited emails.
The paid plans are very flexible in terms of scalability. Klaviyo gives the option to increase the number of contacts within different number ranges. There is also a fixed price for each number range up to the last one which is from 145,001 to 150,000. If you want to increase your number of contacts beyond that, you will have to reach out to Klaviyo’s sales team to get a quote.
Of course, you can pay for the paid plans with a business credit card. A business credit card is a good idea because when it comes time for taxes, you don't have to spend time sorting through your personal credit card for a business expense.
- Annual fee: $99
- Interest rate on purchases: 20.99%
- Interest rate on cash advances: 21.99%
Free
The free plan allows you to have up to 250 contacts and has a monthly sending limit of 500 emails. This is a bit restrictive as compared to the Free plans offered by other email marketing software.
For example, Sendinblue’s free plan has no contact limit and you can send up to 300 emails in a day. Mailchimp also has a pretty generous Free plan as it allows you to send up to 10,000 emails per month to 1500 contacts.
Klaviyo’s Free plan also offers 150 monthly SMS/MMS credits. It is important to note that Klaviyo requires you to make separate profiles for email and SMS.
The Free plan offers email support, but to get access to live chat, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan. In the Free plan, all emails are sent with Klaviyo’s branding in the footer. You must upgrade to a paid plan to add your own branding.
The good thing about Klaviyo’s Free plan is that it offers full functionality. Including the freedom to use integrations and have access to data science. So if you are looking to get a hang of how email campaigns work before you financially invest in email marketing software, Klaviyo’s Free plan is a good place to start.
Email: $20
The first tier of this plan allows 251-500 contacts and has a monthly sending limit of 5000 emails. The cost of the first tier is $20 per month.
Like the Free plan, it also offers 150 SMS/MMS credits per month. The cost of this plan will go up as you increase the number of contacts, but so will the monthly sending limit. Email and chat support are available in this plan. You can also send the emails with your own branding instead of Klaviyo’s branding.
Email and SMS: $20
The Email and SMS plan allows you to have an SMS profile along with an email profile. The plan starts with the same price of $20 for 251-500 contacts and a monthly sending limit of 5000 emails.
But in addition to all of that, you also get 150 SMS/MMS credits as part of the plan. The price of the plan will go up if you increase the number of contacts, and/or you increase the number of credits.
It is important to note that the number of credits used in sending an SMS or an MMS varies with the location of the receiver. To give you an example, 1 credit is required to send an SMS to a recipient in the USA, but to do the same for a recipient in Canada, you will require 3 credits.
What is Klaviyo One?
Klaviyo One is another tier of Klaviyo that some might find a little tricky. This tier is designed specifically for enterprise-level customers.
The deal is that when you reach a certain monthly recurring revenue (MRR), $10,000 to be exact, upgrading to Klaviyo One becomes a requirement. However, if you don’t exceed that number and stay between $5000 and $10,000 MRR, upgrading to Klaviyo One is optional. Klaviyo One offers unlimited scalability, a wide variety of integrations, and a unified customer data platform to make large-scale data management easier.
There is no fixed cost assigned to Klaviyo One. To get a quote, you will have to contact the sales team by filling up a simple form that asks for your basic information like phone number and email along with the number of contacts you want to have and the estimated annual revenue of your business. When making purchases like these, it is best to use business credit cards so that all your business transactions are in one place and you are rewarded for the purchases you make.
Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and Klaviyo
CASL is a federal law designed to protect consumers against electronic threats like spam. The law requires that all senders of commercial electronic messages should have the consent of the receiver and the receiver should have the option to opt-out of receiving those messages at any time.
This means that as a marketer you cannot add people to your contact list without their consent. You also have to keep a record of that consent in case you need to prove it.
Secondly, there should be an easily viewable unsubscribe link in the messages you send. CASL also requires you to provide your identification information in the messages you send. This can be a phone number, a link to your website, or an email address.
There are certain cases in which CASL does not require explicit or express consent, but implicit or implied consent is necessary. Implied consent is established when the recipient has a personal relationship with you, when you have a business relationship with the recipient and the message is relevant to that, or when the message is sent to fulfill a legal obligation. Violation of CASL can lead to a fine of up to $1M for individuals and $10M for businesses.
Klaviyo helps you stay compliant with CASL by obtaining consent through its sign-up forms that you can add to your website. This way you can both obtain consent and keep a digital record of it. In some cases, Klaviyo’s own terms and conditions are more strict than the CASL. For example, obtaining explicit consent is a requirement if you want to send an SMS or an MMS using Klaviyo.
Frequently asked questions about Klaviyo
You can export an email list in CSV from Klaviyo. To export an email list click “Lists & Segments” from the bar on the left-hand side of the dashboard and open the list you want to export. When you open a list, you will see a “Manage List” button at the top right corner of the page. Click the button and select the option, “Export List to CSV” from the drop-down menu. If you only want to export the email addresses, press the “Start Export” button on the next page to start the export. If you also want to export contact properties like address, phone number, and country you can also select these options before starting the export.
To send a test email in Klaviyo, go to “Email Templates” and open a pre-made template or create your own. Take your time to add the content you want to add and then click the “Preview” button from the bar on the left-hand side. This will open a dialogue box, giving you the option to view the email in Klaviyo without sending it and sending the email to the address of your choice. Choose the second option, enter one or more email addresses of your choice and click the button “Preview Now”. This will send your email to the chosen addresses.
To delete your Klaviyo account click the button with your account’s name on it, at the top right corner of the dashboard. From the drop-down menu select “Account”, go to Billing > Billing Preferences, and click “Manage my subscriptions” under “Plan Overview.” You will get the option to cancel your email subscription, your SMS subscription, or both at the same time. Select the option that applies and click Continue. Klaviyo will ask you the reason for canceling, select any that apply and press Continue. You will get the option to cancel your subscription immediately or at the end of the billing cycle. Choose the option that suits you the best and press the “Cancel My Klaviyo Subscription” button to complete the process.
Klaviyo’s paid plans start at $20 per month and the cost increases as you increase the number of contacts. At $20 per month, you can have up to 500 contacts and if you have less than 250 or fewer contacts, you can use Klaviyo for free.
To connect Klaviyo to Shopify, go to “Integrations” and find Shopify from the list of integrations or type it in the search bar. Click on it and enter your Shopify URL in the Store URL bar under “Connection Details” and click on the “Connect to Shopify” at the bottom right corner of the page.
Klaviyo is more expensive compared to Mailchimp, but as opposed to Mailchimp, it has no hidden fees and the segmentation options are easier to use. Both provide scalability, but if affordability is your primary concern, we’d recommend looking into other options like Mailjet and Sendinblue.
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About The Author: Sara Adnan
Sara is a content marketing and copywriting professional.
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