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In this article, you will learn how to choose the right process to warm up your profile in Klaviyo to reach your subscribers (and avoid landing in spam).
Every new sender must warm up their sending infrastructure when transitioning to a new email service provider, such as Klaviyo.
The warm-up process usually involves building a sender reputation (i.e., warming up) and gradually increasing the email volume sent from a new domain or sending IP. The warm-up is often a byproduct of scaling, as all sends and related email performance contribute to sender reputation and deliverability.
In this guide, we will walk through each step in the warm-up process that may apply to your scenario.
All the use cases below are for accounts on shared IP addresses. For more information about the warm-up process for dedicated IP addresses, refer to Klaviyo resources.
How to choose your warm-up process? (if applicable)
Depending on what type of Klaviyo customer you are, whether you have engagement event data, are using a new domain, and other possible considerations, your warm-up process may differ. Use the guidelines below to decide which process to follow.
Note that if you are working with an Onboarding Specialist or Customer Success Manager, you should discuss your needs with them first before starting a warm-up process.
Use cases to follow for warming up your profile
Klaviyo customers moving to a dedicated sending domain
Existing Klaviyo customers moving to a dedicated sending domain do not need to warm up their infrastructure again, as long as they have:
- A domain that has been registered for at least 30 days AND
- The domain has already been used to send emails (e.g., you have used this domain in the past with a previous email service provider or with Klaviyo in your sender address).
New Klaviyo customers should follow the standard warm-up process below if they:
- Have engagement data (i.e., opens, clicks, etc.) OR
- Use a Klaviyo-built integration that synchronizes open and click activities.
Newly registered domains that are being used by new or existing customers should also ideally follow the standard warm-up process if the newly registered domain was created within the last 30 days and/or has never been used to send emails.
Klaviyo customer without engagement activities or data
You should ideally use the platform's onboarding process if you:
- Do not fit into any of the above use cases OR
- Do not use a Klaviyo-built integration that synchronizes open and click events OR
- Simply have no engagement activities that bring you to Klaviyo (e.g., you only have date-based properties like "last opened," "last clicked," etc.).
Standard guided warming process
If you fall into the category of Klaviyo's standard guided warming process, notifications may appear in your account as you warm up with Klaviyo or as soon as you meet the warming requirements (see below). During the guided warming process, a banner will appear in your campaign editor providing instructions on best practices based on the warming stage you are in.
To see guided warming notifications, you must meet the following requirements:
- Have a new account or an account that has recently transitioned to dedicated infrastructure.
- Have at least 5,000 active profiles.
- Have engagement event data synchronized with Klaviyo; for new customers, this can be synchronized from a previous ESP using one of our pre-built integrations.
If you do not qualify for full guided warming, you may still see notifications from Klaviyo urging action for optimal success as you warm up your account. For more information on guided warming, refer to this article about guided warming.
Note: If you qualify for a warm-up but haven't sent any emails in the last 45 days, the warm-up notifications will be ignored. If you want to warm up your account (which we strongly recommend), follow the instructions.
Migrate historic engagement data
If you are warming up your infrastructure because you are switching from another email service provider (ESP) to Klaviyo, it's important to consider historic engagement data so you can build accurate engaged segments. This allows you to introduce your new relationship with Klaviyo positively to mailbox providers (MBPs), as you'll be reaching out to those who are already engaged with your brand while limiting contact with those who may not want to hear from you.
Klaviyo has guides for migrating your data from various ESPs to facilitate the import of engagement criteria, including:
- Mailchimp
- Constant Contact
- Campaign Monitor
- Listrak
- Sailthru
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
If you are using an ESP that is not listed above, use our platform onboarding process below to warm up.
2. Create engaged segments for sending campaigns
Sending emails to highly engaged segments helps prevent a single poorly performing email from harming your email deliverability. If you're using a brand-new domain that has never been used to send emails before, remember that the first emails can have a significant impact on your reputation.
With the release of iOS 15, macOS Monterey, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) has changed how we receive open rate data about your emails by pre-fetching our tracking pixel. With this change, it's important to understand that open rates are exaggerated.
If your campaign analytics show a large number of iOS openers, we recommend identifying these opens in your individual subscriber segments. For complete information on MPP opens, check out our guide on iOS 15: How to Prepare for Apple's Changes.
Create segments based on engagement over 30, 60, 90, 120, and 180 days. You will use these for sending emails over time, starting with your 30-day segment. If you send emails to inactive subscribers, you risk having your emails moved to the spam folder by MBPs (e.g., Google, Hotmail, etc.).
If you're just starting with Klaviyo or switching from another platform, use historic engagement data from your previous platforms to create these segments.
However, if you're trying to send a campaign to more recipients than the recommended number during the warm-up, Klaviyo will give you a warning and encourage you to review this guide and reduce the number of recipients in your campaign. For your first campaign, we recommend sending it to fewer than 10,000 recipients. This recommended number of recipients will then dynamically grow as you reach more people, so the warning will adjust accordingly.
Send campaigns to engaged segments
3. As you create engagement with your 30, 60, 90, 120, and 180-day segments, it’s important to aim for the open rates mentioned in each section below. However, it’s important to note that open rates can vary by sender and industry, so your focus should follow the guidelines below and strive for the highest possible engagement for your specific business. Read more in our resource on monitoring deliverability performance.
30-day segment (initial warm-up phase and daily sending)
For your first send, aiming for open rates above 30% is achievable. To maximize your open rate, it’s best to send an email to a segment of everyone who has clicked in the last 30 days or to those who have subscribed in the last 15 days.
If your 30-day engagement segment leads to a large group of profiles, consider the following:
- Use smart send time to spread out sends: By using smart send time, your emails will be automatically distributed and sent over a 24-hour period. This allows you to send to smaller groups of subscribers and continue warming up your IP address. Additionally, you'll learn the best times of day to send to these subscribers in the future. (Note: Smart send time requires a minimum of 12,000 subscribers in Klaviyo.)
- Use batch sending to divide sends: Use batch sending to split your email sends into smaller groups of users.
- Take random samples from the engaged segment: By taking a random sample of your segment, you can divide larger sends into smaller groups.
Be cautious during this period and aim for the highest possible engagement. Focus on sending to the 30-day engaged segment for the first two weeks. As long as your open rates stay above 20%, you can move the engagement criteria to 60 days during weeks 3 and 4. After four weeks of sending with a minimum of 20% open rates, you can then shift the engagement criteria to 90 days. Continue this for another two weeks and further expand your engagement criteria. Your optimal engagement timeframe may vary depending on your business needs.
If your open rates drop below 20%, continue sending to the current engaged segment, but pause the progression to the next engaged segment. This may indicate that your reputation is being negatively affected and that you might need to improve your reputation.
60-day segment (to send up to 3 times a week)
After two weeks of sending to a 30-day engaged segment and seeing consistently high engagement, you can broaden your audience to a 60-day engaged segment, as long as this does not significantly increase the size of your mailing list. During this period, be cautious with the number of email sends. Ensure that your open rates remain above 20%. If not, revert back to your 30-day segment.
90-day segment (to send a maximum of 2 times per week)
If you can extend beyond 60 days, create an engaged segment of 90 days instead. Again, ensure that the open rates are 20% or higher, and if that is not the case, you will need to tighten your timeline.
120-day segment (To send weekly emails)
After sending to your engaged audiences of 30-90 days for a few weeks, you can relax your engagement criteria to 120 or 180 days. Still aim for open rates above 20%.
180-day segment (to send monthly)
Follow the steps below to expand to your 180-day engagement. Narrow your time frame to 120 days or lower if engagement falls below 20%.
- Enable high engagement flow emails
Now that you have created and sent all engaged segments, it’s time to enable your automations or flows. It’s crucial to only enable flows that have performed well in the past.
There are three types of flows you should consider for high engagement:
- Welcome series
- Abandoned cart
- Browse abandonment
Determining your high engagement flows
We recommend reviewing your previous performance on these specific flows and only enabling them if they have performed well. Below are the numbers to look for regarding high engagement and well-performing flows:
- Open rates above 40%
- Click rates above 1%
- Unsubscribe rates below 0.1%
- Complaint rates below 0.1%
What to do if you have poorly performing flows?
If your flows have not performed well in the past, follow the guidelines below for when to enable them:
- Welcome series: 2 weeks after sending campaigns from Klaviyo
- Abandoned cart: 30 days after sending campaigns from Klaviyo
- Browse abandoned: 30-60 days after sending campaigns from Klaviyo
High-risk flows to enable later
Winback and sunset flows can be risky to enable, as they generally generate low engagement. It is recommended not to start with these flows until the warm-up process is fully completed.
For more details on implementing these flows, see the resources below:
- Creating a winback flow
- Creating a sunset flow
5. Monitor your performance
These tools will help you monitor your performance while warming up your sending domain:
- Review flow analytics.
Periodically check the open, unsubscribe, and spam complaint rates of your flows to assess engagement with these emails.
- Monitor campaigns using the trend report.
This report shows you changes in key email engagement statistics. Pay special attention to the graph showing percentages marked as spam and hard bounces, and investigate campaigns responsible for any spikes in behavior.
Platform introduction process
If you cannot use this process (e.g., because you only have date-based properties like "last opened" or "last clicked"), or if you have no historical engagement data, use a custom version of guided warming (i.e., platform introduction). Platform introduction does not require historical engagement data. Instead, it is a manual process where you create segments or use random samples.
Platform introduction starts with smaller audiences, allowing you to gradually increase the amount over the course of about 30 days. In the chart below, the second column indicates the subscriber size or volume you should use daily.
After your first send, Klaviyo will fill with engagement data. For optimal performance, it is recommended to include engaged segments during this onboarding period.
The two guides below provide the following information:
- Recommended daily send volumes (second column)
- Proposed engagement segments as soon as available (third column)
The two guides below detail information for brands that send daily vs. brands that send weekly.
Note: The weekly send chart below includes possible suggestions for sending 1, 2, and 3 times per week.
Recommended email volume and engagement for daily senders
Recommended email volume and engagement for weekly senders
Do you have any questions after reading this article about how to migrate your sending domain to Klaviyo? Contact Polaris Growth for more advice.
Find the original article here.
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Polaris Growth is a CLV e-commerce agency. We support ambitious online stores with: Klaviyo, conversion optimization, data & analytics and ecommerce strategy.
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