8 Reasons Klaviyo is a No-Brainer for Ecommerce Companies
Email is an incredibly important component of ecommerce, and to do it well, you need a killer ESP (email service provider, not extrasensory perception…).
Email is the best way (and arguably the only way) that you can create predictable revenue for your ecommerce brand. Your email list is an asset that you own and it’s consistent. And that consistency is key.
We use a lot of platforms to acquire customers for ecommerce brands that we partner with, and we depend on them. But we cannot control them. Facebook and Google are constantly changing their algorithms and the rules that determine how they serve their ads. This creates uncertainty. We cannot depend on these channels to deliver consistent results…and neither should you.
That is why we always try to convert people to email as soon as possible. Once we capture a potential customer’s email address, they become an asset. They become part of an experience that we can control. We can consistently nurture them as a lead, develop a relationship, and make the sale.
The best way to nurture subscribers of your email list into customers is to personalize their experience with your brand. In order to do this well, you need as much information about each of your email subscribers as possible.
Choosing the right ecommerce email marketing platform makes this much easier. Here is our advice on what to look for when choosing an email service provider (ESP).
What to Look For in an Ecommerce Email Service Provider
Intelligence
The platform must be intelligent. You want your email marketing platform to know as much as possible about the customer so that you can segment and trigger emails based on their behavior.
This is essential in creating an optimal email marketing strategy.
Automations
Choose an ESP that allows you to create automated sequences of emails. Most ESPs do this on some level, but it is best if this can be done in real time based on audience behavior. That way you can create complicated triggers and sequences and then set them and forget them…in a way. Of course you should be updating and optimizing these email sequences over time, but they should go out automatically without you having to think about them.
Personalization
The more personalized the email, the higher the conversion rate. So choose a platform that allows you to use customer specific variables throughout the email beyond just the simple things like their name or birthday.
The best ESPs allow you to use customer data in real time in your emails to make them highly personalized.
Reporting
For ecommerce email reporting, it is essential to have accurate revenue data. With most ESPs it is actually quite difficult to get this accurate data on a campaign level. Internally, they only report metrics like open and click-through rates.
Look for an ESP that reports ecommerce revenue directly in the ESP on a campaign (and even test variation) level.
Design
It is important that your emails are well-designed. They should be brand-centric and not look like out-of-the-box templates, but at the same time, make sure not to over-design. The key is to have an email that looks great across both desktop and mobile, but this is easier said than done. Many ESPs are hard to work with and make responsive design very difficult.
Find an ESP with an easy-to-use email creator that allows you to create beautiful designs without sacrificing usability.
Testing
Being able to test is essential. Choose an ESP that allows you to A/B test both subject lines and content within your emails.
8 Reasons Why Klaviyo Dominates
In our opinion, Klaviyo dominates the ecommerce ESP scene. We think it’s better than any other ecommerce email marketing platform out there, and used right it will drive serious revenue. Here’s why!
1 – Klaviyo was first to market
This may or may not hold a lot of clout down the line, but today they are certainly the market leader in ecommerce email marketing. They were the first to integrate their ESP seamlessly with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and others bringing real-time sales, order info, customer data, customer events (like add-to-cart, product views, etc) and more into their platform allowing emails to be dynamically sent and segmented based on real customer data and events… game changer!
2 – Klaviyo is easy to use
Email marketing is hard and confusing. With the deep levels of segmentation and personalization that you have to do to be really successful, it is a lot to keep straight. On top of that, most email marketing platforms (ESPs) are hard and confusing to use. Klaviyo, however, makes it easy to run these complicated campaigns with sophisticated targeting.
3 – Klaviyo segments dynamically
Klaviyo doesn’t just bring in your customer and order data from your ecommerce store. They use it to automatically and dynamically create useful segments for your email marketing. On top of that, you can create your own segments based on any data point that is pulled in to create highly personalized campaigns. More personalized emails = more conversions… Period.
4 – Klaviyo reports revenue
Unlike other ESPs, Klaviyo’s integration with your ecommerce platform allows them to provide accurate reporting on how much revenue was generated through each or your email campaigns, sequences and segments. Now you know exactly how much that promotional email campaign made and you have a baseline to improve on.
5 – Klaviyo has smart sending
We’ll say it again. Email marketing is hard and confusing. With complex segmentations, it’s hard to ensure that your subscribers don’t get bombarded with too many emails at once, and let’s be honest – marketers aren’t always the best about respecting personal space. Klaviyo solves this problem and that is a game changer.
Introducing smart sending. For any campaign you run, turn on smart sending, and Klaviyo will automatically remove any recipients of that campaign who have received an email from you too recently based on a threshold that you set! It is such a simple tool, but makes an email marketer’s life so much easier.
6 – Klaviyo makes design easy across all devices
If you want your emails to look great across all different screen and device types, Klaviyo is the best email editor that we’ve seen and that’s no easy thing. Emails that look broken don’t convert, and most email platforms are PAINFUL when it comes to composing the email… one small change destroys the entire formatting. Klaviyo has the easiest and most consistent editing experience we’ve ever used.
7 – Klaviyo’s A/B testing is better than the rest
Again, being built from the ground up for ecommerce and optimizing conversions in mind a/b testing is an absolute must. If you’re not a/b testing everything from your PPC ads to your email subject lines to your website experience, then you’re leaving tons of upside on the table. With Klaviyo, you can test just the subject line (which is the most bang for your buck), and the full body of the email. And to make it easier Klaviyo will send out your tests to a small portion of your list, determine the winner and then automatically send the winner out to the rest of your list. This is the best way to take advantage of A/B testing in email. You can also test to learn about your list over time, but being able to immediately take advantage of your results is much more effective.
8 – Klaviyo has common-sense pricing
Most ESPs charge you based on the size of your list. In fact, many of the traditional providers have massive yearly licensing fees in addition to the list fee. This is huge problem if you have a large historical database of emails, and even more painful if you only send to a small set at a time. Sure, you can clean out your list, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could store those in your ESP with the rest of your email addresses?
Klaviyo sets its price based on the number of email addresses that you actually send to within a month. Hear that?? The number you SEND not the number you HAVE. That means that even if you import a list of 1,000,000, if you only send to 25,000, you can choose to only pay for the 25,000 you send to.
That is why we think Klaviyo is the best email marketing platform out there for ecommerce businesses, and why it’s our preferred email platform for driving massive growth for ecommerce brands.
That being said, your email marketing performance will only be as good as the strategy behind it. Klaviyo has all of the features to set you up for success, but you need to have a strong plan for how to utilize them. If you’re interested in learning more, you can learn more at Klaviyo.com
