Keep it simple with a single list for email
A list in Klaviyo is a collection of profiles who have given their consent to receive messaging for a specific purpose. Welcome series flows are typically triggered by someone subscribing to a list. While you have the option to create many lists in Klaviyo, it is best practice to grow your email marketing audience using just 1 list. Watch the video below to understand why using a single main list is best for simplifying profile management and subscriber growth analysis.
Sending to your main list is a rare event and should only happen during major promotions like BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday). Once you’ve established your main list for email, you should use the segment builder to identify groups of customers with similar preferences and behaviors. Your main list will be the source of truth for subscriber growth and unsubscribe activity, while your segments will be used for sending tailored, targeted messages to your subscribers. Note that unlike lists, segments will expand and shrink dynamically based on which subscribers currently meet the segment criteria.
Create a consistent experience for subscribers
One of the main differences between lists and segments is that customers can subscribe to and unsubscribe from lists, but they cannot subscribe to or unsubscribe from segments. Generally speaking, if a customer unsubscribes from a marketing email from your brand, they don't actually care which list they subscribed to or which segment they were a part of. They simply don't want any more marketing communication from you, period.
That is why global unsubscribe is enabled in your account by default, and we highly recommend keeping it enabled. This guarantees that if someone unsubscribes from a message they receive from you, they will definitely be suppressed from all future marketing emails, regardless of their list or segment membership. You can adjust the look and feel of your default preference pages (subscribe, double opt-in confirmation, unsubscribe, manage preferences) at the account level within your account settings.