Key metrics for success
Consistently measuring your performance is crucial for success. Understanding your metrics allows you to better understand your subscriber base, and enables you to make informed marketing decisions to increase your engagement and conversion.
The key metrics to track for SMS are:
- Click rate: the percentage of people who click the link in your SMS message out of the people who received it.
- Conversion rate: the percentage of people who respond to a call to action in your SMS message (i.e., placing an order) out of the people who received it.
- Unsubscribe rate: the percentage of people who unsubscribed after receiving your SMS out of the people who received it.
Measure your performance in Klaviyo
Bola’s Baked Goods wants to measure the performance of their SMS flow messages in Klaviyo to better understand what content is resonating and driving conversions. In order to successfully determine the performance of your SMS flow messages, there are a few key places they should look in Klaviyo.
Flow list view
The flows list page provides a high-level understanding of how each flow is performing.
You can see the number of conversions and the conversion rate on this page. These metrics help you understand how your SMS flow messages are driving recipients to make purchases.
These metrics are important because they inform you which messages are driving revenue for your business, so you can refine your campaign strategy.
Flow canvas
Open up your flow in Klaviyo, and click Show analytics from the top menu.
Each message in your flow will populate with a number of analytics you can view, such as:
- Engagement (click rate, and metrics on your selected conversion rate)
- Message deliveries
The flow canvas view is helpful because you can see how metrics rise and fall throughout the flow, giving you insight into where subscribers engage and where they fall off.
Flow 30 day snapshot
Interested in seeing your recent performance for a specific flow message? Click on any SMS in your flow to see the analytics from the last 30 days.
Check out the metrics listed in the Results card that populates in the flyout on the right-hand side of your screen.
Use these metrics to gain an overall picture of recent SMS performance and subscriber activity, helping you make any necessary tweaks to your flow logic as you see fit.
Flow message overview report
To see even more granular data about your flow SMS messages, perform the following steps:
- Click on any SMS message in your flow
- Head to the Results card on the right
- Click See details
You’ll be brought to the flow message overview report, where you can see specific metrics including click rate, conversion metrics, engagement over time, and deliverability.
Additionally, click through the Recipient activity, Link activity, and Conversions tabs to gain even more valuable insights about how your subscribers are interacting with your messages.
Benchmarks tab
If you’re curious about how your flows are performing in comparison to those of similar businesses in your industry, click on Analytics > Benchmarks in the left hand navigation menu. Then click on Flows from the top menu.
See how each of your flow metrics (including click rate, conversion rate, spam report rate, and unsubscribe rate) compare to those of your peers. You can additionally filter this page by time period, and by specific flows.
These analytics help you understand where you fall in your industry, arming you with insights to make adjustments to your flow strategy.
Action upon your flow metrics
After analyzing their flows, Bola’s Baked Goods noticed some room for improvement in the performance of their SMS messages in their flows. Click through the examples below to see what Bola’s Baked Goods found in their analysis, and action steps they took to improve some of their metrics.
Improving low click rates
Bola’s Baked Goods noticed that their SMS message in their abandoned cart flow had a pretty low click rate. This SMS reminded subscribers that they left a product in their cart around 4 hours ago, but haven’t placed an order.
After reviewing Klaviyo’s help article on how to increase SMS click rates, Bola’s team identified a few changes they should make going forward:
- Better targeting their flow message and personalizing their content: the SMS message that Bola’s team had set up was pretty generic, with no conditional split or personalization blocks. Bola’s team knows that the more personalized the message, the more relevant it will be to the recipient and the more likely they’ll engage as a result. They decided to add in a conditional split before this SMS message to create two different message versions: one for subscribers who have made a purchase in the past, and one for subscribers who haven’t made a purchase to date. This allowed them to tweak the language in the message to be more relevant to each audience. They additionally added personalization tags into their message to include details like the subscriber’s first name.
- Including a link in every message: While Bola’s team’s original message had reminded subscribers that they left something in their cart, the message didn’t actually include a link back to their cart. Without a link, the subscriber must close your SMS message and return to their cart on their own accord, causing a potential roadblock in the customer’s buying journey. Additionally, with no link, they had no click rate! Bola’s team added a link into this message to make the process to get to checkout easy and seamless, helping to boost their click rate and their conversions.
- Making their CTA (call-to-action) clear: Having just a link is not enough; you should make sure to clearly instruct your subscribers on the action they should take. Bola’s team tweaked their message to specifically instruct their subscribers to click the link to be brought back to their cart, and to place an order.
- Mixing in an exclusive deal every few messages: Lastly, Bola’s team decided to include an exclusive discount for subscribers who have not yet completed a purchase with Bola’s brand. With their new conditional split, Bola’s team was able to customize this message with a coupon code to help encourage these subscribers to click the link.
Improving low conversion rates
Bola’s Baked Goods noticed that their SMS message in their browse abandonment cart flow had a pretty low conversion rate. This SMS reminded subscribers of a product they viewed on Bola’s site, but did not add it to their cart or place an order.
After reviewing Klaviyo’s help article on how to increase SMS conversion rates, Bola’s team identified a few changes they should make going forward:
- Better targeting their flow message and personalizing their content: similar to the SMS in their abandoned cart flow, the SMS message in their browse abandonment flow had no conditional split or personalization blocks. They decided to add in a conditional split before their first SMS message to create two different message versions: one for subscribers who have made a purchase in the past, and one for subscribers who haven’t made a purchase to date. This allowed them to tweak the language in the message to be more relevant to each audience. They additionally added personalization tags into their message to include the subscriber’s first name and details about the product they had viewed but hadn’t purchased to remind them of what they’re missing out on.
- Changing their link to more clearly reflect the CTA: Bola’s team decided to adjust some of the link they had been including in their SMS to be more specific to the content. In the original message, when recipients clicked on the link in the browse abandonment message they were brought to Bola’s homepage. Bola’s tweaked this message so that they link was dynamic, and brought recipients back to the specific product page on Bola’s site. This change makes the user journey more seamless and assists in getting them to the eventual point of checkout.
- Optimizing the mobile checkout experience: Bola’s team additionally evaluated and tested their mobile checkout experience, and noticed a few roadblocks that likely cause customers to get frustrated and drop-off before completing a purchase. If checking out on a phone isn’t easy, you’ll likely have low conversion rates for your SMS messages. Improving the mobile checkout experience will help recipients place orders via their phone, thus increasing conversions driven by SMS messages.
Decreasing high unsubscribe rates
Bola’s Baked Goods noticed that the third message in their SMS welcome series (the message delivered after the very first welcome message and virtual contact card) had an unsubscribe rate of above 1.4%, which is high for SMS flow messages and needs immediate attention. This message was sent immediately after the virtual contact card was delivered, and highlighted Bola’s new pistachio muffins.
After reviewing Klaviyo’s help article on how to decrease SMS unsubscribe rates, Bola’s team identified a few changes they should make going forward:
- Personalizing their messages to increase relevance for subscribers: Instead of sending this product-specific messages to all of their new SMS subscribers, Bola’s Baked Goods decided to add conditional splits to their flow. This conditional split split subscribers down a path dependent on the product category they selected that they enjoyed most when they submitted their sign-up form. Depending on what they selected, subscribers received one of four SMS messages highlighting a product from their favorite category: coffee, muffins, pastries, and cupcakes. This targeting and personalization helped make this message relevant for their subscribers, decreasing the likelihood that they’d unsubscribe.
- Making adjustments to their SMS sending schedule: Bola’s team had originally scheduled the third message in their SMS welcome series to deliver just 10 minutes after the virtual contact card. This meant that all of Bola’s new SMS subscribers were receiving 3 SMS messages (a welcome message, a virtual contact card, and a highlighted product message) within a 20 minute period. That’s a lot of messages for a new subscriber to receive right off the bat! Bola’s team knew they wanted to leave their first and second SMS messages as is, so subscribers received confirmation of signup right away with a fast follow of the virtual contact card to help them recognize messages from Bola’s brand going forward. They decided to add a time delay of 2 days between their virtual contact card and their third SMS about the highlighted product, so as to not overwhelm their new subscribers and drive unsubscribes.
- Setting expectations more clearly at sign-up: It’s important to set expectations for your SMS program at the point of sign-up, so you only get subscribers who actively want to receive your SMS messages. Bola’s tweaked their sign-up forms on their website to more clearly describe messages that their subscribers could expect when they opt-in, helping refine their SMS list to only engaged subscribers.