Improve your flow's conversion rate

Experiment to find the optimal cadence of messages. For instance, once you know where drop-off is taking place (say, after the second message in your flow), you can create an A/B test to try out a few different iterations of your flow pathway.

More specifically, you can:

• A/B test individual flow messages
• A/B test the content within flow pathways

Some things to test (1 at a time) are:

• The number of messages in your flow path
  More is not always better. As every business and customer base has different needs, there is no specific number of emails you should use across all flow types. If you generate incremental revenue from a flow message without prompting a high unsubscribe rate, then keep the message and consider adding on if engagement remains high. Conversely, if a message does not drive additional revenue, that’s a sign that it’s time to end the flow before that message.
• How long of a time delay to place between messages
  Consider whether or not you are overwhelming people with the amount of content they receive in a short period of time. Alternatively, if you leave too many days in between messages, you may have already lost someone’s attention and missed out on the conversion. For more information on Klaviyo's recommended time delays broken down by flow, read how to optimize your flow sending frequency.

The various discounts and other incentives that you share within flows should ideally be personalized per recipient. That way, you can ensure a better customer experience and save your brand money. For instance, a large discount is a great way to retain a more price conscious shopper, but can lead to a dip in revenue when used by your top shoppers on high value carts.

To facilitate the process of getting truly targeted in flows, you should use:

• Conditional splits to curate specific flow paths for recipients based on what you already know about them, like purchase history or their current cart value. Learn more about conditional splits.
• Show/hide blocks to display different email content to each recipient based on information about them; for example, showing certain content to those in loyalty program tiers or who purchased a particular product. Learn more about show/hide blocks.

Now that you have know how you can update flow messages and paths to be more targeted, let’s talk about who you may target with what kind of content.

Below are some examples of how you can make more targeted flows to drive someone to buy:

• First-time buyer discounts
  You will likely share your highest discount with new shoppers to get them to place their first order; for instance, 20% off their purchase.
• Repeat shoppers
  For those who have placed multiple orders in a set amount of time (e.g., 2 orders in the last 60 days), consider sharing volume-based offers that incentivize shopping again or increasing the value of their orders. For instance, you can offer “buy 2, get 1” bundles or a discount on an ongoing subscription that moves them into a cycle of conversions month over month.
• Recent shoppers
  Since your brand is top-of-mind, offer a gentle nudge to purchase again that doesn’t necessarily entail a major discount. For example, you could offer free shipping or an exciting cross sell deal on an item that directly relates to their initial purchase.
• Lapsed shoppers
  When it comes to lapsed (i.e., highly unengaged) shoppers, there is really 1 distinct flow to focus on. Work to either re-engage or remove them from your account within a sunset flow. This is your final effort to reach out to unengaged profiles. You can offer another major discount (like your first-time buyers) to remind them of the value of your brand; otherwise, stop investing excess time and money in marketing to these profiles. Learn how to build a sunset flow.

Keep your message simple and straight to the point. Sometimes the reason someone isn’t ready to buy is because they don’t know what to buy or why they need it. Use your message to draw the eye to exactly what your recipient may want with copy that nudges them towards converting.

Best practices to follow:

• Recommend specific products
  Use product feeds to feature items that someone is specifically interested in. In particular, you can feature products from a feed based on category, price, stock level, and how your customers have engaged with them (e.g., items in their shopping cart or that they recently browsed). Learn how to add a product feed to flow emails.
• Share a direct call-to-action (CTA)
  Regardless of your message type (e.g., email, SMS, push) your CTA must be front and center in your message to really draw a recipient's attention and spur them to shop. Make sure your layout focuses on the main link, that your CTA copy is direct and to-the-point (e.g., Shop now), and that it leads directly to where someone shops (e.g., the exact catalog page where they can add to their cart).
• Use high-quality images
  When relevant, add a clear, high quality image that shows off why someone may want to buy, perhaps a high-quality graphic of someone using your top-selling item. It should draw the eye and reinforce your CTA to shop. Note that, for emails, having too many images can lead to spam filtering, so be careful and remember: quality over quantity.

Beyond recommending what someone should buy, you must also address a more timely question for shoppers: Why here? Why now?

Reduce any hesitancy from shoppers with the following messaging tactics:

• Add a sense of urgency
  Let customers know that the deal you offered in a flow won’t last forever. Because a flow is based on behavior, emphasize the timeliness of the offer and why they shouldn’t just shop, but shop now. Do this in the tone of your writing and within the incentive itself (e.g., offering a coupon that will only last a specific amount of days).
• Sweeten the deal
  Beyond offering targeted discounts, you can go a step further to drive purchases by gamifying the shopping experience (i.e., making it feel like a game). Build a loyalty program, in which you can reward shoppers with points to cash in on and provide incremental benefits that get better with a higher shopping cart or repeat purchases. Flow messages can power this messaging as you slot in universal content blocks that feature points remaining, when they expire, and what deals they’ll unlock by shopping again or increasing their cart value. Learn how to build universal content blocks for loyalty program communications.
• Reduce buying hesitations
  In some cases, someone may not place an order due to a specific hesitation. For instance, they may be unsure of specific details on the product or how you manage the shopping and return experience. When in doubt, provide these details within your flow messages or link out to further information in follow up alerts. You may feature product pricing tiers, sizing charts, your return policy, buying guides or quizzes, etc. You should also confirm that any links to further information, and especially to your product pages, are functioning properly and are optimized for mobile. If someone is already hesitant about shopping, then a sub-par web experience may decrease their likelihood of placing that order.

Often, the best marketing tactic you can employ is social proof; in other words, evidence that real people have purchased and found value in your business. You may be wondering: how could this possibly align with flows?

Here’s how to add a bit of social proof to your flow messages, encouraging others to shop:

• Add a reviews quote block to flow emails
  Feature customer reviews and star ratings to build trust in your brand and show off the proven value of your products for real shoppers. Learn more about featuring customer reviews.
• Add a section or link to social media user-generated content (UGC)
  Within your flow messages, you can feature testimonials from happy shoppers: a quote from a VIP loyalty member, an image of someone using their product in real life, a link to a social media community where others can share their experiences with your brand. In fact, you can even display content from your own Instagram directly into an email. Learn how to use Instagram content in emails, or learn more about different types of user-generated content (UGC).
• Feature a product feed of best selling or currently trending items
  Similar to the idea of giving curated product recommendations, you can also use product feeds to feature trending items among others in your community. Feature top selling products in your catalog so others gain the social proof and confidence to buy. Learn more about product feeds. If you use Klaviyo Reviews, you can even add the current star-rating for a particular item; for more information, learn how to show product ratings in product blocks.

Integrate all of the systems and messages you use into 1 unified approach to flow sending; that way, you have multiple channels for recovering lost sales.

In particular, you should:

• Use data from integrations you use to power your flows
  Use third party integration data to build truly robust flows that speak to customers on a personal level. You can sync data from social media ads, shopping behavior, subscriptions, past referrals, etc. to create distinct pathways and refine your messages to be more specific to each recipient.
• Use all of the channels you invest in (e.g., email, SMS, and push) simultaneously in a flow
  This allows you to reach customers on the channel they are most likely to check and engage with. Perhaps someone is more engaged on SMS, and may miss an abandoned cart notification over email. Recover this otherwise lost sale by sending an SMS instead. You can even offer different incentives based on the channel (e.g., a text-only discount). We’ll walk through how to get targeted in this approach below.

To add additional channels to a flow, you should:

1. Drag a conditional split into your flow.
2. Create 2 distinct pathways based on whether or not someone has subscribed to a specific channel, say SMS.
3. If they have opted into both channels, prioritize sending an SMS or push alert over an email, as these are usually viewed right away and can encourage immediate action.

Below is an example of what this may look like in a browse abandonment flow:

Note: The only flow that you should not add multiple channels to is your welcome series. You must set up a distinct welcome flow for email, SMS, and mobile push notifications, so subscribers can sign up to each channel at separate times and still receive each welcome message without being skipped.