How I used some simple segmentation with a client to improve open and click rates, and increase revenue while using less Klaviyo sends.

The more you can segment your list and send targeted emails the better.

But it’s not easy. The time and energy you have to dedicate to create multiple targeted emails for each segment doesn’t always produce the ROI that you’re looking for.

If you’ve got a bigger list (over 100K) then using some advanced segmentation has the best chance of delivering big returns.

But if you’ve got a small to medium list, then using some basic segmentation is all you need.

Focus on engaged, recently active, and recent purchasers.

And use as much automation as possible.

Recently I worked with a client who has a medium sized list.

We focused on changing our campaign strategy to focus on two different engaged segments.

And the results were even better than I could have hoped.

Breaking Down Our Engaged List

This client had been using a 180 openers segment to send all emails to. A segment of about 51K total subscribers.

While not terrible, this list included a large number of emails that were not engaging with emails.

180 days is a long time in the DTC ecommerce world.

So I used my 30-day and 90-day engaged segments to retarget our scheduled campaigns for March.

We focused on sending all promotional and sale emails (flash sales, product features, etc.) to the 90-day engaged list.

And all value-add emails we sent to our 30-day engaged list.

The thought process being that if someone isn’t opening or clicking on a promotional or sale email… then they probably aren’t going to open or engage with a value-add email.

I wanted to send our value-add emails to our best subscribers.

Why Klaviyo Sends Are Important

The biggest reason we wanted to focus on better segmentation was to make our email sends more efficient.

That’s because Klaviyo now caps your sends based on how many subscribers you have.

For example, if you pay for 50,000 subscribers… you are “capped” at 500,000 email sends.

Now it’s a soft cap because you can always pay to move up a tier, but it’s not cheap.

So while sending more emails typically means making more money… if you’re paying to send extra emails that’s going to eat into your bottom line revenue.

This is one of the superpowers of segmentation. Increasing your revenue per recipient so that you can send more emails, make more money, and stay under your Klaviyo sending cap.

Previous Segmentation Was Good – Not Great

The previous segmentation that was being used was better than emailing the entire list… but not by much.

As I said earlier, 180 days is a long time when it comes to DTC ecommerce.

Especially when you are looking at anyone that has opened an email in the last 180 days… and taking into account that iOS14 took the open rate metric and tossed it out the window.

Our open rates were between 35% and 40%. Which in the world of Apple privacy opens is rather low.

Those aren’t “bad” open rates, but everything is subjective. Since iOS14, you really want open rates that are above 50% to make sure that your emails are hitting the inbox.

Our click rates were also low and they were using a ton of email sends.

In January they sent a total of 667,000 campaign emails.

In February they sent a total of 508,000 campaign emails.

For both months the revenue per recipient was around $0.06.

Not super efficient. And it meant that they were paying Klaviyo almost double.

New Segmentation Improved Everything

• Open rates increased by over 20 points
• CTR’s almost tripled
• Rev/Revip doubled
• Campaign revenue went up by $10K
• Total campaign email sends for March – 347,511

So we hit March with a specific goal. 

Increase campaign targeting so that we could make more money and use less sends.

Using my 90-day and 30-day engaged segments we were able to above and beyond all expectations.

Here were the results:

Open rates improved by over 20 points. Throughout March we regularly got open rates above 60%.

Our Click Through Rates almost tripled. We started getting CTR’s between 0.9% and 1.5%

Most importantly, our revenue per recipient more than doubled!

Our overall campaign revenue went up by more than $10K.

And we used… drumroll please…

315,123 email sends. 

47% of our email sends from January while making $2,514 more from campaign emails.

And 62% of our email sends from February while making $9,392 more from campaign emails!

Summary

Here’s the TL;DR breakdown…

Breaking Down Our Engaged List

• Had been using 180 day openers (Around 51K)
• Created 30-day and 90-day engaged lists (32K and 39K respectively)
• Focused on sending on those two

Why Klaviyo Sends Are Important

• Klaviyo doesn’t just charge by subscriber now, they also cap your sends
• More sends equals higher cost

Previous Segmentation Was Good – Not Great

• Using the 180 day openers we were getting around 40% open rates, .04% CTRs, and about $0.06 rev/recip.
• Email revenue was really good, between 45% and 50% of total revenue.
• January – sent almost 667,000 total campaign emails
• February – sent 508,000 total campaign emails

New Segmentation Improved Everything

• Open rates increased by over 20 points
• CTR’s almost tripled
• Rev/Revip doubled
• Campaign revenue went up by $10K
• Total campaign email sends for March – 347,511

What Should YOU Do Next?

1. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter for daily email tips and what’s working now
2. Leave a like or a comment on this post to let me know what you thought. 
3. If you need an email list manager for your brand or business, send me an email at ben@henkenmarketing.com or fill out this form and I’ll be in touch.
4. Sign up for my weekly newsletters here and get these email tips and tricks sent directly to your inbox.