Four easy steps to uncover A TON of hidden revenue!
Today, I’m going to show you the exact steps I take when conducting an audit on a client’s email account.
The reason you’ll want to audit your own account is simple:
It will help you spot issues, opportunities, potential flow ideas, and put you on a winning path to help you grow your business even more.
No matter where you’re at in your journey, every email account has room for improvement and an audit can provide many important insights into the overall health of your email strategy, and…
Just like you would visit your primary care doctor for an annual physical, or go to your dentist to get your teeth cleaned…
You should also regularly monitor your email performance and take the time to get it in tiptop shape so you can look like a professional who means business.
The best part about it? You can do it in as little as 10-minutes.
Ready to see how easy it is?
Good.
Let’s get to work!
THE BREAD AND BUTTER OF EMAIL MARKETING
There’s an old saying in the internet marketing world that states…money is in the list.
The statement rings true today, the same as it did ten years ago. After all, it’s why you have an email list, and why my job exists. But, still…
Chances are you’re leaving money – maybe a lot of it – on the table.
My job, as well as the goal of this article, is to help you identify the holes in your strategy so that you can uncover the revenue hidden inside your existing list.
4 EASY STEPS TO FINDING HIDDEN MONEY IN YOUR LIST
Whenever I’m handed the keys to a new account, this is the exact 4 step account audit checklist I follow when creating a strategy to grow a client’s email revenue.
Now, you can do the same to get more out of your list.
1 – Is your revenue from Klaviyo between 20-30%?
To find this number, go to your dashboard > performance.
Your goal should be to have 20-30% of your store revenue come from Klaviyo.
Anything higher than 30% and consider reinvesting some of those profits into your front-end lead acquisition.
I say this because from what I have seen, in most cases, when you take your overall percentage made from Klaviyo down and reinvest it in lead acquisition, your overall revenue actually goes up.
However, this is a decision only you can make.
But in terms of an account audit…
Nine times out of ten…if the percentage of revenue from Klaviyo falls outside the recommended 20-30%, it’s a sign additional optimization is needed – especially if revenue falls below 20%.
And by optimization, I mean…
- Adding more flows
- Testing against existing flows
- Segmenting your list
- Sending more campaigns to different segments of your list, and…
- Engaging with your list more consistently
After evaluating the revenue, you’ll then compare the 30 day data with the 90 day data.
You’ll also want to compare that with other historical data you find relevant to determining where you can improve your strategy. An example: Last year vs this year.
This is important because every business has down months and seasonality swings that can skew your data. Know what those are and plan accordingly.
2 – What is your average open rate?
I’m not going to wade into the weeds about how open rates are no longer a reliable metric since Big Tech’s privacy roll out. (Apple, I’m talking about you!)
Yes, they’re inflated.
It’s true some opens might be counted as opens even though they are not, but…
Open rates are still a metric provided by Klaviyo, and therefore a metric to help determine your account’s health.
Here’s how to see yours: Dashboard > Analytics > Email Overview (in the drop down menu)
You can even spot check recent campaigns to see how the data lines up.
As a general rule of thumb, strive for open rates of 30%+.
If you’re not there…
It’s okay if they’re below 30%!
Not the end of the world, and it certainly doesn’t mean you haven’t been treating your subscribers right.
Here are a few things you can do to boost up your open rates:
- Implement additional segmentation, including scrubbing everyone who hasn’t interacted with your emails in the last six months
- Look at your sending frequency and make sure you’re not falling off the radar of your potential customers
- Test your design. Is your heavily designed email landing in the promo tab, or worse, the spam folder? If so, try an all text email. If the opposite is the case, reverse the formula, and keep testing.
Sometimes that’s all it takes to make sure more people on your list are seeing what you’re sending.
Your open rates, as well as your click-through rates (which we’ll get to in a minute) are determined by:
- Who you have targeted during acquisition
- What you’ve done to get people on your list
- What type of messaging you’ve been sending to your list
- And how you have trained your list to respond to your emails
The goal is to develop a strategy that resonates with your subscribers, gets them to interact with your emails, and together, this will help improve your sender reputation, which will help place your emails in the primary inbox of your subscribers.
Remember, your account’s health is a direct reflection of the relationship you’ve forged between your brand and its subscribers. Relationship capital is just as important in email as it is in B2B, and you will always win the business on the front-end.
Some of the biggest mistakes I see brand owners making is forgetting there are real people on the other side of every transaction. The internet is funny like that, and it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers when trying to keep your business as profitable as possible, however…how much revenue you make tomorrow is a direct reflection of the impressions you made on someone else today.
Quality over quantity is the name of the game, especially when you’re growing an email list of buyers.
3 – What is your strategy? Do you even have one?
The next process in our quest for ultimate account health is perhaps my favorite of all because it’s all about creating an intentional, smooth customer journey.
How strategic is your business with your campaigns and email automations?
Is there a strategy at all? Are you winging it and blasting your list on a whim? Or are you emailing with an aim?
I’ve seen many forms of campaign and flow strategy. Some are good, some are bad, but no matter where on the spectrum your account falls, there is always room for improvement.
The secret about strategy is to create a coherent and intentional customer journey with your brand.
That’s the mindset you should have when deciding how you email. You want your subscribers to feel special and reassured that you’re there to help them solve their problems and that you’re going to be there when they need you most.
Remember, email is about building relationships with your subscribers.
That’s it.
If you do this right, sales will follow.
Email Campaigns and the Secret Sauce to Longevity
Your campaign strategy should reflect your goals. What is the #1 thing you’re trying to accomplish? What KPI’s do you need to achieve to accomplish that goal?
Determine what these are, then map out your promotional calendar. The number of emails you send per month will be a direct reflection of how you plan to hit your monthly target.
Don’t be afraid to email, either.
Most DTC businesses aren’t emailing enough.
There. I said it.
You can email more than you think without pissing off your subscribers.
It might also be the reason you’re not making 20-40% of your revenue from Klaviyo.
I like to see a minimum of 3 emails sent per week. Again, the data determines the strategy, but if you’re afraid to email your list more frequently, perhaps you aren’t sending the right kind of emails.
Will your emails be deleted or saved?
Next, I’ll preview some past campaigns to see what emails have been sent, when, and to what lists.
This gives me an idea of how the account is segmented – and who is receiving what message.
Because email is about forging positive relationships with your subscribers, I also like to see if the account is giving more to their readers than they are asking of them.
What I mean by this is, are they educating, informing, entertaining, etc. more than they are going for the hard sale?
There is nothing more damaging to an email list than always hard selling your subscribers.
No one likes to be sold to. Instead, try edutainment style emails and see what results you can get. Then, tell YOUR stories that only you can tell.
Finally, I look for any A/B split tests and ask myself if any controls can be beaten. This can be fun, especially when you are competing against yourself.
FLOWS
A quick and easy way to see which flows are turned on is by going to your…
Dashboard > Performance
The green dot means a flow is turned on.
I like to make sure at least the following 3 flows are turned on.
- Welcome
- Cart Abandon
- Browse Abandon
These are some of your lowest hanging fruit, meaning this is the easiest way to scoop up more cash fast. Most brands have them, but could do more.
Now, let’s check to see how they’re performing.
You do this by clicking on a flow > show analytics > set timeframe.
After the data populates, ask yourself…
Could this flow perform better?
There are many ways to increase a flows performance.
First, check to see if Smart Sending is on or off. Should they be switched? This will depend on how aggressive you want to be with your messaging.
Second, does each email in the flow have ~30% OR and a ~3% CTR?
This is especially important in flows that don’t have a lot of traffic and where revenue generated might not make sense when determining the health of a flow.
If your emails could use some improvement…
Before changing everything, save yourself some time and change ONLY the subject line.
Split test a new subject line against the current live version and let it run for however long makes sense. Sometimes that might be 100 impressions, while other times it might be 1,000.
Either way, testing is fun, easy to do, and doesn’t ruin what you already have.
Next, is the flow generating money?
Unless there is some specific reason it shouldn’t be, the answer should always be yes.
If it’s not, could the flow be longer? What would happen if you added one, maybe two more emails? Do you think you’d make more money?
Then, after I gauge the health of the current live flows, I evaluate the subject line, preview text, and check the trigger and filters. I want the subject line and preview text to be clear and not cause any confusion. If it doesn’t make sense, I’ll set up a test and monitor the data.
I also don’t want the triggers and filters to be overly optimized where it does more harm than good. Keep it simple, but relevant.
Once you’ve completed each of these steps…make a list of what flows could be added to ensure your customer journey is smooth and intentional.
Here are a few more flow ideas:
- Post-purchase
- Predictive next purchase
- Anniversary
- Birthday
- VIPs
- Order confirmation
- Before it ships
- Review gathering
- Winback
- Sunset
- Cross-sell
I’m always shocked to see how few flows most brands have. They rely entirely on campaigns to generate their revenue made from email.
Campaigns work in concert with flows, but the thing about flows is, they’re automated assets that will earn out multiple times over without you having to lift a finger. The more, the better.
4 – Sign up forms, do you have them?
Inside your Klaviyo account, navigate to the left-hand column. Below Email Templates you’ll find the Signup Forms tab. After you click the tab, a list of all your signup forms will populate. The ones with the green dots are turned on.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of brands out there who aren’t doing anything to collect email addresses. Instead, they’re relying entirely on paid media to drive sales. If you are one of them, you’re leaving money on the table.
At bare minimum, you should collect people’s email addresses.
This can be in a pop-up, fly-out, or embedded somewhere on your website.
Klaviyo makes it easy to design, test, and create, so all you have to do is provide the incentive to lure new subscribers into your world.
When auditing an account, I like to see a form submission rate between 5-10%.
It might take some testing to achieve this, but if you can get within this range, you’ll be in the top 10% of accounts.
Next, I look for what information is being collected. Is it only email? Email + SMS? Any specific interests and / or information?
Klaviyo gives us lots of choices on what info we can collect…
As well as a few different ways to use popups other than for data collection.
Generally, I like to keep it simple and don’t ask for too much at one time as I try to minimize the friction. Even going for a phone number immediately after asking for an email address might cause too much friction to make would-be subscribers stop in their tracks and think twice about giving you anything at all.
That’s the last thing you want to happen.
If SMS is important to your overall marketing strategy, start with the email and then re-target those new subscribers with a popup specifically asking for ONLY their phone number and watch your submission rates climb.
Finally, I look to see if the account is doing anything to create an advanced onsite experience. If not, I make a note of it, and create a plan to do so. A lot of brands don’t know about this, but Klaviyo gives you the ability to create billboard-like popups that alert specific segments to specific sales / deals only offered to them.
And always, split testing offers and segments to increase conversion.
KLAVIYO ACCOUNT AUDIT IN CONCLUSION
There you have it. The 10-minute Klaviyo Account Audit. Easy, right?
The key is to start small. Don’t overly complicate it. This is a constant work in progress and something you should be regularly monitoring so you can stay on top of trends and grow your revenue made from email even more.
Best of all, when you get in the habit of digging into the data, you’ll discover new ways to target existing subscribers.
Have fun with it! Test and compete against yourself. Remember, email should be fun for you, because if it’s not, then it’s not for your readers either.
YOUR TURN
Go run your account through an audit and report back if you used something you learned.
And if you want me to look under your hood, apply to work with me here.
