Klaviyo
A Klaviyo Expert Who
Also Runs the Ads
Klaviyo is the default for an ecommerce store on Shopify because the catalogue, the orders and the browsing behaviour all connect without middleware. What most accounts are missing is not the tool. It is the handful of flows that should have been built on day one.
Why Klaviyo
What It Does That
A Mailing Tool Cannot
The difference is not the sending. It is what the platform knows about the person you are sending to.
It holds your catalogue
Products, variants, prices and stock sync from Shopify, so an email can reference the exact item somebody looked at and know whether it is still available. Back-in-stock and price-drop flows depend entirely on this, and they are the closest thing to free revenue in the account.
It holds the behaviour
Viewed, added, started checkout, bought, bought again. Those events are what a flow triggers on, and they are why a segment can be built from what somebody did rather than from a list they once joined.
It holds the order history
How often somebody buys, and how long since the last time. That is what a winback flow needs, and it is the reason a borrowed ninety-day template is usually wrong: the right window is a fact about your product, not about email.
The Work
What Gets Built
In a Klaviyo Account
In this order, because each one is worth more than the one after it.
01
The integration, checked properly
Whether the Shopify connection is passing everything it should, whether the on-site tracking is firing, and whether historical orders were imported. A flow built on a broken integration looks fine in the editor and never sends.
02
The flows that earn
Welcome, cart and checkout abandonment, browse abandonment, post-purchase, winback, back in stock. Built once, running on triggers rather than on a calendar, and the part of the account that keeps working while nobody touches it.
03
Segments, then sending
Engaged, lapsing, bought-once, bought-often. Campaigns go to the segment that suits them rather than to everybody, because sending to a list that does not engage is what teaches inbox providers to filter you.
04
Reporting that agrees with Shopify
Klaviyo attributes a sale inside its own window, and so do the ad platforms, so the same order can appear in three reports. Reporting here works from what the store recorded, which usually still shows email doing well without the totals exceeding actual revenue.
Migration
Moving to Klaviyo
From Something Else
Worth doing carefully rather than quickly, because the thing most easily lost in a migration is the thing hardest to rebuild.
Lists and templates move easily. What does not move by itself is the sending reputation you have built at the inbox providers, and the historical order data that makes segmentation useful on day one rather than in six months. Both need planning before anything is switched off.
The other thing worth checking before a move is whether the problem is actually the platform. A list that does not engage will not start engaging because the sending tool changed, and a migration is an expensive way to find that out.
Cost
What Klaviyo Costs,
and What Decides It
Worth understanding before signing up, because the pricing model is the reason some stores find it expensive and others do not.
Klaviyo charges on the size of your active profile list rather than on how many emails you send, with SMS priced separately on top. The bill therefore grows with the list whether or not the list is earning, which is the opposite of how most people assume it works.
The practical consequence is that list hygiene is a cost decision as well as a deliverability one. Profiles who have not opened anything in a year are being paid for every month, and they are also the profiles teaching inbox providers that your mail is ignorable. Suppressing them usually lowers the bill and raises the open rate at once, which is rare enough to be worth checking before anything else.
Whether the subscription pays for itself is arithmetic you can do before committing: the flows that will run, the orders they need to generate, and your margin on those orders. If that does not clear the monthly cost, the answer is to build the flows before growing the list rather than the other way round.
Alternatives
Klaviyo, or
Something Else?
The honest comparison, including the cases where Klaviyo is not the answer.
Against Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a general mailing tool that added ecommerce features later. Klaviyo was built around a product catalogue from the start. For a store the difference shows in the flows that depend on knowing what somebody looked at and whether it is still in stock. For a business that sends a newsletter and little else, Mailchimp is cheaper and enough.
Against Omnisend
Omnisend is also built for ecommerce and is usually cheaper at the same list size. Klaviyo has deeper segmentation and a larger integration ecosystem. If budget is the binding constraint and your segmentation needs are simple, the gap is narrower than the market implies.
Against Shopify Email
Shopify Email is inexpensive and fine for occasional campaigns. It is not built for the flow logic that does the earning, so it tends to be a starting point rather than a destination. Moving later is normal and not difficult.
Deliverability
Getting Into the Inbox
Is Not Automatic
The part that stays invisible until it breaks, and is slow to repair afterwards.
Inbox providers decide where your mail lands based on how people react to it. Opens, replies, deletions without opening and spam complaints all feed that judgement, and it is made per sending domain rather than per campaign. Sending to a list that does not engage teaches them to filter you, and the damage appears later as campaigns that quietly stop arriving rather than as an error message.
Most of it is prevented by authentication: a dedicated sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured properly. Klaviyo walks you through it, and a large number of accounts have never finished it, which is worth checking before blaming the content.
Repairing a damaged reputation means sending to a much smaller engaged segment for a period and letting it recover. It feels like doing less, and there is no setting that reverses it faster.
Fit
Who This Is
And Is Not For
Hire someone else if
- You want somebody to write every campaign, which is a copywriter
- You have no list and no traffic to build one from yet
- You are not on Shopify, where most of the integration value sits
- You want daily sending volume rather than a channel that lasts
This works if
- You are on Shopify and Klaviyo is already installed but barely used
- Your flows are a welcome email and nothing else
- People buy from you more than once, or could
- You want email run by the same person running the ads, so the two agree
Questions
Questions About
Klaviyo
If yours is not here, ask it on the call.
What does a Klaviyo expert cost?
It sits inside the retainer rather than being sold separately. Channel Management starts at $1,500 a month and covers one channel, which can be email. Growth Partner starts at $4,000 and includes every channel priced as one. Full detail is in the pricing section on this page.
Which Klaviyo flows should be built first?
Welcome, then cart and checkout abandonment, then post-purchase. Welcome because it is the one moment somebody chose to hear from you, cart because it is the highest intent in the store, and post-purchase because the second order is the cheapest one you will ever get.
Can you migrate us to Klaviyo?
Yes. The parts that need planning are sending reputation, which does not transfer, and historical order data, which is what makes segmentation useful immediately rather than months later. Templates and lists are the easy part.
Do we need Klaviyo if we are already on Mailchimp or Constant Contact?
Not necessarily. If the flows are built and the integration passes product and order data properly, the platform matters less than the work. Klaviyo is the recommendation when starting from scratch on Shopify, because the connection is native rather than bolted on.
Is Klaviyo worth the cost at a small list size?
It is priced on profile count, so the question is whether the flows will earn more than the subscription. On a store with repeat purchases and any meaningful traffic that is usually straightforward arithmetic, and it is worth doing before signing up rather than after.
Who owns the account?
You do. The account, the list and the data are yours, and they stay yours if we stop working together.
Pricing
What Does It Cost
to Work Together?
Published, so you can rule me in or out without booking a call.
Channel Management
Starting at $1,500 /month
You own the plan. I run the channels.
- Campaign build and management
- Conversion tracking and reporting
- Monthly performance call
- SEO is not included at this tier
- Additional channels +$500 each
- Minimum ad spend $5,000/month
- 6 month commitment
Most Popular
Growth Partner
Starting at $4,000 /month
I own paid strategy end to end.
- Everything in Channel Management
- Every channel included, priced as one
- SEO included: technical, on-page and content
- Channel mix and budget allocation
- Creative direction and briefs
- Quarterly CRO roadmap
- 25 hours a month included
- Minimum ad spend $10,000/month
- 3 months, then month to month
Fractional CMO
Starting at $7,000 /month
I own the whole marketing function.
- Everything in Growth Partner
- Email, SEO and site direction
- Contractor sourcing and management
- Quarterly planning with you
- 40 hours a month included
- Minimum ad spend $20,000/month
- 6 month commitment
Let’s Talk
Book a free 30 minute call. I will tell you what I would do with your accounts, whether or not you hire me.
Book a Discovery Call
30-minute strategy session
Prefer to Reach Out Directly?
Happy to talk it through over email or a quick call. I usually reply within a few hours on weekdays.
- greg@digitalkarbon.com
- Massachusetts • Nationwide
Who You Talk To
Me, Every Time
What to Expect
- 30 minutes with me, not a salesperson
- What I would change in your account first
- No pitch deck, no obligation