Create an email campaign

A campaign is one email, from its name and design to its subject line, sender, send time and audience. You create campaigns on the Campaigns page and keep track of them there.

Before you start

• You need the Business plan. See Choose a plan and upgrade.
• Connect Klaviyo if you want to pick an audience and schedule the email from Pinned. You can create and design campaigns without it. See Send campaigns with Klaviyo or any email platform.

Start a new campaign

1. In the sidebar, click Campaigns.

2. Click New campaign.

   

3. In Campaign name, type a name. The hint reads “e.g. October merch drop”. Only you see this name. Subscribers see the subject line, which you set later.

4. Under Start from, choose a starting point:

   • Starters: ready-made designs such as Flash deal, Going live, New video, Merch drop, Event invite and Monthly newsletter. Click one to select it.
   • Your saved formats: open the tab that shows how many you have, such as My formats (1), and click one. To save formats, see Save and reuse email formats.
   • Blank: an empty email you build from scratch.

   

5. Click Create campaign. The button stays dimmed until you enter a name, and reads Creating… while it works.

The campaign opens in the editor. It keeps its own copy of the design, so later changes to a format don't affect it.

Fill in the details

A new campaign opens with the Details panel already expanded. If you collapsed it, click Details to open it again. While it's collapsed, it shows a one-line summary of your subject, audience and send time.

Inbox

1. In Subject line, type what subscribers see first. The counter beside it, such as 0/60, is a guide to length and changes color when you go past it.
2. In Preview text, add a line that continues the subject. Most inboxes show it after the subject. Its counter works the same way, with 90 as the guide.
3. To personalize either line, click Merge tag above the field and choose a tag. It's inserted where your cursor is. A first-name tag comes with the fallback word “there”, for subscribers Klaviyo has no name for.

Sender

1. In From name, enter your name or brand.
2. In From email, enter an address on a domain you've verified in Klaviyo. If the address doesn't look like an email address, the field tells you.
3. If Klaviyo is connected and has a default sender, a note shows it. Click Use it to fill it in.
4. Optionally, in Reply-to (optional), enter where replies should go. When it's empty, replies go to the from address.

Send time

1. Choose a Date.
2. Set the Time. The field is unavailable until you choose a date, and fills in 10:00 AM when you pick one.
3. Choose a Time zone. If it differs from your browser's, a note shows the send time in your own time.

To start over, click Clear the send time.

Audience

Audiences are the Klaviyo lists and segments the email goes to. Until Klaviyo is connected, this section reads “Connect Klaviyo on the campaigns page to choose lists and segments. Not using Klaviyo? Export HTML works without it.” Pinned doesn't store subscribers. See Send campaigns with Klaviyo or any email platform to connect and choose an audience.

Tracking

• Add UTM parameters to links: when on, the Source, Medium, Campaign and Content (optional) fields appear. New campaigns start with source “klaviyo”, medium “email” and a campaign value based on the name. The parameters are added to buttons, images and menus that have UTM turned on, and Klaviyo's own tracking parameters are left off.
• Smart Sending: Klaviyo skips people who got an email from you very recently.

Save your work

The top bar shows Unsaved changes or Saved. To save, click Save below the design, or press Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac). Click Reset to go back to your last save. Pinned asks you to confirm first.

If you leave with unsaved changes, Pinned asks before it lets you go.

Next, design the email in Design emails in the builder. To get it out, see Send campaigns with Klaviyo or any email platform.

Find and manage your campaigns

The Campaigns tab on the Campaigns page lists your campaigns, most recently edited first. Each row shows the name, status, subject, send time and audience. Use the filters above the list: All, Drafts, Scheduled, Sent and Failed. Numbers beside them count the campaigns in each.

The Scheduled filter includes campaigns that are scheduling, scheduled or sending. The Failed filter includes cancelled ones too.

Each row has these actions:

• Edit opens the campaign. For scheduled, sending and sent campaigns the button reads Open, and the campaign is view-only.
• Schedule sends it to Klaviyo. It's unavailable until Klaviyo is connected.
• Unschedule appears on scheduled campaigns and turns them back into drafts.
• The icon of two overlapping squares duplicates the campaign into a new draft copy.
• The trash can icon deletes it after you confirm. You can't delete a campaign while it's scheduling, scheduled or sending. Deleting a sent campaign removes it from Pinned only. Klaviyo keeps its own record of the send.

If you've used the Email agent, its drafts get a From Email agent tag and their own filter. To plan a run of emails with the agent, see Plan emails with the Email Marketer.

Plan on the Calendar tab

1. On the Campaigns page, click the Calendar tab.
2. Use the arrows beside the month name to move between months.
3. Click a campaign on its day to open it. Each shows its send time and name. Drafts have a dashed outline, and sent campaigns start with a check mark.
4. To start a campaign for a day, click the plus icon on that day. It's available for today and later days. The new dialog shows the send time, set to 10:00 AM, and you can change it in the editor.

Only campaigns with a send time appear. For social posts and emails together, click View the full content calendar, or see Plan with the content calendar.

Troubleshooting

Schedule is dimmed

Klaviyo isn't connected for this workspace. Connect it, or use Export HTML in the editor to send from another platform. See Send campaigns with Klaviyo or any email platform.

The fields are locked

The campaign is scheduled, sending or sent. For a scheduled campaign, click Unschedule and edit it as a draft. For a sent one, duplicate it and send the copy.

“Give the campaign a name first.”

The name at the top of the editor is empty. Type a name, then save again.