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How to create a sunset flow in Klaviyo
How to create a sunset flow in Klaviyo
Updated over a week ago

Phasing out customers you collect from Retention.com (or really any source) who are no longer engaging with your email campaigns is a good practice. Keeping a clean list prevents you from sending emails to unengaged subscribers, which could harm your deliverability.

You can achieve this phase-out by using a sunset flow in Klaviyo. This flow is a last-ditch effort to win them back. If they don't engage, you can then delete or suppress the contacts.

When to use a sunset flow

When you continually send emails to subscribers who aren't opening or clicking them, that tells your email provider (ex. Google) that you aren't a reputable sender. If your email provider continues to see red flags, they will start placing your emails into your subscribers' spam folders. You don't want that, which is why you need to regularly clean your lists. And before you suppress or delete an unengaged subscriber, try winning them back with a sunset flow.

But even before you can set up a sunset flow, you'll need to use a win-back flow, which attempts to bring back lapsed customers. These are the emails with subject lines like, "We want you back." This type of flow generally offers a promotion or high-quality content to catch the subscribers' attention, along with offering an easy-to-spot unsubscribe or manage preferences link.

If that still doesn't work, it's time to set up a sunset flow, which offers contacts their last chance to keep receiving your messages.

To do that, you'll need to know who is considered inactive for your business. For example, if you send daily emails, someone who hasn't interacted with you for three months is unengaged. If you send monthly emails, six months would be a better indicator of an unengaged subscriber.

How to set up a sunset segment

Sunset flows are triggered by being added to a specific segment.

1. From your Klaviyo dashboard, click Lists & Segments in the left-hand navigation. Then, click Create List/Segment.

2. Choose Segment. Then on the next page, name the segment (ex. Sunset).

3. This is how you should define your segment in Klaviyo:

4. When you’re finished, click the Create Segment blue box.

Note: These conditions are designed for those who send emails every day. If you don’t send them every day, you can extend the days from 90 days to a larger number like 180 days.

How to use with win-back flow

If you have a win-back flow, you’ll need to add another condition to this segment. However, the exact condition you use will depend on whether you want people to use the win-back and sunset flows together or separately.

To use them together, you’ll need to ensure your recipients have time to completely go through the win-back flow before they enter the sunset flow. Also, you’ll need to add a condition to include only those who have received the last message in the win-back flow. Here’s how that would look:

On the other hand, you could exclude those who entered the win-back flow from receiving the sunset flow. In this example, you would add an AND connector and specify that someone has received a win-back flow email zero times over all time.

By capturing people who engaged in the past — but not recently — you can weed out anyone who is completely unengaged and unlikely to respond to your emails. You’ll want to suppress subscribers who have been on your list for more than 90 days and never opened or click an email.

You may want to add an OR connector to the segment outlined above that includes people who have placed an order at least once over all time. This makes the segment more similar to a win-back flow, and if you add this condition, consider combining the two flows into a single re-engagement flow:

How to set up a sunset flow

1. From your dashboard, click Flows > Create Flow.

2. Choose Create from Scratch.

3. Name the flow, and click Create Flow.

4. Choose Segment.

5. Then, choose the Sunset segment you already created (see above).

6. Click Add a Flow Filter.

7. Next, add a flow filter to exclude anyone who opens or clicks an email since starting the flow. Click Save.

8. Add one to three emails that prompt customers to unsubscribe if they are no longer interested in receiving your emails. Do that by clicking the Trigger box. Then, drag the Email Actions below it, and configure the email. Anyone who unsubscribes will automatically be suppressed.

9. Next, add a Time Delay. Drag the Time Delay Action below the email(s). This will give recipients a grace period to open or click the email.

10. In this example, we’ve set the grace period for three days, which would be ideal for a daily sending frequency. If you send your emails less frequently, you can make this grace period longer, like seven to 10 days.

11. Drag the Update Profile Property Action below the Time Delay. This will tag those who do not engage with the email, and thus are passively indicating that they would like to unsubscribe.

12. Configure the tag to specify that these contacts should be suppressed. Do this by setting these criteria: Create New Property, Suppress, Boolean, True. Then, click Save.

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