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Klaviyo and Smile

How to install and use Klaviyo with Smile for email marketing

Angie T avatar
Written by Angie T
Updated over 4 months ago

Introduction

Klaviyo is an email marketing app that will help you target, personalize, and measure results for your online store.

Smile apps/integrations are only available on a Smile paid plan, on the Shopify and BigCommerce platforms.

The Klaviyo Smile app allows you to:

  • Sync rewards program member information with your Klaviyo account

  • Send rewards program emails directly from Klaviyo

  • Reward customers for leaving reviews through Klaviyo Reviews

  • Segment campaign lists based on rewards program information

  • Manage personalized information for each customer in your rewards program

  • Build custom flows using program events like points earned or redeemed

Overview


How to install the Klaviyo app

Step 1: Navigate to the Integrations section of Smile, and click on Klaviyo.

Inside the modal that opens, click Connect.

Step 2: To initiate the authorization flow, click the Connect to Klaviyo button.

If you are not already logged-in to Klaviyo, you'll be prompted to do so. Please ensure that you login to Klaviyo using the account that you'd like to connect with Smile. The Klaviyo account you login with must have Owner, Admin, or Manager permissions.

Once logged-in, you'll be prompted to review the permissions Smile requires in order for the integration to function. Click Allow.

Step 3: After you have authorized the Klaviyo integration, click Sync customer data to initiate the syncing of customer properties into Klaviyo.

💡 Important: All customer records in Smile will be added to Klaviyo as part of this sync.

That's it! Your Klaviyo integration is now installed.

What profile fields are synced to Klaviyo

After you install the Klaviyo integration and initiate the customer data sync, the following profile fields are synced to Klaviyo for each customer in your rewards program:

  • Smile Points Balance

  • Smile Referral URL

  • Smile State

  • Smile VIP Tier Name

  • Smile VIP Tier ID

These values will be continuously updated in Klaviyo based on any activity that occurs in your rewards program, and can be used to create segments or to add reward information to email campaigns.

What program events are sent to Klaviyo

When you install the Klaviyo integration, we’ll automatically start sending reward program events to your Klaviyo account. These events can be used in Klaviyo Flows (as triggers or conditions) or in Klaviyo Segments to include/exclude individuals based on their reward program activity. Each event includes a “payload,” which is a set of additional fields telling you more about what happened.

Event

When it’s sent

Payload

Birthday Reward Issued

When a customer is issued their birthday reward.

Points Earned on Order

When a customer earns points for placing an order.

Points Redeemed

When a customer redeems points for a reward.

Points Expiring

When a customer's points are about to expire. This event is sent based on the warning threshold and last chance threshold defined in the points expiry configuration (defaults to 30 and 3 days before expiry).

Customer Object

Also includes points_balance_expires_at (DateTime) nested under the extra hash.

Referral Started

When a Referred Friend claims the Referral Reward.

Referral Completed

When the Advocate is issued their Reward.

Reward Expiring

3 days before a customer's reward expires.

VIP Tier Achieved

When a customer achieves a higher VIP Tier or is manually added to a higher VIP Tier.

Rewarding with Klaviyo Reviews

To encourage review generation, you can reward customers with points for leaving product ratings & reviews through Klaviyo Reviews. Before you can setup points earning for reviews, you must first follow Klaviyo Reviews' getting started guide and ensure:

⚠️ Warning: You must setup Klaviyo Reviews in your online store BEFORE you install the Smile and Klaviyo integration. If you setup Klaviyo Reviews AFTER you install the Smile and Klaviyo integration, you'll need to remove and then re-install the Smile and Klaviyo integration for review data to sync into Smile.

With these requirements in place, you can then setup an earning rule in Smile to reward customers with points for leaving reviews. When configuring a new earning rule, select "Review a product (Klaviyo)" from the list of available ways to earn, and then specify how many points you would like to offer and whether you'd like to limit earning to specific timeframes (e.g. maximum twice per month). Once configured, the system will automatically issue points when customers leave verified reviews.

ℹ️ Note: Only verified reviews will be issued points, and all verified reviews will be issued points regardless of whether they are only a star rating, include text, or include a photo/video.

Create segments of contacts

Any of the profile fields and events that are synced to Klaviyo can be used to create segments of contacts within Klaviyo. Klaviyo Segments can be used to target email campaigns or as filters in Klaviyo Flows. For instance, you may use the "Smile Points Balance" profile field to create a segment of customers who have participated in your rewards program (i.e. have at least 1 point).

Tip: Give your segment a name that allows you to easily identify this specific group of customers.

Add reward information to an email campaign

When you create a new email campaign in Klaviyo, you have the option to add your program information to your campaign.

To do that, select a text box in your Klaviyo email campaign template and click the Add personalization icon:

The drop down menu that appears will show you all of the rewards program information that was synced with the Klaviyo Smile app. When you have selected the program information you'd like to add, you're all set to continue building the rest of your email campaign.


Testing Smile variables in Klaviyo

The Smile variables will not show up in the 'previews' or 'test emails' in Klaviyo currently! In order to test the variables, you'll want to create an actual email. Here's how -

1. Create a test account for yourself on your store so that you are a member of the rewards program

2. Create a campaign in Klaviyo, and make the recipient list just yourself

3. Send the email to this list, & check that the email you receive has the Smile data included properly.
4. You're all set!


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