Everyone in the e-commerce space is OBSESSED with automated flows.
“We need to bring the flows to 50/60% of the email revenue.”
“10 to 40% of your revenue should come from campaigns you set and forget.”
“You want more automated campaigns that generate sales when you’re asleep.”
bla-bla-bla
Not gonna lie…
I used to believe these claims, too—before I started working with real clients.
But the more I helped my clients scale, the more I discovered:
FLOW IS OVERRATED… for so many reasons:
ONE
Sorry to break it to you…
But you don’t get to “build a bunch of flows, generate sales on autopilot, and sip mojito at the beach.” Because there’s something called flow fatigue.
Imagine you’re watching a movie for the first time.
You’re excited. You’re focused. You pay attention to every action. You walk out of the theater thinking, “What a great movie.”
A few weeks later…
Your friend asked you to watch this movie again.
“Fine. It’s a good movie. I’ll watch it again—just for you.”
The movie is still good… but you’re a little less thrilled.
Can’t blame you.
You’ve watched it already.
A few weeks later…
Your mom asked you to watch this movie with her.
What can you do? It’s your mom.
So you say yes, but you dozed off 30 minutes into the show.
A few weeks later…
Your brother asked you…
“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE. I AM NOT WATCHING THIS MOVIE AGAIN.”
Same for your flows.
First time—it works. Second time—it still works, maybe. Third time?
Your audience is deleting that email without opening it.
So… this means you need to optimize the flow.
Bye-bye, evergreen automation.
TWO
Technology will never be perfect.
Recently, a customer was complaining to my clients about “getting follow-ups too often.” When I check –
I realized that there was a glitch in Klaviyo’s tracking, causing it to fire two flows at the same time.
And the more “flows” you have, the more often this will happen.
(Software companies will sell you on their “AI Email Solution” but conveniently forget to tell you how often technology fails.)
THREE
A flow—by definition—is a series of automated emails triggered by a particular ACTION. Guess what?
YOU NEED THE ACTION TO HAPPEN FIRST.
(Open. View. Click. Purchase. Not purchased. etc)
Think of automated flow as retargeting ads. You are retargeting the prospects who show an interest by viewing or clicking on a cold traffic ad (or content).
This means…
You must have the cold traffic ad FIRST.
That cold traffic ad?
That’s your campaign.
The more campaigns you send, the more likely you are to trigger an action.
HOWEVER…
The more campaigns you’re sending, the fewer flows you can run…
…before churn rate goes through the roof.
FOUR
Flow will never be as timely… and relevant as a campaign.
When Trump slammed my client with a 50% tariff, I was able to pivot and leverage that hook to increase my campaign revenue by 30-50%.
You can’t leverage the news with flow.
Unless…
You’re updating the flow every month—which, again, defeats the purpose of evergreen automation.
Flow is a kick on the fence.
The purpose of a flow is to identify when your customers are ready to buy and give them a nudge to move forward.
If they viewed the site, encourage them to view a product.
If they viewed a product, encourage them to start checkout.
If they started checkout, encourage them to complete the purchase.
If they made a purchase, encourage them to buy again.
BUT
If you want to stay top of mind… to nurture relationships… to build trust… to maintain excitement until the timing is just right… that all comes from campaigns.
That’s why you should always start with campaigns.
To your success,
– WYH
P.S. – Most people talking about “increasing flow revenue percentage” will conveniently forget to mention the total revenue.
In most cases…
They are simply sacrificing campaign revenue to increase revenue from flows.
This means you might have more “automated sales,” but you are getting LESS revenue in total.