This is a real example:
I have an e-commerce client in the food & beverage space. Before I onboarded them, they were running their email marketing program strictly according to Klaviyo’s standards.
✅ Smart Sending On
✅ Reputation Repair AI
✅ Send to SUPER Engaging Segments Only
As a result –
Klaviyo rewarded them with a high open rate, high click rate, and…
…a pat on the back.
(maybe a “good job 👍” sticker?)
THEN
I started managing their list:
~ purging the invalid emails
~ cleaning up the active profiles
~ expanding the sending segment bit by bit
10% today
10% tomorrow
…
…
2 emails this week
3 emails next
4 emails the following
…
…
I took it slowly—making sure I was maintaining a high domain reputation while increasing the number of profiles I could market.
Within the first 30 days, I increased their email marketing revenue from ~24.5k to ~94.3k.
Same product. Same ad budget.
384% 📈
This is the power of numbers.
If everything else stays the same… copy, template, offer… a 30% open rate for a 10,000 list (~3k readers) will always outperform a 50% open rate of 3,000 list (~1.5k readers).
Because…
…
..
.
Wait for the secret…
…
..
.
3,000 > 1,500?
(🤯🤯🤯)
That’s why I always tell my clients:
“Klaviyo is NOT your friend.”
They LOVE to sugarcoat your data with “feel good” metrics that do not reflect the bottom line for you.
When the real metric you should be paying attention to is –
Are you creating more (and more) happy customers every single day?
If not…
I don’t care if you have a 90% open rate.
If all you want is open rate… build a list of Apple Privacy Openers to get all the open rates you want.
I’ve even seen ESP reporting a 134% open rate… and marketers bragging about it.
🤣
**Lesson for business owner**
As the business owner, you are the driver of your car.
You do NOT need to know how the wheel is installed… or how the gas is distilled. But you must know what to check.
Speed? Direction? Fuel?
For email marketing, a good place to start:
Attributed Revenue
This is what is known as a North Star KPI.
It indicates the overall effectiveness of the strategy.
Aim for 30~40%.
- < 30%: something’s wrong
- > 40%: it’s time to dial up the traffic
To be continued…
– WYH