By Timur Ali — Mar 24, 2025

The Straightforward Guide to Your Klaviyo Email Audit

The client shared his screen via Zoom and the first glance at the Klaviyo dashboard told me everything. 10 percent attributed revenue. Three basic flows. Sporadic campaigns. A list growing dust instead of sales.

Numbers don't lie. The best clients that I ever had made forty percent or more from emails. The struggling ones barely hit fifteen. And no, the difference wasn't just the setup done in Klaviyo. It's also how engaged the subscribers are with the brand, the ads running, the conversion rate on website, and multiple other factors. The difference was a solid brand + knowing what needed to be done and then its implementation.

Truth is, most store owners are really busy. At some stage they might have set up email flows and then forgotten about them. They think automation means hands-off which isn't the case. Things break. Customers change. What worked last year might fail today.

I learned this lesson from a client selling handmade jewelry. Her add-to-cart flow had been crushing it for months—recovering 12% of abandoned carts and generating $15K monthly. Then suddenly, silence. Revenue dropped by thousands. Turns out when they updated their Shopify theme, the developer forgot to re-enable the Klaviyo app embed. No pop-ups were showing, no behavioral tracking was working, and the add-to-cart flow wasn't triggering. Three weeks of lost revenue—nearly $12,000—before we caught it during a routine check.

An email audit catches these problems before they cost you money.

Before we proceed, I do want to share what an audit actually looks like.

Here's one we did for a client of ours when we initially onboarded them.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vlmr4HjbdKKd2EGDWaXSVjekurJ89dtMgrK0xai2tY8/edit?usp=sharing

Now, let me show you how to do one right.

Why You Need a Klaviyo Audit

When a hunting rifle misfires, you check each part before using it again. Treat your email marketing the same way.

"The most expensive mistake in email marketing isn't what you do wrong—it's what you fail to check."

A proper audit:

Uncovers deliverability issues keeping you from reaching inboxes. Are they excluding unengaged leads from campaigns? When did they last clean their email list? Do they have their branded sender domain setup?

I once saw an account with solid flows setup that nobody received. Turns out they were getting skipped because they were still on Klaviyo's 'Free Plan'. Only 250 active profiles that received them...
Finds broken flows costing you sales. Last month, I audited an account where the abandoned cart flow had the wrong trigger. Another time the dynamic link for checkout rebuild was incorrect. The owner had no idea and had lost significant chunk of revenue from high purchase intent visitors.
Shows which emails convert and which waste time. A client was sending weekly newsletters that got good opens but zero sales. We adjusted the content calendar so we were focusing on value but also sales through product promotions, new product launches, sales, etc.

Revenue went up. Less work, more money.
Reveals list problems before they damage your sender reputation. One fashion brand kept mailing inactive subscribers. Their deliverability tanked.

Sending more campaigns doesn't always mean more conversions.

Their fix took months, not days.
Identifies growth opportunities you're missing. A supplement company wasn't segmenting past purchasers. We did that and created personalized campaigns targeting those and other segments they had overlooked. Their reorder rate doubled in six weeks.

Good marketing isn't complicated. It's thorough.

How Often to Audit Your Account

Every ecommerce brand should look at their Klaviyo metrics at least once a q.

If not, get a proper audit done every quarter.

Some parts need weekly checks. Start your Monday by spending thirty minutes reviewing last week's numbers. Make it a habit. The best marketers I know check their data like fishermen check the weather.

Here's the audit process that we follow at AskTimmy:

The Six-Step Klaviyo Audit Process

Step 1: Check Your Deliverability

This is foundation work. Skip it and nothing else matters.

Start with these simple Klaviyo checks:

✓ Set up a branded sending domain: This gives you better control over your sender reputation and removes the "via klaviyomail.com" disclaimer from your emails

✓ Keep your engagement healthy: Aim for bounce rates under 1% and unsubscribe rates under 0.3% per campaign

✓ Monitor your spam complaints: Keep spam complaints below 0.1% - Gmail will start blocking you if you consistently hit 0.3%

✓ Get your authentication set up: DMARC is now required for Gmail and Yahoo (Klaviyo can help you set this up)

New Gmail & Yahoo requirements (simplified):

If you send emails to Gmail and Yahoo users, you need:

A branded sending domain (easy setup in Klaviyo)
Basic DMARC authentication (Klaviyo provides the records)
One-click unsubscribe (Klaviyo automatically adds this)

If you're using Klaviyo with a branded domain, most of this happens automatically when you follow their setup wizard.

Real example: A luxury skincare brand I work with was getting emails sent to spam because they skipped the branded domain setup. Once we configured it in Klaviyo (took 15 minutes), their open rates improved by 40% within a week.

⚠️ Warning signs to watch:

Sudden drop in open rates → Check your Klaviyo deliverability score
Bounce rates above 1% → Time to clean your list
Deliverability score dropping in Klaviyo's dashboard → Follow their action center recommendations

Klaviyo has a built-in deliverability score and action center that tells you exactly what to fix. Start with their deliverability checklist and you'll be ahead of most brands.

Step 2: Analyze List Health and Growth

A stagnant list means stagnant sales.

Pull up your list growth report and look for problems.

Healthy list benchmarks:

Metric	Target	What It Means
Monthly growth	≥ 1%	List vitality
Signup conversion	1-5%	Offer effectiveness
Unsubscribe rate	< 0.3%	Content relevance

Success story: A home goods client had flat growth for months. We changed their pop-up offer from "10% off" to "Design tips for small spaces." Growth jumped to 3% monthly. Another really great practice is to collect zero party data first and then ask them to sign up. That means more personalized email marketing and shows customers that you really want to get to know them and help them.

Quick fix example: A coffee subscription service was seeing 0.7% unsubscribe rates. Their emails were too frequent. We cut send frequency by half. Unsubscribes dropped to 0.2%.

Pro tip: Create a spreadsheet tracking these numbers month over month. Patterns will emerge that guide your strategy.

Step 3: Audit Email Campaign Performance

Pull data for all campaigns from the last three months. This reveals what your subscribers actually value, not what you think they value.

Open rates should exceed 20%. Aim for 35% or higher. A pet supply company I worked with had 15% open rates. We rewrote their subject lines to focus on pet problems instead of discounts. Opens jumped to 38%.

Click rates should exceed 2%. Minimum 1%. Lower means your offers aren't compelling or your design hides the call-to-action. A skincare brand had 0.6% click rates. Their emails were image-heavy with tiny buttons. We simplified the design and made buttons prominent. Clicks rose to 2.2%.

Compare revenue per recipient to your average order value. A high-converting email should drive revenue per recipient of at least 1-5% of your AOV. A client selling $100 products was seeing $0.32 revenue per recipient. We changed their offer strategy from percentage discounts to free gifts. Revenue per recipient jumped to $4.87.

Identify your three highest-performing campaigns and three lowest-performing ones. What's different? The answer often shows what your audience truly values. One apparel brand discovered their product education emails outperformed their sale emails by 300%. They shifted strategy and saw sales increase even while sending fewer promotions.

Step 4: Review Flow Performance

Flows are your money-makers. Examine each one with care.

Your welcome series should have open rates exceeding 50%. A furniture company had 32% open rates on their welcome series. The first email arrived three days after signup. We changed it to immediate delivery. Opens jumped to 68%.

Abandoned cart flows should recover 10-15% of carts. Lower means your offer isn't strong enough or your timing is off. A jewelry brand was recovering only 4% of carts. Their first email arrived a day after abandonment. We changed it to one hour. Recovery jumped to 13%.

Browse abandonment should see open rates above 35%. Post-purchase flows should have your highest open rates of all. Winback flows should recover around 5% of lapsed customers.

For each flow, check if all emails are delivering. Are smart filters working correctly? When was content last updated? Are split tests running? Is each email mobile-optimized?

One broken flow can cost thousands in lost revenue. I found a beauty brand whose post-purchase flow had been accidentally paused for two months. They lost an estimated $43,000 in reorders.

Step 5: Evaluate Customer Journey

This step matters most. Be your own customer.

Customer journey audit checklist:

Sign up for your own emails
Browse products and abandon a cart
Make a purchase
Note every email received and timing
Evaluate the overall experience

Eye-opening example: A cookware client thought their flows were perfect. Then we walked through the customer journey. Someone who abandoned a cart, then made a purchase, was still getting abandoned cart emails after buying. The experience felt desperate and confusing.

Critical questions to ask:

Is timing logical?
Are too many emails arriving too quickly?
Do messages build on each other?
Are offerings relevant?
Does anything feel jarring or disconnected?

This manual check finds problems automation misses.

Step 6: Technical Audit

Finally, check your account settings. Most brands skip this step. Don't. Technical problems sink campaigns faster than bad copy.

Verify smart sending timeframes. Sixteen to 24 hours is recommended for most brands. A home decor client had it set to 48 hours. Their time-sensitive campaign emails were arriving too late.

Check integration health between Klaviyo and your ecommerce platform. Look for API errors or sync issues. A fashion retailer's Shopify integration had broken. Their flows weren't triggering for two weeks. They never noticed.

Verify suppression lists are working. Confirm SMS settings comply with regulations and respect quiet hours. Check form settings to prevent overlapping triggers.

I once audited an account paying full price to Klaviyo while half their flows sat in draft state. That mistake cost them thousands in revenue while they paid for features they weren't using.

Creating Your Audit Action Plan

After audit, rank issues by impact:

Critical issues come first: Deliverability problems, broken flows, integration errors. These cost you money every day they persist.

High-impact improvements come second: Underperforming campaigns, list growth issues, poor segmentation. These represent missed opportunities.

Optimization opportunities come last: Testing ideas, content improvements, new flows. These build on your foundation.

Create a simple spreadsheet with five columns: Issue identified, recommended fix, expected impact, who handles it, target completion date.

Share this with stakeholders. Hold weekly review meetings until critical issues are resolved. A client selling fitness equipment turned their 15-issue audit spreadsheet into a 90-day transformation plan. Their attributed revenue went from 18% to 34%.

Most brands do segmentation poorly. They send the same message to different people and wonder why results suffer.

Case Study: I audited a skincare brand sending identical emails to everyone. Their click rate was 0.8%. We created segments for oily skin, dry skin, and aging concerns. Click rates jumped to 4.3%. Same emails, different segments.

Essential Segment Types You Should Have

1. Behavioral Segments

Browse behavior tells you what people want right now. Purchase history shows what they've valued before. Engagement levels separate active readers from ghosts.

Success story: A clothing brand wasn't segmenting by category affinity. They sent dress promotions to everyone. When we targeted only dress buyers and browsers, conversion rates tripled while list fatigue dropped.

2. Value-Based Segments

Segment	Definition	Special Treatment
VIP	Top 5-10% spenders	Early access, exclusive offers
At-risk	No purchase in 60-90 days	Re-engagement campaigns
Recent buyers	Purchased in last 30 days	Cross-sells, reviews requests

Dramatic result: A home goods company treated all customers the same. We created a VIP segment that got early access to sales. Their reorder rate increased 215% while email frequency decreased.

3. Technical Segment Improvements

Clean up naming - Replace "Group B" with descriptive names
Audit criteria - Update outdated segment rules
Check for overlap - Prevent email bombardment
Verify freshness - Static segments grow stale like bread

Remember: Great emails sent to the wrong audience always lose to average emails sent to the right one.

Content Audit Framework: What Your Emails Are Really Saying

Words and images matter. But how they work together matters more.

5-Point Content Inspection

1. Brand Voice Check

Your emails should sound like one person, not a committee.

Voice inconsistency warning: I audited a pet supply company whose welcome series sounded friendly while their promotional emails sounded desperate. Customers noticed the shift and stopped opening.

Quick test: Read emails aloud. If they don't sound like your brand talking to a friend, something's wrong.

2. Visual-Text Balance

Some emails have walls of text. Others are mostly pictures.

Before & After: A jewelry brand was sending image-heavy emails with minimal copy. We added more text explaining the craftsmanship. Click rates increased 28%.

3. Product Description Effectiveness

Features tell, benefits sell.

Measurable improvement: A kitchenware company described their knives as "high-quality steel." We changed it to "stays sharp through 10,000 cuts." Sales doubled.

Let customers sell for you.

Real results: A skincare brand added before/after photos from real customers to their emails. Conversion rates jumped 34%.

5. Offer Variety & Impact

Predictable offers become invisible.

Strategy shift: A clothing brand was offering 10% off in every email. We varied their offers between percentage discounts, dollar amounts, free shipping, and gifts with purchase. Revenue per email increased 47%.

Content audits reveal why some emails connect while others fall flat. The patterns guide your content strategy for months.

Final Words: Consistency Beats Perfection

The best email audit is the one you actually do. Start simple. Focus on deliverability, list health, and flow performance. Add complexity later.

Your 30-Day Audit Action Plan

Week 1: Check deliverability and fix critical technical issues
Week 2: Audit flows and campaign performance
Week 3: Analyze segmentation and list health
Week 4: Evaluate content and customer journey

I've seen elaborate audit plans that never happen. And I've seen simple monthly checks that transform businesses. Choose action over perfection.

"Good email marketing isn't magical. It's methodical."

Three final tips:

Schedule monthly audits on your calendar now
Treat them like meetings you can't miss
Start with what will make the biggest impact

An audit won't fix everything overnight. But it will show you what needs fixing.

If you are looking to get your Klaviyo account audited please feel free to reach out to us at timur@asktimmy.com or request an audit directly from our website.