Why are people being skipped from flow emails?
Email flows are one of those things that rely on heavy logic and careful planning. So, when they go live, and you see that plenty of profiles are getting skipped, your immediate thought is to assume something is wrong. But that’s not always the case! In fact, skipped emails can be a good thing, especially for flows such as an abandoned cart, browse abandonment or site abandonment flow.
How do you know if your skip is good or bad? We’ve broken it down below:
How do you see who has been skipped?
Before we explain why someone may have been skipped, we first should break down how you can see if someone has been skipped. To do this, head into your flows and click each individual email one by one. Then, on the right side of your screen in Klaviyo, click the view details tab.
You can then click recipient activity at the top of your screen and filter to see those who have been skipped. If this number is high at first, don’t be alarmed. This is likely the case for abandonment flows and actually most likely means they’re working properly!
Once you click skipped, a drop-down will open at the top of your screen, providing your details into each skip.
Why is someone being skipped?
Missing Email - No matter how good your sign-up forms are an account without an email can slip through the cracks, especially if you have many different integrations feeding data into Klaviyo. A missing email profile should be updated or suppressed so they don’t take up space in your database for no reason.
Invalid Email Address - Some people may trick the system to get their discount code without getting the email marketing that comes with it. When this happens in a flow, it means Klaviyo did not attempt to deliver the email simply because it couldn’t. Like missing emails, deleting or suppressing these are the best ways to manage your database.
Suspicious Email - Klaviyo will attempt to mark emails as spam when it notices something isn’t right. With this, they will prevent the delivery of emails to save you email credits within your plan. For these emails, it’s best to vet them to maintain a healthy database.
Fails Flow Filters - This is likely where most of your skipped emails come from. Failed flow filters mean that your customer did not meet the conditions you set in your flow logic to qualify for the email delivery. Let’s take an abandoned cart flow, for example. One of your main flow filters will be ‘Has Not Placed An Order Since Starting This Flow.’ However, the trigger for the flow will be ‘Added To Cart.’ This means customers will trigger into the flow even if they proceed to purchase later, as everyone needs to add a product to their cart before they can place an order. When said customer goes on to place an order, they will still trigger through your flow, but they will fail the flow filters and, therefore, be skipped. Remember, though. It's always best to check that the flow filters that are 'failing' are correct and match the logic you set. This way, you can guarantee you're not missing your target audience.
Person Deleted - If you’ve recently been completing some database cleaning and deleted a contact, this may also be why they are skipped in your flow. If you want them to receive the flow, you can add them back and attempt to trigger the event again. However, you should always ensure they consent to your marketing again before you do this.
Person Suppressed - Like the above, the ‘person suppressed’ skipped filter means that a customer has unsubscribed from marketing or has been cleaned from your database. These customers can’t be added back into your database unless they grant explicit consent. In most cases, it’s best to let these remain as skipped contacts.
Smart Sending - If smart sending is switched on for the email, people who have recently received an email will be skipped. We recommend only having smart sending switched on for the Browse Abandonment flow. For example, you don't want people who have recently signed up to your Welcome Series via a pop up form to receive welcome email 1, place an order right away and then be skipped from the Customer Thank You flow.
The Email By Design Team is ready to support you
We understand that setting up your flow filters to guarantee the right people are skipped in your email flows can be confusing. If you’re worried that your skipped profiles could be inaccurate or you want us to spot-check this, we’re always here to help. Book a free 15-minute consultation today to get started.
