Klaviyo Migration Checklist: Steps & Best Practices 

If you’ve switched platforms even once in your marketing career, you’re right to be terrified of having to do it again. 

“Migrations are messy beasts because you’re opening the hood on something that someone built 10 years ago, the person who coded the API is long gone, and you have no notes about what they did or why they did it,” Ryan Phelan, Managing Director of RPEOrigin, attests.

And those are not the only challenges, right? 

But, as Phelan goes on to assure, it doesn’t have to be that way. And we concur.

We at Mavlers are a certified Klaviyo partner, driven by a team of 15+ Klaviyo experts, including migration specialists. Today’s guide is to help you with migrating email campaigns to Klaviyo. Let’s get started. 

Klaviyo migration guide: The steps

Klaviyo migration best practices

Should you outsource ESP migration?

Klaviyo migration guide: The steps

Follow these steps to initiate migration from your current ESP to Klaviyo:

1. Adopt Klaviyo Forms: Start by replacing your current sign-up forms with Klaviyo’s native forms. This ensures all new subscribers are automatically added to your Klaviyo list, simplifying audience management and improving data flow.
   
2. Reroute Third-Party Form Entries: If you collect contacts through external platforms, adjust the submission settings so that new entries are funneled directly into Klaviyo.
   
3. Sync Checkout Subscriptions: For e-commerce platforms like Shopify or Magento that gather email contacts during checkout, confirm that these subscribers are automatically linked to your Klaviyo account.
   
4. Import Bounce and Unsubscribe Data: When migrating via Klaviyo’s direct integration, this is handled for you. Otherwise, manually upload your bounce and unsubscribe records to Klaviyo’s suppression list.
   
5. Recreate Autoresponders in Klaviyo: Transfer your existing autoresponder sequences to Klaviyo’s flow system and activate them to maintain engagement without disruption.
   
6. Bring Over Email Templates: If you wish to retain your previous email designs, follow Klaviyo’s instructions for importing custom HTML templates to ensure a consistent look and feel.

Klaviyo migration best practices

Now that you know the steps, consider these best practices while migrating to Klaviyo:

1. Ensure Klaviyo Email List Import: Before finalizing your migration to Klaviyo, ensure you’ve transferred all essential data from your previous ESP. This step is crucial to guarantee that your information remains accessible post-migration.
   
2. Monitor Sign-up Forms: After redirecting your sign-up forms to Klaviyo, allow a few days for observation. Keep an eye on your old ESP’s lists — if you still see new subscribers being added, there’s likely a form you missed during the switch.
   
3. Prioritize List Cleaning: Before moving any existing email lists, take time to clean them thoroughly. Starting with a well-maintained list ensures your first campaigns in Klaviyo are sent to an engaged audience. Neglecting this step may harm your email deliverability if inactive or invalid addresses are included.
   
4. Refine Your Audience for Better Results: Most ESPs offer insights into subscriber engagement levels through metrics like open rates and bounce rates. Use this data to filter out inactive or invalid contacts before transferring your lists to Klaviyo. If Klaviyo doesn’t integrate directly with your previous ESP, you have two effective options:
   
   • Upload your main list with engagement details as custom properties.
   • Separate your contacts into main, engaged, and inactive lists.

To maintain strong engagement in your initial campaigns, focus solely on your active subscribers. For daily senders, target this engaged segment for the first week. If you email less frequently, limit your first 2-3 campaigns to this group.

This structured approach will set you up for a successful transition to Klaviyo with improved deliverability and audience engagement.

Should you outsource ESP migration?

Kate Barrett, founder of eFocus Marketing, has pointed out the need for outsourcing ESP migration. “ESPs have grown in sophistication, and with powerful functionality comes complexity in execution. Most marketing teams lack the internal skill set to marry strategic objectives, with data, creativity, and technology. This is why over 40% of technology is unused, as ¾ marketers admit to not having the technical ability to achieve their ambitions,” she explains.

Commendably, Barrett has added the usage layer to the challenge of ESP migration. This ties in with Ryan Phelan’s assertion about migrations being “lift and innovate,” rather than “lift and shift.” And this is what completes the motto of outsourcing. 

“A specialist email agency,” Barrett argues, “will understand how to help clients make improvements and additions to their strategy, data and creative – resulting in an increased use of technology to drive this strategy forward and implement it in a scalable, intelligent way within your platform,” As far as Klaviyo ESP migration is concerned, we’re one such specialist email agency. From migration to campaign management to email automation to Klaviyo SMS marketing to design and development, we can be your reliable partners in all things Klaviyo. Our six-tier email marketing framework (see below) is designed to give you the freedom to leverage Klaviyo minus the operational hang-ups. Let’s get in touch!