As a DTC e-commerce brand, email marketing is one of the most powerful channels to nurture, convert, and retain your customers. But as you grow, customer segmentation becomes an increasingly more important strategy to drive more revenue, higher engagement and more conversions.

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Enter Klaviyo flow filters.

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Flow filters might seem like a small, technical feature in learning how to execute email marketing with Klaviyo but they're one of the keys to segmenting your automated flows (along with trigger filters, trigger splits, and conditional splits). Trigger and flow filters act as gatekeepers of your email flows, to allow only the right people to receive the right messages, at the right time.

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In this guide, you'll learn how Klaviyo flow filters work, ways to use them, and how to set them up for your email flows.

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What are flow filters in Klaviyo?

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Flow filters are criteria or conditions you set to determine which email subscribers enter the flow. You can set flow filters based on a variety of conditions such as a customer's location, their purchasing behavior, their engagement with previous emails, or specific characteristics such as their pain points.

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This allows you to build more customized customer journeys for your email subscribers by having different customers receive different flows.

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How to use flow filters

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To add a flow filter, navigate to your chosen flow and click "Edit Flow." Afterward, select the "Flow Filter" tab and click "Add Flow Filter." From here, you can pick the filter's attributes and set the conditions. For example, you could set a filter to exclude customers who have purchased in the last 30 days.

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The most common uses of flow filters to segment customers include:

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1. Non-Purchasers vs Returning Customers: Set up flow filters to segment your flows based on whether a email subscriber has purchased from your store before. For example, you may set up an abandoned cart flow with the filter "Has placed order zero times over all time" (for non-purchasers) & "Has placed order at least once over all time" (for returning customers)
2. Number of Purchases: Set up flow filters to segment your flows based on how many purchases a customer has made. For example, you may set up a post purchase flow to welcome new customers with the filter "Has placed order equals one over all time" (for first-time customers) & one for returning customers with the filter "Has placed order at least twice over all time" (for returning customers).
3. How Frequently They Enter The Flow: Set up flow filters to make sure recipients don't receive the same messages too often. For example, you may not want shoppers to receive a browse abandon email for every product they view, so you can set a filter for "Has entered this flow zero times in the last 30 days" so they only receive the message once a month at most.
4. Exiting The Flow: Set up flow filters to determine when recipients should leave a flow. For example, you wouldn't want shoppers receiving abandoned cart emails after they've made a purchase, so you can set a filter for "Has placed order zero times since starting this flow" to make sure they stop receiving messages.

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Understanding how flow filters work

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The two most important things to know when it comes to understanding Klaviyo flow filters is:

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1. Klaviyo checks whether a recipient meets the defined flow filter criteria when a subscriber enters the flow. This means people who don't meet the criteria won't enter the flow and won't receive any of the messages.
2. Klaviyo checks whether a recipient still meets the defined flow filter criteria before it sends each of the emails in the flow. This means if a recipient stops meeting the flow criteria midway through the flow, they'll stop receiving messages.

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Difference between Trigger Filters & Flow Filters

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Trigger filters and flow filters serve distinct purposes in Klaviyo's marketing automation. A trigger filter sets the conditions for who enters a flow based on unique characteristics of their behavior.

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For example, you may have a post purchase flow that is triggered when a customer makes a purchase. Without a trigger filter, anyone who makes a purchase would enter this flow.

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However, you can set a trigger filter with the criteria of specific products of "Where product contains [Product A], [Product B]". This means that even if a customer makes a purchase, they will only trigger the flow if they specifically purchased Product A or Product B.

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Trigger filters in Klaviyo are only checked once when a recipient enters the flow, while flow filters are also checked before each email is sent.

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Therefore, a flow filter is an additional layer of criteria for recipients to enter the flow AND also manage the "exit" of recipients in a flow.

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How to add/edit/remove flow filters

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To add a flow filter, head over to the specific flow and select 'Edit Flow.' Navigate to the 'Flow Filter' tab and click 'Add Flow Filter.' From there, pick an attribute and set your condition.

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Editing a flow filter follows a similar process. Choose 'Edit Flow,' go to the 'Flow Filter' tab, and click the pencil icon next to the filter you wish to change. Make your modifications and save the changes.

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Removing a flow filter is as easy as clicking on the 'x' icon next to the filter you want to eliminate in the 'Flow Filter' section.

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How to see trigger filters and flow filters

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Both trigger and flow filters can be viewed from the main flow editing screen. Under 'Edit Flow,' the trigger filters are visible under the 'Trigger' tab, while flow filters can be found in the 'Flow Filter' tab.

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This clear division makes it straightforward to view, add, edit, or delete filters as needed.

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