Introduction

This use case is similar to How to send an email with Shopify Marketing Automations when someone buys a certain product from you, but let’s jump right into it!

Again, let’s use the example of T-shirts versus a coffee machine. If you’re selling a T-shirt, Shopify’s default order confirmation should suffice, but if you’re selling a coffee machine that requires some information regarding assembly, you may want to send an email with product instructions.

This step-by-step guide will show you how to do it in everyone’s favourite email marketing program, Klaviyo.

Use Case (inspired by a Reddit post)

A fella named u/Wozonbay (I automatically assume everyone on Reddit is a dude, which is probably wrong but eh) has a number of self-assemble products and would like to send an instructions email whenever one of said products ships.

He would also like to know whether such emails classify as transactional or marketing emails.

You can see the original post here:

Before we jump into the how-to for sending a product instructions email, let’s answer his second question: “Would this be classed as a ‘transactional email’ rather than ‘marketing’ as it’s purely relevant information to their purchase?”

I believe a product instructions email is a transactional email because instructions pertain to the product the customer already purchased.

According to Sendgrid, “A transactional email contains information about an action the recipient has already taken, while a marketing email intends to drive the recipient toward an action you want them to take” (source).

So there you go!

Solution: how to automate sending customers a product instructions email in Shopify with Klaviyo in 8 steps

If you prefer to watch a video on how to do it, check this out:

1. Click “Create Flow”

2. Click “Create from Scratch”

3. Choose a Metric trigger

4. Choose “Ordered Product” since you only want to send emails for certain products

5. Add a flow trigger and select “Trigger Filter” (yeah, the wording is not ideal)

6. Set up the trigger filter for the products that will include a product instructions email. For our example, I chose the simplest method, which is filtering product by name: choose [Dimension: “Name”] ‘equals’ [Dimension Value: Name of your product]

7. Add the email you want to send

8. Last but not least, you need to contact Klaviyo support with 1) the URL link(s) to the flow(s), 2) your flow name(s), subject line of the email(s) that are transactional (source) so that they can verify your email as transactional. Once Klaviyo verifies your email as transactional, it will send to customers whether they subscribe to your email marketing.

Conclusion

Klaviyo is a great way to send product-triggered emails such as product instructions.

The main point to remember is that if you want to send such transactional emails through Klaviyo, you will need to submit your flow and emails for approval before they can start sending.

Once approved, your emails will reach customers whether they have subscribed to your mailing list.