Klaviyo Audit Checklist: 80+ Email Marketing Questions (2026 Update)

If you’re looking for a Klaviyo audit checklist to do a check-up of your brand’s email marketing strategy, then you’ve arrived at the right place.

This article covers all the aspects you need to conduct a successful Klaviyo audit.

We’ll get into the checklist in a second, but first …

What is a Klaviyo audit?

Think of a Klaviyo audit as a strategic analysis of your email marketing channel. Ideally, you’d want to audit your email strategy at least twice a year.

A well-done audit can help you:

1. Find quick revenue wins
2. Increase email engagement
3. Improve deliverability
4. Retain more customers
5. Uncover ways to grow your email list

Most importantly, a Klaviyo audit will help you identify places where you’re leaving money on the table. 

In many cases, these issues are a quick fix. 

What does a Klaviyo audit cover?

A comprehensive, 360-degree Klaviyo audit checklist covers the following topics:

1. Email automation
2. Campaigns
3. Deliverability
4. Design/layout
5. Pop-up form
6. Copywriting
7. Broad performance

When auditing the email accounts of 7-figure and 8-figure e-commerce stores, I use my 80+ email marketing questions.

How to do a Klaviyo audit

Your why usually determines the how.

In other words, why do you want to conduct a Klaviyo audit in the first place?

1. Are your emails landing in spam?
2. Do you want to increase customer retention?
3. Are you looking to maximize revenue from flows?

Or is it a bit of everything?

Once you define your goal, e.g., what you want out of your Klaviyo audit, you’ll have a clear roadmap to follow.

Should you do a Klaviyo audit yourself?

If you have never hired a seasoned email marketer to do an email audit, I highly recommend you do so. 

For two reasons:

1. You’ll know what to focus on

You’ll receive a thorough checklist of what to do and how to do it. 

But perhaps what’s even more critical is that you’ll understand which tasks actually move the needle and which you can set aside for now.

For example, setting up a ninja cross-sell sequence won’t do much for you if most of your emails land in spam.

Whenever I do Klaviyo audits for my clients, I usually record a video uncovering ways you’re leaving revenue on the table and arm you with a checklist on how to optimize it.

2. You’ll learn how it works

Hiring an expert will give you an overview of conducting an effective audit. At the end of the day, whether you’re a founder, marketer, or e-commerce manager, understanding the ins and outs of your email strategy is pretty useful. 

Now, if you’re reading this thinking, “Bro, I’ve been doing this for years, I got this…”

Then I suggest checking out my DIY 66+ question Klaviyo audit checklist below.

66+ Klaviyo audit checklist questions (+ free template)

1. Broad Performance

The first thing I check when going through a Klaviyo audit checklist? Attributed email revenue. 

Assuming you use default attribution settings (5 days for emails), this will give you a benchmark of how email marketing is performing for you.

Next, I check the revenue split between flows and campaigns.

Ideally, you should be close to a 50-50 split, with half of your email revenue attributed to flows and the other half to your weekly campaigns.

If 90% of your email revenue comes from campaigns, there’s a high chance your automations aren’t optimized (and vice versa).

Top 3 key questions to ask:

1. What percentage of total revenue is attributed to email?
2. Is email helping you improve your customer retention rate + repeat revenue?
3. How much revenue comes from flows vs campaigns?

2. Email Automation

Ever heard of the Pareto principle?

The 80/20 rule applies to many areas of life, including email marketing:

80% of email automation revenue comes from 20% of your flows.

Read that again.

Unless you’re an established e-commerce brand with tested products and tons of traffic, setting up complex automations won’t move the needle for you.

If anyone is trying to pitch you a “super-duper VIP sequence” while you haven’t even figured out how to run profitable Meta ads, they’re probably just trying to squeeze more money out of you.

I like to keep it simple and high-impact. Here are the must-have flows: 

Welcome Sequence: Build a relationship, highlight your hero product, share your brand story, and show the problem you solve.

Abandonment Flows: Site, browse, cart, and checkout — these recover lost sales. Research shows that roughly 7 out of 10 carts get abandoned.

Post-Purchase Sequence: Reinforce trust, reduce buyer’s remorse, cross-sell, and collect customer reviews.

Set these sequences up first. Once your brand scales, that’s when other flows (VIP, winback, etc.) come into play.

Top 3 key questions to ask:

1. Are abandonment flows (site, browse, cart, checkout) running?
2. Is your welcome sequence answering “Why us?”?
3. Are you testing offers in the post-purchase sequence?

3. Campaigns

If your email campaigns aren’t generating at least 40% of your email revenue, there’s a high chance you’re not sending enough emails.

So, how often should you email your list?

It depends on your audience, but for most e-commerce brands, the sweet spot lies anywhere from 2 to 5 emails per week. 

I’ve also seen brands that email their list every day, and it works perfectly.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… 

What if I piss off my customers by constantly emailing them?

That’s a totally reasonable concern, but I invite you to reframe your mindset. 

The people who unsubscribe weren’t true fans of your brand to begin with.

If they remove themselves from your list, that’s a GOOD thing.

The others? They’re people who:

1. Love hearing from you
2. Continue buying your products
3. Refer you to others

That’s the foundation of a sustainable e-commerce business.

Coca-Cola became a huge brand because it built a loyal customer base.

Now, if all you do in your email campaigns is promote your products and slap a discount onto them, I guarantee you that people will unsubscribe. 

In fact, most of them will tune out pretty quickly.

The fastest way to piss someone off is by constantly trying to pitch them.

Your email campaigns should provide value in some way. It can be in the form of information (tips, guides, behind-the-scenes content) or entertainment (storytelling or humor). 

For example, if you’re a fashion brand selling luxury purses, you could talk about how it’s made, what’s special about the material, and the craftsmanship behind it.

Or, if you’re running a streetwear store, you could tell a funny story about how you had a new batch of t-shirts come in, and you argued with your stock manager. 

Let your emails show off your brand personality.

If you want to learn more about crafting amazing emails, check out my Emails that Sell content series. 

Top 3 key questions to ask:

1. Are you emailing your list consistently? (at least 2x per week)
2. Are you highlighting aspects of your product/brand that your competitors can’t? 
3. Are your emails providing genuine value?

4. Deliverability

One time, a marketer from a fashion brand approached me.

She was worried because her email campaigns were landing in spam recently. 

“Any idea why this is happening?” she asked.

I offered to “pop the hood” and see what was going on.

Turns out she’d been blasting campaigns to the entire list for months (over 10k people). 

And because of that, their engagement metrics like opens, clicks, and unsubscribe rates were all suffering.  

In other words, their deliverability had tanked.

I suggested creating segments around engaged subscribers (those who have opened an email in the last 14, 30, and 60 days) and only sending campaigns to those segments for some time.

Within a few weeks, open rates and click rates started going up.

Bounce rates and unsubscribe rates plummeted.

And in less than a month, their campaigns were out of the spam folder.

But email engagement is just one part of deliverability.

The other side is a bit more technical (but nothing crazy). 

You need to authenticate your emails and let inbox providers know you’re legit. You do this by setting up a branded sending domain, DKIM, and DMARC. 

I recommend checking the latter with Google’s MXToolbox.

And if you think your emails are landing in spam, I suggest running some tests using Glock Apps.

Top 3 key questions to ask:

1. How many people are engaging with your emails?
2. Are email campaigns sent to an engaged audience (< 60 days opened)?
3. Have you set up a branded sending domain, DKIM, and DMARC?

5. Copywriting

When you open your inbox, most of the emails you see nowadays look as if they were sent from a corporation.

Let me ask you something:

How many company accounts do you follow on social media?

Probably a few.

Now, think about how many individual accounts you follow.

Most likely, the number is in the few hundreds.

And the reason is quite simple.

People want to hear from other people, not brands.

Some of the highest-performing emails I’ve sent when working with clients are plain-text emails from the founder.

Why do they work so well?

Because they look and feel personal as if it came from a friend or co-worker. 

NOT a greedy corporation looking to bribe you with another discount.

Another aspect where you have to use your copy chops is subject lines.

I’m not a huge fan of relying on copywriting formulas, but if there’s one you should check out, it’s the 4 U’s by copywriter Robert Bly. 

Here’s how it works:

1. Urgent

Does the subject line give a reason to act now?

“Last chance to secure your webinar spot”

2. Unique

Does it say something new or in a fresh way?

“Why are Scandinavians so tall (shocking discovery)”

3. Ultra-specific

Does it get its point across simply and quickly?

“How to choose the best running shoes for flat feet”

4. Useful

Does it promise a benefit?

“10 proven techniques to increase REM sleep”

Use a scale of 1 to 4 (1 = weak, 4 = strong) to rank the headline in each category.

Strong subject line > 10 points

Example subject line:

“Introducing long-sleeve t-shirts – 15% off”

Urgency = 2

Unique = 1

Ultra-specific = 3

Useful = 2

Score = 8

Give it a try.

Top 3 key questions to ask:

1. Do your emails feel conversational or corporate?
2. Do your emails answer “What can these products do for me?”
3. Do your subject lines rate > 10 on the 4 U’s scale? 

Click here to access the complete list of questions on my Klaviyo audit checklist.

6. Design

Copy > design?

Or

Design > copy?

What matters more in email marketing?

It’s an age-old question among email marketers. 

I prefer to write text-heavy emails (because I enjoy copywriting).

But I’m not here to argue either way – this article isn’t about that, and at the end of the day, it depends a lot on the kind of products you sell.

For most brands, using a mixture of HTML, image-only, and plain-text emails is the safest way to go.

What matters more is that your emails pass the readability test. 

I learned this from copywriter Daniel Throssell. Here’s what it means:

When someone opens your email, on a scale of 1-10, how high is the perceived effort of reading the email?

This usually happens within a split second. 

If the answer is “high,” chances are your copy is too long and/or your design is too complicated.

You want your emails to be easy to consume. 

However, if you’re designing image-only emails in Figma, you must be mindful of other factors like image sizes.

If your email is too large, you’ll most likely find yourself in the spam folder. 

You can easily compress design element sizes with an image compressor.

Top 3 key questions to ask:

1. Are the emails easy to consume?
2. Are design element sizes optimized?
3. Are your emails mobile-optimized?

7. Pop-Up Form

I think A/B testing gets way overblown these days. 

You don’t need to A/B test everything.

But if there’s one thing that’s worth testing, it’s pop-ups.

Pop-ups have a direct impact on how many people will see your emails. 

Ideally, you’d want your pop-up to convert at least 10% of website traffic to your email list. 

You can A/B test different incentives (discount vs giveaway) and pop-up formats (exit intent, time delay, etc.). 

The goal is to find a pop-up that’s compelling for the reader and profitable for your brand.

I’ll give you an example of an A/B test I ran for my client:

It was a brand with a high average order value (AOV > $500). 

In their pop-up, they offered a 10% discount on the first order in exchange for an email address.

We re-framed the offer to $50, ran an A/B test, and guess what happened?

We converted almost twice the amount of traffic.

Even a $25 discount converted more than a 10% discount just because it felt more valuable.

One more thing on pop-ups:

Don’t be one of those brands that fires the pop-up immediately when someone visits their website.

It’s a conversion killer, and here’s why:

Pop-ups already have a bad reputation for being intrusive. Hitting visitors with both a cookie consent banner and a pop-up the second they land is just asking them to leave.

Either way, when someone visits your website for the first time, they’re pretty much numb to any offers and discounts. 

They just want to check what your brand is about.

Top 3 key questions to ask:

1. Does the pop-up have a compelling offer?
2. Is the pop-up displayed within 7-15 seconds? 
3. Am I collecting zero-party data?

Access my full audit checklist questions below:

Click the image below to access my complete Klaviyo audit checklist.