sms Archives

Top 5 New Klaviyo Features for Small Businesses

March 12, 2025 / Klaviyo How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

Looking for the latest new Klaviyo features to improve your email and SMS marketing? Klaviyo is a powerful marketing platform designed specifically for eCommerce brands. Its latest updates give small businesses even more tools to increase sales and engagement. From advanced analytics to seamless omnichannel marketing, here’s what’s new in Klaviyo.

Klaviyo’s New Marketing Analytics

Klaviyo’s Marketing Analytics add-on takes your data to the next level. This premium feature helps eCommerce brands analyze purchase patterns, track customer cohorts, and optimize automated flows based on customer behavior.

Whether you’re building your first email automations or fine-tuning your segmentation strategy, these deeper analytics make it easier than ever. You can learn more about Marketing Analytics here.

Share Reviews with Potential Customers

In 2025, social proof is absolutely essential for small business success. By integrating reviews into your marketing emails, you build trust and help potential buyers feel confident in their purchases. Klaviyo makes it easy to showcase customer reviews, with new features like:

Viewing and managing reviews directly in Klaviyo
Easily dropping star ratings and testimonials into your email campaigns
Syncing reviews across Shopify, the Shop app, and other platforms

The new review features from Klaviyo streamline the entire process, so you can spend less time worrying about reviews and more time making sales.

Omnichannel Campaign Builder (in Beta)

Klaviyo’s new Omnichannel Campaign Builder—currently in beta—lets you align your messaging across email, SMS, and other marketing channels. This feature is especially valuable if you:

Need to deliver multi-channel campaigns to clients or higher-ups
Want consistent branding and timing across different platforms
Manage campaigns that involve multiple marketing touchpoints
Need to plan in advance for Black Friday and other major holidays

Klaviyo is actively improving this tool, so keep an eye out for more updates! Pure Firefly predicts a complete public launch is on the horizon for this year.

Boost Conversions with Customer Hub (in Beta)

The Customer Hub is a game-changer for eCommerce brands using Shopify and other platforms. This new feature creates a side menu where customers can log in while shopping, giving them instant access to:

Personalized product recommendations
Order history and tracking
Live support chat
Exclusive offers or loyalty rewards

By keeping shoppers engaged without disrupting their experience, the Customer Hub can help boost conversions and drive repeat purchases. If you haven’t already, be sure to enable this feature in your Klaviyo account!

Backfill Anonymous Shopper Activity

Klaviyo now uses Shopify’s web pixel to track and sync anonymous shopper behavior. This allows you to effectively target potential customers before they log in or make a purchase. When you backfill anonymous shopper activity, you can see:

Products a subscriber viewed before signing up
Customer interactions from previous website visits
Even more possibilities for personalized follow-up emails

As of 2025, this feature is Shopify-specific, but it’s expected to roll out to other eCommerce platforms soon.

Make the Most of New Klaviyo Features with Pure Firefly

Want to implement these new Klaviyo features but don’t know where to start? Pure Firefly specializes in Klaviyo email marketing, automation, and campaign strategy. Whether you need custom templates, advanced segmentation, or expert guidance, we’re here to help. Contact us today and let’s elevate your email marketing!

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5 New Time-Saving Features from Mailchimp

February 20, 2025 / Mailchimp How-To, Product Reviews / Alex Gallagher

In 2025, Mailchimp has rolled out several new features to make email marketing more efficient and user-friendly. These new features can help you streamline your campaigns and improve engagement, from improvements to the email builder to better automation tools. Here are five Mailchimp updates worth exploring this year.

SMS Shortcodes & A/B Testing

Mailchimp has expanded its SMS marketing capabilities, now allowing users to send messages using shortcodes. These short, memorable numbers help recipients recognize and engage with your texts more easily. Short codes also help with deliverability, ensuring messages reach customers faster.

Additionally, Mailchimp now supports A/B testing for SMS campaigns. This means you can test different messages, timing, or CTAs to see what resonates best with your audience—just like you would with email. If SMS marketing is part of your strategy, these updates offer more ways to refine your approach.

New Builder: Mobile Editor

In 2025, mobile responsiveness plays a huge role in email engagement. Thankfully, Mailchimp has updated its new template builder to improve mobile optimization. No more switching between preview modes—Mailchimp now lets you edit emails in both desktop and mobile views.

Just switch to “mobile” within the New Builder to see what your email will look like on a smartphone. Plus, you can now edit mobile styles block-by-block for more flexible and responsive designs.

Improved Customer Journey Builder

New features from Mailchimp include updates to their automation tools. The latest improvements to the Customer Journey Builder include:

The ability to move contacts to another path after an If/Else branch
An intuitive drag-and-drop interface
The option to pause a single step while the journey is still active

These updates give you more flexibility when crafting automated email sequences, allowing you to easily build relationships with your customers and boost conversions. For help with the updated journey builder, consider contacting a Mailchimp expert like Pure Firefly.

Mailchimp’s New Comparative Reports

Want to see how different audience segments engage with your emails over time? Mailchimp’s new Comparative Reports feature lets you analyze trends across different segments. For example, you can compare click rates across the past 20 campaigns for customers vs. non-customers.

Comparative reporting insights can help you better understand your audience and craft strategic messages.

New Builder: Edit in Sections

New features in the Mailchimp builder now allow you to edit your email in sections. This makes it easier than ever to adjust the header, footer, and body content without having to tweak each element individually. This feature saves time and ensures consistency across your campaigns.

Updated Canva Integration

For those who design their email visuals in Canva, this update is a game-changer. Mailchimp’s improved integration now allows users to switch more seamlessly between platforms, making it faster and easier to pull in branded graphics without exporting and re-importing image files.

Make the Most of Mailchimp with Pure Firefly

With all these updates, now is a great time to optimize your email strategy. If you need help making the most of Mailchimp’s new features, Pure Firefly is here to help.

Whether you’re setting up a new automation, testing SMS campaigns, or refining your email designs, we can guide you through the process. Check out our blog for more email marketing insights, or contact us for support with your next campaign.

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Mailchimp SMS for Small Businesses: The Ultimate Guide

April 22, 2024 / Mailchimp How-To, Marketing Strategy / Alex Gallagher

SMS is a valuable tool for reaching your contacts with the right message at the right moment. In 2023, Mailchimp launched its SMS Tool, allowing users to integrate SMS messages into their existing email strategy. After 1 year with the tool, we’ve helped clients navigate the entire process– From getting messaging set up to sending SMS and analyzing the results. Here is our ultimate guide to Mailchimp SMS, with expert-backed tips to optimize your strategy.

What is SMS?

SMS stands for short message service. In layman’s terms, that’s a text message. With Mailchimp SMS, you can send messages directly to your subscribers’ smartphones. When you add an image to your SMS, it becomes an MMS. MMS stands for multimedia message service. AKA: Text messages with pictures.

Getting Started: Mailchimp’s SMS Application

Before you can send SMS or MMS with Mailchimp, you’ll need to fill out an application. This helps Mailchimp ensure you are a legitimate business following all relevant regulations, so they can protect all their users.

The application features a few key steps:

SMS Goals: Choose from a list of approved uses for SMS, including order notifications, promotional campaigns, and more. Be sure to check your intended use against the list of “Unapproved ways of using SMS.” Unapproved use may result in account suspension.
SMS Experience: Select your level of SMS experience or hit “Skip” to receive default how-to pop-ups from Mailchimp.
Business Information: Fill out key business details including website, address, and Tax ID.
Phone Number: Create a new phone number or send using an established number for your business.
Sender Information: Choose your SMS audience (We recommend a single-audience strategy.) and fill in some additional information about your business.
Terms & Conditions: Mailchimp requires terms & conditions and a privacy policy for SMS users. You can use Mailchimp’s template language, or link to existing pages on your website. Check out Mailchimp’s guide to creating a privacy policy.
Credit Subscription: Choose how many credits you’d like to buy per month once your application is approved.

Mailchimp takes up to 5 business days to review your application, during which time you will see a “processing” status. Once your SMS application is approved, you’ll get an email from Mailchimp & be ready to send immediately!

How Mailchimp’s SMS Credits Work

Mailchimp SMS is available to users on the Essentials plan or above. Once a user completes their SMS application, they can choose to purchase anywhere from 1,000 to 450,000 credits per month. Users spend credits every time they send a message.

How do you know how many SMS credits you’ll need? It may take a little math. Mailchimp SMS messages consume 1 credit per 153 characters, or 1 credit per 63 characters if you use emojis. MMS messages consume 3 credits per 1,600 characters.

Once you know how many credits your message is likely to use, you can multiply that # by the number of subscribers you’ll be reaching.

So, if you send 3 messages per month to 1000 recipients, and each message is under 153 characters long with no emojis, you’ll need 3000 credits per month.

Small businesses on a shoestring budget may want to start with 1000 credits and purchase more as needed.

Sending SMS & MMS Campaigns

Just like with email, Mailchimp users can schedule SMS messages in advance to moderate their send frequency. The SMS builder is a fairly simple interface, with a text box where users can type in their message, and an option to add an image. Images in MMS campaigns should be no wider than 640px and no taller than 1138px. If you’ve optimized image sizes for email before, you’re already on the right track!

Using SMS in Mailchimp Journeys

SMS messages can also be sent automatically using Mailchimp’s customer journeys. Just add a “Send SMS” journey point and customize the message to your preference!

Here are some journeys small business owners can use to increase revenue with SMS:

Welcome new subscribers as they sign up (This can help decrease unsubscribes down the line!)
Send order notifications
Trigger reminders when a subscriber registers for an event
Send abandoned cart texts to accompany your emails
Use date-based automations to beat the competition during holiday rushes (Hello, Black Friday)

How Do I Know if an SMS Campaign is Successful?

Mailchimp offers a range of reports to analyze your SMS campaigns’ performance. For a general benchmark on engagement, click rates and open rates are a great place to start. According to Forbes, SMS open rates can be as high as 98%. However, your first few SMS messages are unlikely to reach such a high open rate and open rates don’t necessarily equate to high click-throughs.

SMS success is best measured in the context of your larger business goals. For example, if you’d like to increase revenue by 25% this quarter, see what percentage of your sales come from SMS. It can also be valuable to evaluate your first quarter using SMS against the same quarter the previous year.

If you’re not seeing the growth you’re hoping to achieve, don’t worry! It can take time to perfect your strategy and reach the right people with the right messages at the right times.

What Not to Do: SMS Practices to Avoid

As you develop your SMS strategy, be sure to avoid the most common pitfalls for new users!

Never cold-SMS: All SMS subscribers MUST be actively opted in
Don’t Send Too Frequently: Keep your messages to 1 per week at absolute maximum
Message with a Purpose: Don’t send SMS just for the heck of it– Always share something valuable for your subscribers
Keep it Personal: Use merge tags to personalize your messages
Don’t Forget Your Numbers: Monitor campaign analytics to ensure your messages are bringing the intended results

When in doubt, put yourself in your subscribers’ shoes! If a message would annoy or upset you, it’s likely to do the same for your customers.

Optimize Your SMS Strategy with Pure Firefly

Pure Firefly was founded to provide high-quality, cost-effective marketing solutions for entrepreneurs, nonprofits & small businesses. As an agency with a combined 10+ years of experience, we’re committed to staying ahead of the curve in digital marketing. To get started with SMS, try booking a training call with one of our experts. Or bring us on a retainer for help with all your Mailchimp needs! We offer a wide range of services to fill your marketing needs.

Modern digital art logo for Pure Firefly, showcasing vibrant colors and creative design.

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Are You Ready for Mailchimp’s New SMS Tool?

July 28, 2023 / Mailchimp How-To / Alex Gallagher

Technology is constantly evolving, and so are Mailchimp’s marketing channels with the upcoming addition of SMS marketing. SMS (Short Message Service) has been around since the early 2000s, but only recently emerged as a powerful marketing tool. Mailchimp’s SMS feature is currently in beta testing, but you can still take steps to prepare for the tool’s

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing involves sending short, concise text messages to subscribers’ mobile phones. Because mobile phones are so integrated into most people’s day-to-day life, SMS is a great way for businesses to communicate directly with their audience. It’s especially well suited to time-sensitive messages like promotions, event reminders, and more. SMS marketing provides a direct and personal way to engage with customers, often leading to high open rates and quick response times.

Gather Opt-In & Phone Numbers

Before you can start using Mailchimp’s SMS tool, it’s essential to get permission from your subscribers to send them text messages. Implementing a clear opt-in process is crucial for legal compliance and demonstrates respect for your audience’s preferences. Update your subscription forms to allow users to provide their phone numbers and opt-in for SMS communications.

You can also send a landing page for your current subscribers to opt-in for SMS. That way, you’ll have contacts to send to when your SMS campaign is ready to launch. Make sure to communicate the value of receiving SMS messages from your business and consider offering a special discount to encourage opt-ins.

Wondering how to optimize your opt-in process? Try a strategy call with one of our Mailchimp experts.

Build Your SMS Strategy

Like any other marketing channel, SMS requires a well-defined strategy to maximize its effectiveness. To avoid being overwhelmed, remember to market smart. Determine your goals for using SMS, whether it’s to promote new products, send exclusive offers, or provide timely updates. Consider the send frequency of your SMS messages and strike a balance between staying top-of-mind and avoiding overwhelming your subscribers. Craft concise and engaging content that delivers value in each text message.

As Mailchimp rolls out SMS tools to more users, they are likely to launch more help articles on SMS strategy. For now, their post on 5 Key SMS Strategies is a great place to start.

Apply for Mailchimp SMS

To access Mailchimp’s SMS tool, you’ll need to apply for it once it becomes available. Keep an eye out for announcements from Mailchimp regarding the public launch of the SMS feature and the application process. Once the application is live, be prepared to confirm your business information and compliance contact details. While SMS is in beta, availability is likely to be limited, and the application process may change once the tool launches.

Understand Mailchimp SMS vs. MMS

Mailchimp’s SMS tool will be able to send both SMS (text-only) and MMS (multimedia) messages. Understanding the differences between the two will help you optimize your communication strategy. SMS messages contain only text, while MMS messages can include images and videos. SMS messages are technically limited to 160 characters, but users can insert over 160 characters and allow Mailchimp to break it up into multiple messages. Consider the type of content that will best convey your message, and be sure to consider image size when sending MMS.

UPDATE: SMS Now Available on Standard Plan

Since the first draft of this article was posted, SMS has become available to all users on Mailchimp’s standard plan or above! To learn more about Mailchimp’s SMS tools, check out our guide to SMS for small businesses.

Build an SMS Strategy with Pure Firefly

You can never be too prepared. While Mailchimp SMS is still in beta, consider developing your strategy with a Mailchimp Pro Partner like Pure Firefly. Pure Firefly is a leading marketing agency offering comprehensive digital marketing services and one-on-one strategy calls. From implementation to data analysis, Pure Firefly can assist you every step of the way. Contact us at any time to set up a consultation.

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What Else Can Mailchimp Do? Beyond Email Marketing

July 1, 2023 / Mailchimp How-To / Alex Gallagher

Email is our happy place, but effective marketing requires more than just sending emails. As Mailchimp Pro Partners, we’d like to highlight the tools and features Mailchimp offers beyond basic email. In this article, we’ll explore how the following Mailchimp tools can enhance your marketing efforts:

Social Media Posts & Ads
Landing Pages
SMS
Postcards
Surveys

Engage your audience beyond email to reach new levels of engagement & conversion!

Create Social Media Posts & Ads

In 2023, almost everyone has a social media presence – Including brands & organizations! Mailchimp recognizes the importance of a robust social media presence and offers tools to reach your audience on some of the most popular platforms. With Mailchimp’s Social Media Posts & Ads, you can seamlessly connect your Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook accounts. Schedule, publish, and manage posts from your campaign page.

By integrating your social media marketing efforts with your email campaigns, you can maintain a consistent brand voice and expand your reach to a wider audience. Check out our post on multichannel marketing to learn more!

Landing Pages

Visually appealing and conversion-focused landing pages can make or break a marketing campaign. Mailchimp’s Landing Pages feature gives you the tools to create an effective landing page. With a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder, you can design and customize landing pages that align with your brand. These pages allow you to promote products, announce special offers, acquire new leads, and more.

You can also automatically tag contacts who sign up via a landing page, in order to send them targeted emails later on down the line. To learn about this process and implement it yourself, set up a training session with one of our email specialists.

Use Mailchimp for SMS

In a world where people are constantly connected to their smartphones, SMS marketing has emerged as a highly effective communication channel. Mailchimp understands this and offers an integrated SMS feature to send personalized text messages and alerts to your audience’s mobile devices.

As of 2024, SMS is available for all U.S. Mailchimp users on the Standard plan. Check out our SMS guide for more details on how to apply for SMS and start marketing!

Postcards

By reaching beyond the digital realm, physical mail can have a powerful impact on your audience. Mailchimp’s Postcards feature enables you to design and send personalized, printed postcards to your customers. Whether it’s for announcing a special offer, expressing gratitude, or simply staying top of mind, postcards create a lasting impression on your subscribers, who may be overwhelmed by a crowded email inbox.

Mailchimp’s Custom Surveys

Direct audience feedback is essential for improving your products, measuring campaign success, and understanding your audience. Some contacts are even more likely to engage with emails that include surveys or other interactive components.

Mailchimp’s Surveys feature allows you to create and distribute customized surveys via email or using a shareable link. The survey templates are easy to use, with options to add content, set up auto-tagging, and create robust reports. If you need a hand getting your first survey set up, reach out to Pure Firefly.

Maximize Your Mailchimp Investment with Pure Firefly

With tools reaching beyond basic email, Mailchimp helps businesses connect with their audience wherever they are. To fully embrace the capabilities of Mailchimp and take your marketing efforts to new heights, consider working with a Mailchimp Pro Partner like Pure Firefly. Our comprehensive audit is a great place to start for businesses looking to strategically expand their digital marketing efforts. Contact us today for a quote!

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