The Snooze Flow is an email marketing technique we invented at 100 Celsius to help reduce our clients' unsubscribe rates without changing the content of their emails.
It allows subscribers to "snooze" emails for a period of time with just one click in the footer of the email message as an alternative to unsubscribing.
Implementing this strategy does take a little bit of technical "know-how" in Klaviyo or your ESP. But once you do it, it will pay massive dividends and significantly reduce your email unsubscribe rate. In this article, we'll show you how to do it for yourself.
Why The Email Footer Needs a Makeover
Over the years, marketing emails have evolved and changed as more and more brands come onto the scene.
We've seen amazing innovation around copy, design, and dynamic content. But interestingly, there's one area of the marketing email that has not seen almost any innovation over the years = the footer.
Here's an example of an email from world-famous marketer, Neil Patel:
Now, Neil does some really innovative things with his email marketing program. But let's think about the reader experience.
Right now, you only have five options as a reader when you open a typical marketing email like this:
1) You can read it and do nothing
2) You can delete the email
3) You can click a CTA in the email
4) You can unsubscribe
5) You can change your preferences (uncommon)
And as you can see, if someone finds themself in a situation where they'd prefer to not get Neil's emails, they only have ONE option.
To unsubscribe.
But what if unsubscribing wasn't the only option your readers had when they needed a break?
What if they could easily snooze your emails for a period of time - without unsubscribing, and without damaging your deliverability.
That's exactly what the Snooze Flow does.
What Is A Snooze Flow?
The Snooze Flow is a strategy that combines a special link in the footer of your emails with an automated flow inside your email marketing tool.
And the goal of the Snooze Flow is to give your subscribers an alternative to unsubscribing that "snoozes them for 30 days" instead. This can often significantly reduce the amount of people that end up opting out of your emails for good, because you're giving them a less drastic option.
To show you what this looks like, here is a screenshot of the footer for our emails here at 100 Celsius:
What you'll notice is that the footer in this looks a lot different.
Take a look at the first line:
"Need a break from our emails? Snooze me for 30 days by clicking here."
And it's only after presenting them with that option to snooze us that we present the unsubscribe option.
When someone clicks the "snooze link", they will be suppressed from receiving any of your regular broadcast email campaigns for 30 days (or however long you say you're going to snooze them for).
This gives the reader a break from hearing from you, but it actually keeps them on your list. It doesn't unsubscribe them.
By doing this, you give extra flexility to your readers, reduce your unsubscribes, and protect your deliverability. It's a win-win all around.
How To Set Up A Snooze Flow
Setting up a Snooze Flow for your brand requires a bit of technical "know-how" in Klaviyo, but it's quite simple once you get how it works.
The process can be broken down into just a handful of steps:
Step 1: Manually Add A "Snooze" Property To Any Profile In Klaviyo
In order to create a segment in Klaviyo based on a custom property, you have to first add that property to a profile in your system.
So pull up any profile in Klaviyo (it can even be yours) and manually add a custom property called "Snooze" and set it equal to "True".
Check out this Klaviyo article if you need help doing this.
Step 2: Create A “Snoozed Subscribers” Segment
In Klaviyo, create a new segment called "Snoozed Subscribers", which will include anyone who has the Snooze property attached to their profile and set to "True"
Step 3: Set Up Your "Snooze Flow"
Create a new flow called "Snooze" in Klaviyo, that is triggered when someone joins the "Snoozed Subscribers" segment.
The mechanics of this flow are very simple.
All it does is wait 30 days, and then remove the "Snooze" property from the subscribers' profile.
Step 4: Create an "Exclude From Campaigns" Segment
There are a number of times when you may want to exclude email subscribers from your regular broadcast email campaigns. Examples of this are when they are in an automated flow, after they buy from you, or if they are in a "snooze" period.
To do this, we create another segment in Klaviyo called "Exclude from Campaigns", which includes everyone we want to supress. And we ensure that we include "Snooze = True" as part of the definition.
Here's a screenshot of what this looks like:
Step 5: Create Your Snooze Footer
This is where it all starts coming together! Go into your master email template and scroll down to the footer.
Add a new line of text above the unsubscribe option saying something to the effect of "Need a break from emails? Snooze us for 30 Days By Clicking Here".
Here comes the trickiest part. You have to add a special link to this text that adds the "Snooze" custom property to their profile when they click.
This article from Klaviyo shows you how to do that.
(An important note if you are still using Klaviyo's Old Editor- make sure the protocol of the link is set to "other" like it says in the article. Otherwise, this will not work)
Step 6: Exclude Snoozed Subscribers From Your Campaigns
Now that the mechanics are done, you just have to make sure that you actually exclude these people from your regular campaigns.
You do this by adding the "Exclude From Campaigns" segment into your suppression list whenever you send a campaign in Klaviyo. Here's an example of what that looks like:
Once that's done... that's it! You've successfully set up a Snooze flow that gives people an alternative to unsubscribing from your email list.
Final Thoughts
Unsubscribes as a whole are not bad, but left unchecked, they can wreak havoc on your list health and deliverability.
The Snooze Flow technique is one of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce your unsubscribe rate without changing anything about your content or sending strategy.
But when you combine this technique with smart segmentation, engaging content your readers actually enjoy, and other deliverability-boosting strategies, your email program practically becomes unstoppable.
