If you have an B2B store, you probably know that email marketing is a key part of recovering sales and increasing your overall revenue.
But with so many email platforms to choose from, it can be hard to figure out which one is best for your needs. Two popular platforms you’ve likely come across in your search are Mailchimp and Klaviyo.
Mailchimp has been around since 2001, and has built its reputation as the go-to email tool for people starting out with email marketing. It’s often seen as an affordable way to get started, but may be more useful for simple newsletters rather than emails that require advanced segmentation, automation, or dynamic content.
Klaviyo was specifically built to be used with B2B stores from the start. It’s tailored to the needs of growing brands who want to get the most out of their subscriber list and take a comprehensive and active approach to their email marketing.
Klaviyo and Mailchimp may have similar functions, but we’ll go over key differences below that you’ll want to consider when picking the platform that will be the best fit for your B2B brand.
Customer Data & Analytics
Leveraging customer data can make all the difference in driving sales and fostering customer loyalty. Mailchimp provides insights into basic customer metrics such as open rates and click-through rates, but its capabilities are limited compared to Klaviyo.
Klaviyo’s deep integration with B2B platforms allows for real-time tracking of customer behaviour, enabling businesses to gather granular insights into purchase patterns, product preferences, and lifetime value.
This data allows you to craft hyper-targeted campaigns that resonate with individual customers, driving engagement and conversion rates.
Segmentation
If there was a way to sum up email marketing in a sentence, it would likely be along the lines of “sending the right message to the right person at the right time.”
And that’s why segmentation is so important for B2B stores that are using email marketing.
Whether or not a subscriber is new, made a purchase before, engaged with your emails, and various other factors will affect your messaging, timing, and offers. If you just send out general emails to your entire list, you won’t be nearly as effective as a more targeted approach.
This can also affect deliverability as you won’t target the most engaged users and your open rates will go down over time and emails will potentially start landing in spam.
Segmentation allows you to target key parts of your list based on their behaviour and history with your brand.
While Mailchimp does offer some pre-made engagement segments and basic purchase based segments, the options are severely limited when compared to Klaviyo.
One of the key advantages Klaviyo has is complete control over how your segments are created and how it automatically organises subscribers based on the metrics you’ve defined. It’s possible to create detailed and dynamic segments in Klaviyo, enabling precise targeting and personalised messaging tailored to each subscriber’s unique interactions and preferences. This level of granularity lets B2B brands use sophisticated marketing strategies, driving higher engagement and ultimately boosting sales.
Automations
Automations (or Flows) are a key tool you can use to generate revenue for your store on autopilot. Once you set up an automation, it’ll send out emails based on what a subscriber has done. Some key examples would be a welcome sequence where you introduce your brand to a new potential customer or an abandoned checkout flow where you send reminders to complete an order so you can recover sales.
And this is one of the areas where Mailchimp is weakest for B2B brands.
While Mailchimp can integrate with your CRM and you can set up a basic abandoned cart automation or welcome sequence, Klaviyo has significantly more possibilities to set up the flows your eCom business needs.
Key examples for recovering sales for an B2B brand would be Browse Abandonment flows, Add to Cart flows, and even Site Abandonment flows. This comprehensive layering lets you reach out to the customer at multiple stages of the buyer’s journey
And there’s no need to worry about sending too many emails to a subscriber with all these flows either. With Klaviyo “filters” you’re able to set the triggers for when and who emails are sent to and remove users automatically once they don’t meet the requirements for the flow.
E.g. If someone enters a browse abandonment flow because they looked at a product, they would then leave that flow once they start checkout.
Is Klaviyo Better Than Mailchimp?
Mailchimp offers a broad range of features that are a good option for general businesses that are just starting out. It provides basic templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop email builder, making it accessible for beginners who may not be interested in more advanced functions.
If you’re starting out and have a small list (less than 10,000), and only need the basic functions, Mailchimp can be a good choice.
Klaviyo is more focused on B2B and integrates deeply with B2B platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and custom-built websites. It excels in automation features specifically tailored for B2B, such as SMS marketing, abandoned cart recovery, personalised product recommendations, and customer lifecycle stages. Klaviyo also provides more detailed analytics and reporting tailored to B2B metrics, like customer lifetime value and purchase history.
If your business is growing, has a larger email list (over 10,000), and customers purchase from your store daily, you will need a more powerful email marketing tool like Klaviyo, which gathers more detailed data and can better personalise the customer experience.
Need Help with Klaviyo Email Marketing?
Now you know that Klaviyo is a great choice for a growing B2B brand, but maybe you’re not sure what you should focus on next to improve results? Or perhaps you don’t want to spend all of that time doing all the work by yourself?
Reach out to our team for a free audit of your email marketing, and we’ll help you identify how you could improve results for your store. And if we find you’re a good fit for our email marketing management service, we can take care of all aspects of your email marketing end-to-end. Which means you can have a powerful and comprehensive marketing machine supporting your business without having to invest the time to do it on your own.
