How to Change a Flow Trigger in Klaviyo: A Comprehensive Guide
At a Glance: Changing a trigger in a Klaviyo flow requires accessing the flow builder, selecting the existing trigger, and modifying its settings or replacing it entirely with a different trigger type. The process varies slightly depending on whether you're working with a metric trigger, list-triggered flow, or segment-triggered flow. While the technical steps are straightforward, choosing the right trigger for your email marketing goals requires strategic thinking about customer behavior, timing, and how the flow fits into your broader email campaigns.
Klaviyo flows power automated email sequences that respond to subscriber actions and behaviors. The trigger determines when and why someone enters a flow, making it one of the most important elements to get right. Maybe your abandoned cart flow isn't capturing the right audience, or your welcome series needs to target a different segment. Whatever the reason, knowing how to change trigger in Klaviyo flow settings gives you control over who receives your automated emails and when they receive them. This guide walks you through the process step by step while exploring best practices that maximize your flow performance.
Understanding Flow Triggers in Klaviyo
Before diving into the technical steps, it's helpful to understand what flow triggers do and the different types available in your Klaviyo account.
A flow trigger defines the entry point for an automated sequence. When someone meets the trigger criteria, they enter the flow and begin receiving the emails or SMS messages you've configured. The trigger works alongside trigger filters, profile filters, and flow filters to control exactly who qualifies for each flow.
Types of Flow Triggers
Klaviyo offers several trigger types to match different marketing scenarios:
Metric Triggers: These activate when someone performs a specific action tracked by your Klaviyo integration. Common metrics include Started Checkout, Placed Order, Viewed Product, and custom events from your website or app. An abandoned cart flow typically uses a Started Checkout metric trigger.
List-Triggered Flows: These begin when someone joins a specific list. A welcome flow for new subscribers often uses this trigger type, sending welcome emails immediately after someone signs up.
Segment-Triggered Flows: These activate when someone enters a dynamic segment. A sunset flow targeting an inactive subscriber might use this approach, triggering when engagement drops below a certain threshold.
Date Property Triggers: These fire based on date fields in customer profiles, useful for birthday campaigns or anniversary emails.
Price Drop Triggers: These activate when products a customer has viewed drop in price, enabling automated price drop notifications.
Step-by-Step Guide to Changing Your Flow Trigger
Follow these steps to modify the trigger on an existing flow in your Klaviyo account.
Step 1: Access Your Flow
Log into your Klaviyo account and navigate to the flows tab in the left-hand side navigation menu. Locate the flow you want to modify from your list of existing flows. Click on the flow name to open it in the flow builder.
Step 2: Select the Trigger Component
At the top of your flow, you'll see the trigger component. This is the starting point that determines who enters the flow. Click on the trigger to select it. When selected, configuration options will appear on the right-hand side of the screen.
Step 3: Modify the Existing Trigger
Once you've selected the trigger, you have several options depending on what changes you need to make.
To change trigger settings within the same trigger type:
- Adjust the metric, list, or segment in the dropdown menu
- Modify any trigger filter conditions
- Update the timing or frequency settings
To change to a completely different trigger type:
- Click on the trigger type selector
- Choose your new trigger type from the available options
- Configure the new trigger with appropriate settings
- Set up any necessary trigger filters
Step 4: Configure Trigger Filters
After selecting your trigger, add trigger filters to refine who enters the flow. Trigger filters evaluate conditions at the moment someone would enter the flow.
Common trigger filter applications include:
- Limiting entry to customers from the United States or specific regions
- Filtering by product category or checkout url parameters
- Excluding customers who have already purchased
- Targeting specific customer segments based on behavior
Step 5: Review Profile Filters and Flow Filters
While you're adjusting the trigger, review your profile filter and flow filter settings to make sure they align with your new trigger configuration.
Profile filters check conditions each time an email is scheduled to send, while flow filters apply once when someone enters the flow. Understanding how these work together with your trigger helps prevent sending irrelevant emails.
Step 6: Save and Test Your Changes
After making your changes, save the flow. Before setting it to live status, test the flow to verify that the new trigger works as expected. Send test emails to yourself and review how the trigger conditions function with sample data.
Common Trigger Change Scenarios
Understanding why you might change a trigger helps you make better decisions about your flow configuration.
Updating Your Welcome Flow
Many businesses start with a simple list-triggered flow for their welcome series but later want more sophisticated targeting. You might change from a list trigger to a segment-triggered flow to send different welcome emails based on how someone signed up or what products they've shown interest in.
Refining Your Abandoned Cart Flow
The default abandoned cart flow often uses a Started Checkout metric trigger. You might adjust this to add trigger filters that exclude low-value carts, target specific product categories, or change the triggering metric entirely based on your Klaviyo integration setup.
Creating a Sunset Flow for Inactive Subscribers
A sunset flow targets subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails recently. This typically requires a segment-triggered flow based on engagement criteria. If your current inactive subscriber flow isn't performing well, you might adjust the segment definition or trigger timing.
Modifying Review Request Timing
Post-purchase review request flows need careful trigger configuration. You might change from a Placed Order trigger to a Fulfilled Order trigger, or adjust the time delay to give customers more time with their purchase before asking for feedback.
Best Practices for Flow Triggers
Optimizing your flow triggers can improve open rates, engagement, and revenue from your automated emails.
Start specific, then broaden: Begin with narrow trigger criteria and expand as you gather data. It's easier to include more people than to deal with unsubscribes from irrelevant emails.
Use trigger filters strategically: Trigger filters let you create one flow that handles multiple scenarios rather than building separate flows for every situation.
Consider the customer journey: Think about what other flows someone might be in when they hit your trigger. Use profile filters to prevent overwhelming subscribers with too many automated emails at once.
Test before going live: Always test flows with changed triggers using test profiles before setting them to live status. Verify that the right people enter and receive appropriate email content.
Monitor performance after changes: Watch your flow metrics closely after changing triggers. Look for changes in open rates, click rates, and revenue to validate that your changes are working.
Why Working with a Klaviyo Agency Delivers Better Results
While changing a flow trigger is technically straightforward, the strategic decisions behind that change determine whether your email marketing actually improves. Many businesses find that partnering with a Klaviyo email marketing agency produces better outcomes than managing flows internally.
Strategic Expertise: Agencies work with multiple Klaviyo accounts across various industries. This experience reveals patterns and best practices that a single business might take years to discover on their own.
Technical Proficiency: Beyond basic trigger changes, agencies understand the interplay between triggers, filters, conditional splits, and dynamic content. They can build sophisticated flows that respond to nuanced customer behavior.
Time Savings: Learning Klaviyo's full capabilities takes time. Agencies already have that knowledge, letting you benefit from optimized flows without the learning curve.
Ongoing Optimization: Flow performance changes over time as your audience grows and behaviors shift. Agencies continuously monitor and adjust flows to maintain strong results.
Integration Management: Getting the most from Klaviyo requires proper integration with your ecommerce platform and other marketing tools. Agencies handle the technical setup that enables advanced triggering based on customer behavior.
Creative Development: Effective email flow content goes beyond the trigger. Agencies bring email design expertise, copywriting skills, and knowledge of what drives engagement, including product recommendations, dynamic content, and hybrid email template approaches.
Partner with 20North for Klaviyo Email Marketing
Ready to get more from your Klaviyo flows? 20North Digital Marketing specializes in Klaviyo email marketing for businesses looking to increase revenue through automated email campaigns. Our team handles everything from flow strategy and trigger optimization to email content creation and ongoing performance analysis.
We build flows that respond intelligently to customer behavior, from welcome series for new subscribers to sophisticated win-back campaigns for inactive subscribers. Our approach combines technical expertise with proven email marketing strategies that drive measurable results.
Stop spending hours troubleshooting flows and wondering if your triggers are configured correctly. Contact 20North today to discover how our Klaviyo expertise can transform your email marketing and help your business grow.
