Engagement-Based Segmentation: The System That Makes Everything Else Work

Every underperforming Klaviyo account we've audited has the same root problem: they send the same emails to everyone on their list.

The brand doing €200K/month on Shopify sends the same campaign to the subscriber who opened three emails this week and the one who hasn't opened anything in four months. The result? The engaged subscriber gets value. The unengaged one marks it as spam. Gmail notices. Inbox placement drops. The engaged subscriber starts seeing emails in their promotions tab. Revenue falls.

This is how deliverability dies. Not from one bad send, but from the slow accumulation of sending to people who don't want to hear from you.

Engagement-based segmentation is the fix. It's the single system that makes everything else in Klaviyo work — campaigns, flows, deliverability, revenue. Without it, you're flying blind.

The Core Segments

Every client account we build at Redot gets the same foundational segments from day one. They're based on one question: when did this person last engage with your emails?

Engaged 14 Days — Opened or clicked any email in the last 14 days. These are your most active subscribers. They're paying attention right now.

Engaged 30 Days — Opened or clicked in the last 30 days. Still warm. Still interested. Slightly less responsive than the 14-day group.

Engaged 60 Days — Opened or clicked in the last 60 days. Cooling off. They haven't gone dark, but they're not checking every email.

Engaged 90 Days — Opened or clicked in the last 90 days. The outer edge of engagement. One more month of silence and they're a deliverability risk.

Unengaged 90+ Days — No opens or clicks in 90+ days. Do not send campaigns to this segment. They belong in a Sunset Flow, not your campaign list.

These segments are dynamic in Klaviyo. They update in real-time as subscribers open and click. A subscriber who opens an email today immediately enters the Engaged 14 segment. If they go quiet for 31 days, they drop out of Engaged 30 and into Engaged 60. No manual work required.

How Segments Drive Campaign Cadence

The segments don't just tell you who's engaged. They tell you how often you can email each group without damaging deliverability.

Engaged 14: 4-5 emails per week. These subscribers are actively engaging. They can handle frequent sends without fatigue.

Engaged 30: 2-3 emails per week. Still interested, but not as active. Give them space.

Engaged 60: 1-2 emails per week. Send your best-performing campaigns only. Every send to this group should earn its place.

Engaged 90: 1 email per week maximum. Only your strongest content. This group is on the edge — one bad experience and they're gone.

Unengaged 90+: Zero campaign sends. This is non-negotiable. Sending campaigns to this group is the single fastest way to tank deliverability.

This cadence system is how brands send 4-5 campaigns per week to their best subscribers without burning out the rest of their list. It's not about sending less overall — it's about sending the right amount to each group.

The VIP Layer

On top of engagement segments, every account needs value-based segments:

VIP Customers — Top 10% by total revenue or order frequency. These are your best customers. They get early access to launches, exclusive offers, and premium treatment.

Repeat Buyers — 2+ orders placed. They've proven they'll come back. The goal is to keep the cycle going.

One-Time Buyers — Purchased once but never returned. The post-purchase and winback flows target this group specifically.

High-AOV Customers — Orders above a threshold you define (often 2x the store's average order value). These customers might not buy frequently, but when they do, they spend significantly.

The VIP segment is particularly powerful for campaigns. Our standard approach — proven through The Love Blanket and other client work — is to send every major campaign to VIPs first, 24-48 hours before the main list. This serves two purposes: it rewards your best customers with exclusivity, and it generates early engagement signals that warm up the campaign for the broader send.

Behavioral Segments

Engagement and value segments handle the majority of campaign targeting. Behavioral segments add precision:

Churn Risk — Purchased before, no activity (email or site) in 60+ days. These subscribers are about to lapse. They should enter a winback flow before they become Unengaged 90+.

Category / Product Affinity — Browsed or purchased specific product categories. If someone bought skincare three times, they should get skincare-focused campaigns, not the generic blast.

SMS Consent — Subscribers who opted into SMS. This segment determines who receives SMS campaigns and which flows include SMS messages alongside email.

Klaviyo's predictive analytics add another layer: predicted next order date, predicted customer lifetime value, and churn probability. These aren't segments you build manually — Klaviyo calculates them from your Shopify data. They're powerful for timing campaigns (sending a nudge right before someone's predicted next purchase) and for identifying which customers are worth extra investment.

How to Build These Segments in Klaviyo

The technical setup is straightforward:

For engagement segments, use the "What someone has done" condition in Klaviyo's segment builder. Set the action to "Opened Email" or "Clicked Email" and the time frame to "in the last X days." Use OR logic between opened and clicked — someone who clicked without opening (which happens in certain email clients) should still count as engaged.

For value segments, use "Properties about someone" combined with Shopify order data. Klaviyo automatically syncs total order count, total revenue, and average order value from Shopify. The VIP segment is typically: total revenue is in the top 10% OR total order count is 5+.

For behavioral segments, use "What someone has done" with specific Shopify events: Viewed Product (for browse affinity), Placed Order (for purchase affinity), or Started Checkout (for high-intent browsers).

All segments should update in real-time (Klaviyo's default for segments). Don't use static lists for engagement-based targeting — they go stale immediately.

The Segment You Should Never Have

One segment should not exist in any healthy Klaviyo account: "All Subscribers."

The moment you send a campaign to your entire list — engaged and unengaged alike — you've undone the work your segments are supposed to do. Even if most of your list is engaged, the unengaged portion drags down overall metrics, triggers spam complaints, and tells inbox providers your sending practices are careless.

Every campaign should target a specific engagement segment, never the full list. If you're doing a major sale and want maximum reach, send to Engaged 90 at most. The Unengaged 90+ group should only receive the Sunset Flow.

The Compound Effect

The power of engagement-based segmentation isn't just in individual sends. It compounds over time.

When you consistently send to engaged segments, your deliverability improves. Better deliverability means more emails reach the inbox. More inbox placement means higher open rates. Higher open rates mean more people move into the Engaged 14 segment. A larger Engaged 14 segment means you can send more frequently. More frequent sends to engaged audiences means more revenue.

It's a positive feedback loop. And it starts with one decision: stop sending to people who aren't listening.

Build the segments. Set the cadence rules. Watch the numbers improve week over week. This isn't glamorous work, but it's the foundation that makes everything else in Klaviyo profitable.