Stop giving your best customers your deepest discounts
When most direct to consumer brands run a promotional campaign, they blast their entire list with a single discount code. If they decide on 30% off, everyone gets 30% off. It produces a spike in top-line revenue, but it needlessly guts gross profit margins.
Here is the reality of customer behaviour: someone who has already bought from you twice or three times does not need a massive incentive to buy again. They already trust your product, your shipping, and your brand. Offering a 30% discount to a loyal repeat customer who would have happily converted for 15% off is simply setting 15% of your margin on fire.
That is a mistake.
Your deepest discounts should be reserved for non-purchasers who need serious persuasion to take a risk on their first order. For existing customers, you want to lower the discount progressively based on their lifetime order count. You will convert roughly the exact same number of buyers, but the profit left in your bank account will be substantially higher.
Building your tiered purchase segments in Klaviyo
To execute this strategy properly, you need to build distinct segments in Klaviyo based on purchase history before touching any email copy. I generally recommend creating four core discount tiers, alongside two engagement segments to manage deliverability and build hype.
- Segment 1 (Non-purchasers): Placed order equals 0 overall time and can receive email marketing. This group receives your highest offer, such as 30% off.
- Segment 2 (First-time buyers): Placed order equals 1 overall time and can receive email marketing. This group gets your next tier, around 25% off.
- Segment 3 (Two-time buyers): Placed order equals 2 overall time and can receive email marketing. This cohort receives 20% off.
- Segment 4 (VIP repeat buyers): Placed order is at least 3 overall time and can receive email marketing. This group gets your lowest tier, roughly 15% off.
Notice the precise logic on the final segment. Segments 2 and 3 use exact match conditions to avoid overlapping audiences, while Segment 4 captures anyone with three or more orders. Depending on your catalog and natural repurchase frequency, you might condense this into three tiers rather than four. Adjust the percentages to fit your product unit economics, but keep the principle intact.
Turning dynamic segments into static lists for flyout forms
Pop-up forms are not just for collecting new email subscribers. In my books, one of the most underutilised tactics during a campaign is using non-intrusive flyout forms to reinforce active discount codes to existing subscribers while they browse your store.
There is a technical catch here that catches a lot of operators out. Segments in Klaviyo are dynamic. If a non-purchaser buys during your sale, they immediately shift from Segment 1 to Segment 2. If your on-site forms target dynamic segments, that customer might see their discount drop from 30% to 25% mid-session while shopping for an add-on item.
Inconsistent messaging kills customer trust.
To fix this, go into Klaviyo right before the sale goes live, clone Segments 1 through 4, and convert each clone into a static list. Build separate desktop and mobile flyout forms for each cohort, set them to trigger after a 20 second delay on the right-hand corner of the screen, and target the static lists rather than the dynamic segments. Set the main button to auto-apply the specific static discount code directly to their checkout cart.
The campaign cadence and hype runway
Do not just launch a sale out of nowhere. You need a structured runway to warm up your audience, establish anticipation, and protect your sender reputation.
Two weeks before the launch, send a teaser email to your 90-day engaged segment (defined as anyone who opened, clicked, bought, or was active on site in the last 90 days, or joined in the last 30 days). The goal here is simple: tell them the exact launch date, showcase popular products, and build anticipation without offering a discount yet. One week out, send a second hype email to that same engaged group with an embedded countdown timer.
On launch day, you will send four separate campaign emails simultaneously, each routed to its specific discount segment (Segments 1 through 4). Do not schedule these launch emails more than 24 hours in advance so that your cohort sizing remains fresh. The bulk of your actual volume and revenue will come from Segments 2 and 3, which is precisely where your improved margins will pay off.
Managing Klaviyo send settings and deliverability
Managing the follow-up campaigns requires strict attention to one specific checkbox in Klaviyo: Determine recipients at send time.
When you send your initial launch emails, schedule your mid-sale reminder emails (sent 3 days after launch) immediately afterwards. For these reminder emails, you must untick the determine recipients at send time setting. This locks in the exact recipients who received the initial offer so they do not receive conflicting discount percentages if they placed an order or their profile updated in the background.
You must also protect your inbox placement. Segment 1 (non-purchasers) will naturally have lower engagement rates than your repeat buyers. To protect your domain reputation, drop Segment 1 from the mid-sale reminder and only re-introduce them for the final day push. High volume combined with poor engagement will land you in the spam folder fast.
The sale extension campaign
Once the scheduled sale window closes, you have one final high-leverage opportunity to capture fence-sitters. Build a new segment defined as: Engaged in the last 60 days AND placed order equals 0 times between the sale start date and sale end date.
These are subscribers who opened your emails and browsed your store during the promotional window, but never pulled the trigger with the initial tiered incentives. The day after your sale closes, send this group a surprise 24-hour sale extension campaign offering your top discount tier (e.g. 30% off).
For this specific extension email, make sure you tick determine recipients at send time. That ensures anyone who completed an order in the final minutes of the previous evening is automatically filtered out before the email sends.
Final Thoughts
A successful sale should not require sacrificing the profitability of your best customers. By segmenting by order history, static-listing your on-site forms, and timing your sends carefully, you protect your margins while driving serious revenue. It takes a little more setup time inside Klaviyo, but the difference in your net profit makes it entirely worthwhile.
If you want our team to map out, design, and manage high-performing sale campaigns and seasonal strategies for your brand, take a look at our email campaigns service.
