Why monthly points balance emails work
Most loyalty programmes suffer from the same problem. Customers earn points, forget they exist, and never come back to spend them. Leaving those points sitting idle is a massive missed opportunity for repeat sales.
A recurring points balance flow fixes this automatically. When set up properly, it sends on repeat, generates excellent click rates, and brings steady revenue back into your store every single month.
These emails perform so well because they hit three core pillars at once. They are informational, they are deeply personalised, and they have a direct commercial focus. You are not begging for a sale. You are simply reminding the customer that they have store credit waiting to be used.
The Klaviyo segment trigger limitation
If you have integrated a tool like Smile.io with Klaviyo, your first instinct might be to trigger a flow whenever someone enters a segment of customers with active points. That is a mistake.
Segment-triggered flows in Klaviyo can only trigger once per profile. Once a customer enters that segment and receives the flow, they will never trigger it again, even if their balance changes. That kills any chance of sending a regular monthly update.
To bypass this limitation, we use a simple two-flow workaround. The first flow updates a custom date property on the customer profile. The second flow uses that date property to trigger a recurring monthly email.
Step 1: Build the qualifying segment
First, you need a dynamic segment that captures anyone who currently has rewards to spend. In your Klaviyo account, head to Lists & Segments and create a new segment.
Set the definition to check profile properties from your loyalty app. For Smile.io, you want the condition where smile points balance is at least 1. If you use a different rewards app, simply swap in that app's custom property.
This ensures that only subscribers with at least 1 usable point enter the automation queue.
Step 2: Create the date-stamping flow
Now, create your first flow. Set the trigger to the segment you just built in Step 1. The sole purpose of this flow is to stamp the customer's profile with a timestamp.
Add an Update Profile Property action directly under the trigger. Create a new property called points_balance_date (or simply date) and select the option to use the current date when the step is reached.
The moment a subscriber joins the segment, Klaviyo sets that property to today's date. This unlocks the ability to build a recurring date-based flow.
Step 3: Configure the recurring delivery schedule
Create your second flow, which will be the one that actually delivers the email. Set the flow trigger to Date Property, select your newly created date property, and configure it to repeat monthly.
Delivery timing matters here. We schedule these emails to send at 9:00 AM in the recipient's local time, which consistently yields our highest open and click rates. We also add a delay condition to restrict sending to Monday through Friday only.
Weekend sends regularly underperform for this type of reminder. Restricting delivery to business days keeps engagement high and prevents your emails from getting buried in full weekend inboxes.
Dynamic personalisation inside the template
The copy inside this email should be clean and direct. You want to dynamically pull the subscriber's current balance and the current date straight into the text block.
Use dynamic tags to display the information clearly, for example: "As of [Current Month] [Current Day], you have earned a total of [Smile Points Balance] reward points."
Follow that line immediately with a prominent call to action button that says "Use My Points" and links straight to your store. Because the email reads as an account status update rather than a hard promotional pitch, friction is low and click-through rates are exceptionally high.
Final Thoughts
Automations that deliver genuine utility will always outperform generic marketing blasts. Setting up a recurring points balance flow takes under an hour, but it creates a permanent, automated revenue engine for your store.
If you want our team to audit, build, and optimise your automated retention flows, take a look at our email automation services to see how we can help.
