Klaviyo Deliverability Checklist: 6 Q4 Settings That Decide Whether Your Emails Land

The Klaviyo Deliverability Checklist Most Stores Skip

Most Klaviyo accounts have the same 4 settings misconfigured. The result is the same in every account. Open rates drop in Q4, campaigns land in spam, and revenue tanks during the highest-stakes weeks of the year.

The fix is a 6-item deliverability checklist. Boring, mechanical, and the difference between a record peak season and a wasted one. Run through it before every Q4 campaign and your emails reach the inbox.

Across 2,000+ stores, the pattern holds. Stores that follow this Klaviyo deliverability checklist see 30-50% more campaigns land in the inbox during Q4. Stores that wing it tank.

Setting 1: SPF and DKIM Correctly Configured

SPF and DKIM are authentication records that tell Gmail and Outlook that emails sent from your domain are legitimate. Without them, your emails are treated as suspicious by default.

In Klaviyo, navigate to Account Settings, then Email, then Sending Domains. Check that your sending domain shows green checkmarks for both SPF and DKIM. If either is yellow or red, fix the DNS records before sending another campaign.

DNS changes take 24-48 hours to propagate. Do not assume an SPF or DKIM update is live the moment you press save. Verify the green status in Klaviyo before pressing send on any campaign.

Setting 2: Domain Warmed Up Before Volume Sends

A warm domain has a track record of clean sends to engaged recipients. A cold domain does not. Gmail and Outlook treat cold domains with suspicion. They filter aggressively, reject often, and slow your delivery.

If you have not sent regularly in the last 30 days, your domain is cold. Run a 2-3 week warmup before any major Q4 send. Start with your engaged 30-day segment, two campaigns per week. Expand to engaged 60-day in week 2, engaged 90-day in week 3, full active list by week 4.

This is the single most important setting on the checklist. Skip it and the other 5 do not matter.

Setting 3: Smart Sending On for Non-Promotional Emails

Smart Sending prevents Klaviyo from sending the same recipient multiple emails within a short window. By default, Klaviyo enforces a 16-hour gap between sends to the same profile.

Turn it on for educational emails, value-driven sends, browse abandonment, and post-purchase. These should never overlap. Smart Sending protects your engagement rates and prevents the unsubscribes that come from over-mailing.

Turn it off for promotions during peak periods. During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you want every active profile to receive every promotional send. Smart Sending blocks that. Turn it off campaign by campaign for the promos that need full reach.

Setting 4: Consistent Sender Name and Email Address

Inbox providers track sender consistency. A domain that sends from 3 different addresses with 3 different sender names looks like a phishing pattern. A domain that sends from one consistent name and address looks like a trusted business.

Pick one sender name and one sender email and use them across every campaign. Do not switch between firstname@domain.com and hello@domain.com. Do not change the display name from your store name to your founder name week to week.

If you have already been inconsistent, pick the address with the strongest engagement history and stick to it from now on. Consistency from this point forward is what matters.

Setting 5: Exclude Segments Applied to Every Campaign

Klaviyo does not auto-exclude bouncing or unengaged profiles. You have to apply the exclude segments manually on every campaign. One forgotten send to bouncing emails can hurt deliverability for 2-3 weeks.

Build two saved exclude segments inside Klaviyo:

• All bouncing emails (dropped, marked as spam, hard or soft bounce)
• Unengaged profiles (received 10+ emails all-time, never opened, never clicked)

Add both to the exclude list on every campaign. Make it part of your campaign template so it cannot be forgotten. The 30 seconds it takes to apply them protects weeks of deliverability work.

Setting 6: Test Send to Yourself Before Every Campaign

The cheapest deliverability check in Klaviyo is the test send. Send the campaign to yourself first. Open it on mobile and desktop. Check that it arrives in the inbox, not Promotions or spam.

If your test send lands in Promotions, that is a signal. The subject line, content, or sender pattern is being flagged. Adjust before sending to the real list. Common fixes include shortening the subject line, removing aggressive promo language, and reducing the number of links.

On the other side of the screen is a real person. If the email feels off to you, it will feel off to them. That is the same instinct Gmail is trying to mimic when it filters.

How to Run This Klaviyo Deliverability Checklist Every Send

Build the checklist into your campaign workflow. Six items, every send.

1. Confirm SPF and DKIM are green inside Klaviyo (one-time check, then verify yearly)
2. Confirm domain warmup is complete or in progress for the segment you are sending to
3. Set Smart Sending appropriately for the campaign type (on for value, off for major promos)
4. Confirm sender name and email address match your standard
5. Apply both exclude segments to the audience filter
6. Send a test to yourself, open it on mobile and desktop, confirm inbox placement

Run this every time. The 5 minutes it takes prevents the kind of deliverability damage that costs real revenue.

What Happens When You Skip the Klaviyo Deliverability Checklist

One dropshipper came to us last November. He had skipped 4 of the 6 settings. SPF was misconfigured. The domain was cold. Smart Sending was off for everything. Exclude segments were never applied.

His Black Friday weekend? Half the campaigns landed in spam. Open rates dropped to 3%. Click rates dropped to 0.2%. Projected revenue missed by 50%. The deliverability damage took 4 weeks to repair.

The 6-item checklist would have prevented all of it. SPF and DKIM are a one-time setup. Warmup is a 2-3 week process. The other 4 settings take 30 seconds per campaign. Total cost: a few hours of work over 3 weeks. Total upside: a protected peak season.

Quick Reference: The Klaviyo Q4 Deliverability Checklist

• SPF and DKIM correctly configured (green inside Klaviyo)
• Domain warmed up by sending only to engaged segments first
• Smart Sending on for non-promotional, off for major promos
• Consistent sender name and email address on every send
• Bouncing and unengaged exclude segments applied to every campaign
• Test send to yourself before pressing send

Save this list. Run it every send. The inbox takes care of itself when you do.