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How to Email Affiliates (using Shopify, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or other platforms)

Learn how to use Shopify's email feature to send emails to your affiliates.

Milos avatar
Written by Milos
Updated over 2 weeks ago

How to Email Your Affiliates

This guide explains how to create targeted email lists for your affiliates using Shopify's customer segments and your preferred email marketing platform.

The Core Concept: The "Affiliate" Tag

When a customer becomes an affiliate in Simple Affiliate, our app automatically adds an Affiliate tag to their customer profile in your Shopify admin.

This simple but powerful feature allows you to easily filter and group all your affiliates into a dedicated customer segment. You can then use this segment to send targeted emails using Shopify Email, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or any other email platform that syncs with your Shopify customer data.

Step 1: Create Your Affiliate Segment in Shopify

Before you can email your affiliates, you first need to create a customer segment in Shopify that groups them together. This segment will be the foundation for your campaigns on any platform.

  1. From your Shopify Admin, navigate to the Customers section.

  2. Click the Filter button at the top of the customer list.

  3. Select Customer tags as your filter.

  4. In the text box, type Affiliate and apply the filter. You will now see a list of all customers who are also affiliates.

  5. Click Save segment, give it a clear name like "Affiliates," and save it.

You now have a dynamic segment that will automatically include any new affiliates.

Step 2: Send Emails with Your Preferred Platform

Now that your segment is created, you can use it in your email marketing tool.

Using Shopify Email

  1. From your Shopify Admin, navigate to Marketing > Campaigns.

  2. Click the Create campaign button and select Shopify Email.

  3. Choose a template and begin designing your email.

  4. In the "To:" field at the top, select the "Affiliates" customer segment you created in Step 1.

  5. Finalize your content and send the campaign.

    • Note: Shopify Email will only send campaigns to customers who have subscribed to your marketing emails.

Using Klaviyo

  1. In your Klaviyo dashboard, navigate to the Lists & Segments tab.

  2. Click Create List / Segment and choose the Segment option.

  3. Create the segment with the following definition: Properties about someone > Shopify Tags > contains > Affiliate.

  4. Click Create Segment. You can now use this segment for your Klaviyo email campaigns.

Using Mailchimp

There are two primary methods for managing your affiliate list in Mailchimp.

Method 1: Manual CSV Import

This method is best for one-time email sends.

  1. Follow the instructions in Step 1 above to create and view your "Affiliates" segment in Shopify.

  2. Click the Export button to download a CSV file of these customers.

  3. In your Mailchimp account, use the import wizard to upload this CSV file to your desired audience or group.

Method 2: Automatic Syncing with Rules

This method is best for keeping your Mailchimp audience in sync automatically.

  1. From your Shopify Admin, go to Apps and open the Mailchimp: Email Marketing app.

  2. Navigate to the Tags & Groups tab and click Add a rule.

  3. Create a rule where the criteria is Shopify Customer Tag > contains > Affiliate.

  4. For the action, choose to add these customers to a specific interest group or tag within Mailchimp.

  5. Activate the rule. This will now automatically sync any customer with the Affiliate tag into the specified list in Mailchimp.

Related Articles
How to Add the Affiliate Dashboard to your Store
How to Delete an Affiliate
How to prevent affiliates from using their own discount codes
How to add the affiliate extension
How to onboard your affiliates (New customer accounts)
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