Living Proof grows its revenue from email 6x with Klaviyo

---

Living Proof is a Boston-based hair care brand that uses advanced biotech to solve everyday problems like frizz. Co-founded by MIT professor Robert Langer, the innovative company currently has 120 global patents and 450+ product formulas—not to mention nearly 1M followers across social media platforms.

In 2017, Unilever acquired Living Proof, and since then its direct-to-consumer business has become a key growth driver. 

How Klaviyo helped Living Proof increase successful email deliveries

Challenge

In 2019, Living Proof aimed to ramp up its DTC business, but their marketing tech stack wasn’t up to the task. The team needed a way to boost sub-par email open rates and deliverability—ideally with automated email flows targeting specific buyer personas. 

To build that ecosystem, they needed more sophisticated tools. It was time for an upgrade. 

We weren’t doing anything that was personalized to the customer about what they wanted or what they needed.

“The platform we were using before Klaviyo wasn’t very user-friendly. We also didn’t have dedicated account support and the emails we were sending out were mostly mass email blasts,” explains Ilana Cohen, senior ecommerce manager at Living Proof.

“We weren’t doing anything that was personalized to the customer about what they wanted or what they needed,” Cohen adds. 

Solution 

Cohen and her team considered a variety of solutions. Klaviyo came highly recommended by fellow online brand builders, but the Living Proof team hesitated. 

Would it integrate with their ecommerce platform, Salesforce Commerce Cloud? Short answer: yes. It was a plug-and-play solution—quick, easy, and affordable to set up. 

With Klaviyo, we’ve been able to segment our list and send more customized emails to these subscribers.

Strategy

Living Proof used Klaviyo to launch a hair care quiz that generated personalized, automated product recommendations for 9 different hair types. For shoppers, it’s a powerful nudge to buy. For Living Proof, it’s a personalization powerhouse: The email team can segment based on hair type now. 

Results

Living Proof has seen other quick and quantifiable benefits from Klaviyo, too. In less than a year: 

• The time it takes to create emails is down, thanks to Klaviyo’s drag-and-drop email builder. 
• Revenue per email recipient is up, thanks to new automated, behavior-triggered flows like a welcome series and an abandoned cart flow. 
• Living Proof’s overall subscriber list—a key indicator of DTC business health—is growing. 

We’ve definitely been able to grow our email list since switching to Klaviyo.

“We’ve definitely been able to grow our email list since switching to Klaviyo,” Cohen says. “We’ve run different programs like sample programs and exclusive access to product launches through social and using our website. Through that, we’ve been able to segment our list and send more customized emails to these subscribers.”