Your website's built-in email tool isn't enough. Here's the honest truth.
A reader emailed me last week asking whether Flodesk was actually worth it if she was already on Wix. And it’s such a good question and I know she's absolutely not alone in thinking it. I answered her personally, and then realised the whole conversation needed to be a blog post. So here we are.
And the reality is, I've been there too. I used Squarespace Campaigns for a while and I have thoughts.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room that nobody in the email marketing space wants to say out loud: Most website platforms have an email tool built in. And most of them are, at best, fine. Fine for the occasional newsletter, fine if email is an afterthought, fine if you're not really trying to build a system that does anything meaningful for your business.
But if you want email to actually work FOR YOU— to warm people up, convert enquiries, run while you're offline, and build the kind of trust that turns a list into a revenue stream, fine isn't going to cut it.
Let’s get into my own personal opinion, because for the first year or so since ‘collecting emails’, I started with Squarespace. I couldn’t see the value in having to pay the difference for an actual seperate platform, not to mention having to have something external from my website. First things first, Squarespace Campaigns is not built for email marketing. It's (shock horror) built for Squarespace. And the difference is massive.
Using it felt like sending a clunky newsletter with no vibe. Nothing about it excited me. Every email I sent felt off and it took me a while to realise why. The thing is, it's not designed for that. The templates feel generic, the customisation is limited and the whole experience just lacks. There’s nothing inspiring about sending an email on Squarespace Campaigns. Sorry, but it’s the truth.
For a brand photographer and website designer whose visual identity is literally the product, sending emails that looked like that felt completely at odds with everything else I was building. You work so hard to create a brand that feels cohesive and elevated, and then your email marketing looks like it was designed by committee in 2015.
Beyond the aesthetics, the functionality is limited. You're not building real automations. You're not segmenting your audience with any strategy. You're not creating a nurture sequence that does the relationship-building for you.
You're just... sending newsletters. Occasionally. Whenever you feel like it. And well, in my opinion, it’s not doing you much.
I need to throw it out here first, because it's genuinely handy if you're already on the platform…your contacts sync automatically, there's no extra setup, and for occasional simple comms it does the job. But the moment you want to do anything more sophisticated, you hit walls fast.
Let’s meet some of those walls.
Send limits. The free plan caps you at 200 emails per month. The entry-level paid plan gets you to 500. If you've been building your list at all, you might already be bumping up against the ceiling and paying more to get past it.
Limited automation. You can't build the kind of nuanced sequences that actually do the work for you. The welcome flow that warms someone up over a week. The post-enquiry nurture that keeps you front of mind. The follow-up that recovers leads you didn't even know you were losing. That level of infrastructure needs a dedicated tool.
No A/B testing. Want to test whether one subject line outperforms another? On Wix, you're doing that manually across separate sends. Hardly scientific, and a bit of a drag that lets be real, you’re probably not going to check on your data.
Design constraints. Yes, the templates are functional, but functional isn't the same as beautiful, brandable, and quick to make feel like yours. In a service business where your brand is your product, this matters more than people give it credit for.
Deliverability. Some Wix users experience issues with emails landing in spam or promotions. Having a platform built specifically for email is built specifically to get your emails into inboxes. That's the whole job.
Flodesk exists for one reason: email marketing. Not website building, not booking management, not invoicing, but email. And that main focus changes everything. Here’s what Flodesk is all about.
Unlimited sends across all plans. You are never penalised for growing your list. Whether you have 300 subscribers or 3,000, the price is the same. That's a big deal when your list is an asset you're actively building.
Automations that actually work. Clean, intuitive workflows that run while you sleep. Someone opts into your lead magnet at 2am — your welcome sequence fires, warms them up over the next week, and by the time they reach out, they already feel like they know you. That's the system doing the relationship-building for you.
Segmentation. Send the right message to the right people. Your VIP Day clients get different emails to your brand new subscribers. Your photographers get different content to your service-based business owners. This is how you stop sending one-size-fits-all newsletters and start having actual conversations with specific people.
Actually beautiful templates. I know that sounds superficial but it isn't. The way your emails look is part of your brand. Flodesk lets you create emails that feel like an extension of your visual identity — not a generic blast from a CRM that also manages your invoices. For a brand photographer and website designer, this is non-negotiable.
Built-in polls, countdown timers, and sales pages. The kind of functionality that actually converts, not just communicates. Yes, sales pages. And they’re actually really good and super easy to adjust and go live.
Deliverability you can rely on. Because when your email doesn't land in the inbox, none of the rest of it matters anyway.
Okay, so which one do you actually need? It depends on what you want email to do for you.
If email is a nice-to-have, an occasional newsletter, a check-in every few weeks, nothing systematic then your existing platform's tool might be enough for now. You don't have to overcomplicate it, especially if you’re not willing to invest time and energy into it.
But if you want email to be a real growth tool, a list that warms people up before they enquire, a funnel that converts while you're offline, a nurture sequence that builds relationships on autopilot, then you need something built specifically for that.
Your website's CRM is a starting point for sure, but Flodesk is an infrastructure. And the difference, once you've actually experienced it, is hard to go back from.
Whether you're on Wix, Squarespace, Showit, or something else entirely: the principles of good email marketing are platform-agnostic. Understanding your audience, building a nurture sequence, thinking about your email funnel as a whole, none of that is Flodesk-specific.
But you'll be able to implement the strategies most effectively with a tool that's actually built for the job.
If you're curious about making the switch to Flodesk, I have a discount link (tap here!) and of course am here to chat details.
Want to go deeper?
If this post has you thinking about your email marketing and you want to actually do something about it — here's where to start:
The Flodesk Masterclass ($47) — a prerecorded deep-dive into building a real email marketing ecosystem inside Flodesk. The strategy, the sequences, the system. Everything I use in my own business and build for clients.
A Strategy Session ($450 + GST) — a focused, honest session where we look at exactly where your email marketing is right now, map out what your ecosystem should look like, and give you a clear plan you can actually act on. Available online, Internationally.
Both are a solid starting point. The Masterclass if you want to learn and implement yourself. The Strategy Session if you want someone to look at your specific situation and tell you exactly what to do.
Got a question like the one that inspired this post? Send it. Please, don’t double think it. The best content I create starts with a real question from a real person and your question might just become the next blog post.