For years, my answer was simple.
If you’re in fashion or ecommerce and you care about conversion, use Klaviyo.
And I still believe that. With my background in fashion, ecommerce, and digital design, Klaviyo remains one of the most powerful tools for turning attention into revenue. It’s built for optimization, segmentation, and performance. If your goal is to scale sales, it works.
But conversion isn’t the same as discovery.
Lately, I’ve been thinking less about how people convert and more about how they find you in the first place.
As a designer and creator, that question changes everything.
The Discovery Problem
Most platforms today are optimized for distribution, not discovery.
Instagram shows your work to people who already follow you.
Email reaches people already on your list.
Even “growth” often means shouting louder inside a room you’re already in.
Organic discovery — the kind where someone finds you without knowing your name — has quietly disappeared from many social platforms. Algorithms reward consistency and familiarity, not depth or originality. Great work doesn’t always travel far; it just circulates.
And that’s the gap I’ve been feeling.
Why Substack Is Different
Substack isn’t perfect, but it does something most platforms no longer prioritize: built-in discovery.
People don’t just subscribe to you — they browse ideas.
They search by topic.
They’re recommended writers they’ve never heard of.
As a creator, that matters.
Substack behaves more like a living library than a feed. Writing has a longer shelf life. Posts aren’t instantly buried. Your thinking becomes searchable, referenceable, and shareable beyond your immediate audience.
For someone who designs, writes, and builds brands — not just campaigns — that’s powerful.
Conversion vs. Connection
Klaviyo excels at performance.
Substack excels at presence.
One is about timing, triggers, and funnels.
The other is about voice, ideas, and resonance.
I don’t see this as abandoning conversion — I see it as expanding the top of the funnel in a more human way. Discovery that feels intentional, not forced. Growth that comes from alignment, not hacks.
Hidden Discovery Channels (That Still Work)
Interestingly, my own data tells a story platforms don’t talk about enough.
My website sees its highest-converting traffic from Pinterest — a platform many people overlook, yet one of the last true discovery engines left. Search-based, visual, long-lasting.
Client inquiries? Still largely come through Instagram — not from viral posts, but from quiet discovery: saved work, shared stories, long-term visibility.
Discovery doesn’t always look loud.
Sometimes it looks slow.
Sometimes it looks old-school.
The Art of Being Found
Discovery is an art now.
It’s not about being everywhere.
It’s about being in the right places, in the right format, with the right depth.
Substack feels like a return to that — a space where ideas can breathe, where creators can be found for what they think, not just what they sell.
I’ll still recommend Klaviyo when conversion is the goal.
But when discovery is the strategy?
When you’re building a body of work, not just a list?
Substack makes sense.
Because being found — truly found — is becoming rare.
And rarity, as fashion has always taught us, is value.
