When ecommerce brands decide it’s time to get serious about Klaviyo, one of the first decisions they face is who to work with. The market has two main options: a specialist freelancer or a digital marketing agency. Both can do excellent work. Both can also be a poor fit depending on your situation.

A specialist freelancer — someone who works exclusively or primarily in Klaviyo for ecommerce clients — typically offers a level of hands-on expertise that’s hard to match in an agency context. When you hire a freelancer, you know exactly who is doing the work. There’s no account manager acting as a buffer, no junior team member learning on your account, and no overhead baked into the price. You’re paying for the person’s skill directly.

Freelancers who focus on Klaviyo tend to stay current with the platform in a way generalist agencies don’t. Klaviyo moves fast — new features, updated best practices, changes to deliverability guidance — and specialists who live inside the platform every day pick this up quickly. For most ecommerce brands at the £500k–£5m turnover range, a good Klaviyo freelancer will outperform an average agency at a lower price point.

Agencies make more sense when you need email to sit within a broader marketing strategy being managed in one place. If you want your paid social, SEO, and email all integrated and reported on together, an agency with multiple specialists may be the right call. For larger brands with more complex requirements or multiple markets, the resource depth of an agency can be genuinely useful.

Regardless of whether you go freelancer or agency, these are the things that actually matter. Ecommerce-specific experience is essential — Klaviyo is an ecommerce platform and the person working on your account should understand customer lifetime value, repeat purchase mechanics, and seasonality. A clear process matters too: how do they audit an account, how do they prioritise what to build first, how do they measure success?

Platform certification demonstrates a baseline commitment to knowing Klaviyo properly. Real case studies with specific numbers — not vague claims about improved open rates — tell you far more. And communication style is underrated: you want someone who explains what they’re doing and why, and who treats your business goals as the north star.

One common misconception is that email marketing is inherently local. It isn’t. A Klaviyo specialist working from the UK can serve an ecommerce brand based in the US, Australia, Canada, or anywhere else just as effectively — often more so, given the talent pool in UK-based ecommerce markets. If you’re looking for a Klaviyo freelancer who combines deep platform expertise with clear communication and a commercial focus, get in touch.