Pros and Cons of Using Substack for Email Marketing
Pros and Cons of Using Substack for Email Marketing
Great for Influencers; Not so great for small business
A few weeks ago, someone asked me about using Substack for their small business and a nonprofit they’re involved in. To be honest, I wanted to talk them out of it.
Substack is gaining steam with both writers and readers. In 2023 they revealed they have more than 20 million monthly active subscribers. In 2024, they said they went from 2 to 3 million paid subscribers. And it seems everywhere you turn someone else is announcing a newsletter on the platform. I can see why business owners are curious.
After using it since December 2023 for my marketing newsletter, and since April of this year for Everyday Akron updates, I’ve learned a lot and have sussed out some pros and cons.
Here are my thoughts on using Substack vs. a traditional email marketing platform for a small business or nonprofit.
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Substack is Social
One of the advantages of publishing on Substack is its social nature. You can be discovered by other authors and readers, leave comments, like posts, write quick notes, and more.
It’s quite interactive compared to a platform like MailChimp. The latter is like a one-sided conversation in which you push out your newsletter and hope folks read, buy, or take whatever action you gave them.
Built-In Readership
Substack also has a built-in readership. With engagement and such, you could see it acting like a social media platform. The views are almost guaranteed. Or… are they?
Substack may help you reach a newer, bigger audience, but that’s not always promised. So if you’re thinking about starting a newsletter on the platform, have a plan for audience reach and growth.
Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems?
Another positive point for Substack is its paid subscriptions. You can offer free newsletters and content, but you can also offer paid content for your more loyal readers. If you build up a big enough audience, you can make a nice chunk of money.
But again – don’t assume this will magically happen because you started using the Platform. Create a strategy for what you’ll offer free and paid subscribers and how you’ll market each to reach your goals.
Need some help?
Oh hey there! Thanks for reading this far. I just wanted to let you know that I have some openings in my schedule for a few more consultations and select marketing services. It’s all geared toward solopreneurs, artists, makers and small biz owners. Book now!
Public vs. Private
If your email marketing strategy includes coupons, exclusive deals, abandoned cart emails and such, you won’t want to use Substack.
All Substack posts and notes are public, unless you put them behind a subscription-based paywall.
Think of Substack more like a blog than an email platform. If you don’t want your weekly newsletter to be read by the whole world, stick to a traditional email marketing platform.
It’s nice that Substack allows you the choice of sending to subscribers via email or posting without, but regardless, free content will still be public.
Segment Subscribers
If you have a small list of subscribers, having the ability to segment them into different lists may not matter. But if you expect your number of subscribers to grow, or if you already have a hefty mailing list, consider how you might want to reach subsets.
Here are some examples: You may want to send a discount code to those who have used your services before. You might want to re-engage those who abandoned their carts. Perhaps you want to send a coupon to folks who have been buying from you for more than 3 years. Maybe you want to email those who attended a webinar or local event.
With Substack, you can’t do any of that.
Your subscriber list provides the following data: email address, subscription type (free vs. paid), activity (how engaged they are), subscription date, and revenue. It also provides more specific data around email opens, comments, subscription expiration date, and so on.
Basically, Substack provides data related to Substack. You can send emails to a specific subset, but it will most likely be related to their Substack subscriptions.
Could you assume who’s a fan of your writing, products, services, nonprofit and such based on Substack’s data? Sure. But using a traditional email marketing platform will allow you to confidently segment your lists and add tags and such in order to email subsets of folks that will likely have higher open and click-through rates.
Don’t Stop or Swap What You’re Doing
If you’re a business or nonprofit that already has a blog and newsletter, keep them going. Don’t switch over to Substack just because it’s the golden child right now.
If you only have a blog, consider starting a non-Substack newsletter. You’re already creating content for it and can easily support it with additional industry updates, discounts, announcements, etc. And learning email marketing platforms is quite intuitive these days.
If you only have a newsletter, think about the types of content you’re creating for it. Would those lend themselves to Substack? Would it make sense to swap to the platform?
If you’re set on adding Substack, but already have a newsletter and/or blog, think of some ways that you could differentiate the new offering. If your newsletter mostly features discounts and product updates, perhaps Substack is where you go behind the scenes. Or maybe it’s where one employee writes weekly updates on the brand. Perhaps there’s been something you’ve been wanting to discuss, but adding it to your website just didn’t feel 100% correct. Use Substack as a way to start conversations on it in a different location.
The possibilities are endless once you start thinking about it that way.
Now let’s be real… You might be thinking you can easily copy/paste your blog and newsletter content over to Substack. Well, be cautious…
SEO Uh Oh…
Let’s assume you have a blog. Google and other search engines have already crawled your site and have ranked your pages for their search engine results pages (SERPs). By continuing to populate your website and blog with content, you’re likely helping strengthen your SERP rankings.
This is great! Without diving into SEO (search engine optimization), you’ve already done yourself a huge favor by having consistent information available to the public.
Now let’s say you stop updating your blog and start writing on Substack. A couple things will happen. One, Google will see that you aren’t updating your site as much and start to ding you. Two, Google won’t necessarily pick up Substack posts.
If your posts are hidden behind a paywall, they definitely won’t be picked up by Google’s spiders. And since Substack posts aren’t automatically indexed, they won’t be “seen” unless you pair your Substack site to Google Search Console. (This can be challenging if you’re unfamiliar with Google’s tools and tags.) Because of these flaws, you’re essentially sending your writing into the void.
Looking at the bigger picture, if you want your readers to take action on your own website – buy products, schedule a service, reach out for a consultation, etc. – you’ll likely want all of your content to live on your site. And, like I said before, you’ll want to have the ability to directly reach the folks moving through your marketing funnel via various types of emails. (Not just newsletters.)
Podcast Update
If you noticed there wasn’t a new podcast on Monday, that’s because I didn’t have the energy to edit it. I recorded it, but with work and life, I just… had to let it sit.
So while you’re waiting, listen to previous episodes, including my interview with Ashley Baker, CEO of Coastline Marketing LLC.
Home sweet home
As I mentioned at the beginning, I use Substack for Everyday Akron. The team and I run it like a small business, but we don’t have offices or a brick-and-mortar space. This was all fine and dandy, until we wanted to start sending emails and newsletters.
Thanks to the CAN-SPAM Act, you must have a physical address in the footer of marketing emails. I’m not about to put my home address on there, and every time I Google whether or not you can use a PO Box, I get a different answer.
So we started using Substack. It’s working great right now for all we need it to do. However, that’s when I immediately realized the limitations of the subscriptions list. And, during meetings and brainstorming sessions, we’ve had some really clever ideas… but realized they wouldn’t quite work since the content is all public. Instead, the ideas would be better suited for an email that lands in your inbox and nowhere else.
The platform is a good, free solution as we kick off the newsletter, but I imagine we’ll switch platforms sometime next year.
Individuals vs. Businesses
I’ve mostly seen Substack takeoff for book authors, influencers, thought leaders, and other singular folks. And I think the platform is really great for them. Here are two examples.
An emerging cookbook author may not have an official website. Their bio and books are listed on the publisher’s site, and they have an engaged following on Instagram and TikTok. So what’s the most efficient step to reach their audience in a new way? Substack.
They can post updates and send weekly newsletters about their writing process, research, tour and book signing dates, exclusive recipes and more. All of this content would support engaging with their fans via long form writing (something you can’t do on social media) while promoting their book. And they wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of building an entire website, sales funnels, and so on.
Another example is a CEO stepping away from directly running their company. Through appearances on the beloved brand’s social media, their own accounts, speaking engagements, conferences and so on, they’ve amassed their own following. Now that they’re creating some space between their online personality and the brand, what’s another way to connect with their core audience? Substack.
This business mogul can now talk about much more than the brand they built. They can interview fellow industry leaders, detail other ventures they’re looking into, discuss aspects of their personal life, and much more.
Again, they have the added benefit of long form content to reach their people without having to build a website (which might have more fluff than needed). Substack allows them to write and hit send, putting their words out into the world.
Know Your Bandwidth
If you want to be an early adopter (or maybe early majority at this point) and have the bandwidth to fold Substack into your marketing strategy, go for it.
But if you’re already running on a slim budget and can’t juice any more hours out of the day, don’t do it. Especially if you have a newsletter and blog already going.
And if you’re still feeling on the fence, let’s back up entirely.
Sit down and create the email marketing strategy of your dreams. Don’t even consider Substack, MailChimp or anyone else while brainstorming. Just figure out your goals and how you might achieve them. Again, “how” you achieve those goals isn’t the platform, it’s the tactics–such as a landing page funnel, monthly discounts, weekly business updates, sharing industry insights, subscription-based content, etc.
Thennn decide which platform (and any additional tools) will help you accomplish that.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Reader, please know that I am very aware that I’ve written all this on Substack, and the platform allowed me to send it to your inbox. My own purposes on this platform are about 67.2% thought leader and 32.8% marketing for my marketing consulting and services. (Assuming I did the math right.)
I cobbled together my website and newsletter using easy, free tools. Sometimes I delight in the fact that I’ve done it… While other days I am frustrated beyond belief. (Okay it’s not that serious, but I do often feel like I’ve stunted my marketing and growth because of how I built things up.)
So. As someone who has developed many email marketing strategies for a variety of businesses and nonprofits and who has seen the pros and cons, pitfalls and possibilities… If you’d like to chat about your email marketing strategy, I’m here for you.
Take care, birdies! 💙