My first 90 days on Substack in emotions & numbers; from coming soon in 2023 > Rising in Business list.
No gatekeeping. Email V Substack, my decision making process & strategy for moving a weekly newsletter to Substack + a peek at my metrics & key takeaways so far.
What’s Inside:
Originally, this was one post, then as I started digging into it, it became another thing, so I split it up into two:
Part Two: (this one)
My decision process and strategy for migrating from Flodesk to Substack for my weekly newsletter.
The marketer’s comparison between Email Marketing and Substack.
Going from coming soon for 2 years, to #55 Rising in Business list + paid subscription
The verdict and takeaways from my first 4 weeks of the platform migration
Part One 👀
ICYMI: Hi, I’m Sax! A brand marketing mentor and business coach for beauty, wellness, and lifestyle founders and early stage teams, Creating Forward is my business, the name of this Substack, and my life mantra.
I’m 44 yr Aussie girl, I live in Venice Beach after almost 10 years in NYC. I write about brands, marketing, entrepreneurship, navigating the 40’s chapter (sans kids), health, style, and self-work :)
My Decision-Making Process
Here’s how I was thinking about Substack V Email as a marketer and entrepreneur who creates content to support her business and community…
With an email newsletter:
You pay to use an email platform every month
You spend hours pouring over every edition (if you have a good newsletter!)
You do everything you can to build a list of people from scratch
You send your blood, sweat, and tears out to thousands of inboxes
You hope for the bets that it makes it there instead of spam or filters
You try “engagement” tricks to get people to reply and create dialogue
You track clicks to try and see what people think
Your content that you spent hours on, that people are looking for, and deserve to see is left to gather dust in the chosen email platform
In my case, this was Flodesk, and a weekly newsletter I was shipping out called The Super Dose.
With Substack:
You join the platform for free
You set up your About page
You come up with your content plan (or just start experimenting)
You use the built in post builder to create (and it’s a level playing field from profile to profile)
You hit publish
Your post or quotes get restacked
You link out your post with predesigned graphics that people now recognize as “substack”
You post Notes for quick expression and conversation
You have a two way dialogue with readers in comments and likes
You create a Chat, and cultivate deeper two-way connection
You discover and connect with other likeminded creators
Your content lives on and on inside the platform
AND shows up for SEO
Umm, ? Case & point. (loved this podcast FYI Christina Loff )
This experience is also better for the consumer:
You join the platform
You can access it from an app or desktop
You discover high value content
You subscribe if you feel like it and get a summarized inbox drop
You read what you’re aligned with
You save things to read later or refer back to
You comment, like, restock, and have dialogue with the creator
You join the chat and have dialogue with likeminded people
You drop Notes
You scroll Notes
You create as well
As a consumer, my Substack had become a way better hang than Instagram and judging by the numbers, I’m not the only one.
As an entrepreneur creating content, it became inevitable for me to make the migration.
BUT - it hasn’t replaced Flodesk.
It’s just replaced my weekly newsletter.
And for the founders I coach on this decision, I say the same thing.
Substack isn’t email marketing; it’s long-form content and a social media platform for connection.
ICYMI: I wrote a post on deciding if long-form content is the right format for you as a founder here.
I’m just about 90 days into the switch from Flodesk to Substack.
Here’s my full strategy:
When I’m mentoring founders on “should I start a Substack” and “is this instead of email?” I give them this advice, and the same applies to myself when making the decision:
Substack isn’t going to replace your email marketing and sales emails
Substack needs to be treated as a product in your ecosystem (just like a traditional email newsletter does, which means it needs a brand DNA, a content strategy, and marketing about it)
Substack requires consistent and high-level quality content creation and engagement
NOT AI BLAH BLAH “write me a substack article on XYZ and use my brand voice”
NOT LURKING AND NO CONTRIBUTING, this is a community, be cool
Sorry for the all caps, but not sorry. Please just don’t do it.
The first thing I needed to figure out was, how would this Substack be the new and improved version of The Super Dose?
I added all the things I felt like “weren’t quite right” for my Flodesk business account, to my Substack content strategy.
Things like personal style, lifestyle, travel, etc. I wanted this to be more of an OG blog, combining my life and business, which is truly the MO of Creating Forward
I created a super stacked paid subscriber level for $250/year, which gives people free access to my private community platform (which is worth $312/year on its own!)
That membership includes full access to the community chat channels, my Monthly Marketing Meetups ~ a live group mentorship session
They also get access to Substack Chat, where I’ll be doing Live Q&A sessions
(Check out my About page for the full rundown on how I split up my paid V free)
Then I needed to figure out my Flodesk X Substack strategy
How to let my OG subscribers on Flodesk, know I was moving, and how to make it beneficial for them to move with me:
I created a video walk-through of the move and linked it in the email
I offered them all 50% off an annual paid subscription on Substack, which means they get all the above for $125
That’s just over $10/month (remember the membership itself is usually $26/month)
I sent a unique email to 3 unique segments of my list to position it differently:
My most active, VIP subscribers (this is about 90% of my list thankfully)
My inactive ones, to see if they wanted to get back in the mix and maybe the newsletter thing was just not for them
My friends who were on the list because they wanted to get my EOY/AFY Ritual template
I gave them the option of not doing anything at all, and told them they will get a Monthly Marketing Concierge email from me instead, where I’ll summarize the month of Substack posts for them to read if they choose to, along with other business updates
What my content strategy would be for Flodesk:
I will only be using Flodesk for sales and marketing emails like:
Product launches or offers
Events and workshops
The Monthly Marketing Concierge summary email
All emails moving forward will have a link to Substack in the footer
Then I needed to integrate engagement and showing up daily on Notes, into my content workflow and consumption habits
I enjoy stream of consciousness and inspiration as a consumer, so that’s what I share in Notes
I’m also restacking with my POV
And repurposing my IG posts if they feel relevant
I really love consuming and learning from people’s work, so that part is easy :)
I comment, I restack, I play nice in the playground, and it pays off
THEN, I needed to set up my profile and aesthetic:
I created a moodboard and briefed my Creative Intern to help come up with a set of graphics we could use for covers to set an aesthetic tone that aligns with the rest of my content
I wrote my About page
I set up the Welcome automations, logos, bio, and any thing else customizable in the Settings
I did some best practices research and briefed my Business Assistant to set up all of that, including UTM’s, and Google Analytics so we can track the traffic to the site
I briefed her on how I want posts to be created
I wrote a bunch of posts to launch with based on my best performing newsletters to give them a new lease on life
She built the drafts, I went in and finished them ready to post
LASTLY, I needed to update all my touchpoints to reflect the Creating Forward with Sax Substack instead of Super Dose:
We designed a new website page (here it is!)
We updated the OG Super Dose one as a redirect just in case (check it out)
We updated all the CTA’s to join my newsletter, to Substack, on the website, Linkedin Featured section, and IG link in bio (stalk my site and LMK if we missed any)
I updated my email signature - see :)
THEN, it’s all about the marketing part:
Here are some of the things I’ve been doing to drive awareness:
Sharing elements of my posts, as posts on IG and Linkedin + stories
Double-dipping into that OG Flodesk list by doing the Substack Summary in their monthly update
Expanding the content to include more personal brand-esque elements I’ve been wanting to share by kicking off Volume 01 of the Open Tabs style posts
Inviting people from my network to weigh in on industry conversations and be a featured guest (LMK if you want in in the comments!)
Potentially exploring the podcast part, I was originally delivering my Super Dose newsletter as a podcast here on Spotify, but stopped it…
The Metrics. For my analytical people
(like me)
So, here’s what happened:
Most importantly, it feels SO GOOD. I feel like a load has been taken off.
I was getting frustrated with putting so much value into my newsletters for them to just sit there and never be seen again.
And I feel connected to the community.
I’ve already met a bunch of people who have reciprocated the engagement and are buddies.
Emotional Metric: 100% success
Statistical Metrics:
Like everyone who has a business should…I keep a weekly Biz Metrics Dashboard to track every element of my business - comment if you want the template.
From that first email I sent out, about about 10% of my Flodesk subscribers immediately
My subscribers have grown by 875% in the last 90 days and no, it’s not the same number as my original email list is, but I am so so happy with the 39 people that have joined us and the growth trajectory
My post views have grown month over month and week over week, with almost 15% of traffic coming from Substack and Search discovery
I have my first paid subscriber and on Week 3, I got a notification that my Substack was #55 in the Rising Business Substacks list globally while walking to my surf coaching session in Costa Rica
So, in summary:
No, Substack isn’t taking over Email marketing, BUT, I do think it’s a smart strategy if you’re writing a good newsletter and can keep up with it
Yes, I’m super happy with my migration from Flodesk to Substack and the evolution of my newsletter.
IT FEELS NICE HERE because:
It’s a dialogue channel, not just a broadcast channel
People engage with your work and you engage with theirs
You can ignore the diluting, tactics, and hacks from other social platforms like “you have to do this and write this way to be successful on Substack” or be left behind…
The unique POV’s I prefer consuming have space to come through
Vanity metrics are not the real measure - connection is
I’d love to hear what you think of this post, did it help you decide to move to Substack?
Are you nodding your head and are doing the same things? Feel the same way?
Drop a comment below and let’s chat, because that’s the coolest thing about Substack right? These posts become dialogue.
- Sax, X