How Brands Can Leverage Substack

What's your brand's strategy for using Substack?

Happy Tuesday, y’all! Please Like and Restack this issue to help increase its visibility on Substack. Thank you! And if you getting value from my articles, please consider supporting me by subscribing to Backstage Pass. Free subscribers get access to all articles as they come out, after one month, older articles are paywalled. Paid subscribers have access to all Backstage Pass content with no paywalls. Paid Subscribers also have access to The Vault.

What Happens When Brands Rush to Substack?

At some point over the next 1-3 years, we will very likely see Substack hit a growth spurt. It will be a spurt that pushes Substack to grow beyond its current core userbase.

It will mean a lot of new faces. And some of those faces will come representing brands. We saw it with Facebook, with X/Twitter, with YouTube. Every major social platform reaches a point where it becomes big enough to attract attention from brands.

However, brands will be slower to adopt Substack for the same reason many users are: It takes a lot of work. Building and growing a presence on Substack requires more work than many other platforms. I think this is a good thing, as it results in slower, and more sustainable growth, assuming the founders and leadership team can get out of their own way.

Smart, and proactive companies will want to begin to explore if building a presence on Substack will make sense in the near future. One of the biggest mistakes I see companies making when it comes to customer engagement via social media is jumping on the same platforms as their competitors, simply because their competitors are already there. Smart companies consider their customers and only spend time on platforms that allow them to create value and connection with their customers.

Where Does Substack Fit in the Buyer Journey?

Let’s start our examination of Substack as a possible arrow in your digital quiver by first detailing where it fits in the buyer journey:

I wrote a detailed article last year on how to create content at each stage of the buyer’s journey. One thing you have to keep in mind with Substack is your main content delivery channel here will be a newsletter. This limits your options a bit in terms of content creation and strategy. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can actually be quite helpful in narrowing your focus.

For example, a newsletter isn’t a tool for building awareness or connecting with the Unaware customer. Most people won’t hand out their email address and give strangers access to their inbox at either the individual or brand level.

This means your subscribers will be readers who are at least somewhat aware of who your company is and what it does, and they are typically at least somewhat interested in learning more about how your products and services could fit into their lives. As a result, your newsletter should help fill that need.

Let’s quickly recap how content changes at every stage of the buyer’s journey:

Unaware - At this stage, the customer is unaware of our company and the products we sell. In fact, many of the customers are likely unaware that they even could have a need for our products.

Slightly aware

Slightly aware customers are now beginning to understand the larger context in which your product or service can live. They are now aware of how they may need a product or service like yours.

Interested

Customers at the Interested stage of the Buyer’s Journey are aware of the products and services you sell, and are also aware of the NEED for your products and services. At this stage, they have begun to do research on their options.

NOW is when you can start creating content that SELLS your product and services! Because now the customer finally understands the NEED for what you are selling.

Since the customer has done more research, they will also be looking for more detailed and product-specific information. They will WANT you to sell them your product because they will WANT you to promote the fact that your product offers what they are looking for.

Ready to Buy!

This stage is pretty self-explanatory. Your job here is to give customers the functionality/directions to complete a sale.

Keep in mind that a newsletter lends itself to long-form content. Much like a blog. So if your company has blogging experience, you will likely be able to transition more smoothly to utilizing newsletters.

The majority of your Substack strategy, especially when it comes to your newsletter/substack, will be about connecting with Slightly Aware and Interested readers. The key difference between these two readers is: Slightly Aware readers are more interested in learning about how your products and services fit into their lives. So you want to write about the impact your products and services can make on their lives. What problems can you solve, what better solutions can you provide.

Whereas Interested customers already understand how your product or service could impact them, they want more detailed information on the product or service itself. They want more technical information and specifics, because customers at this stage are doing their own research and trying to decide if they want to purchase from you, or a competitor.

What If Your Company Already Has a Newsletter?

If so, you can simply import your list to Substack. In fact, that’s what I did when I started writing here last May. This also gives you a big leg up, as you likely already have experience creating a newsletter and you have a good sense of who your audience is and how to write for them.

The advantage you will have in creating your newsletter on Substack is that Substack offers a social layer on top of your newsletter. You can more easily engage and interact with readers. This also gives you more feedback and a better sense of who your readers are and whether or not your content is resonating with them.

I’ll stop here because this is a topic I will continue to explore and build on in the coming months. Just keep in mind that it’s still in the early days of Substack. So it’s to your advantage to research Substack now, before the ‘land rush’ happens. If you decide that Substack could help you reach your business goals, jump on now and begin building a presence. You’ll be that far ahead of your competition, and wouldn’t it feel good to be the one leading the next social media trend instead of simply reacting to it?

See you on Thursday!

Mack

---

Backstage Pass teaches you how to better connect with your customers, readers, clients, or donors. The lessons shared here draw on my experience over the last 20 years building customer engagement strategies for companies like Adobe, Dell, Club Med, Ingersoll-Rand, and countless others. I give you real-world research, examples and tactics that show you how to create customer engagement efforts that drive real business growth.