Substack focuses on monetization through scale, limiting direct sales capabilities for businesses.
Integrating various content types blurs distinctions, posing challenges for audience engagement and effective marketing strategies.
Deep dives
The Purpose of Substack and Concerns with Email Marketing
Substack is a platform primarily designed for writers and offers free email and podcasting services. While beneficial for monetization, it lacks features for effective email marketing needed for business sales. Substack's focus on converting free to paid subscribers limits its applicability for direct selling to customers.
Monetization Challenges and Audience Scale
Substack's promise of monetization thrives on scale, where substantial income requires a large audience. Calculations reveal the financial challenges even with a moderate subscriber count, highlighting the need for significant audience numbers for profitable returns.
Blurring Lines Between Email and Social Media
Substack's strategy blurs the distinction between email and social media, integrating various content types like notes and recommendations. This convergence poses challenges for audience engagement and delineating sales-focused emails, impacting effective business marketing.
Navigating Business Success with Substack
Substack is ideal for writers seeking revenue from their work but may not suit smaller business owners focusing on community-based sales strategies. Concerns encompass the platform's alignment with traditional content marketing models, requiring scale and raising questions about its utility for diverse business needs.
Welcome back to season two of Off the Grid! This week I’ve got a thot take (that's a thoughtful hot take) of an episode for all our newsletter writers out there.
By popular request, I’m exploring the rise of Substack. And I’m asking whether this newsletter/podcast/threads/notes platform is good for small businesses or bad for them.
I’m also helping you answer the question, Is Substack right for me? Tune in to hear more about:
The pros of Substack
The promises Substack makes to its creators
Whether or not Substack is social media
How Substack might be harming small businesses more than helping them