Substack is the marketing platform du jour. This is partially thanks to TikTok’s temporary ban in early 2025 when creators had the panicked realization that they don’t own their audience on social media.
We’re at the mercy of both the platforms and the ever-changing regulations. How will brands and creators connect with their followers when platforms change or disappear overnight? The key is to own your audience, particularly their email addresses.
To help you decide if your brand needs a Substack, these are 5 questions to ask before committing to this newsletter platform.
1. What is Your Goal With Starting a Substack?
Before you take the plunge of launching a Substack, ask yourself what the purpose is behind pursuing this platform. Is this an intentional decision, or does it simply feel like the next marketing channel your brand should consider?
If you don’t know why you want to start a Substack, you’re setting your strategy up for failure before you even begin.
Here are a few potential goals you could have for starting a Substack:
- Telling an in-depth story about your brand that’s more difficult to communicate on other social media platforms
- Connecting with and building your community
- Sharing knowledge and becoming a thought leader in your industry
- Improving brand awareness
- Providing an in-depth education about your products
- Creating an inbound sales funnel
- Building an email list
Once you know why you want to put in all this effort to create a Substack, you can develop a more effective content strategy.
2. Is Your Brand Voice Unique?
Before launching a Substack, consider the voice and substance that you bring to the conversation.
Do you have something unique to say? Are you bringing a fresh perspective to existing conversations? Can people identify your writing by your voice?
Your voice that you bring to the conversation, whether you’re starting a new discussion or contributing to an existing one, is what will keep people coming back to your Substack time and time again.
When I’m struggling with what to write for a Substack post, I remember that the most important part of having a newsletter is the “letter” portion. It’s a conversation with the recipient, a story, a personal element that makes the writing memorable and authentic. It’s not a blog post, it’s a letter.
If you can’t confidently say that you have an intentional and strategic brand voice, tackling that frontier might be a higher priority before launching a Substack.
3. What Value Will You Provide Your Reader?
Our third question to consider when asking yourself if your brand needs a Substack is, what value will you provide your reader?
We spend so much time discussing what we want from our marketing efforts, but we also need to consider what value we’re providing our audience. What will entice them to open your emails each week?
Here are a few ways your Substack can provide value to your readers:
- Education: Teaching your audience more about your product, company, industry, or a specific topic
- Entertainment: Some fun or relaxation for your audience to break up the seriousness of their day
- Exclusivity: Information and conversations that literally can’t be found anywhere else on the internet
- Community: A gathering place for like-minded people to connect, listen, and learn
There are so many different ways your Substack can provide value that will keep your audience returning week after week.
4. Do You Have the Capacity to Be Consistent With Your Posting Schedule?
This question could have been listed first, but I didn’t want to ruin the excitement before the train even left the station.
Be honest and realistic with yourself: Do you or a member of your marketing team have the capacity to support a Substack strategy? Who will be tackling this project? Who has the capacity to consistently write, edit, and promote at least one newsletter each week?
Launching a Substack isn’t an afterthought tacked on to your overall marketing strategy. When done intentionally, it’s a time-consuming platform that requires a commitment to showing up consistently.
5. Is There Another Opportunity for Your Brand to Engage on Substack?
There are so many existing Substacks written by creative people who have spent years building their loyal audiences. Is there an opportunity for you to partner with them to reach their audiences?
The answer is most likely yes!
Brands can partner with existing Substacks through paid ad placements, post sponsorships, guest articles, and more. The writers have creative ways of talking about brands while still providing value to their existing audience, and brands get to reach new people in a qualified space.
Here are a few Substacks I currently subscribe to and routinely take note of their brand partnerships:
- Link in Bio (social media marketing): I look forward to her interviews with industry professionals each week.
- Hung Up by Hunter Harris (pop culture): With every Tom Cruise movie release or reality tv finale, I find myself anticipating what she’ll have to say about it. It will be cutting in the cleverest of manners.
- ICYMI (social media marketing): Her bite-sized updates about the social media industry provide so much value for me.
And of course, there’s my Substack about books: Kate Knows Everything.
When done intentionally and correctly, brands can partner with existing Substack writers to reach highly engaged audiences.
The 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Launching a Substack
- What is your goal with starting a Substack?
- Is your brand voice unique?
- What value will you provide your reader?
- Do you have the capacity to be consistent with your posting schedule?
- Is there another opportunity for your brand to engage on Substack?
Substack Consultations: Support for Launching Your Substack Newsletter
I offer 1:1 consultations to help brands and individuals launch on Substack with a dedicated strategy. Send me an email at contact@klvcopywriting.com to see if we’d be a great fit to work together. I’d love to help you put your writing out into the world!
