GETTING INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS TO SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR SUBSTACK AIN’T EASY

Published On: February 21, 2026Categories: Email Marketing, Social MediaTags: ,

If you go by this post, “How Instagram creators are bringing their followers to Substack,” there are so many ways to get your Instagram followers to subscribe to your Substack newsletter! Video! Images! Text! Get creative!

In reality, however, your Instagram followers are likely very content to stay on Instagram.

Consider that best selling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love) has 1.2M Instagram followers, but just 203,000 subscribers. Sure, 203,000 email subscribers is great, but it’s still less than 20% of her following on Instagram.

So don’t feel bad if you can only 5-15% of your followers to click over and subscribe to your Substack – its hard for best selling authors, too! You’re doing great!

So where do you rank? Input your info below and see how you stack up.

Instagram to Email Calculator

Instagram → Email Conversion Rate (kinda)

Your conversion rate (sorta):
0%

Now, the numbers below don’t paint the whole picture, as folks probably imported subscribers from existing email lists, and new subscribers came from sources like websites, search, other social media platforms, and even Substack itself.

Don’t take all this as hard fast INSTAGRAM TO SUBSTACK facts, as I’m just going by publicly viewable numbers on Substack and Instagram, so just use this as a loose guide!

Sooo, how do you stack up with these notable Substack authors?

71% – Andy Adams (photographer, 53.5K IG → 38,000 subscribers)

68.5% – Beth Spencer (Introvert Drawing Club, 39.4K IG → 27,000 subscribers)

34% – Maggie Smith (poet, NYT bestselling author, 129K IG → 44,000 subscribers)

17% – Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love bestselling author, 1.2M IG → 203,000 subscribers)

8.7% – Ruby Bhogal (Great British Bake Off finalist, 621K IG → 54,000 subscribers)

7.7% – Ben Lippett (cook and best selling author, 1.1M IG → 85,000 subscribers)

7.6% – Yung Pueblo (#1 NYT bestselling author, 3.3M IG → 250,000 subscribers)

4.8% – Carmen in the Garden (self-taught gardener, 394K IG → 19,000 subscribers)

2.6% – Melissa Abbott (style/fashion creator, 303K IG → 7,800 subscribers)

1.4% – Brandon Boyd (singer of 12x Platinum selling, Grammy nominated band Incubus, 654,000 IG → 8,900 subscribers)

1.1% – Joy Cho (Founder and creative director, 446K IG → 5,000 subscribers)

💬 Questions or thoughts? Send me an email!

If you've been trying to figure out your email strategy for months, or you started a newsletter but it's not growing, or you're not sure what to even send people, I offer Email Guidance; here’s how it works and how to book.

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I help creative people quit social media, promote their work in sustainable ways, and rethink how a website and newsletter can work together. Find out more here. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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