Category: Email MarketingCategory: Email Marketing

EXPAND YOUR DISTRIBUTION BEYOND EMAIL
Published On: April 27, 2026Categories: Email Marketing, Internet, Social Media

As Substack co-founder Hamish KcKenzie recently said “email is an important distribution channel. It should not be your only one.”

I’m pretty he didn’t mean “if you’ve built everything on Substack and Substack goes away tomorrow, you’re fucked,” but well, the shoe fits.

Email lists are wonderful, of course, but only until Substack has an outage, or KIT suspends your account (I’ve heard that happen), or Gmail banishes your email to the promo folder (or worse).

The entirety of your work shouldn’t live on a platform you don’t own; not Substack, not Instagram, not YouTube. A website you own, on a hosting service you pay for, via files you can back up – that’s your safest bet.

Publishing your work on your own website ensures your biggest fans can find it, even when they don’t get an email from you.

Join us later this week to talk about what a real owned presence looks like; things like your website, RSS, print, word of mouth, direct relationships, and more.

Thursday, April 30th at 2PM EST
Sign up here. https://luma.com/7asv89sv
ELIN PETRONELLA TALKS ABOUT DOING SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUR OWN TERMS, OWNING YOUR AUDIENCE, AND BUILDING A CREATIVE BUSINESS THAT LASTS
Published On: April 8, 2026Categories: Email Marketing, Interview, Social Media, Video, Websites

I recently did a Substack live with Elin Petronella, an independent artist based in Paris who’s been building a creative business on her own terms for the last ten years.

She’s got half a million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest, and she’ll be the first to tell you that’s not even the point, as she recently walked away from monetizing on Substack, dropped her bestseller badge, and has been focusing on something more sustainable ever since.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t retain ownership this whole time. All the links are always going back to my own site,” Elin Petronella

All those followers across all those social media platforms is great and all, but if you’re not pointing them to something that’s more permanent, or if you’re not giving curious fans something to explore, you’re leaving money on the table.

As Elin explains, she has 200K followers on Instagram, and a single post might still only get 3,000 views. But if you can get just 1% of 3,000 click to your website, that’s still 30 people.

“How are you doing it before you had the idea that you wanted to monetize it? What are you already doing when people are not watching? What is your natural way of creating before you start thinking about eyes watching it or monetizing it? Double down on that,” Elin Petronella

When we start paying attention to how other people are doing things and assuming that that’s the way to do it, that’s where we can get in trouble. Trust your gut. Get back to the things that you enjoyed when you started making the work that you’re making.
TALKING SUBSTACK STRATEGY, EMAIL LIST BUILDING, AND CREATIVE INDEPENDENCE WITH MICHAEL GILBRIDE
Published On: February 23, 2026Categories: Email Marketing, Social Media, Video
Michael Gilbride of the MAD Records Collective and I sat down for an hour-long conversation about what actually matters when building a music career in 2026.
- Stop chasing vanity metrics. Having 50,000 Spotify listeners means nothing if you can’t reach those people when you have something to sell.
- We dove into lots of good stuff during this chat:
- Michael’s stark data point: 50,000 monthly listeners = one non-friend at his show
- Artists with small, engaged email lists are booking venues, selling out shows, making real Bandcamp revenue
- Sturgill Simpson released his latest album vinyl/CD/tape only—no streaming
- Creating friction isn’t a sacrifice, it’s smart business—increases fan commitment
- When fans go out of their way to support you, they convert from passive listeners to real fans
- Same principle for email: people who subscribe and open are demonstrating genuine interest
- Discussion covered economics of leaving streaming, potential comeback of physical mail, embracing business skills without sacrificing creativity
The core themes are this: stop building audiences you can’t reach (the Oatmeal is pushing his email list over socials), and don’t be afraid to focus on actually selling something!
GETTING INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS TO SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR SUBSTACK AIN’T EASY
Published On: February 21, 2026Categories: Email Marketing, Social Media

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.
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TELL STORIES IN YOUR EMAILS
Published On: February 14, 2026Categories: Email Marketing, Newsletters

From strategist and facilitator Caitlin Mayance,

Hey brands, why you still sending out storyless emails in 2026? You have direct access to a personal inbox – no algorithmic nonsense – and you’re leading with a promo or tiny lil ad?! Come on

When the bare minimum is copy and pasting your pre-existing marketing materials and hitting send to ALL is your strategy, expect bare minimum results.

Some of the most fascinating stories are being told on rented platforms, while email newsletters are filled with recycled social media images and [$NAME] placeholders.