The best email to send to your fans is one that they expect.

If someone bought your last album, signed up for your class, or bought your latest print, chances are they’ll be receptive to getting an email about your brand-new offering.

This is the work I do with a record label client.

When High On Fire has a new record coming out, guess what? We email the folks who bought the last High On Fire album.

We did this for Death Row Records, too. If we had a new shirt drop, we’d send to people who bought shirts in the past.

A higher percentage of people will open a segmented email than if we sent it to everyone on our list.

And better-targeted emails can make you more money.

It’s called segmenting.

Substack let’s you build segments from a user’s Activity rating, which they define as, “a high-level rating of how actively the subscriber has used your newsletter in the last month, including email opens and webviews.”

You can also build segments by post views, comments, email opens and more.

All that said, I recommend using another email service like Flodesk or Kit to build a segment based on sales.

You take all the email addresses of people who bought from you before (from your online store, Bandcamp, etc.) and send them a separate email at some point.

For example, this is how Cody Cook-Parrott incorporates Flodesk into their workflow:

“A few days ago I decided to use my Flodesk email list which is made up of people who have downloaded one of my free guides or taken my classes…”

Continue sending to your regular newsletter audience, of course. Announce your new offerings as usual, but send to this “people who’ve bought from us before” segment occasionally, too.

Building new segments.

Let’s say you’re about to launch something new, like an album, a book pre-order or a new course.

When you first announce your new offering on social media, Substack Notes, or even your main newsletter, you get your fans to click and sign up to be the first to know about your offering via a landing page.

For example, maybe I want to offer a workshop next month all about segmenting. I could mention it in this newsletter, and link to a landing page where you could sign up to be the first to know about this new offering.

When I’m ready to launch, I’d email these people first because they’re the most engaged, and I’m not leaving it up to the chance that they’ll see the announcement in the next few newsletters I send. They’re getting a directly targeted email announcing the new workshop because they signed up for it!

So yeah – if you want to be alerted if I set up a Segmenting Workshop, click here!

More info:
Free landing pages for your next idea from Kit
Free forms that make people want to sign up from Flodesk

Tired of shouting into the void? In this live workshop, we dive deep into practical, no-fluff strategies for actually getting people to pay attention to the amazing stuff you’re making—without sounding like a pushy salesperson.

We cover:
• Why “I just released a thing!” isn’t enough
• How to let your work do the talking (yes, even without a big following)
• Easy ways to reshare old posts that still hit
• Embedding your media so people actually consume it
• What to say instead of “Sorry I haven’t posted in a while…”

It’s all about creating smarter, more human ways to promote your art, writing, music, or projects—especially on platforms like Substack, where your words matter.

Whether you’re a photographer, musician, writer, or curator—this is for you.

LET YOUR SUBJECT SELL THE POST FOR YOU

If you interview BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, his quote leads everything. That’s my rule.

We don’t need anyone to tell us that he “talks about writing” blah blah blah, so get out of the way and let his words lead the way.

LET YOUR POST SELL YOUR WORK FOR YOU
Stop explaining what you wrote and let the thing you wrote do the marketing.

GET TO THE POINT

You don’t need to explain the details. Nobody cares.

Do what Gabbie does, tell us what the post is about in the first few words, and get out of the way.

STOP APOLOGIZING

Blake and I had a pleasant exchange after this recent Note, but I included it because I want everyone to stop apologizing.

You can post a video, skip posting for a week or a month, you can do whatever you want, but please, you don’t need to apologize.

EMBED YOUR MEDIA

If you ask 100 people to click a link, you’re very lucky if 5% click, so put the thing RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT THE THING.

PEOPLE BUY BOOKS BECAUSE OF WHAT’S INSIDE THE BOOKS

A book cover and a pre-order link are boring.

People take screenshots of chunks of text, bits of dialogue, illustrations, and photographs from books…

Until you’re big enough for everyone to be excited about your new book, your biggest job is to make sure everyone knows what’s in the book.

At the end of the day, you compete with other writers and outlets posting the same wishy-washy “marketing,” where everyone is trying to sell a 12-pack of soda at the store.

But Coca-Cola is selling flavored sugar water, the most boring shit on the planet, and they make commercials like the one below to get the word out.

You don’t make boring art, do you? You’re work is more exciting than soda, right?!

That’s why the magic can’t stop when the piece is done, or the song is mastered, or the photo is printed.

It’s fucking time to apply the same creative magic in telling the world about your work.

Today is a great day to delete a social media app from your phone.

Just one.

You can always re-install it. But maybe today delete it. Live without it for half a day. Catch yourself reaching for it, and when you do, be gentle with yourself.

Start thinking of the times you get on the apps. While watching TV? Warming up food? In the break room?

Think of things you can do in those times and spaces instead:

• Maybe do some yoga while streaming your favorite shows.
• Do some stretches while making coffee.
• Have a book of crossword puzzles on hand.
• Practice the piano.

We can’t just delete the apps and magically be delivered from their pull. We’ve gotta be deliberate in how we extract ourselves.

Look at how JustSomeMustard has replaced Instagram with learning another language. Spending just five or 10 or 30 minutes per day on positive learning can make a huge impact over weeks and months.

We can’t be our best selves if we’re drinking chaos and drama from the firehose of social media whenever we’re bored.

When do we write lyrics? Reach out to that old friend? When do we just let ourselves be bored for a minute or 10 on the bus ride to work and day dream like we did when we were kids?

If all our downtime is consumed with arching our necks into uncomfortable positions for too many hours per day, then what becomes of our art practice or the number of books we read per year?

We can watch 100 videos about marketing our work, but first, we have to set down our phones and then do that work. Talk to other people doing similar work, see the results, and adjust accordingly.

We can’t do that if we’re watching 3.6 hours of videos per day, all at just 15 seconds per clip.

Zuckerberg and Musk would love for you to spend a few more hours with them today, but I think it’d be better if you deleted one of the social media apps from your phone today.

Once you do that, you can start doing the things you know you should be doing.

Buy the plane ticket, get your busker license, take that meeting, get on that Zoom call with total strangers.

“Tension is the feeling we experience just before we grow.

Ironically, it’s what we seek, at the very same time we avoid it.” Seth Godin

Uploading a song to the internet is easy. Zero tension.
Premiering your work “inside the dome of the Oskar-Lühning Telescope” is hard.

That’s what makes the easy stuff so alluring, as no one can judge you, or point and laugh if it doesn’t work out.

You can stay busy making Reels, but that’s another form of playing it safe, as hardly anyone will see them, let alone judge you for it.

Zero tension.

Instead, try writing an email to the five (or 50) people who open all your emails, or people who’ve bought from you in the past.

You could make a podcast and post it everywhere and reach practically no one, or you could make it for a small group of subscribers.

This creates tension because when you make a podcast for just a few people, it’s likely a few of them react in a meaningful way.

Changing the name of your project creates tension – will it confuse people? Will people forget about me? But you do the hard thing because it feels right in your bones.

There’s no tension with a product shot and a “buy now” button.

But you can create tension by documenting the process of making a great photograph and offer a limited edition print to your YouTube audience.

If I remember correcty this video only had 350 views by the time the prints were sold out.

So make that call, sign up for that marathon, email a venue and plan an actual event, with real people, in real life.

All of this hard work is less of a dopamine rush than playing the social media viral popularity game, but there’s tension, and it’s totally what you need.

This could be on your shop window or merch table. A simple way for people to scan a code, enter their info, and be added to your email list (good to have a backup pen and paper list, too).

(more…)

Is it FOMO (fear of missing out) when you’re not seeing 90% of the posts you signed up to see?

Is FOMO a thing when your fans don’t see 90% of what you post?

Missing out? We’re missing nearly everything – even when we spend multiple hours a day on these social media platforms.

How many more reels are we going to make?

How many announcements are we going to make to crickets?

Where is going through the motions getting us?

It’s time to build stronger connections without relying on social media, and here are a few ways you can do that:

• Get your friends’ phone numbers and emails and message them directly. Call your friends. Send them a video message. Remember, we’re not really built to follow the lives of 3242 people every moment of every day.
• Get your fans onto an email list, and occasionally send them a good newsletter.
• Set up a website and keep it current so friends (or potential clients) can look you up and see what you’re doing.
• Send out postcards (Miranda Lambert sent out postcards this summer).
• Got SMS data? Get good on that channel because most folks are bad at it!
• Get in front of people, IRL. Become unforgettable with your work, play your music on the street, show up in wild places!
• Make flyers for your next event and hand them to people. Include other people’s events, too. Become a trusted source of information for your community. Do this for mutual aid, short stories, or album pull lists.
• Email people you’ve worked with in the past to catch up.

These ideas require more effort than simply “posting,” but it won’t get any easier to reach your fans on social media in 2025, so what are ya gonna do?

Mark Zuckerberg is the second richest person in the world and doesn’t give a fuck about your pre-order or community event.

(Thanks Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick for that link).

If you’re not working on untangling from social media, you’re putting your career into the hands of platform owners who only seek profit for themselves at your expense.

I recently did an email marketing “tune-up” for a record label and got this email soon after:

If you run a small business and want to make a few more bucks every month, you should schedule a time with me to discuss working together.

DON’T LINK TO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

I will die on this hill – kill all links to places like Spotify and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter – platforms where you can’t reliably reach your own audience.

A higher percentage of your fans will open and read your emails, so link to your website (with Bandcamp or Spotify or YouTube embeds).

START USING SEGMENTS

You can build granular segments with Klaviyo and Flodesk and Mailchimp (like sending to people in a particular zip code or region), but Substack is pretty limited.

Personally, I’d say focus on two segments here – free and paid.

I’m not saying paywall everything, but you can post things on Substack (or your website), and then send an email to just your paid subscribers as a way of making it exclusive. Or maybe it’s an early pre-order link, or to RSVP for an upcoming Zoom call.

From Substack: How do I send an email to one or a select group of subscribers on Substack?

MIND YOUR DESIGN AND LAYOUT

I don’t want to get too deep with this – to each their own, but I feel every email campaign should have your most compelling image at the top. It’s how newspapers, website articles, blog posts, and Instagram work, so it can work for your newsletter.

And please, use your own photos. Stock photos are great for content farms and SEO clickbait articles, but if you’re reading this you’re a smart and creative individual with a phone filled with 100 photos you took last week. Use one of those.

STOP SENDING TRAFFIC TO YOUTUBE

I will die on this hill.

If you’re emailing your fans to let them know about your new video, embed it on your own site and link to it there.

Embed it on the product page of the thing you’re selling.

Embed it on the sign-up page for the course you’re booking.

Embed it on the page of tour dates where people can buy tickets.

When you send people to YouTube, you’re dropping them off in the middle of the busy food court at the mall, and expecting them to not get distracted by all the recommended videos and assorted noise of the YouTube platform.

▪️ Google blows. Give Fastmail a try (affiliate link)