3 Substack Segments You Should Be Emailing

And how to find them.

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Did you know you can email any part of your Substack list without publishing a post?

Yet hardly any publishers are doing this!

Email marketing is the most powerful digital marketing tool available. It’s the only digital channel where you can “own your audience” and have more control over your ability to reach them. That’s why every marketer recommends building an email list, and so many of us join Substack to do just that.

So stop limiting yourself to only emailing out generic newsletter posts to your entire list.

Here are three segments you should be emailing if you want to maximize your publication’s growth.

Segment: Substack Bestsellers

A Substack bestseller is an author with at least 100 paid subscribers who has opted to display their bestseller badge on their profile. The badges are colored differently depending on the author's number of paid subscribers.

This is a useful segment to look at because any of your subscribers with bestseller badges are also Publishers! It’s always useful to learn more about the type of people who subscribe to your publication, and checking out your subscribers' publications is a great way to do that.

Unless you have a huge list, you can probably check out all your bestseller subscribers’ publications in an hour or so. But it’s not just to see what you can learn. It’s also to look for growth opportunities. As you go through them, make note of the following:

• Who has a publication in a niche similar to yours?

  • Who would be a good fit to swap Recommendations?

  • Who would be a good fit to guest post with?

• Who is an example of a success story for your topic?

  • Who could you interview or write about?

  • Whose post could you link to and share?

• What else can you learn about the type of people interested in your writing?

  • What trends stand out from your followers’ publications?

  • Do they have anything in common with your topic?

If you find an opportunity to partner with someone in this segment, send them an email (or better yet, DM them on Substack since you know they’re active).

But remember, bestsellers usually run big publications and are likely very busy, so don’t waste their time. Only reach out if there’s a strong fit, and you can assure them they’ll be getting value from the collaboration, too.

How to Find Your Substack Bestsellers Segment