10 things I've learned since starting a free marketing Substack in December

Hey everyone, new to the community and thought I'd say hello 👋

As a profession, I've been a growth marketer for about 14 years and decided my next step would be to share personal stories about my life experiences.

I love to write and found Substack to be the perfect medium to do so.

https://marketer.substack.com

I kicked things off last December and while my subscriber list is short of 100 subs, I've learned a few things I'd like to share here.

1. You have to love to write. I've paid writers to write for me before and it's almost always missing that exciting personal touch.

2. Organize your day around it. Despite spending the majority of time working for clients, I look forward to starting my day, coffee in hand, deciding about what to write about.

3. Create a writing routine. I usually listen to some type of non-vocal music. Depending on my mood or topic, I'll either queue up some Daft Punk to classical music and go to work. If you've committed to 3 emails per week (like myself), stick to the plan. But if you miss a day, don't sweat it. It's your platform, isn't it?

4. Invite your friends first. They're already your most loyal people. Don't take it personal if they don't sign up - not everyone is in your demographic (especially when you're delivering more than one email per week).

5. Be very good at subject line writing. I do wish Substack had a way to run A/B tests, especially for subject lines to improve open rates. When it really matters I use a headline analyzer like: https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer

6. Write about things that are current. When WallStreetBets almost made Wall Street implode, Robinhood took a lot of heat for blocking transactions from certain meme stocks like Gamestop. So I wrote a few ways their marketing team can mitigate the fire. It worked well: https://marketer.substack.com/p/why-did-robinhood-backstab-its-customers

7. Thread your Substack on Twitter. I use Hypefury to cut up my best performing Substacks into Twitter threads. Creates engagement and drives subscribers. Here's an example: https://twitter.com/marketer_daily/status/1344329836878319618

8. Keep asking for constant feedback. Verbally and through surveys. It'll help shape your content.

9. Review your analytics often. As a data-driven marketer, Substack leaves much to be desired when it comes to metrics. However, creative decision making is nothing without data to back it up. Be sure to check your stats to see what people like the most.

10. Connect with like-minded communities online and share your content. Surprise - that's why I'm here!

Hit me up with your feedback, would love to read it!