How To Grow On Substack

Without spamming Notes

Hey how are you?

Today I want to talk growth: what it (really) is, how to get it, and what to do if you aren’t getting enough of it.

But I’m not going to share how I got to a gazillion followers. Because (1) I only have a few thousand people in my audience (2) You’ve probably already read a hundred posts like that.

Instead, I’m going to share my framework for growth that anyone can follow - whether you want a thousand readers or a million. (By the way, you can absolutely succeed on Substack and make a real impact with just a few hundred subscribers, don’t let anyone else tell you any different).

What is growth (really)?

In Substack, growth is simply getting new subscribers each month, and losing fewer subscribers than you got. Growth is when the chart showing your subscriber numbers goes up and to the right.

Growth is when your subscriber count chart goes up and to the right

Growth happens when people sign up to read, and stick around for a while before unsubscribing.

In Substack, we’re all obsessed with growth because we all want to make an impact with our work. Me, I want to help more people. You? You might want to share your wisdom, or create a legacy for the future. Or you might want to impact your financial situation with subscription income.

No matter what sort of impact you want, you can’t make one without at least a little growth (sad but true), since not every subscriber will stick around forever. But you don’t need huge growth to make an impact. If you’re getting just a few new subscribers each month, and only one or two unsubscribes, then you’re growing and that’s great.

How to get growth (my simple 3 part framework)

To get growth you need 3 things:

• A publication that people value

• A way to get new eyes on your work

• A way to get new readers to become subscribers

Okay okay, all this is super-obvious, I know. But every day I meet creators who don’t have a clear vision for all three of these things.

I meet people who do marvellous work, but don’t show it to anyone and so get no growth. I meet people who spend hours every day promoting their work but don’t get any views, and therefore no growth. I meet people who get thousands of views on their posts but don’t get subscribers, and, you guessed it, no growth.

Why? Because their strategies are missing one of the three elements: a publication people value; a method for getting their work seen; or a process for turning readers into subscribers.

What about you? If your publication isn’t growing, which element is it missing?

What to do if you aren’t getting growth?

If you feel like your publication isn’t growing, first check your subscriber chart. If it’s going up (no matter how slowly), you’re doing something right.

Find your subscriber chart by clicking the ‘Subscribers’ tab on the navigation menu in your publication dashboard, and choose the ‘all time’ option from the drop-down list at the top right to see how far you’ve come since you started.

Then review. Which of the three elements needs work?

Do you need to tweak your publication so that people value it enough to subscribe and stick around? Do you need a more effective way to get your work in front of new people each week? Do you need to improve your reader-to-subscriber conversion rate? Maybe it’s a little of all these things.

If it’s your publication that’s the weak link, start by checking that you are crystal clear about what you want to do for your readers, then make sure your headlines are compelling enough to encourage people to read.

If it’s promotion that’s missing, explore new ways to meet people who might like your work. Substack’s own social media system, Notes, is one place to consider, but it’s not the best option for everyone.

Notes is a great place to meet new readers, but only if your ideal readers are already hanging out there.

Notes is useless if your ideal readers aren’t using Substack already. My paid publication, for example, gets no benefit from Notes. I don’t promote it there because my readers don’t hang out on Substack. It would be a complete waste of time for me to try to find new readers on Notes.

Other places to meet new readers include Medium, LinkedIn, Reddit and Quora. Newsletter directories can be an untapped resource. I’ve received hundreds of subscribers by submitting my newsletter to directories like The Sample (it’s free).

If it’s conversions you need to work on, check that new readers are prompted to sign up in every single post. Learn more about that here: In-Post Context: An Overlooked Strategy for Getting More Substack Subscribers

Final thoughts

There are three things you need for growth. If you’re not getting growth you’re probably missing one of those things. Here they are again:

• A publication that people value

• A way to get new eyes on your work

• A way to get new readers to become subscribers

What are you missing? And what are you going to do about it?

Karen

P.S. If you’re not sure what you’re missing, I can take a look for you, and make recommendations to help you get where you want to go faster, with a Substack mini-audit (available this week only)