WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520
Hi and welcome to the Five Minute Business Boost,
00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:05.179
where you get to choose your five minute investment.
00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:08.560
I'm your host, Sam Hicks, and I'll be discussing
00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:10.519
topics under the headings of business development,
00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:14.679
marketing, photography, and much more. Hi and
00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.219
welcome to this week's Five Minute Business Boost.
00:00:17.660 --> 00:00:21.379
So today I'm talking about Substack. Now, is
00:00:21.379 --> 00:00:24.760
it for your small business? Is it worth it? Or
00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.629
is it just another platform? So you might have
00:00:27.629 --> 00:00:29.929
noticed the word sub -stack popping up more and
00:00:29.929 --> 00:00:32.590
more lately. Maybe somebody has sent you a link
00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:35.289
to a sub -stack article. Maybe you've heard a
00:00:35.289 --> 00:00:37.789
journalist, an author or a business person say,
00:00:38.270 --> 00:00:41.509
I write about that on my sub -stack. Well, maybe
00:00:41.509 --> 00:00:43.829
you've seen it appear in search results or social
00:00:43.829 --> 00:00:45.890
media and wondered what on earth it actually
00:00:45.890 --> 00:00:48.689
is. And more importantly, if you're running a
00:00:48.689 --> 00:00:50.270
small business, is this something you should
00:00:50.270 --> 00:00:52.850
be paying attention to or is this simply another
00:00:52.850 --> 00:00:57.079
platform we're all expected to feed? So let's
00:00:57.079 --> 00:01:00.840
start with the basics. Substack started as a
00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:05.420
fairly simple platform. It allowed writers to
00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:07.439
publish newsletters and send them directly to
00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:10.840
subscribers by email. So that part still exists,
00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:13.340
but what has grown well beyond that is just being
00:01:13.340 --> 00:01:16.680
another email newsletter platform. and like everything
00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:19.700
gets evolved. So today you can publish written
00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:23.299
articles and newsletters, podcasts, video live
00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:26.200
streams and short form posts called notes. You
00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:28.400
can also build conversations with subscribers
00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:31.140
through comments and chat and readers can access
00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:33.620
your content through email, the web or sub stack
00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:37.200
apps. So describing it just as another email
00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:40.159
newsletter system really doesn't explain what
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:43.079
it's become. So it's probably better to think
00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.560
of Substack as sitting somewhere between a website,
00:01:46.219 --> 00:01:49.040
an email newsletter, a podcast platform, and
00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:51.620
a social network. And for those who've been around
00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:54.180
the internet for a while, there's something strangely
00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:59.439
familiar about this. Now, do you remember blogger?
00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:02.319
Now, before every business had a WordPress website,
00:02:02.459 --> 00:02:05.540
before Facebook, business pages, Instagram, and
00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:10.699
TikTok, plenty of us had blogs. Yup, hands up.
00:02:10.750 --> 00:02:14.050
Yep, that was me. You'd log into Blogger, you'd
00:02:14.050 --> 00:02:16.509
write something useful into Stream, you'd hit
00:02:16.509 --> 00:02:19.270
publish, and there it was, your little patch
00:02:19.270 --> 00:02:22.069
of the internet. In some ways, Substack feels
00:02:22.069 --> 00:02:25.110
like blogging has come full circle. But this
00:02:25.110 --> 00:02:28.009
time the blog, the email newsletter, and a bit
00:02:28.009 --> 00:02:30.770
of social media has been all bundled in together.
00:02:31.169 --> 00:02:33.370
So instead of publishing an article and simply
00:02:33.370 --> 00:02:37.300
hoping somebody eventually finds it, a Substack
00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:40.120
post can live on the web, arrive directly into
00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:42.759
somebody's inbox, and potentially be discovered
00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:47.780
through Substack's own network. So, Substack
00:02:47.780 --> 00:02:50.719
really isn't the new blogger, but I was hoping
00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:54.430
there for a minute. Now, If you remember the
00:02:54.430 --> 00:02:56.729
blogging days, it might help to think of its
00:02:56.729 --> 00:03:00.069
bloggers much more social email savvy grandchild,
00:03:00.530 --> 00:03:03.370
because we are a few years down the track now.
00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:09.349
So who is Substack really for? It's become particularly
00:03:09.349 --> 00:03:11.770
well known because writers, journalists and commentators
00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:15.189
started using it to build audiences. independently
00:03:15.189 --> 00:03:18.729
of traditional media organizations. But you certainly
00:03:18.729 --> 00:03:21.889
don't need to be a journalist to use it. Recently
00:03:21.889 --> 00:03:24.349
had a client who's in the professional services
00:03:24.349 --> 00:03:27.129
and they have started using it and they are gaining
00:03:27.129 --> 00:03:30.710
some traction. So there are people publishing
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about business technology, food, travel, photography,
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farming, marketing, finance, health as I just
00:03:36.069 --> 00:03:39.110
mentioned, professional service, culture and
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almost every niche topic you can think about.
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And that means there could be an opportunity
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for some small business, particularly where knowledge,
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expertise, personality or storytelling plays
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a role in why someone chooses to do business
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with you. Think consultants, coaches, professional
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services, photographers, tourism operators, food
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and wine businesses, makers, educators, trades
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with specialist knowledge or businesses operating
00:04:08.139 --> 00:04:11.900
in a particular niche. So for these businesses,
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the thing you are publishing doesn't have to
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be advertising. In fact, it shouldn't be, probably.
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It could be useful advice, observations from
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your industry, behind the scenes stories, case
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studies, lessons you've learned, commentary on
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what's changing, interviews or resources that
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genuinely help the people you want to reach.
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Essentially, you're demonstrating what you know,
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rather than constantly telling people that you
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sell or what you sell. Now, you might be thinking,
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come on, Sam, isn't that what my email newsletter
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already does? Well, yes. But, and this is where
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I should be careful about telling every small
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business owner that suddenly they need a Substack
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account because that's not what I'm doing. If
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you've already got a website, a MailChimp or
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a MailAlign account and an email list that's
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working for you, you don't immediately need to
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throw all of that out because there's a new shiny
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thing on the internet because you know us marketers.
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We sort of go down that track and all of a sudden
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we go, oh, look, shiny, and we head off in another
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direction. There is, however, one... fairly significant
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difference. Traditional email marketing platforms
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are mainly designed to help you communicate with
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an audience you've already acquired. All those
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subscribers. Substack also has its own discovery
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network. It has recommendations, search notes,
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which works a little bit like a social media
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feed and a map where readers can discover other
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publications and creators. So potentially somebody
00:05:47.379 --> 00:05:50.779
can discover you on Substack before they've even
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heard of you or your business. And that is quite
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different from sending an email to the same few
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hundred people who are already on your mailing
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list and may already be converted and good followers
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of you. Now, given how difficult organic reach
00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:09.720
has become on many social media platforms, this
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could deserve a little bit of attention. Another
00:06:13.819 --> 00:06:16.500
reason Substack has gained so much attention
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is that you can publish it for free. You can
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build a free publication and grow your subscriber
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list without paying based on the size of that
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list. So where Substack does make its money is
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where creators charge readers for paid subscriptions.
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Now if you do that, Substack takes a percentage
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of that subscription income and there are payment
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processing fees on top because you know they're
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everywhere. Pete's descriptions are a big part
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of the sub -stack model, and some writers make
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very good money from them. But personally, I
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don't think that's necessarily where the biggest
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opportunity sits for the average small business.
00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:57.199
You don't suddenly need to convince your customers
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to pay every month to read your thoughts. The
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value, however, might be instead. coming from
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that building of an audience that eventually
00:07:07.259 --> 00:07:09.740
buys your product, books your service, attends
00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:12.240
your workshop, listens to your podcast or recommends
00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.160
you to somebody else. So really, is it a funnel?
00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:18.639
Could be. In other words, the publication itself
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doesn't necessarily have to be the product. It
00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:23.939
can be the thing that builds that relationship.
00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:27.220
Now, there's another interesting part to all
00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:32.560
of this. Substack isn't just text. It supports
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podcasts, video and other content formats as
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well. Which comes to mind, while researching
00:07:39.379 --> 00:07:43.319
this episode, naturally led me to one slightly
00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:46.529
dangerous thought. could the five -minute business
00:07:46.529 --> 00:07:49.189
boost itself work on Substack? Because I've already
00:07:49.189 --> 00:07:50.850
got the podcast, I've already got the newsletter,
00:07:51.009 --> 00:07:53.410
I've already got articles and resources, and
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I spent a fair amount of time trying to turn
00:07:55.910 --> 00:07:58.209
one useful piece of information into several
00:07:58.209 --> 00:08:00.949
different formats rather than consistently starting
00:08:00.949 --> 00:08:04.670
again from scratch. So I'm not standing sitting
00:08:04.670 --> 00:08:10.389
here in my office thinking, Sam, you need to
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tell everybody who's listening. you need to get
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:18.500
a brilliant sub -step strategy. I'm actually
00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:20.519
looking at it the same way that you should look
00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:25.019
at any new platform. What could it do? Who's
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already there? Does it solve a problem I actually
00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.379
have? And is there a potential benefit worth
00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:35.139
the time to require to maintain it? Because what
00:08:35.139 --> 00:08:38.399
we don't need as business owners is yet another
00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:40.820
platform simply for the sake of having another
00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:43.299
platform. If you're already struggling to update
00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:45.200
your website, haven't e -mailed your customer
00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:47.460
list for months, you're trying to maintain Facebook,
00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:49.759
Instagram, LinkedIn, and maybe TikTok as well,
00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:52.200
adding Substack to the pile isn't automatically
00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:55.500
going to make your marketing better. It may simply
00:08:55.500 --> 00:08:58.019
give you another empty profile to feel guilty
00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:04.159
about. Thoughts. But if you regularly have something
00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.600
useful to say, If educating your customers is
00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:11.179
part of how you build trust or you want to develop
00:09:11.179 --> 00:09:13.399
that audience around your expertise rather than
00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:17.259
relying completely on social media reach, Substack
00:09:17.259 --> 00:09:20.179
may be worth investigating. And that's where
00:09:20.179 --> 00:09:22.340
I'd like to leave it for now, because your business
00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:25.720
boost this week is very simple. Don't start a
00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:28.559
Substack. Not yet. Go and explore it. You have
00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:31.879
spare five minutes. Search shit up and then search
00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:33.759
for three or four topics connected with your
00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:36.299
business, your industry or the things that your
00:09:36.299 --> 00:09:39.320
customers are interested in and have a look who's
00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:43.039
publishing. What are they talking about? Look
00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:45.440
at the style of their content and look at the
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.000
conversations happening in and around that in
00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.539
notes and then ask yourself one very valuable
00:09:51.539 --> 00:09:55.659
question. Could I constantly publish something
00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:58.539
useful here? that would make the right people
00:09:58.539 --> 00:10:01.500
want to hear from me again. Now if the answer
00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:05.259
is no fantastic move on next because you might
00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:07.100
have just saved yourself from another platform
00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.559
but if the answer is yes then Substack might
00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:15.320
deserve a closer look and perhaps I'll do the
00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.120
same you know in that spare moment that I have
00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.730
between 1am and 4am. Because there could very
00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:23.590
well be a future episode called, I put the five
00:10:23.590 --> 00:10:25.929
minute business boost on Substack and here's
00:10:25.929 --> 00:10:28.090
what actually happened. And frankly, I'd much
00:10:28.090 --> 00:10:30.529
rather tell you what happened after testing it
00:10:30.529 --> 00:10:33.070
than to tell you what Substack's marketing department
00:10:33.070 --> 00:10:35.350
thinks should happen. But anyway, that's your
00:10:35.350 --> 00:10:38.789
business boost for this week. So have a good
00:10:38.789 --> 00:10:41.830
week and I'll see you same time, same bat channel
00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:44.850
next week. Remember anything is possible. Ciao
00:10:44.850 --> 00:10:47.649
for now. Thanks for listening to the five minute
00:10:47.649 --> 00:10:50.419
business boost. For more information follow me
00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:53.659
on socials, sign up for my Newsy or check out
00:10:53.659 --> 00:10:56.720
my website to see how we can work together to
00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:00.159
reach your small business goals. Remember, anything
00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:02.379
is possible, especially in the North East of
00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:05.220
Victoria. Until next time, cheerio!
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520
Hi and welcome to the Five Minute Business Boost,
00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:05.179
where you get to choose your five minute investment.
00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:08.560
I'm your host, Sam Hicks, and I'll be discussing
00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:10.519
topics under the headings of business development,
00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:14.679
marketing, photography, and much more. Hi and
00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:17.219
welcome to this week's Five Minute Business Boost.
00:00:17.660 --> 00:00:21.379
So today I'm talking about Substack. Now, is
00:00:21.379 --> 00:00:24.760
it for your small business? Is it worth it? Or
00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.629
is it just another platform? So you might have
00:00:27.629 --> 00:00:29.929
noticed the word sub -stack popping up more and
00:00:29.929 --> 00:00:32.590
more lately. Maybe somebody has sent you a link
00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:35.289
to a sub -stack article. Maybe you've heard a
00:00:35.289 --> 00:00:37.789
journalist, an author or a business person say,
00:00:38.270 --> 00:00:41.509
I write about that on my sub -stack. Well, maybe
00:00:41.509 --> 00:00:43.829
you've seen it appear in search results or social
00:00:43.829 --> 00:00:45.890
media and wondered what on earth it actually
00:00:45.890 --> 00:00:48.689
is. And more importantly, if you're running a
00:00:48.689 --> 00:00:50.270
small business, is this something you should
00:00:50.270 --> 00:00:52.850
be paying attention to or is this simply another
00:00:52.850 --> 00:00:57.079
platform we're all expected to feed? So let's
00:00:57.079 --> 00:01:00.840
start with the basics. Substack started as a
00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:05.420
fairly simple platform. It allowed writers to
00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:07.439
publish newsletters and send them directly to
00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:10.840
subscribers by email. So that part still exists,
00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:13.340
but what has grown well beyond that is just being
00:01:13.340 --> 00:01:16.680
another email newsletter platform. and like everything
00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:19.700
gets evolved. So today you can publish written
00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:23.299
articles and newsletters, podcasts, video live
00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:26.200
streams and short form posts called notes. You
00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:28.400
can also build conversations with subscribers
00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:31.140
through comments and chat and readers can access
00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:33.620
your content through email, the web or sub stack
00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:37.200
apps. So describing it just as another email
00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:40.159
newsletter system really doesn't explain what
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:43.079
it's become. So it's probably better to think
00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:45.560
of Substack as sitting somewhere between a website,
00:01:46.219 --> 00:01:49.040
an email newsletter, a podcast platform, and
00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:51.620
a social network. And for those who've been around
00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:54.180
the internet for a while, there's something strangely
00:01:54.180 --> 00:01:59.439
familiar about this. Now, do you remember blogger?
00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:02.319
Now, before every business had a WordPress website,
00:02:02.459 --> 00:02:05.540
before Facebook, business pages, Instagram, and
00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:10.699
TikTok, plenty of us had blogs. Yup, hands up.
00:02:10.750 --> 00:02:14.050
Yep, that was me. You'd log into Blogger, you'd
00:02:14.050 --> 00:02:16.509
write something useful into Stream, you'd hit
00:02:16.509 --> 00:02:19.270
publish, and there it was, your little patch
00:02:19.270 --> 00:02:22.069
of the internet. In some ways, Substack feels
00:02:22.069 --> 00:02:25.110
like blogging has come full circle. But this
00:02:25.110 --> 00:02:28.009
time the blog, the email newsletter, and a bit
00:02:28.009 --> 00:02:30.770
of social media has been all bundled in together.
00:02:31.169 --> 00:02:33.370
So instead of publishing an article and simply
00:02:33.370 --> 00:02:37.300
hoping somebody eventually finds it, a Substack
00:02:37.300 --> 00:02:40.120
post can live on the web, arrive directly into
00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:42.759
somebody's inbox, and potentially be discovered
00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:47.780
through Substack's own network. So, Substack
00:02:47.780 --> 00:02:50.719
really isn't the new blogger, but I was hoping
00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:54.430
there for a minute. Now, If you remember the
00:02:54.430 --> 00:02:56.729
blogging days, it might help to think of its
00:02:56.729 --> 00:03:00.069
bloggers much more social email savvy grandchild,
00:03:00.530 --> 00:03:03.370
because we are a few years down the track now.
00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:09.349
So who is Substack really for? It's become particularly
00:03:09.349 --> 00:03:11.770
well known because writers, journalists and commentators
00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:15.189
started using it to build audiences. independently
00:03:15.189 --> 00:03:18.729
of traditional media organizations. But you certainly
00:03:18.729 --> 00:03:21.889
don't need to be a journalist to use it. Recently
00:03:21.889 --> 00:03:24.349
had a client who's in the professional services
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and they have started using it and they are gaining
00:03:27.129 --> 00:03:30.710
some traction. So there are people publishing
00:03:30.710 --> 00:03:33.389
about business technology, food, travel, photography,
00:03:33.689 --> 00:03:36.069
farming, marketing, finance, health as I just
00:03:36.069 --> 00:03:39.110
mentioned, professional service, culture and
00:03:39.110 --> 00:03:41.409
almost every niche topic you can think about.
00:03:41.900 --> 00:03:44.060
And that means there could be an opportunity
00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:47.020
for some small business, particularly where knowledge,
00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:51.560
expertise, personality or storytelling plays
00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:54.000
a role in why someone chooses to do business
00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:57.300
with you. Think consultants, coaches, professional
00:03:57.300 --> 00:04:00.719
services, photographers, tourism operators, food
00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:05.360
and wine businesses, makers, educators, trades
00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.139
with specialist knowledge or businesses operating
00:04:08.139 --> 00:04:11.900
in a particular niche. So for these businesses,
00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:14.460
the thing you are publishing doesn't have to
00:04:14.460 --> 00:04:17.980
be advertising. In fact, it shouldn't be, probably.
00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:21.519
It could be useful advice, observations from
00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:24.279
your industry, behind the scenes stories, case
00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:27.339
studies, lessons you've learned, commentary on
00:04:27.339 --> 00:04:29.720
what's changing, interviews or resources that
00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:32.259
genuinely help the people you want to reach.
00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:35.259
Essentially, you're demonstrating what you know,
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.459
rather than constantly telling people that you
00:04:37.459 --> 00:04:41.350
sell or what you sell. Now, you might be thinking,
00:04:42.290 --> 00:04:44.629
come on, Sam, isn't that what my email newsletter
00:04:44.629 --> 00:04:49.649
already does? Well, yes. But, and this is where
00:04:49.649 --> 00:04:51.410
I should be careful about telling every small
00:04:51.410 --> 00:04:53.589
business owner that suddenly they need a Substack
00:04:53.589 --> 00:04:55.920
account because that's not what I'm doing. If
00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:57.740
you've already got a website, a MailChimp or
00:04:57.740 --> 00:04:59.699
a MailAlign account and an email list that's
00:04:59.699 --> 00:05:02.720
working for you, you don't immediately need to
00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:04.519
throw all of that out because there's a new shiny
00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:07.560
thing on the internet because you know us marketers.
00:05:07.819 --> 00:05:09.639
We sort of go down that track and all of a sudden
00:05:09.639 --> 00:05:13.639
we go, oh, look, shiny, and we head off in another
00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:20.000
direction. There is, however, one... fairly significant
00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.779
difference. Traditional email marketing platforms
00:05:22.779 --> 00:05:25.540
are mainly designed to help you communicate with
00:05:25.540 --> 00:05:30.779
an audience you've already acquired. All those
00:05:30.779 --> 00:05:34.959
subscribers. Substack also has its own discovery
00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:38.079
network. It has recommendations, search notes,
00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:40.680
which works a little bit like a social media
00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:43.639
feed and a map where readers can discover other
00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:47.379
publications and creators. So potentially somebody
00:05:47.379 --> 00:05:50.779
can discover you on Substack before they've even
00:05:50.779 --> 00:05:53.779
heard of you or your business. And that is quite
00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:55.920
different from sending an email to the same few
00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:58.240
hundred people who are already on your mailing
00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.600
list and may already be converted and good followers
00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:06.639
of you. Now, given how difficult organic reach
00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:09.720
has become on many social media platforms, this
00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:13.819
could deserve a little bit of attention. Another
00:06:13.819 --> 00:06:16.500
reason Substack has gained so much attention
00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:19.300
is that you can publish it for free. You can
00:06:19.300 --> 00:06:21.540
build a free publication and grow your subscriber
00:06:21.540 --> 00:06:24.339
list without paying based on the size of that
00:06:24.339 --> 00:06:28.259
list. So where Substack does make its money is
00:06:28.259 --> 00:06:30.980
where creators charge readers for paid subscriptions.
00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:33.939
Now if you do that, Substack takes a percentage
00:06:33.939 --> 00:06:37.160
of that subscription income and there are payment
00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:40.060
processing fees on top because you know they're
00:06:40.060 --> 00:06:42.860
everywhere. Pete's descriptions are a big part
00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:46.019
of the sub -stack model, and some writers make
00:06:46.019 --> 00:06:48.879
very good money from them. But personally, I
00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:51.139
don't think that's necessarily where the biggest
00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:53.379
opportunity sits for the average small business.
00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:57.199
You don't suddenly need to convince your customers
00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.139
to pay every month to read your thoughts. The
00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:05.019
value, however, might be instead. coming from
00:07:05.019 --> 00:07:07.259
that building of an audience that eventually
00:07:07.259 --> 00:07:09.740
buys your product, books your service, attends
00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:12.240
your workshop, listens to your podcast or recommends
00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.160
you to somebody else. So really, is it a funnel?
00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:18.639
Could be. In other words, the publication itself
00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:21.160
doesn't necessarily have to be the product. It
00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:23.939
can be the thing that builds that relationship.
00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:27.220
Now, there's another interesting part to all
00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:32.560
of this. Substack isn't just text. It supports
00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:35.000
podcasts, video and other content formats as
00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.379
well. Which comes to mind, while researching
00:07:39.379 --> 00:07:43.319
this episode, naturally led me to one slightly
00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:46.529
dangerous thought. could the five -minute business
00:07:46.529 --> 00:07:49.189
boost itself work on Substack? Because I've already
00:07:49.189 --> 00:07:50.850
got the podcast, I've already got the newsletter,
00:07:51.009 --> 00:07:53.410
I've already got articles and resources, and
00:07:53.410 --> 00:07:55.910
I spent a fair amount of time trying to turn
00:07:55.910 --> 00:07:58.209
one useful piece of information into several
00:07:58.209 --> 00:08:00.949
different formats rather than consistently starting
00:08:00.949 --> 00:08:04.670
again from scratch. So I'm not standing sitting
00:08:04.670 --> 00:08:10.389
here in my office thinking, Sam, you need to
00:08:10.389 --> 00:08:13.600
tell everybody who's listening. you need to get
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:18.500
a brilliant sub -step strategy. I'm actually
00:08:18.500 --> 00:08:20.519
looking at it the same way that you should look
00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:25.019
at any new platform. What could it do? Who's
00:08:25.019 --> 00:08:28.199
already there? Does it solve a problem I actually
00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.379
have? And is there a potential benefit worth
00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:35.139
the time to require to maintain it? Because what
00:08:35.139 --> 00:08:38.399
we don't need as business owners is yet another
00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:40.820
platform simply for the sake of having another
00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:43.299
platform. If you're already struggling to update
00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:45.200
your website, haven't e -mailed your customer
00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:47.460
list for months, you're trying to maintain Facebook,
00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:49.759
Instagram, LinkedIn, and maybe TikTok as well,
00:08:50.059 --> 00:08:52.200
adding Substack to the pile isn't automatically
00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:55.500
going to make your marketing better. It may simply
00:08:55.500 --> 00:08:58.019
give you another empty profile to feel guilty
00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:04.159
about. Thoughts. But if you regularly have something
00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.600
useful to say, If educating your customers is
00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:11.179
part of how you build trust or you want to develop
00:09:11.179 --> 00:09:13.399
that audience around your expertise rather than
00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:17.259
relying completely on social media reach, Substack
00:09:17.259 --> 00:09:20.179
may be worth investigating. And that's where
00:09:20.179 --> 00:09:22.340
I'd like to leave it for now, because your business
00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:25.720
boost this week is very simple. Don't start a
00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:28.559
Substack. Not yet. Go and explore it. You have
00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:31.879
spare five minutes. Search shit up and then search
00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:33.759
for three or four topics connected with your
00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:36.299
business, your industry or the things that your
00:09:36.299 --> 00:09:39.320
customers are interested in and have a look who's
00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:43.039
publishing. What are they talking about? Look
00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:45.440
at the style of their content and look at the
00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.000
conversations happening in and around that in
00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.539
notes and then ask yourself one very valuable
00:09:51.539 --> 00:09:55.659
question. Could I constantly publish something
00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:58.539
useful here? that would make the right people
00:09:58.539 --> 00:10:01.500
want to hear from me again. Now if the answer
00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:05.259
is no fantastic move on next because you might
00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:07.100
have just saved yourself from another platform
00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.559
but if the answer is yes then Substack might
00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:15.320
deserve a closer look and perhaps I'll do the
00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.120
same you know in that spare moment that I have
00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.730
between 1am and 4am. Because there could very
00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:23.590
well be a future episode called, I put the five
00:10:23.590 --> 00:10:25.929
minute business boost on Substack and here's
00:10:25.929 --> 00:10:28.090
what actually happened. And frankly, I'd much
00:10:28.090 --> 00:10:30.529
rather tell you what happened after testing it
00:10:30.529 --> 00:10:33.070
than to tell you what Substack's marketing department
00:10:33.070 --> 00:10:35.350
thinks should happen. But anyway, that's your
00:10:35.350 --> 00:10:38.789
business boost for this week. So have a good
00:10:38.789 --> 00:10:41.830
week and I'll see you same time, same bat channel
00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:44.850
next week. Remember anything is possible. Ciao
00:10:44.850 --> 00:10:47.649
for now. Thanks for listening to the five minute
00:10:47.649 --> 00:10:50.419
business boost. For more information follow me
00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:53.659
on socials, sign up for my Newsy or check out
00:10:53.659 --> 00:10:56.720
my website to see how we can work together to
00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:00.159
reach your small business goals. Remember, anything
00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:02.379
is possible, especially in the North East of
00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:05.220
Victoria. Until next time, cheerio!
