Add Substack to Your Marketing Ecosytem - Chef Carla Contreras

Website: https://www.carlacontreras.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefcarlacontreras

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlacontreras/

What's Hot  | Adding Substack to Your Marketing Ecosystem 

Transcript: 

00:00 
Welcome to this quick masterclass on adding Substack to your marketing ecosystem and I say adding it to your marketing ecosystem because my guess is that you are creating content somewhere, whether that's your newsletter, podcast, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, or LinkedIn, you are creating content. 

And before you say, I can’t do another thing Carla! I'm not asking you to add another platform to your pile of to dos. 
What I'm asking you to do is to repurpose your content that you are creating into a platform where it prioritizes visibility, unlike other social platforms (at least right now and we will get into that). 

00:41 
If you don’t know me. I’m Chef Carla Contreras. Yes, I was on Chopped! on the Food Network. I help my clients create profit through their content. 

What is Substack: 

01:18 
It's a newsletter platform, but think of it like an old school Blogspot.  
And if you don't know what that blog spot is from circa 2006, essentially you had blog posts that lived on the site and there was an RSS feed that went out to your subscribers. 

Substack is an updated version of that, and it has increased capability, meaning you can add a podcast, audio notes, link it to YouTube, add photos, go live and there are many more features added all the time. It’s a make it your own adventure. 
The beautiful part about this is that it lands in people's inbox. 

Bonus: You do not need a publication in order to be active on Substack. All you need is a profile.

Build Your Substack Profile: 

01:51 
Add a picture of you. 
Add your bio, you can pull from any place, for example LinkedIn, Instagram or TikTok. 
My encouragement and invitation is to share one link, I know what's controversial because we all want to use that Linktree. Where is the one link to where you want to direct them? For me, it's my podcast. 


Engagement:

02:39
Start engaging in newsletters, see who you want to connect with. Are there people within your niche? Are there people outside of your niche? 
Where are your customers, your clients hanging out? If you are a service provider, maybe they are into gardening, fashion, or cooking. Go outside of your niche and look for where the people that you want to connect with are. Like and leave comments, this is how people find and engage with you!

Note: Some newsletters are paid. I love the content of the person I am paying but there is also a strategy behind it because I want to connect with the people that are reading that newsletter. 


There's also engagement within notes. 
Notes is a social platform on substack. 
Notes, it acts like Threads or Twitter (X), you can post without having a publication. Example: This is another place you can repurpose all of that content. 

Prioritizing Audio: 
03:30 
And for me in the last year, I've had exponential growth. I moved my podcast over to Substack in January of 2024, and because of Spotify Wrapped, I know that I had 89% new listeners to my podcast. 
I had 25% growth. I also know, because Substack has posted this statistic, that audio is prioritized on that platform 2.5% over written content. It’s why I always add audio to my newsletters.  

What About Video? 

04:02
Substack has not shared the statistics on video but I know it's prioritized because I've done a live podcast (which is video) and that podcast is one of the top podcast episodes. 

What About Your Marketing Ecosystem? 

If you have a newsletter, then Substack is interesting to explore. 
I'm going to give you a pro tip. One of my clients who is an artist and is building her author platform, she is creating her Substack around her book. 

04:35
So it's around a specific project. 
And if you see my Substack, it's around Nourishing Creativity which is my podcast and newsletter. It’s also why I label this class, adding Substack to your marketing ecosystem. I repurpose Substack content to my other channels.

Now, is this a forever solution? Maybe not, 
I've been around the content creation world since 2006 with Blogspot. Things evolve, and change, but what I do know is this is what's hot!
Want to Learn More? 


If you want to learn more about adding Substack to your marketing ecosystem click the link. You'll find a free Substack 101 class + my links. 

05:23
I would also love for you to send me a DM on Instagram @chefcarlacontreras and say hello. Thanks for tuning in!