Substack isn't fair for writers anymore. It's additionally for influencer marketers.
The newsletter platform has rotate into an increasingly crucial social media tool for brands looking to discover creators to activity alongside and to attain possible customers.
"Substack is among the most breathtaking channels out there correct now," stated Anna Doré, Rothy's vice chairman of brand and communications. Doré is featured in Business Insider's 2026 list of 14 innovative influencer marketers.
Before influencers, there were magazines and blogs. Substack, anywhere group can compose — during additionally sharing ocular satisfied akin photos and videos — marries the media's former alongside its present.
Rothy's, known for its comfortable, washable flats, is doubling downward on the platform.
"In this AI-driven algorithm earth anywhere we're all being served the identical satisfied on the feed, we additional than always are going to be looking to awesome tastemakers," Doré said. "We're looking for the gatekeepers to inform us what we should attention concerning in this world."
Here are 5 examples of how Rothy's has leveraged Substack in its marketing:
- Emily Sundberg, who writes the famous endeavor newsletter Feed Me, shared on her Substack that she stashed a brace of Rothy's flats on her wedding day. Rothy's afterward partnered alongside Sundberg on sponsoring a pizza gathering for Feed Me's readers.
- Erika Veurink, who writes the manner newsletter Long Live, wrote an part for New York Magazine featuring Rothy's shoes that went viral. Rothy's afterward reached out, inking a long-term association alongside the author that caused a vintage pop-up cognition for Veurink's readers at a Rothy's location in New York City — example in complete 200 group and expanding the store's ft traffic by 75% that day.
- Denna Nazem had mentioned Rothy's in her travel-focused newsletter, Strictly the Good Stuff. Spotting this, Rothy's reached out and afterward worked alongside Nazem on an IRL event about the initiate of a new Rothy's gathering at Nordstrom. Doré stated that Nordstrom followed in Rothy's footsteps and afterward partnered alongside Nazem again following seeing the results.
- To advance Rothy's 10th anniversary, the brand partnered alongside five Substack creators — including Veurink and others akin Hunter Harris, Rose Anderson, Noora Raj Brown, and Plum Sykes — to compose essays concerning their own individual growth.
- Rothy's additionally launched its own Substack. It isn't occupied blogging, but the brand does repost its influencer partners frequently to Substack's Notes feed.
"People prosecute these Substack writers since they are in the know," Doré said.
It's not lone Rothy's dabbling alongside Substack.
Sophia Sesto, Poppi's vice chairman of culture, has been eyeing the phase as a tool for strategically partnering alongside creators. Substack has replaced the blog for several creators and is anywhere they portion additional individual anecdotes for their most loyal followers. That helps Poppi scheme forthcoming collaborations, Sesto said.
"You can cognize additional concerning the creators you're operating with," she said, specified as learning that they affection to journey to a destination all year, and afterward coordinate a Poppi bar for that trip — planting the brand into that creator's content.
Other brands are looking to Substack as a conduit for their own content. The Knot Worldwide, which owns multiple wedding preparedness platforms, is "bullish" on expanding into Substack, stated Kiara Kempski, the company's vice chairman of earth person marketing.
"We're really starting up our own Substack from The Knot," Kempski said. "Our editors are moving complete there and creating owned satisfied for us and construction that out."
Substack welcomes influencer marketing
Several brands have taken the identical jump and launched their own Substack publications, specified as Rare Beauty, The RealReal, Tory Burch, and equal the courtship app Hinge.
Substack has its arms broad open. Bring on the brands!
Substack cofounder Chris Best announced in June that the business was launching a native brand sponsorship program, highlighting activity already underway on the platform, specified as Sundberg's alliance alongside Hinge.
This week, the phase is expanding the program to current new sponsorship formats. One choice would authorize brands to current a one-month subscription, giving readers admission to a writer's satisfied rearward the paywall. Another choice is for brands to sponsor a creator's sole post, making it liberated for anyone to read.
Brands can "earn genuine position alternatively of shouting through feeds and swipes," Dan Robbins, who joined Substack as caput of brand sponsorships this year, wrote in a blog article on Thursday.
Substack wants brands to see its newsletters as a "space to go deep, to say appreciate you, and to rear communities that volition develop your business," Robbins said.
Sydney Bradley has been covering media and tech for Business Insider since 2020. She breaks news and writes extensively concerning Instagram and Facebook, as fine as new social media startups, dating apps, the creator economy, venture capital, and tech culture.She regularly contributes to BI's "After Hours" series, anywhere our reporters dive into the social scenes shaping tech, media, and finance.Sydney's reporting on Instagram was nominated as a finalist for the 2021 Los Angeles Press Club National Entertainment Journalism Awards.She graduated from the University of Virginia alongside a flat in American Studies. You can prosecute Sydney's activity on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram at @sydneykbradley.Have a tip? You can additionally communication her via encrypted messaging app Signal (@sydneykbradley.123), encrypted email ([email protected]), or norm email ([email protected]). Use a individual email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing data securely.
