32 Comments
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Wes Pearce's avatar

Hi I appreciate this post. Genuine question: are there any compliance issues with adding subscribers from Substack to your email provider (I use Flo Desk).

I thought they needed to specifically subscribe to your email provider via an opt in form?

I’d love to do what you say in this post, I just don’t want to get a lot of people clicking “spam” in my emails and negatively impact deliverability.

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Hey Wes - give them the opt out in the welcome. Shouldn’t be an issue since the traffic from here is genuinely interested in reading your stuff.

I’ve had maybe 80-100 unsubscribe in last 3 months who started at Substack…no spam flags.

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Andre Nader's avatar

This was my question too. They subscribed to my substack, not this other email. I say this as someone who really wishes Substack had new subscriber sequences!

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Alberto Cabas Vidani's avatar

Yes, an automation is the only way to do this.

I published a video tutorial in my publication about this. It uses another solution that works even without Gmail or without a Google Workspace account.

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Will check it out! Thanks Alberto

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Keanisha Johnson's avatar

I didn’t know you could do that

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Now you know 😊

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Julian Beccari's avatar

Hello Ryan, thanks for the info! I have a couple of questions.

If I understood correctly you use Substack basically as a blog platform, correct?

Do you use also che two recommendation engines to grow your list?

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Hey there not sure what you mean

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Julian Beccari's avatar

I mean, which features are you using of Substack? I think you use it mainly as a blog platform. Right?

For the recommendation I thought that you are using both system because other creators can recommend your newsletter in both platforms (I think is called creator network on kit).

Am I clear? Thank you!

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Convertkit's creator network is basically useless unless you're a major name in the industry. But I do love substacks referral and recommendation system.

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Julian Beccari's avatar

Thank so uso much, very helpful!

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Welcome!

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

So substack is where I host my long form, and post notes. It's a great way to get traction, build an audience, and get email leads. But there's zero ability to send automated welcome sequences to new email subs. So this automation lets me add those substack subscribers instantly to my email automation inside of ConvertKit.

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Chris Stanley's avatar

Holy crap this is helpful! Been Sabrina to sit down and figured this out but didn't take the time yet.

Would this also work with Zapier?

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

It absolutely will! Awesome buddy - what are you building over there?

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Chris Stanley's avatar

I have a big Zapier network for my primary company.

I help people write mini books creative their credibility

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Chris Stanley's avatar

Creating their credibility*

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Yana G.Y.'s avatar

Oh, I have to try this. I'm so missing automation here..

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

I know right?! Let me know if you need help building it.

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Yana G.Y.'s avatar

I did it, it works! Phew that was a thing! But I finally FINALLY can make some proper sequences with my Substack subscribers. What a relief! Thank you, Ryan!

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Welcome welcome! I got plenty more systems where that came from.

Ping me if you'd like to test out some fun ones. Enjoy!

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Yana G.Y.'s avatar

Oh I’m curious about anything automation 🤓 I’ll check what you have here. If it’s somewhere else, please share a link

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Yana G.Y.'s avatar

Will do, thank you so much!

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Gunnar Habitz's avatar

Very good, I will try with ActiveCampaign, my favourite email solution

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Salvador Lorca 📚 ⭕️'s avatar

Good points 👌

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Ryan Hutchinson's avatar

Ty Salvador

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Mario Da Silva's avatar

Thanks for sharing this Ryan. I wonder if the same could be done with Zapier or Pipedream. I think it is a matter to find out!

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Cold Growth Lab's avatar

I've used Zapier in the past for other automated projects. I wished Substack had more email automated features too. Instead of double subscribing your subscribers for off Substack traffic, why not just don't use Substack at all for blogging but use WordPress and use their plugins for list building so it's an all in one solution since the goal here is for list building??

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Mr Noob's avatar

Hey @Ryan!

Pretty interesting (and useful) post - I didn't know this could be automated so. I will try this, when I get to a sufficient number of subscribers!

I didnt know of Make! Is it something that replaces say IFTTT as well?

PS: Guess how I found this? (your comment on that "Dont read self-help" note!)

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Ana Datta's avatar

Thank you for this! I was pissed off when I couldn't find the Susbstack app on Zapier. Now with your help, I'll go set it up

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William Miller's avatar

Extremely helpful. I’m not to this point yet, but this really helped me wrap my head around the whole process. Thanks!

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