I’ve lately been utilizing Substack to seek out new music to hearken to. That’s most likely not fairly what its founders had in thoughts, nevertheless it has a ton of newsletters written by individuals who simply actually love music. It’s much less skilled music criticism and extra “hey, this album was nice, give it a pay attention.”
That’s not the one off-label use for Substack. In the present day’s grasp of promoting can be a Substack fan — and she or he took a giant threat with it.
Meet the Grasp
MacKenzie Kassab
Director of Artistic Technique, Uncommon Magnificence
Declare to fame: Launched Uncommon Magnificence’s “semi-authorized” Substack e-newsletter
Lesson 1: Get inquisitive about your individual product.
Novelty wears off quick whenever you’re within the trenches.
“Working within the workplace, [our product] is one thing” — a brand new blush, say — “that we‘re round on a regular basis. We go to conferences about how merchandise are made each week,” Kassab tells me. “It doesn’t really feel essentially thrilling from the within whenever you’re in it for a yr and a half.”
However your viewers’s first peek at a brand new product? That’s magical.
If you’re brainstorming new content material, give it some thought out of your shoppers’ perspective. What have you learnt that they don’t? In case you’re advertising a brand new services or products, what received you enthusiastic about it within the first place?
Despite the fact that Kassab would possibly attend weekly conferences a couple of new product, she’s not essentially there each step of the best way. So for her newsletters, she takes the chance “to seek out out among the bloopers, or [other] issues that occurred.”
For one e-newsletter, Kassab sat down with Uncommon Magnificence’s chief product officer to get the inside track on how the most recent blush got here to be. One purpose they developed a powder blush? Some prospects discovered Uncommon Magnificence’s famed liquid blush too pigmented. Not one thing you’ll hear most magnificence firms admit.
“To share these and see how excited individuals get [about this information] — that’s actually rewarding and makes it attention-grabbing.”
![to share these [behind-the-scenes stories] and see how excited people get [about this information] — that is really rewarding and makes it interesting.—mackenzie kassab, director of creative strategy, rare beauty](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/masters-in-marketing-mackenzie-kassab-2-20250717-8053186.webp)
Lesson 2: Embrace your imperfections.
Like a center schooler with their first palette, the street to the proper liquid blush is lined with some extremely pigmented errors.
It’s tempting to brush these underneath the rug, however bear in mind: Everyone loves a blooper reel. Whether or not it’s out of your fav TV present or it’s a couple of new lipstick, sharing errors breaks down the artifice between shopper and producer. Kind of a “Celebrities, they’re similar to us!” in your advertising technique.
Plus, it brings a human component to her newsletters.
“We’re displaying the trials and tribulations of constructing a product. So I believe embracing the concept that at the same time as a giant model, we’re not good both — we hit bumpy roads and issues end up okay in the long run,” Kassab says. “I hope that sort of factor is encouraging.”
Lesson 3: Respect the platform.
Kassab’s thought to launch a Uncommon Magnificence Substack e-newsletter had a easy origin: She was already a Substack fan.
Designed to publish particular person voices, Substack has constructed a group that jogs my memory a little bit of early social media — again when everyone was having a superb time as a substitute of doomscrolling ourselves to sleep each night time. It’s a spot that tends to worth good writing over self-promotion. Introducing a model voice to that ecosystem was at all times going to be a threat.
However in some methods, Kassab isn’t a model voice. That’s underscored by her cheeky Gossip Woman-esque signoffs, the “semi-authorized” nameless byline, and even by how lean her crew is. (“It’s a really scrappy crew,” she says. “It’s me.”) Despite the fact that she’s representing Uncommon Magnificence, she’s nonetheless a solo content material creator.
Don’t fear, the lesson right here isn’t to cut back all your content material to 1 particular person. (Until you’re a very small enterprise, please don’t do this; I encourage on behalf of writers in all places.)
In case you’re going to take a threat like Kassab and Uncommon Magnificence did, take into consideration the worth that customers are getting from the platform — and work with that, not towards it.
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
What’s your favourite factor about advertising that may’t be simply measured? —Brenna Loury, CMO, Doist
This Week’s Reply
Kassab: The emotional connection. I really like the best way advertising could make individuals really feel one thing. It may very well be inspiration, motivation, curiosity, nostalgia, or only a second of pleasure. For us it comes right down to self-acceptance and belonging. That connection drives every part we do, irrespective of how inconceivable it’s to quantify (though I’m positive AI is making an attempt).
Serving to even one particular person in our group really feel seen and cozy of their pores and skin—I really like a lot about my work, however that’s actually what offers all of it that means.
Subsequent Week’s Lingering Query
Kassab asks: What’s your least favourite a part of your job, and the way do you encourage your self to get by it?
