I’ve lately been the use of Substack to search out new track to hear. That’s almost definitely no longer fairly what its founders had in thoughts, however it has a ton of newsletters written through individuals who simply actually love track. It’s much less skilled track grievance and extra “whats up, this album was once nice, give it a concentrate.”
That’s no longer the one off-label use for Substack. As of late’s grasp of selling could also be a Substack fan — and she or he took a large possibility with it.
Meet the Grasp
MacKenzie Kassab
Director of Inventive Technique, Uncommon Good looks
Declare to reputation: Introduced Uncommon Good looks’s “semi-authorized” Substack publication
Lesson 1: Get desirous about your personal product.
Novelty wears off rapid whilst you’re within the trenches.
“Operating within the place of job, [our product] is one thing” — a brand new blush, say — “that we‘re round at all times. We pass to conferences about how merchandise are made each and every week,” Kassab tells me. “It doesn’t really feel essentially exciting from the interior if you end up in it for a yr and a part.”
However your target market’s first peek at a brand new product? That’s magical.
While you’re brainstorming new content material, take into consideration it out of your customers’ point of view. What have you learnt that they don’t? In case you’re advertising and marketing a brand new services or products, what were given you fascinated with it within the first position?
Even if Kassab would possibly attend weekly conferences a couple of new product, she’s no longer essentially there each and every step of the best way. So for her newsletters, she takes the chance “to determine one of the most bloopers, or [other] issues that came about.”
For one publication, Kassab sat down with Uncommon Good looks’s leader product officer to get the inside track on how the latest blush got here to be. One reason why they advanced a powder blush? Some consumers discovered Uncommon Good looks’s famed liquid blush too pigmented. Now not one thing you’ll pay attention maximum attractiveness corporations admit.
“To proportion those and notice how excited other folks get [about this information] — this is 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://wpfixall.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/masters-in-marketing-mackenzie-kassab-2-20250717-8053186.webp)
Lesson 2: Include your imperfections.
Like a center schooler with their first palette, the street to the very best liquid blush is covered with some extremely pigmented errors.
It’s tempting to comb the ones below the rug, however keep in mind: Everyone loves a blooper reel. Whether or not it’s out of your fav TV display or it’s a couple of new lipstick, sharing errors breaks down the artifice between client and manufacturer. Type of a “Celebrities, they’re similar to us!” in your business plan.
Plus, it brings a human component to her newsletters.
“We’re appearing the rigors and tribulations of creating a product. So I believe embracing the concept that at the same time as a large emblem, we are not absolute best both — we hit bumpy roads and issues end up ok in spite of everything,” Kassab says. “I’m hoping that more or less factor is encouraging.”
Lesson 3: Recognize the platform.
Kassab’s concept to release a Uncommon Good looks Substack publication had a easy beginning: She was once already a Substack fan.
Designed to submit person voices, Substack has constructed a neighborhood that strikes a chord in my memory a little bit of early social media — again when everyone was once having a great time as an alternative of doomscrolling ourselves to sleep each and every evening. It’s a spot that has a tendency to worth excellent writing over self-promotion. Introducing a emblem voice to that ecosystem was once all the time going to be a possibility.
However in many ways, Kassab isn’t a emblem voice. That’s underscored through her cheeky Gossip Woman-esque signoffs, the “semi-authorized” nameless byline, or even through how lean her crew is. (“It’s an excessively scrappy crew,” she says. “It’s me.”) Even if she’s representing Uncommon Good looks, she’s nonetheless a solo content material author.
Don’t concern, the lesson right here isn’t to cut back all your content material to 1 individual. (Except you’re a very small industry, please don’t do this; I encourage on behalf of writers in every single place.)
In case you’re going to take a possibility like Kassab and Uncommon Good looks did, take into consideration the worth that customers are getting from the platform — and paintings with that, no longer towards it.
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
What’s your favourite factor about advertising and marketing that may’t be simply measured? —Brenna Loury, CMO, Doist
This Week’s Solution
Kassab: The emotional connection. I really like the best way advertising and marketing could make other folks really feel one thing. It may well be inspiration, motivation, interest, nostalgia, or only a second of pleasure. For us it comes all the way down to self-acceptance and belonging. That connection drives the whole thing we do, regardless of how unimaginable it’s to quantify (despite the fact that I’m certain AI is making an attempt).
Serving to even one individual in our neighborhood really feel observed and relaxed of their pores and skin—I really like such a lot about my paintings, however that’s actually what provides all of it that means.
Subsequent Week’s Lingering Query
Kassab asks: What’s your least favourite a part of your process, and the way do you encourage your self to get thru it?
