By lbrowning@hubspot.com (Laura M. Browning)

I’ve recently been using Substack to find new music to listen to. That’s probably not quite what its founders had in mind, but it has a ton of newsletters written by people who just really love music. It’s less professional music criticism and more “hey, this album was great, give it a listen.”

That’s not the only off-label use for Substack. Today’s master of marketing is also a Substack fan — and she took a big risk with it.

Meet the Master

MacKenzie Kassab

Director of Creative Strategy, Rare Beauty

Claim to fame: Launched Rare Beauty’s “semi-authorized” Substack newsletter

Lesson 1: Get curious about your own product.

Novelty wears off fast when you’re in the trenches.

“Working in the office, [our product] is something” — a new blush, say — “that we‘re around all the time. We go to meetings about how products are made every week,” Kassab tells me. “It doesn’t feel necessarily thrilling from the inside when you’re in it for a year and a half.”

But your audience’s first peek at a new product? That’s magical.

When you’re brainstorming new content, think about it from your consumers’ perspective. What do you know that they don’t? If you’re marketing a new product or service, what got you excited about it in the first place?

Even though Kassab might attend weekly meetings about a new product, she’s not necessarily there every step of the way. So for her newsletters, she takes the opportunity “to find out some of the bloopers, or [other] things that happened.”

For one newsletter, Kassab sat down with Rare Beauty’s chief product officer to get the scoop on how the newest blush came to be. One reason they developed a powder blush? Some customers found Rare Beauty’s famed liquid blush too pigmented. Not something you’ll hear most beauty companies admit.

“To share these and see how excited people get [about this information] — that is really rewarding and makes it interesting.”

Lesson 2: Embrace your imperfections.

Like a middle schooler with their first palette, the road to the perfect liquid blush is lined with some highly pigmented mistakes.

It’s tempting to brush those under the rug, but remember: Everybody loves a blooper reel. Whether it’s from your fav TV show or it’s about a new lipstick, sharing mistakes breaks down the artifice between consumer and producer. Sort of a “Celebrities, they’re just like us!” for your marketing strategy.

Plus, it brings a human element to her newsletters.

“We are showing the trials and tribulations of making a product. So I think embracing the idea that even as a big brand, we’re not perfect either — we hit bumpy roads and things turn out okay …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron