Email marketing and Substack: start the list before you need it

Your website goes live before the product is ready. A few people find it, one of them is interested enough to come back, and there is nowhere for them to leave an email address. By the time you launch, that person has moved on to another tab, another product and possibly another life.

That's why it's important to have a waitlist from the moment your website goes live. You don't need a newsletter or a seven-part welcome sequence at this point; you need a few sentences explaining what somebody is signing up for. “Join the waitlist for launch news and occasional product updates” is enough.

A waitlist and a newsletter give you permission to send different kinds of email. Somebody who joined a product waitlist has agreed to hear about the product. They haven't automatically subscribed to your weekly thoughts on leadership, breakfast or why everybody else is doing AI wrong.

Email gives you a direct, permission-based route back to somebody who has asked to hear from you. That description is different to “owning an audience,” because the reader can leave, an inbox provider can filter you and the law still applies.

The email decision

The platform decision becomes easier once you decide whether you're building a publication or sending messages that respond to what a customer does.

Substack is a good first choice when the subject is niche, educational or interesting enough that readers may eventually pay for more. Notes are short public posts that circulate through the wider network. Recommendations let publications introduce readers to one another, while Chat gives subscribers somewhere to talk with the writer and each other. Those features only help when the relevant people are already there, and you're prepared to investigate a fairly significant amount of time on the platform to reach them.

Beehiiv is the closest alternative. It puts more emphasis on running the newsletter as a publishing business, with a recommendation network, its own publication website and custom sending domains. Substack is the rented apartment with the furniture already in place. Beehiiv gives you more control over where everything goes, which is excellent once you've spent an entire day learning why the welcome email has three separate switches.

Both services let you export subscriber data; Beehiiv also supports post exports. Substack lets you connect a custom web domain, but its current documentation says newsletters still send from a substack.com address.

A conventional email service makes more sense when the publication is secondary to the product, and you want to run more traditional email marketing cadence. If somebody should receive one message after joining a trial and another after buying, you need customer data and automation. The later nurturing chapter covers those journeys.

A cadence you can keep

Signup copy should answer four questions:

• Who is the email for?
• Which recurring problem does it cover?
• What kind of help will arrive?
• How often will you send it?

“Ideas and insights for founders” could describe several newsletters; “a fortnightly teardown of how small software companies find their first customers” gives somebody enough information to decide.

The cadence depends on the work involved:

• Weekly suits material you already produce through customer work, research or a regular blog.
• Every two weeks is a strong default when one person is also building and selling the product.
• Monthly suits original data, substantial research or a field report that needs time.

The right starting cadence is the one that'll allow you to reach your audience without going insane.

One welcome email is enough

The first version needs clear signup consent, a recognizable sender and an address that accepts replies. Every email needs a working unsubscribe link. One welcome email will cover the period before launch; the fuller sequence begins when the product is live and readers have different next steps.

The welcome email can do four jobs:

1. Remind the reader what they requested.
2. Set an honest expectation for frequency.
3. Give them one relevant place to begin.
4. Ask one real question if the reply would improve the product or publication.

“What are you struggling with?” is broad enough to make replying feel like homework. “How are you handling stock reorders now?” gives both sides somewhere to begin.

The sequence comes later, when emails can support onboarding and respond to what a new user does. You don't need to fill seven empty automation boxes just because the software displays them.

The reader has already subscribed

A blog post is a public, searchable answer: a newsletter goes to somebody who already knows enough to subscribe, so it can be more direct and personal. The same work can be repurposed without feeling like repetition.

One issue might teach a method. Another could examine a customer question, a decision you made or a finding from your research. Each email needs one job and one main action when an action belongs there. Some can finish with the idea or invite a reply.

The subject line sets an expectation for the email. Specific language usually gives you more to learn from, and U.S. law prohibits deceptive subject lines in commercial email anyway.

The first readers are close to the work

The signup form belongs on the website and beneath relevant blog posts, where somebody already reading about the subject can choose to hear from you again. Existing social accounts can let followers know that the newsletter exists. You can also invite customers or professional contacts individually when the subject is genuinely relevant to them, but they should choose to subscribe; knowing somebody, or having their business card, is not permission to add them to a list.

Partnerships work when another publication serves an overlapping reader. On Substack, Recommendations can appear after signup and on publication pages; Notes can introduce a short observation beyond the email list. A small test may include a few Notes or one collaboration, followed by a record of what happened. A daily posting regime is unnecessary unless you would choose to spend your time there anyway.

A lead magnet can come later, once repeated questions show which problem deserves a template, guide or tool. Newsletter consent should be visible at signup so the download doesn't smuggle somebody onto a list they never asked to join.

Paid subscriptions and sponsorships can also wait until readers repeatedly return. Both Substack and Beehiiv support paid publication models; turning one on still requires a solid reason somebody would pay.

The sending setup needs care

Your email provider should help configure three records on the sending domain so you don't get blocked as spam:

Google's current sender guidance requires SPF or DKIM for all senders to personal Gmail accounts, with SPF, DKIM, DMARC and one-click unsubscribe required at its bulk-sender threshold. I would set up all three records from the beginning, then check that they're working rather than assuming the email platform handled it.

A sending subdomain such as news.example.com can separate newsletters from receipts or one-to-one company email. Amazon Web Services recommends separate subdomains because each can develop its own reputation. This reduces the risk of one type of email damaging another; it doesn't make the main domain untouchable.

New domains and large imported lists need a gradual start. Google's advice is to begin with low volume to engaged recipients, send consistently and increase slowly. A small waitlist growing naturally has no need for an elaborate warm-up theater involving emails to twelve accounts you created yourself.

The permission rules depend on where the subscriber lives:

This chapter uses a stricter operating rule across the whole list. The newsletter goes to people who knowingly subscribed, the sender is clear and leaving is easy. The relevant regulator or legal advice should guide any list that crosses jurisdictions, and we'd always recommend you adhere to the most stringent level of governance.

The measurements serve different jobs

Record where subscribers came from, then review the issue according to its job.

Open rate can help compare subject lines or reveal a change in the same list, but it isn't a clean count of people who read. Apple Mail Privacy Protection downloads remote content in the background whether the recipient engages or not, which can register activity without a human opening the message.

The result record should include the subject line so that similar emails can be compared. A higher open rate paired with more unsubscribes or no customer action may mean the subject line suggested something the email didn't deliver. The dashboard can show a pattern, although reassurance remains the work of a supportive aunt.

Your first newsletter operating brief

Your output is a first newsletter operating brief. Begin with the intended reader and a plain explanation of what they will receive, then record the platform, cadence and signup copy. The brief also holds the welcome email, first issue outline, subscriber route, delivery checks and blank measurement fields.

I'm preparing the first version of my permission-based email list and newsletter.
Use the attached operating brief, my positioning and any source material I
provide. Don't publish, send email, import contacts or change any account.

Return:
1. My intended reader and a clear explanation of what they will receive, in my language.
2. A platform recommendation between Substack, Beehiiv and a conventional
   email platform, with the reason and any information still missing.
3. Signup-form copy that says what I'll send and how often.
4. One welcome email that reminds the reader why they subscribed, gives them
   one relevant next step and asks one specific question where a reply would
   help me learn.
5. A connected outline for the first issue, using my source material without
   inventing experience, facts, results or customer stories.
6. One legitimate route to the first subscribers and, if relevant, one small
   Substack or Beehiiv growth test.
7. A checklist for consent, unsubscribe, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and gradual sending,
   with anything requiring legal or technical review marked clearly.
8. Blank fields for list health, reader response and customer action.

Keep cold outreach and multi-step nurture sequences out. Leave unknowns
unresolved and stop with the prepared brief for my review.

Preparing the brief completes the chapter. The first send remains your decision; the next chapter covers cold outreach, where the recipient didn't subscribe and different rules apply from the first line.