Originally published on The Strategic Ampersand Substack · 7/24/26

At the end of last week’s article, I mentioned there’s a distinction between a newsletter and Substack. Let’s jump right in, feet first:

On a traditional newsletter platform - Mailchimp, Beehiiv, Flodesk, take your pick - you own your subscriber list. If the platform were to disappear tomorrow, change its pricing, or simply stop being the right fit for your needs (yes, you can outgrow your newsletter platform’s services), you export your subscriber file and keep going. The relationship survives the platform.

Substack works differently. It gives you something genuinely valuable: built-in discovery. Its recommendation engine and one-click subscribe make it easier to be found than almost any other newsletter tool available. But you don’t own the list the way you’d own a list on a dedicated platform; the relationship is mediated - and owned - by Substack itself.

Are there issues with its algorithm? Like many other platforms, the short answer is yes. Substack wants to keep its writers and readers happy, and like other platforms, it fidgets often with “discoverability” for those with smaller audiences.

Do some brands send out something they call a newsletter that's really just a scroll of Instagram-ready graphics with nothing to read? Yes to that too - and it’s so frustrating since it’s the exact same thing that’s already on social. A newsletter is not a “we need to send something out STAT” feed. If there's no actual content, it's not a newsletter. It's a slideshow that happened to land in an inbox. (And yes, that's a hill I'll die on.)

TWO DIFFERENT JOBS

A traditional newsletter platform is built for control: formatting, advanced segmentation, A/B testing, automated welcome sequences, tagging based on behavior and/or location. It’s the tool of choice when the newsletter needs to integrate tightly with everything else, like your CRM, website, and sales funnel.

Substack is built for simplicity and community: a clean writing experience, built-in comment section, recommendations from other writers, and a growth engine that doesn’t require you to already have an audience. Underneath the polish, it’s still a fairly basic tool; no advanced segmentation, automated workflows, or welcome sequences.

One is the relationship you already have. The other is how new people find you in the first place. One doesn’t replace the other.

SO WHICH ONE DO YOU NEED

Here’s the simple version: if your goal right now is discovery - building an audience from a standing start, being found by readers already looking for something like you - start on Substack.

If your goal is ownership and deep segmentation - a list you control entirely, tied into a broader marketing stack - build on a dedicated newsletter platform.

Most brands eventually need both, yet they’re used for different jobs. And the real question underneath the platform choice isn’t really “which tool to use;” it’s “how do you show your expertise and get people back to your website?”

A newsletter is built for the brands who want a robust, individual-based relationship with their audience - direct contact, regular updates, clear asks, real insight, delivered with ease. Most companies want exactly this kind of interaction.

Substack, on the other hand, is where think pieces live - show-not-tell opportunities, industry perspective, the kind of writing that draws someone in and then points them back to the brand itself. For some brands, Substack is the destination, which is a perfectly valid answer, as long as it’s a deliberate one.

WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE

FOR A PRODUCT
Jones Soda recently launched its 2026 collaboration with Crayola; a limited-edition six-pack built around Crayola’s color palette, part of Jones’s 30th anniversary “Dirty 30” celebration. It’s not a one-off stunt; it’s a returning partnership, now in its second year, part of a deliberate strategy the company describes as building momentum through partnerships that “authentically align” with the brand.

If I were working on Jones Soda's launch strategy, here's what I'd put into motion:

Newsletter: the announcement, a possible promo code for early orders, and a direct thank-you to the loyal subscriber base, all ensuring they’re first to know.
Social: reveal posts across social platforms, Meta paid campaigns picking up the momentum.
Substack: the deeper story; a piece from the CMO, maybe an interview with Jones’s flavor development lead and Crayola’s brand partnerships team, on how a 30-year-old craft soda brand decided a crayon collab was the right way to mark this anniversary.

FOR A NONPROFIT
An NPO is prepping to launch a campaign to drive awareness of its services, the communities it serves, and a specific campaign goal.

If I were leading launch strategy for this campaign, here's what I'd put into motion:

Newsletter: segmented by donor level, volunteers, and other interested groups — each version crafted so that audience feels recognized for their specific commitment to the organization.
Social: organic and paid campaign elements across social, both reminding current followers and reaching new audiences.
Substack: staggered interviews with the people doing the work - client-facing and administrative staff, client stories, community partners - alongside what’s been accomplished since the last campaign and what this one will make possible next.

Same shape, two different worlds. The newsletter rewards the people already close to the brand. Social creates the buzz. Substack gives the story room to breathe - and gives a new reader, discovering the organization for the first time through the platform’s recommendation engine, a reason to become one of the people the next newsletter goes to.

BRING THEM HOME

Here’s where a lot of companies and organizations miss an opportunity: the newsletter can be posted on the website under a “Newsletters” page, and after the portion that sits above the fold, a note can be added, such as: “subscribe now to see the full newsletter and visit our archive.” And if you do choose to publish the full newsletter on the site - but it included a promo code - take that code out. I cannot stress this enough. That's a key subscription benefit, and it should stay one.

What’s published on Substack can be copied over to the website under “Articles” a few days later, for the site’s SEO/GEO benefit.

The main key: get both newsletter and Substack subscribers back to the website. The more familiar and comfortable someone becomes with a site, the more likely they are to trust the organization and return to the site. (That’s where UX steps in, but that’s a completely different piece.)

The two are very different in what they offer. But they’re working toward the same goal: building and maintaining a relationship with the people already paying attention, while giving new audiences a real reason to start.

The introduction and the relationship are two different things. The tactics are the easy part. Knowing why you're using each one for your brand, specifically is the actual strategy.

Learn More About: