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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.
Claim to fame: Launched Rare Beauty’s “semi-authorized” Substack newsletter
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.”
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 in the end,” Kassab says. “I hope that kind of thing is encouraging.”
Kassab’s idea to launch a Rare Beauty Substack newsletter had a simple origin: She was already a Substack fan.
Designed to publish individual voices, Substack has built a community that reminds me a bit of early social media — back when everybody was having a good time instead of doomscrolling ourselves to sleep every night. It’s a place that tends to value good writing over self-promotion. Introducing a brand voice to that ecosystem was always going to be a risk.
But in some ways, Kassab isn’t a brand voice. That’s underscored by her cheeky Gossip Girl-esque signoffs, the “semi-authorized” anonymous byline, and even by how lean her team is. (“It’s a very scrappy team,” she says. “It’s me.”) Even though she’s representing Rare Beauty, she’s still a solo content creator.
Don’t worry, the lesson here isn’t to reduce all your content to one person. (Unless you are a very small business, please don’t do that; I beg on behalf of writers everywhere.)
If you’re going to take a risk like Kassab and Rare Beauty did, think about the value that users are getting from the platform — and work with that, not against it.
What is your favorite thing about marketing that can’t be easily measured? —Brenna Loury, CMO, Doist
Kassab: The emotional connection. I love the way marketing can make people feel something. It could be inspiration, motivation, curiosity, nostalgia, or just a moment of joy. For us it comes down to self-acceptance and belonging. That connection drives everything we do, no matter how impossible it is to quantify (although I’m sure AI is trying).
Helping even one person in our community feel seen and comfortable in their skin—I love so much about my work, but that’s really what gives it all meaning.
Kassab asks: What’s your least favorite part of your job, and how do you motivate yourself to get through it?
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