Hey Reader,

Ever since we launched the Write • Build • Scale publication on Substack, we've been facing a challenge.

We talked to dozens of creators who have been on Substack for much longer than we have.

We even talked to the Substack team.

And we kept facing the same unsatisfying answer: There's no perfect solution.

The problem we faced was how to best combine Substack with the tools and platforms we've already been using for years.

Ever since we joined the platform, we wanted Substack to be an addition to our existing channels, not a replacement.

This means we're still sending our regular newsletter via Kit (like this email you're reading right now).

And we're publishing long-form content on Medium.

Even though our Substack publication stands on its own, we wanted it to be in sync with the rest of the business.

So after months of research, sweat, and tears, here's our 2025 game plan to combine:

• ​Substack​
• ​Medium​
• And Kit​

In 2025, I'll keep publishing deep dives, case studies, and detailed how-to guides on Medium (like this one on storytelling).

I put a lot of time into those deep dives, which means I rarely publish more than one or two a month.

Some of these posts will be republished on Substack (sometimes, they'll go live on Substack first - this will depend on the type of story and on our content schedule).

Apart from my occasional posts, my amazing co-founder Jari is currently publishing three posts a week on Substack:

• We send a free curated Monday post, which is a collection of inspiring Substack Notes (that's Substack's short-form content).
  ​
• A free post on Wednesdays.
  ​
• And a paid post or replay of a video workshop on Sundays.

Additionally, we publish several Notes per day.

Now here comes the trickier part: Combining Kit & Substack.

Many creators view Substack as an email marketing/newsletter tool - we don't.

For us, Substack is a growth and marketing channel but also our content "home base" - I know that's a vague description, so let me explain:

Substack lacks many features that are essential for our business:

• Landing pages (to offer freebies like this one)
  ​
• Sequences and automations (to send automated welcome series and run evergreen sales funnels to sell our digital products on autopilot)
  ​
• A proper tagging system (so we can segment our subscribers based on their preferences, buyer status, and much more)
  ​
• Integration options with other marketing and sales tools we're using (such as Teachable to sell our products, Webinarjam for our live trainings, or Clickfunnels for our sales pages)

This list is by far not complete, but it should give you a clear idea of why Substack can't replace a proper email service provider if you want to run a professional (and at least partially automated) online business.

Instead, Substack is:

• A social channel that allows us to reach thousands of new readers every month.
  ​
• And a blog/website where we host our best content.

We've already grown our audience on Substack to over 4k subscribers within half a year, which is a fantastic starting point.

For reference, I ran my first 5-figure product launch with less than 2,000 subscribers back in 2020.

So with 4,000 of the right subscribers, you essentially have a solid digital business.

But this still doesn't solve our initial problem of how to sync those 4,000 subscribers with the over 20,000 subscribers we had on our Kit list.

The problem is:

• There's no simple way to sync subscribers between Substack and Kit (or any other email service provider)
  ​
• Third-party integrations like Zapier work, but they're not flawless and might not work 100% of the time.
  ​
• And last but not least, there's a small percentage of subscribers who overlap since they're subscribed to both our list on Kit and our Substack publication, which makes it even more complex.

Our Kit <> Substack Solution (as of January 13, 2025)

After months of research and far too many conversations about this topic, this is the solution we're using:

From now on, all our Substack subscribers will be imported to our Kit list once per week.

This is a manual process that will take around five minutes per week:

• We export the subscribers of the past week from Substack.
  ​
• And import them to Kit with a tag that adds them to a welcome sequence, where they get notified about the import and have the chance to unsubscribe right away if they don't want to receive those emails.
  ​
• Subscribers who have been on our Kit list before get excluded through a condition in the automation.

If this is a problem you've been trying to solve as well, hit reply and let me know - I'd be happy to share more details if it can help you set up your own automation!

Since we have those imported subscribers tagged separately anyway, we'll exclude them from emails that are too similar to our content on Substack.

Plus, we're making sure our Kit emails go out at different times than our Substack emails, so there's no overlap.

If everything goes according to plan, this whole system will:

• Help us grow to tens of thousands of subscribers on Substack thanks to our short + long-form content.
  ​
• Grow our list on Kit to over 50k subscribers, which we use to run product launches. (We keep our Substack content mostly promotion free.)
  ​
• And repurpose content between Medium <> Substack <> Kit in an efficient way.

I know this is a lot of deep information, and to be fair, you should ignore all of this and just focus on showing up on ONE platform for at least 6 months if you're brand-new to the online writing world.

But I know that we also have many readers who are looking for the next stage in their creator careers, and I hope that this will give them new ideas on how to leverage the work they're already doing.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions (or suggestions for improvements 😆) to this whole system!
​
Big love from my screen to yours,
Sinem

PS. Here's your friendly Monday reminder to show up for yourself this week. 💕​