How to Grow Your Course Audience Using Substack

Sign up at substack.com and create a new publication. Choose a name that signals your topic area clearly. If you teach mindfulness to healthcare professionals, "Mindful Practice" tells a potential subscriber exactly what they're getting. Avoid clever abstractions that require explanation.

Write a one-sentence description for your about page. State who it's for and what they'll get. "A weekly newsletter for yoga teachers who want to bring their teaching online" is better than "Exploring the intersection of ancient wisdom and digital transformation."

Substack has over 35 million active subscriptions. To stand out, you need a specific angle that connects to your course topic. You're not writing a general newsletter about education or wellness — you're writing for the specific audience you'll eventually teach.

The angle should make it obvious why you are the right person to write this. Your experience is the differentiator. Lean into it.

Every post should teach something. Not tease something, not hint at something you'll cover in your course — actually teach it. Give away your best thinking. People who learn from your free writing are more likely to pay for structured, guided learning, not less. The newsletter shows them what you know. The course gives them the how.

Aim for a consistent publishing cadence — weekly is ideal, biweekly is fine. Each post should leave the reader with something they can use immediately.

Your first 100 subscribers will come from people who already know you — existing email contacts, social media followers, colleagues, past clients. Send a personal note to each one. A brief, direct message converts better than a polished launch campaign.

After that initial wave, growth comes from three channels: Substack's recommendation network, sharing individual posts on social media (not "subscribe to my newsletter" but links to specific useful articles), and word of mouth from readers who forward your posts.

Once your course exists (or you're ready to announce it), weave it into your newsletter content without turning every post into a sales pitch. Reference the course when it's relevant: "This is one of the frameworks we work through in detail in the course." A good cadence: mention your course in roughly one out of every four or five posts.

You have two options. Substack's built-in paid subscription model lets you put some posts behind a paywall — good for ongoing written content. But it's not a course. For an actual course with lessons, activities, discussions, and a defined learning arc, link from your Substack posts to an enrollment page on your course platform.

Substack's recommendation feature lets you suggest other publications to your subscribers, and others can recommend yours. Find five to ten publications in adjacent topics and reach out. A brief, specific note about why your audiences overlap works better than a generic request.

Recommendations show up on the post-subscription confirmation page and in discovery feeds — both high-intent moments. A single recommendation from a well-matched publication can bring in dozens of new subscribers over time.

Every post is a chance to test ideas that might become course material. Pay attention to which posts get the most engagement — replies, comments, shares. Those topics are candidates for course modules. Your readers are telling you what they want to learn.

Substack lets you pin a "welcome email" that new subscribers receive automatically. Use it to link to your three or four best posts — the ones that define your perspective. New subscribers get an immediate sense of your quality instead of waiting for the next issue.

Students who finish your course are ideal newsletter subscribers — they already know your teaching style. And newsletter readers who enroll become more engaged subscribers afterward. Invite course graduates to subscribe, and mention the newsletter in your course materials as a way to stay connected.

Your subscribers are on Substack's infrastructure. You can export your email list at any time, but the recommendation network, app distribution, and community features are tied to the platform. If Substack changes its terms or business model, your distribution changes with it. Keep a backup of your subscriber list.

Unlike dedicated email marketing tools like Kit, Substack doesn't let you segment your list by behavior, tag subscribers based on what they click, or build multi-step automated sequences. You can send posts to everyone or to paid subscribers only. If you need targeted messaging, Substack can't do that.

If you use Substack's paid tier, they keep 10% of your subscription revenue on top of Stripe's processing fees. If you're using Substack only for free audience building and selling courses elsewhere, this doesn't apply — but it's worth knowing.