Substack was once just a niche platform for independent writers, but in recent years it has emerged as a valuable channel in today's marketing ecosystem. Major brands like Walmart are sponsoring newsletters on the platform, while others like Shopify are launching their own altogether. What they’re seeking is the brand awareness and relationship building opportunities that come along with the direct, personality-driven content newsletters can uniquely offer.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering how big of an opportunity Substack is for your brand or how others are actually leveraging the platform in practice. Read on to learn exactly how leading brands are making the most of this promising channel and what that means for you.
Social media mentions of Substack have increased by about 30% over the past six months.
How popular is Substack?
Meltwater Explore data shows that Substack is a hot topic, generating over 5 million social media mentions from November 1, 2025, to April 29, 2026. That’s a nearly 30% increase compared to the six months prior.
About 46% of those mentions came from Bluesky, with another 38% coming from X. Both text-based platforms lend themselves well to writers and brands promoting their own newsletters, as well as the kind of back-and-forth discussion that long-form, written content can inspire.
However, despite smaller shares of voice, even the visual-first platforms of YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest generate notable volumes of Substack mentions. Collectively, those three platforms racked up over 457,000 in the six-month period analyzed.
This screenshot from the Meltwater platform shows the caption of Charli XCX’s now-deleted Instagram post promoting her Substack page.
In fact, Instagram was the source of the post that drove the most engagement overall. Charli XCX promoted her Substack essay examining the concept of “cool” and commodification in a now-deleted Instagram post that generated over 443,000 likes and 1,700 comments, likely inspiring a slew of new subscriptions to “charli’s substack” in the process.
How Do Brands Use Substack?
Today, brands are primarily using Substack for marketing in three ways:
- Sponsorships: These are essentially influencer partnerships, with brands letting writers take the content creation lead in introducing them to audiences.
- Branded Newsletters: These are editorial operations providing regular, valuable content, often across different verticals. The heaviest lift option, they nevertheless offer an opportunity to cultivate an engaged community around your brand.
- Founder and CEO Newsletters: These are the personal projects of brand leaders with something to say. They can be unpolished and wide-ranging, super niche, brand-focused, or even only tangentially related to the brand.
Each one offers a different balance of investment and audience ownership for brands looking to tap into Substack’s ecosystem.
Sponsorships
Many brands reach Substack audiences via partnerships with existing newsletters and writers. This kind of setup isn’t exactly new. As we covered in our previous roundup of brands on Substack, several companies have had established newsletter sponsorships on the platform at least as far back as 2024. However, with the platform’s new native sponsorship program and continued user growth we may see even more organizations adopting this model.
As with all content creator partnerships, the key to success here is brand fit. Luckily for brands, there are 50,000 monetized Substack newsletters to choose from, with five million paying subscribers and tens of millions more reading for free.
Brands are linking up with the platform’s most successful writers and communities to promote specific initiatives and campaigns, as well as boost general visibility. Take for example:
- Walmart inviting a popular daily business newsletter cover its small business initiative event, Open Call
- Banana Republic featuring a dedicated section highlighting its Friends and Family sale within an issue of a lifestyle newsletter
- Hinge providing data from its Gen-Z dating report for a special edition of a popular personal newsletter
- Lenovo having its Yoga Tab Plus AI tablet mentioned in this essay about writing in a digital culture newsletter
- Sutter Home having its wines included in a short video within this recipe post on a cooking newsletter
- Brooklinen helping a fashion and culture newsletter to do a subscription giveaway
What makes the best brand sponsorships work is seamless integration. Audiences are there to follow the writers, so brands should blend into the experience or enhance it with perks like free access to newsletters that are normally gated. Overall, the sponsorship route is a lower lift than dedicated newsletters that gives brands the opportunity to work with multiple writers reaching different niche audiences.
Branded Newsletters
Fashion and beauty brands like Rare Beauty, Madewell, and Shopify are creating Substacks that are full-on digital magazines. As such, they feature mixes of content types, like interviews, personal essays, product spotlights, and behind-the-scenes features, that can maintain readers’ attention over time and build trust along the way.
Though branded newsletters require much more resource investment than sponsorships, they also offer more possibilities for brand- and community-building in the long term.
Rare Beauty’s Substack page includes Mental Health as a main content pillar alongside Community and Beauty.
For example, Rare Beauty’s Substack naturally covers beauty and the company’s inner workings, but it also allows the brand to highlight mental health as a pillar of its identity. Articles about wellness and self-care are regular offerings, featuring guest writers working directly in the mental health field. As a result, Rare Beauty is able to regularly share resources with its fans and followers, supplementing the work it does through its associated impact fund focused on youth mental health services and education.
Meanwhile, Shopify’s Substack is geared for its audience of creators and entrepreneurs. Its newsletter issues highlight the small business using Shopify to build successful brands, like this one interviewing the founders of underwear brand Manmade. Through its celebration of its actual users through profiles and data-driven stories behind industry trends, Shopify gives readers valuable information that they can use in their own entrepreneurial journeys. The newsletter allows the brand to position itself as a small business resource and ally instead of just an e-commerce platform.
Though launching and maintaining a dedicated brand newsletter is no small task, it creates more sustained opportunities for community building and engagement than sponsorships alone.
Founder and CEO Newsletters
Some brands are driving exposure on Substack via their leaders’ newsletters. Less editorial and more bloggy, these personal dispatches offer readers the kind of candid perspectives and musings that serve to humanize the associated brand.
The Night Shade newsletter covers everything from shopping hauls to gift guides to styling tips, as well as the occasional mention of the author’s company Ghia.
One great example is Night Shade by Melanie Masarin, the founder and CEO of non-alcoholic apéritifs brand Ghia. The newsletter boasts over 13,000 subscribers, but not every post mentions the brand. In fact, many don’t, making the newsletter feel authentic instead of just another marketing channel. By bringing readers into her everyday through issues about birthday celebrations, styling tips, and the occasional peek into the inner workings of the company, Melanie successfully casts Ghia as more than just a brand, but an aspect of a mindful, joyful lifestyle.
For more inspiration, check out:
- A Little Bit of Everything by Rebecca Minkoff, founder of the eponymous fashion brand
- somstack by Alex Mill co-founder and creative director Somsack Sikhounmuong
- La Vie de Clare V. by Clare V. founder Clare Vivier
- Take Your Time by Crown Affair founder Dianna Cohen
If your brand has a founder or CEO who loves to write and share their perspectives with the world, a Substack may be a great option to highlight them.
How Do Brands Find Substack Newsletters to Sponsor?
Many brands use similar strategies for finding newsletters to partner with as they do for finding influencers. And in some cases, newsletter discovery and influencer discovery can be accomplished using the same tools.
For Meltwater influencer marketing users, the AI Discovery feature lets you streamline the scouting process based on your brand identity and campaign goals. Just type in what you are looking for, or even copy and paste a creative brief, and the tool will direct you to the best writers to help you reach your campaign goals.
Not a Meltwater user yet? Book a meeting today.
Should Your Brand Join Substack?
It depends. Substack’s audience is growing, but it is still a niche platform that not every brand or marketing team has the resources to maintain. For many brands interested in the platform, newsletter partnerships are the best route, allowing you to reach an existing audience without having to build one from scratch.
However, brands that are looking to experiment with dedicated Substacks or want to commit to the long haul, here are three essential questions to ask from the start.
1. What are your goals?
Looking to drive awareness? Build community? Support product launches? Publicize thought leadership? Whatever your objective is, clarifying it from the start will help you determine your approach and avoid time-consuming dead ends down the line.
2. What is the focus of your newsletter and your brand’s point of view?
Successful Substacks have a clear niche, perspective, and voice. Think about what your brand can offer. Is it expertise and exclusive insights? Storytelling and cultural commentary? And how does that all align with your broader brand identity? A clear niche and point of view is a launchpad for success, you can’t start without them!
3. What is your team or department’s capacity?
Creating a consistent, high-quality newsletter requires time, editorial direction, and continuous production. Make sure you have the resources to maintain a regular publishing cadence, or consider starting with partnerships before scaling into owned content.
Final Thoughts
The rise of Substack is part of a bigger shift in marketing where audiences are seeking out voices they can trust and going directly to them for their content and perspectives. Platforms like Substack are hubs for that shift in influence, where writers, creators, and brand leaders are able to directly access highly engaged audiences united by specific interests.
Substack isn’t a replacement for current marketing strategies and channels, but it’s an attractive venue for brands seeking to build influence with intentional audiences over time. The goal isn’t viral surges of clicks, but rather relationship building in an owned community.
The newsletter route isn’t for every brand, but for those with a solid brand identity and voice, it’s worth a closer look.
Frequently Asked Questions: Brands on Substack
What is Substack and why is it growing?
Substack is a newsletter publishing platform that allows writers, creators, and brands to distribute content directly to subscribers. Its growth is driven by demand for independent media and direct audience relationships.
How popular is Substack?
Substack is gaining traction, according to Meltwater data, with over 5 million social media mentions from Nov 1, 2025 to Apr 29, 2026, representing a 30% increase compared to the six months prior.
How are brands using Substack for marketing?
Brands typically use Substack in three ways:
- Sponsorships
- Branded newsletters
- Founder-led newsletters
Each one offers different balances of investment and audience ownership for brands looking to tap into Substack’s ecosystem.
Should every brand launch a Substack?
Not necessarily. Substack works best for brands with a clear voice and consistent content strategy. Additionally, dedicated newsletters require investment in continuous content creation. For many brands, newsletter sponsorship is the more feasible route.
How do brands find Substack newsletters to partner with?
Brands use influencer discovery and audience analysis tools to identify relevant newsletters. Meltwater’s AI Discovery feature streamlines this process by matching brands with influencers with Substack newsletters based on audience fit, content themes, and campaign goals.
What makes a successful Substack partnership?
Successful partnerships feel native to the writer’s voice and provide real value to readers.
What is the biggest opportunity for brands on Substack?
The biggest opportunity is building long-term, trust-based relationships with audiences. With Meltwater, brands can track how those relationships translate into engagement, sentiment, and overall brand impact.
