How to Send Email to Subscribers from within Substack
On Communication and Sub-optimal User Experiences.
Have you ever wondered if there's a way to email someone on Substack without revealing your email id? Well, I did, and I discovered a convoluted path that works!
So, I'm sharing this to save you the trouble of finding this hidden feature.
Scenario
You receive an email from one of your subscribers addressed to the email ID defined in your publication's settings. The header will show the From field as your subscriber’s email id, followed by the "via mg2.substack.com" suffix.
The "To:" field usually defaults to the email ID defined under ‘Basics’ in the publication Settings page. Defaults are set to publicationsitename@substack.com. Below is a screenshot for my other publication, helloIndia! and I assume you have it set so you want to hear from someone!
Now the email has landed in your account email id’s Inbox. If you reply from it, your private email id becomes visible. If you don’t care, then I'm not sure the rest of this post is for you.
But if you want to camouflage your email id, then head over to the ‘Subscribers’ section of the ‘Dashboard.’
Search or select the subscriber who has emailed you.
Once you select the specific user, the menu expands to below:
Select "Email" to get an editor that resembles the post editor.
You can either copy their original email text from your private email inbox or simply refer to it in your reply. Here’s a sample note I wrote to Tom, a future founding member subscriber who may be out there! ;-)
Click on “View email recipients,” to confirm the name. It opens in a new browser tab, showing the selected name. Ignore the “Send another hoc email” nudge.
Return to the previous tab where your message is being edited and hit “Send email,” then confirm you want to send it on the pop-up menu.
Voila! Your email is sent, and you are returned to the main ‘Dashboard’ menu where you now see this:
You might worry that you have accidentally posted to your site and emailed all your subscribers, but you haven’t. Just to Tom! An email is treated as a post! When Tom replies, his email response is forwarded to your inbox from his direct email id.
Bonus
You can, of course, go through the same process to reach out to any of your subscribers directly while remaining behind your Substack email id. Follow the same steps above and select different names.
Caveat
If you have subscribed to another writer’s publication, they already have your id!
Conclusion
Substack should have enabled direct messages on the platform as an option and avoided these shenanigans!
A clumsy workaround that works!
An even better workaround? Get an email account with any free provider (try Proton!) using a hello@newslettername email as id, and share it freely with your subscribers!
If you found this useful, please let me know!
I love this. Thanks.
Thank you thank you thank you!!