Rare Beauty’s “anonymous insider” spills the tea on their new Substack

I’ve not too long ago been utilizing Substack to search out new music to take heed to. That’s in all probability not fairly what its founders had in thoughts, but it surely has a ton of newsletters written by individuals who simply actually love music. It’s much less skilled music criticism and extra “hey, this album was nice, give it a hear.”

That’s not the one off-label use for Substack. At present’s grasp of selling can also be a Substack fan — and she or he took a giant threat with it.

Meet the Grasp

MacKenzie Kassab

Director of Artistic Technique, Rare Beauty

Declare to fame: Launched Uncommon Magnificence’s “semi-authorized” Substack newsletter

Lesson 1: Get interested in your personal product.

Novelty wears off quick if you’re within the trenches.

“Working within the workplace, [our product] is one thing” — a brand new blush, say — “that we‘re round on a regular basis. We go to conferences about how merchandise are made each week,” Kassab tells me. “It doesn’t really feel essentially thrilling from the within if you’re in it for a yr and a half.”

However your viewers’s first peek at a brand new product? That’s magical.

Once you’re brainstorming new content material, give it some thought out of your shoppers’ perspective. What are you aware that they don’t? For those who’re advertising a brand new services or products, what acquired you enthusiastic about it within the first place?

Despite the fact that Kassab may attend weekly conferences a couple of new product, she’s not essentially there each step of the best way. So for her newsletters, she takes the chance “to search out out a few of the bloopers, or [other] issues that occurred.”

For one e-newsletter, Kassab sat down with Uncommon Magnificence’s chief product officer to get the inside track on how the newest blush came to be. One cause they developed a powder blush? Some clients discovered Uncommon Magnificence’s famed liquid blush too pigmented. Not one thing you’ll hear most magnificence firms admit.

“To share these and see how excited folks get [about this information] — that’s actually rewarding and makes it attention-grabbing.”

Lesson 2: Embrace your imperfections.

Like a center schooler with their first palette, the highway to the proper liquid blush is lined with some extremely pigmented errors.

It’s tempting to brush these beneath the rug, however keep in mind: All people loves a blooper reel. Whether or not it’s out of your fav TV present or it’s a couple of new lipstick, sharing errors breaks down the artifice between shopper and producer. Form of a “Celebrities, they’re identical to us!” to your advertising technique.

Plus, it brings a human component to her newsletters.

“We’re displaying the trials and tribulations of creating a product. So I believe embracing the concept whilst a giant model, we’re not good both — we hit bumpy roads and issues prove okay in the long run,” Kassab says. “I hope that type of factor is encouraging.”

Lesson 3: Respect the platform.

Kassab’s concept to launch a Uncommon Magnificence Substack e-newsletter had a easy origin: She was already a Substack fan.

Designed to publish particular person voices, Substack has constructed a neighborhood that jogs my memory a little bit of early social media — again when everyone was having a superb time as a substitute of doomscrolling ourselves to sleep each night time. It’s a spot that tends to worth good writing over self-promotion. Introducing a model voice to that ecosystem was at all times going to be a threat.

However in some methods, Kassab isn’t a model voice. That’s underscored by her cheeky Gossip Lady-esque signoffs, the “semi-authorized” nameless byline, and even by how lean her staff is. (“It’s a really scrappy staff,” she says. “It’s me.”) Despite the fact that she’s representing Uncommon Magnificence, she’s nonetheless a solo content material creator.

Don’t fear, the lesson right here isn’t to cut back all your content material to 1 particular person. (Except you’re a very small enterprise, please don’t do this; I encourage on behalf of writers all over the place.)

For those who’re going to take a threat like Kassab and Uncommon Magnificence did, take into consideration the worth that customers are getting from the platform — and work with that, not in opposition to it.

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Query

What’s your favourite factor about advertising that may’t be simply measured? —Brenna Loury, CMO, Doist

This Week’s Reply

Kassab: The emotional connection. I really like the best way advertising could make folks really feel one thing. It could possibly be inspiration, motivation, curiosity, nostalgia, or only a second of pleasure. For us it comes all the way down to self-acceptance and belonging. That connection drives all the pieces we do, irrespective of how inconceivable it’s to quantify (though I’m certain AI is attempting).

Serving to even one particular person in our neighborhood really feel seen and comfy of their pores and skin—I really like a lot about my work, however that’s actually what offers all of it which means.

Subsequent Week’s Lingering Query

Kassab asks: What’s your least favourite a part of your job, and the way do you encourage your self to get by way of it?