My Substack Wishlist: 7 Features I'd Love to See
Overall, the benefits outweigh the shortcomings for the type of content I want to create and my overall goals. No harm in wishing, though, right?
Having recently moved my App Chat newsletter to Substack, I've got a few wishlist items for Substack. It's great that they've added chat, cross-posts, and @ mentions. Here are 7 other things I'd love to see added.
1) An API/webhooks/Zapier integration
This must be pretty high up there in terms of feature requests they get from their users. At the very least, the ability to add subscribers to Substack when they sign up elsewhere, and vice versa, would be SO helpful.
2) Saved sections/snippets
I have several types of sections that I include in my newsletter. I'd love a way to save them as templates and insert them more easily. Otherwise, I'm copying and pasting from past newsletters. Ghost calls these content snippets.
3) Pretty link previews/embeds
Ghost does this well with their bookmark cards. You literally paste a link, then you get a nice preview. Even Revue makes this pretty easy. There's no great way to do this with Substack, unfortunately.
4) Social preview separate from the featured image
Currently, what you choose as the featured image will also be the social preview image. You won't always want these identical, especially if you include newsletter info in the image.
5) Customize the embedded signup form
If I can't automate subscribers from elsewhere, I'd at least love a nicer embedded signup form. There are no styling options, and the Substack logo is in there. I'd love more customizability.
6) Email/web/app-only sections
I'd love a way to include text that is only visible in particular versions of the post. That could be email, web, and/or in the app. There are several reasons you might want this flexibility, especially email-only.
7) Segmentation of some sort
While there's not always a need for a tool like ConvertKit, it would be nice to have some basic segmentation regarding what type of content subscribers are interested in.
Would help open/unsubscribe rates, I imagine.
Wrapping Up
Alright, that's a few of the things I've come across in my short time on Substack!
Overall, the benefits outweigh the shortcomings for the type of content I want to create and my overall goals.
No harm in wishing, though, right?