Caroline Chambers, Substack’s top cooking creator, doesn’t have time to be online 24/7.
“I’m not a TikToker. I am a mother of four,” Chambers, the writer behind the “What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking” blog, told Business Insider in an interview.
Social media, however, is fueling the growth of her Substack. Since launching her newsletter in December 2020, Chambers has accumulated over 568,000 subscribers and is the No. 1 food publication on the platform.
“I’m hiring for the first time ever a social media person,” Chambers said.
Chambers is part of a broader trend of Substackers — and the platform itself — leaning into video and social media. Substack has emphasized new tools for livestreaming, podcasts, and in-app video — and is even providing some funding for new shows.
Instagram is the “biggest converter” for paid subscribers, Chambers said. Largely, that’s because of the video content she’s posted there, which drives new subscribers to her older recipes on Substack.
Under the hood, Chambers is using Manychat, a tool that turns comments on an Instagram post into direct messages that can direct people to outside links. There’s a free tier for Manychat, though it can cost creators between $17 and $200 a month to unlock all of the startup’s tools, including its AI features (Chambers subscribes to the highest tier).
Here’s how it works. On many of Chambers’ cooking videos, she includes a simple direction in the caption: Comment [whatever she’s cooking] and I’ll send you the recipe! Within seconds, users get a direct message from Caroline’s account with a link to her Substack recipe.
Immediately, those Instagram views can convert into (ideally paid) Substack subscribers.
It’s a flywheel that is crucial to Chambers’ overall 7-figure business.
Like many entrepreneurs in the creator economy, Chambers relies on a mix of several revenue streams to make a living. Subscriptions on Substack are still the biggest slice of the pie, she said, followed by brand partnerships, cookbook sales and contracts, and then affiliate marketing.
More video, more business
While Substack has bolstered writers’ careers with newsletters, video has become increasingly important.
Chambers is leaning into this shift by posting video content on Substack and on social media platforms like Instagram.
Livestreamed cooking demos, for instance, are a perk for Chambers’ top-paying subscription tier. She said doing a joint livestream with another Substacker is also a “growth tool to cross-promote audiences” if both creators send notifications to their subscribers.
Jeremy Cohen; Courtesy of Substack
Chambers is getting ready to launch a new, “highly produced” video series this summer. It’ll live on both Substack and YouTube, and videos posted to the latter will strategically drive people back to Chambers’ Substack.
“For instance, YouTube won’t have the recipe on it,” she said. This mirrors her approach on Instagram.
Substack’s investment in video is one way to keep people coming back to its content. According to the platform, people who come to Substack via audio or video creators are “50% more likely to subscribe to additional publications.” The company also launched a TV app at the start of the year.
Substack is helping Chambers cover some of the show’s production costs. Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie recently told Business Insider that the platform would provide “infrastructure” for select creators.
“We’re not putting the thumbs on the scale in terms of distribution, but we can help certain people like Caroline who really want to do a show,” McKenzie said.
