How to use Subscribe buttons to grow your Substack

Encouraging your readers to sign up with simple calls to action

When you’re publishing a post on Substack, it’s a best practice to drop a Subscribe now or Subscribe with caption button into the post. Those can be found by clicking on Buttons in the editor menu:

The benefit of using these buttons is that they transform dynamically based on the status of the reader who’s viewing them, without you having to actively do anything.

Readers who are not subscribed and view your posts on the web while logged into Substack will see the Subscribe button and a typeable field pre-filled with the email address attached to their Substack account, making it super-easy to sign up for your publication.

Readers who are not subscribed and view your posts on the web while not logged into Substack will see it as a typable field where they can put in their email address:

The Subscribe button will dynamically turn into an Upgrade to paid button if the reader looking at it already has a free subscription to your publication. Substack automatically recognizes that the reader is free-subscribed and shows the button as Upgrade to paid rather than as Subscribe, whether the reader is looking at it in email or on the web. 

Below is an example from Substack writer Anne Helen Petersen. Because I’m a subscriber to her publication, when I view her posts on Substack while logged in, the Subscribe button appears as Upgrade to Paid:

(You won’t see an Upgrade to paid button while looking at your own Subtack, because as the owner of the publication, you can't have a paid subscription. You're automatically considered by the Substack system as "lifetime paid" by default.)

If paid subscribers view the button, for them it appears as Subscribed with a checkmark:

On Substack, you can use the Subscribe now and Subscribe with caption buttons with confidence, knowing that they won’t be confusing for readers. The buttons are dynamic, and what a reader sees will depend on their status. So, they’ll see the right message based on whether they’re not yet signed up, a free subscriber, or a paying supporter of your work.