15+ years of building resilient marketing operations and enablement teams had, ironically, left me feeling like I’d lost my voice. So when I started my newsletter two years ago, I’d hoped it would help me find it again by forcing me to write regularly. The only thing to do, I’d reasoned, was to get to it—open the valve and start flushing out the gunk.
That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for a couple of years now, and it’s turned into a built-in-public multimedia platform called Unobstructed. It even led to competing in The Moth’s StorySLAM competitions and getting featured on GBH’s Stories From The Stage. However, showing what it’s like to design and evolve an editorial system hasn’t been without its challenges… especially since I’m focused on prioritizing clarity, voice, and trust.
So, here’s a look at one of the hurdles I faced with brand consistency; specifically with publishing through Substack.
The email header/banner image.
This is the thing that shows up above everything else in the email—title, subtitle, name, any featured image(s) in the body etc. I’ve been using a wordmark with just “Unobstructed” in black text on a white background, which I like, because it kind of gives newspaper vibes.
The slight hiccup:
I initially got stuck because you can’t set different email headers for different sections of a Substack publication (aka each of the columns within Unobstructed). Having recently introduced a new monthly column, “Breaking Trail,” written by a new contributor, Caleb Walker, I wanted to differentiate it (slightly), but without confusing people. Even though I announced and promoted it, some folks only skim and/or don’t fully comprehend updates until they’re directly face-to-face with them.
Especially since it’s still new, I didn’t want the column name + Caleb’s name to catch people by surprise like, “what is this? I never subscribed to something called “Breaking Trail”? And who’s Caleb?”
So here’s what I did about it.
But first, some context:
I send the email version of my daily column, “Kickturn,” via an automated trigger on my own website, which is hosted through HubSpot. I also make it available on Substack, but it doesn’t get sent via email through Substack so it doesn’t inherit the Substack email header settings. Instead, I use a wordmark as an image in the body text that reads “Kickturn” so it shows up at the top of the page like a column header.
And, I use the same typeface as the newspaper-vibed wordmark of the whole Unobstructed publication.
Like this.
Here’s an example of my daily column, Kickturn, sent via email, from my website/HubSpot:
Here’s the same example, but viewed on Substack via desktop:
See the difference?
Potential solution(s):
I tinkered with how best to format our new column, “Breaking Trail,” since it gets published both via email through Substack, where the publication’s universal header settings are in effect, and online through Substack, where the header settings don’t apply.
Wanting to maintain consistency with the other columns of the publication, I thought it best to try for something that incorporated visual hierarchy, while following the naming conventions and guidelines already in use. So I opted for keeping the universal email header, and then adding a column-specific wordmark below a brief block of introduction text. That way, it also serves as the preview text displayed in an email inbox, its branding is recognizable once opened, and the transition into the new column is distinct, without feeling disruptive.
Here’s what the new monthly column looks like via email, sent from Substack:
And here’s how it appears online, web-hosted via Substack:
As always, this is a work-in-progress.
But small steps stack up, and tiny tweaks turn into big accomplishments.
-onward.
If you enjoyed reading and want more of this kind of thing, I write short reflections like it each day as part of my daily column.
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