These 2 features are 🔥

, you rock for reading this!

How did I add your specific name to a Substack Article?

Did I just email each of you one by one???

I wish I had that type of time, but No. Noone has that much time on their hands!

This is the first feature or maybe more of a hack I want to share:

You can refer to your readers by first name!

This is what I wrote to get the first name in the line of this email

Read on for details and how to use this

xo,

Noemi

To clarify I’ve used this formula:

%% + first_name + %%

No “+” & no spaces

The %%variable%% syntax is a template tag or placeholder language commonly used in email marketing platforms (like Substack, Mailchimp, etc.) to dynamically insert subscriber-specific or publication-specific data.

How It Works:

• Double percent signs (%%) wrap the variable name (e.g., %% first_name %%).

• When the email/post is sent, Substack replaces the placeholder with the actual data (e.g., the subscriber’s first name or email).

• This is not a programming language, it’s a simple way for platforms to personalize content.

When you send your subscribers emails, you can now basically address each of them by name!

What else works?

%% publication_name %% (just remove the spaces)

What did not work?

• %%last_name%%

• %%email%%

• %%country%%

Write in the comments if you have found another syntax that works.

This is a widely used feature in email marketing and community building. I used to work in an online community and used this a lot. It is a pretty widespread practice to give group communications more of a personal touch. Now we have it also on Substack.

There is a problem with it….though

If most of your list consists of people

• from outside Substack

• with no substack account

• who added a funky name to their substack account

• or who add their publication name as their username…

They will see something weird like (see the screen print of the email I sent myself).

Is my name 538590?

No, Elon did not adopt me (yet)

So… use this hack sparingly, pls. It can turn ppl off.

How do I suggest you could use it safely??

Good that you ask!

This brings me to the second new feature.

In your Dashboard Subscriber Tab you have Subscriber Segmenting.

You can create custom Subscriber lists and save them to send more targeted, customized emails. These are 3 segments I quickly created.

You get a few defaults and you can create your own, just select “Start from scratch” and you can select and filter from a lot of data points.

So combining these two features…..You could create a list with all subscribers with a Substack account (i.e. those who have a human name - see if they have a profile picture → it’s good bet they will have a first name too- not always but often).

Then you will know it is safe to use the name formula there!

Or… you could also just risk it… your call!

That’s it for this week’s Substack tip. Let me know if you have found something new about Substack this is a group effort. Yana G.Y. thanks for sharing this tip.

Enjoy the rest of the week

Finally be able to show yourself proudly online. Just the way you are!

Included:

• pre audit research

• styling tips

• environment tips

• tech tips

• vocal tips

• q&a and action steps