She's a hero!

📍 Pinning a 'hero post' to BOOST your free & paid readers on Substack

Oh my days, I can’t believe it but I’m celebrating 10k subscribers to Sparkle on Substack (8k from YOUR recommendations.) 💖

Thank you for supporting me to build my dream business and making

Sparkle on Substack

the most conscious and thoughtful place to be.

Sparklers,

This week’s 2025 Growth Lab post is on ‘Hero Posts’. ¹

When you arrive to Substack, you might hear this term. You think; goodness I just mastered the about page, I’ve not even looked at the settings page and now I have to make another thing? YES, yes you do! When you have time of course…

Hero posts are great for building awareness and driving conscious subscriptions. They show your reader who you are, they build trust and find you great fit readers.²

My hero post has been up since 24/9/24, it's driven 19 free subs. It's had 15 likes, which for me it pretty good. It is still being looked at as I still get a 'like' every so often. I always intended on doing a follow up just haven't done it yet, but recently I've finally had an idea for a hook to hang it on.

Rachel Goddard

Stats on my hero post before I took it down. It was up for over a year.

My pinned post to do list…

• Capture attention

• Encourage GREAT fit readers!

• Invite folks in.

• Demonstrate value, authority and ‘likability’ ³

• Add a photo/ use video…

Update - I tried a PINNED post for a couple of months and it didn’t drive anywhere near as many subs as my hero post so I wrote a new one…

✨

But Claire, where on earth do I start and after that how do I actually grow on Substack? ✨

Here’s three ways with a pinned/ hero post…

To make a quick hero post for your Substack publication…

1. Copy and paste the info from your about page into a post, add a photo of you so it pulls through and an inviting title and you’re done.

2. Check your best performing post and pin that… make sure the heading makes sense as an invite and the photo works. (this will also display in the app)

3. Write something SHORT and fresh, something that invites your audience to get to know you at a deeper level. Imagine they have forgotten everything they know about you.

4. See your Substack homepage as a WHOLE thing… where are you asking your reader’s eyes to go? Is it confusing eg 'x2 ‘start here’ or x1 ‘start here’ and x1 contents - fix that! Make the invite clear.

“I put up my hero post when I launched Poetry Pals 30.12.23 and it led to 108 free subs, 15 paid. I can’t tell whether that was all at the start but I’d imagine it was (they are people who joined in early on).”

Nelly Bryce

Top Tips

• Add photos (ideally of you) after you’ve emailed it out (to help delivery) OR

• Pin it to your profile without emailing it, test it’s effectiveness and email it later?

• Imagine the reader doesn’t know you but add some nice nuggets for those who do.

• Consider leaving comments turned off… don’t add external links, make the invite clear… subscribe!!

• Think carefully about the header text as this is ‘prime real’ estate. (see visuals below)

• Add two subscribe buttons. One after your first few lines.

“My pinned post has driven 116 free subscribers and 7 paid.”

Kate Harvey

Here’s some more great articles on Hero posts and layouts;

7 things I intentionally did in my hero post and why writers should pay attention

New ways to customize your Substack

Fav Five 🖐️ | Is this the one thing missing from your publication?

Here are some visual examples of hero posts I LOVE…

Note the clear friendly invite in the photos and text…

Louise gives us a snap shot of her cosy style with knits, a portrait, coffee and her logo.

Kate shows us she’s a compassionate professional with this relaxed garden and welcome page.

Emma puts the focus on us - the curious reader and reminds us of her dopamine dressing and her recent book.

Sarah uses a pro shot with a CLEAR welcome

Lucy gives us a start here and an invite to her and her brand, she also gives us a couple of other options… we can choose.

This one from

Anna Rose

over at

The Burnout Rebellion

is a video post and super brave. It brought 63 subscribers into her world.

Ready for it? Let’s pin hero posts!

Go a step further and make a video part of your hero post? I am trialling this at the moment and the views are up over 2500+. Ideally, you’d use Substack video, ask me more about that in the comments as I’m near the email limit. 😵

Hope this is useful to you today! If you like it, please like it and share to Notes if you feel called to. If you have a hero post already, drop it in the comments?

Claire

✨

PS - If you want a video tutorial on hero posts, you’ll find that in my A-Z library along with 40 hours of tutorials to support your joyful growth journey on Substack!

1. A hero post is a post front and centre on your Substack website that is the biggest, brightest, clearest invite to subscribe you can think of.

2. Remember unsubscribes can be from people who didn’t realise what they signed up for/ who you are in the world. A hero post gives you the opportunity to ‘get it right’.

3. I’ve talked about it before but my vision for Sparkle was not for EVERYONE to be here. I was one of the very first people I know to be talking about staying creative on Substack and educating on how to use it. That could have been a recipe for building a feast for locusts. Instead, I threw all the sparkle and cuteness I could at it to find my right people. Be a beacon not a people pleaser!