--- title: "How The Small Bow Left Substack for beehiiv and Grew Open Rates by 35%" canonical: https://www.beehiiv.com/case-studies/the-small-bow description: "The Small Bow is redefining recovery media. After switching to beehiiv, it saw a 35% lift in opens and built a branded, multi-product platform without compromising its mission." source: live-converter generated: 2026-06-03T22:04:31.828Z --- # How The Small Bow Left Substack for beehiiv and Grew Open Rates by 35% # How The Small Bow Left Substack for beehiiv and Grew Open Rates by 35% ## A recovery newsletter breaks free from Substack, builds its own branded platform on beehiiv, and immediately sees a 35% jump in open rates ![How The Small Bow Left Substack for beehiiv and Grew Open Rates by 35%](https://images.prismic.io/beehiiv/ahVlu7K9tuLqEJDp_Untitleddesign-39-.png?auto=format,compress) Written by Kanishka Kumawat Published on 29 May 2026 [](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.beehiiv.com%2Fcase-studies%2Fthe-small-bow&title=How%20The%20Small%20Bow%20Left%20Substack%20for%20beehiiv%20and%20Grew%20Open%20Rates%20by%2035%25&summary=A%20recovery%20newsletter%20breaks%20free%20from%20Substack%2C%20builds%20its%20own%20branded%20platform%20on%20beehiiv%2C%20and%20immediately%20sees%20a%2035%25%20jump%20in%20open%20rates)[](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.beehiiv.com%2Fcase-studies%2Fthe-small-bow&text=How%20The%20Small%20Bow%20Left%20Substack%20for%20beehiiv%20and%20Grew%20Open%20Rates%20by%2035%25)[](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.beehiiv.com%2Fcase-studies%2Fthe-small-bow)[](https://www.threads.net/intent/post?text=How%20The%20Small%20Bow%20Left%20Substack%20for%20beehiiv%20and%20Grew%20Open%20Rates%20by%2035%25%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.beehiiv.com%2Fcase-studies%2Fthe-small-bow) ### Table of contents ## **At a Glance** -  35% jump in open rates immediately after migration -  30%+ sustained open rate improvement since moving to beehiiv -  Thousands of ghost subscribers removed - list health dramatically improved -  Fully custom-branded publication and website, built and owned by TSB -  Active paid subscription program with new referral program launched on beehiiv -  App launch planned for 2026, powered by beehiiv APIs ## **What Is The Small Bow? Inside the Recovery Newsletter Built for Everyone** Founded by author, journalist, and former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio in 2017, [The Small Bow](https://www.thesmallbow.com/) was initially launched as a solo newsletter project. Named after a passage in Charles Jackson’s “The Lost Weekend” - which describes a literary “almost-hero who bore too great a wound and too small a bow” - TSB set out to serve a community often overlooked by mainstream media: people in recovery. Today, TSB is far more than a newsletter. Daulerio and CEO Garrett Kamps, who joined in 2024, have grown it into a platform that encompasses a newsletter, a podcast, online recovery meetings, a Recovery Writing Workshop, rehab aftercare collaborations, and a full editorial team. Its community spans traditional recovery circles (AA, NA, Al-Anon) as well as a much broader group - what Kamps describes as “the grieving and/or lost, the broke and/or dejected, basically all manner of drunks, depressives, addicts, and other chronic sufferers-all trying to find some measure of emotional sobriety.” TSB prides itself on publishing what it calls the best recovery writing on the planet. Its newsletter remains the heart and soul of the platform, and the editorial voice that Daulerio refined over the years continues to be its most celebrated asset. And now, a first book - The Small Book, an anthology of essays and reader check-ins from TSB’s first decade - is slated for January 2027. ## **Why The Small Bow Left Substack: Owning Your Audience vs. Renting It** For years, The Small Bow operated on [Substack](https://www.beehiiv.com/comparisons/substack) - and on the surface, it worked. But as TSB’s ambitions grew, the cracks in Substack’s model became impossible to ignore. “We really see the Small Bow as a platform, not just a newsletter and definitely not just ‘a Substack’. In the years to come, we anticipate growing TSB with a flexible, intraoperative tech stack. And that’s just not how Substack is set up. We want to own the relationship with our customers - whether that’s newsletter subscribers, app users, or rehab partners - not have them sign up to become members of a third party platform.” \- Garrett Kamps, CEO, The Small Bow Substack’s model is built around its own ecosystem: algorithmic recommendations that grow its platform, not yours. For a mission-driven publication like TSB, this was a fundamental misalignment. They needed a tool that worked for them, not a platform they worked for. ## **How The Small Bow Migrated to beehiiv: What the Process Was Really Like** When TSB made the decision to migrate, they had one big unknown: how painful would it be? The answer surprised them. “It went smoothly. There was a learning curve, but the staff at beehiiv was incredibly supportive, hands-on, and frankly very patient with us.” \- Garrett Kamps, CEO, The Small Bow But the most impactful part of the migration was the list cleanup. TSB made the strategic decision to cull thousands of inactive subscribers from their rolls: ghost subs that had accumulated over the years, largely through Substack’s algorithmic recommendation features. In other words, people who had never actively chosen to subscribe to The Small Bow. ![](https://images.prismic.io/beehiiv/ahVk8rK9tuLqEJDX_beehiiv-jump-in-open-rates-.gif?auto=format,compress) The result was immediate and dramatic. ### **Open rates jumped 35%**  By removing subscribers who had no idea they’d been signed up via Substack’s recommendation engine, TSB instantly transformed its list from a bloated number to an engaged community. The people who remained? They actually wanted to be there. “We’ve heard a lot of feedback from folks about how much better the site and newsletter looks.” \- Garrett Kamps, CEO, The Small Bow ## **beehiiv vs. Substack: Why Newsletter Creators Are Making the Switch** When evaluating alternatives to Substack, TSB wasn’t just looking for a newsletter tool. They needed an infrastructure that could support a growing, multi-faceted platform with its own distinct brand, audience segmentation needs, and future app integrations. beehiiv delivered on every front. ### **1\. Full Creative Control - Own Your Brand, Own Your Business** The ability to design and build their own site was the single biggest reason TSB chose beehiiv. For a publication with as distinct and mission-driven a brand as The Small Bow, being locked into Substack’s templates was a ceiling they’d been bumping against. “Designing the site, designing the newsletter, removing all the beehiiv branding so there’s not this feeling that we’re ‘On Platform X or Y’…that’s what we were hoping for. The Small Bow is now its own product with its own branding, user experience, etc. That’s huge.” \- Garrett Kamps, CEO, The Small Bow With beehiiv’s website builder, TSB built a polished, custom-branded site that looks and feels like their own product. Core tools were intuitive, flexible, and - critically - didn’t box them in with a fixed number of templates. Even advanced customization, like adding a custom code widget to a recent landing page, just worked. ### **2\. Automations, Segmentation, and Interoperability** With a multi-tier audience (newsletter readers, podcast listeners, meeting attendees, rehab partners, and app users), TSB needs sophisticated audience management. Beehiiv’s segmentation tools give their design team the ability to target and serve each cohort in ways Substack simply couldn’t. “Automations and Segmentation are also huge. And from a philosophical standpoint, the interoperability is key. Beehiiv is flexible enough that we can build both within it as well as use it as a tool for other things, like sending newsletter content to the app we’re building.” \- Garrett Kamps, CEO, The Small Bow This isn’t just a newsletter upgrade - it’s the infrastructure for what TSB is building next. ### **3\. From Paint-by-Numbers to a Blank Canvas** Perhaps the clearest articulation of what beehiiv offers vs. Substack came from Kamps himself: “It’s about flexibility and interoperability. Just having the ability to design a completely custom site is massive. Our design team gets to be creative and know beehiiv’s tools will support it. We can play around with newsletter formatting and trafficking because of beehiiv’s more sophisticated feature set. Whereas the previous option was paint-by-numbers, this is paint and a blank canvas.” ## **Results: Open Rates Up 35%, Better Engagement, and a Brand Readers Love** Since moving to beehiiv, TSB has seen tangible improvements across every metric that matters: - [Open rates](https://www.beehiiv.com/blog/good-open-rates-for-email-newsletters-how-does-yours-compare) up 35% immediately following migration (driven by list cleanup) - Open rates sustained at 30%+ above prior baseline - Reader feedback on the improved site and newsletter design has been overwhelmingly positive - Paid subscriptions already active; referral program now live - Segmentation capabilities powering the next phase of community outreach to rehab partners And beyond the numbers, TSB now feels like its own platform. Not a product owned by someone else’s algorithm.  ## **What The Small Bow Is Building Next: App, APIs, and Audience Segmentation on beehiiv** TSB isn’t slowing down. The team is planning an MVP app launch in 2026, with beehiiv’s APIs playing a central role - pulling newsletter content directly into the app experience. As Kamps puts it, this is where beehiiv’s interoperability becomes genuinely transformative: allowing TSB to super-serve specific rehab cohorts through segmentation, and to deliver the newsletter experience in new formats. “We have a lot planned. We have an MVP of an app we’re hoping to launch in 2026; a key piece of it involves using beehiiv’s APIs to pull posts into the app. We’re creating more content for rehab partners, which is where segmentation becomes huge - being able to super-serve specific rehab cohorts through segmentation.” \- Garrett Kamps, CEO, The Small Bow And in January 2027, The Small Book - an anthology series featuring essays and reader check-ins from TSB’s first decade - will hit shelves. A platform that started as a solo newsletter is becoming a multi-product media company, with beehiiv as the connective tissue. ## **Should You Move Your Newsletter from Substack to beehiiv? Here's What The Small Bow Says** For creators considering the switch from Substack, Kamps has a clear message “We really appreciate that beehiiv feels like a place to build. We no longer feel like a cog in someone else’s machine. We feel like we’re using a tool made by people who understand the challenges businesses like ours face and are actively trying to solve them. If that sounds appealing to you, beehiiv is a great choice.” \- Garrett Kamps, CEO, The Small Bow The Small Bow reclaimed ownership of their community, supercharged their engagement, and laid the groundwork for a platform built to last for the next decade - and beyond with beehiiv. ## **About The Small Bow** The Small Bow is a subscription platform for people connected to recovery - from traditional 12-step communities to anyone navigating grief, addiction, depression, or the search for emotional sobriety. Founded in 2017 by A.J. Daulerio, TSB offers a newsletter, podcast, online meetings, writing workshops, and rehab aftercare programs, with a book anthology coming in January 2027. Learn more at [thesmallbow.com](http://thesmallbow.com). Ready to build something bigger? 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