Don’t waste your podcast’s content – repurpose it and build an online community.
Email marketing might seem like an old-fashioned idea, but don’t disregard it. Mailing lists are key to growing your loyal podcast audience, and when it comes to your show’s ingenuity – maybe repurposing your content, too?
Below are our secrets to growing a successful email newsletter (just like The Great British Podcasts newsletter!):
Step 1: Build Your Trustworthy Email List
The people in your contact list are the main success factor when it comes to your newsletter. But how do you get them to sign up? Start building out your contacts before you even start a newsletter. On your podcast website (or wherever you feel appropriate that relates to your show), start building out useful content that would entice people to share their email address. This could be sharing downloadable resources that tie into your podcast, or maybe early access to your episodes or even bonus episodes and exclusive content that would require email access. Give your listeners value beyond just listening to your podcast.
Step 2: Now, Segment.
Now that you have a list of people already interested in your show and its offerings, make sure to not drive them away. Segment your listeners based on their demographics, interests and even any listener behaviour that you can track. Do not treat everyone the same and build out your newsletter to be tailored to different segments. This would help to keep your contacts engaged in the newsletter when you send it, rather than immediately sending it to the junk folder.
Step 3: Be Persuasive in Your Titles.
Make all of your newsletters click-worthy. Maybe even experiment by sending out different subject lines to different segments of your audience to see what resonates the most. A/B testing is your friend.
Step 4: Offer Real Value
The worst email marketing campaigns repeat themselves. Don’t send out boring or routine emails just because you feel like you have to. Share highlights, insights and exclusive content and not just templated text. Make sure to also make big newsletter-only announcements before you go live with them on the show – this could also help your audience feel like they are part of a secret, inner community. Also make sure to offer any VIP content to loyal subscribers, and give back to your listeners by letting them get involved in the show, one way or another.
Step 5: Call to Action (and to Subscribe)
Every single one of your emails should have a clear endpoint and a CTA. This could be: leaving a review for your show, engaging with the show on socials, subscribing to your podcast, or anything else that you want your listeners to get involved with. Make it sound urgent and enticing.
Step 6: Personalise and Automate
Don’t try to do a newsletter by manually writing it out in your inbox. Use tools to help you make this process seamless and streamlines, and also track your analytics to see when you should be sending for best open rates, what conversion rates there are between newsletter to podcast listeners, and anything else that could help you adjust your newsletter strategy. Email marketing tools would also help you to personalise content to each user that you are sending it to, which is always a nice touch and makes your listeners feel just that much closer to you and your show.
Step 7: Be Consistent and Compliant
Once you’ve started a newsletter, don’t give up on it. It could take some time for your newsletter to reach three figures (and it might never even happen, depending on how niche your community is), but it is all about being consistent. Send out the newsletter at the same time every week, and try to not to take breaks from it. Of course, also make sure to always give listeners a way to easily opt out of receiving it, and follow email marketing regulations like the GDPR privacy policies.
Now, sit back and… write! A newsletter might seem like a lot of extra work when it comes to using it as a podcast marketing tool, but it could actually give your content a lot of longevity. You could repurpose unused clips, quotes, interviews for exclusive content and you could convert existing episodes into info-rich newsletter articles. The main thing to note is that you should give it some time, and be realistic about your audience growth – the quality of community you will gain from a newsletter campaign might just be the secret sauce to helping your podcast thrive.