Improving Your Podcast Marketing With Newsletters

The Q'd Up Podcast on Podcasting

Podcasters are always looking for new ways to engage with their audience but you could be missing one of the best and easiest ones. On this episode of the Q’d Up Podcast on Podcasting, John Luckenbaugh and Matthew Stevens continue their deep dive into podcast marketing with newsletters.

There are so many good reasons to be using newsletters with your podcast. From it being another way to engage with your audience and keep people listening to each episode to it being another avenue to monetize your podcast, newsletters can be easy to create but incredibly effective.

Show highlights:

Introduction

The Peabody Awards (1:58)

The 2021 Peabody Awards are now including podcasts. This continues a trend of major awards beginning to recognize and celebrate podcasts.

1st quarter earnings reports (6:13)

With the first quarter of 2021 in the books, companies have been releasing their earnings reports and providing some more context to their business strategies. To no one’s surprise, podcasting continues to grow with several major media companies reporting huge jumps up in revenue thanks to their podcasts. Meanwhile, the New York Times is predicting even bigger things for the future.

Podcast monetization: Subscriptions (11:39)

If you’re an independent podcast, you likely don’t have the distribution and sales teams to truly monetize your podcast in the same way a network like iHeart does. While iHeart Media CEO Bob Pittman wonders about the usefulness of subscription models, they’re clearly working for independent podcasters. Matt and John take a closer look at using the subscription model via platforms like Patreon.

Podcast marketing: Newsletters (14:00)

After touching on the benefits of websites in the previous episode, we’re on to the next important piece of the podcast marketing puzzle: newsletters. Matt and John break down how newsletters can help your discoverability, audience engagement, and even potentially your podcast monetization.

Step 1: Define your goal (20:04)

You’ve decided to do a newsletter but where do you start? Matt says you have to first figure out what you want readers to do. That could be as easy as getting them to download the newest episode or it could be highlighting blog posts, appearances on other shows, or even trying to sell more merchandise and sponsorships.

Step 2: Find a newsletter service (22:47)

Now that you’ve defined your goal, you need to find a provider to help you build it and send it out. With free options available, it doesn’t have to cost you anything but you’ll be a little limited in some way. Paid options might have more bells and whistles but you also might not need them.

Steps 3 and 4: Capture emails (23:46)

No matter what provider you chose, they should have a way of capturing emails. The most common way is to add something to your website so people can easily sign up themselves but don’t forget about social media and the outro of your podcast either.

Step 5: Find a template (26:54)

With your goal in mind, your newsletter service chosen, and a bunch of emails in your database, it’s time to start building your newsletter. Most newsletter services will have some templates available or a way to build your own easily but you can also find both free and paid templates online too.

Step 6: Your eye-catching subject line (27:57)

This is the most important thing in this whole process. You’ll only have one shot at someone’s attention and the only way your email is getting opened is if the subject line is interesting enough. But don’t get too crazy or people will assume it’s spam.

Step 7: Create engaging copy (30:17)

You’ve got an excellent headline that you’d want to click on, so now it’s time to write the newsletter to back it up. John and Matt discuss the handful of things you could and should put into your newsletters.

Steps 8 and 9: Send it and track your results (32:13)

Now that you’ve got your newsletter designed and written up, it’s time to send it out to your email list and practice a little patience while people open it over the next day or two. Your newsletter service should have a way to track the number of people that open it and you should start seeing conversions on your original goal.

Step 10: Resend it (41:06)

Not everyone opened your email and that’s to be expected. But you can always resend it to the people that didn’t open it to try again. As Matt explains, you can tweak the headline and send it back out to the people you missed the first time around.

Links:

Q’d Up - Website

Q’d Up - Instagram

John - Email

John - LinkedIn

Inside Radio - The 2021 Peabody Awards nominees include eight podcasts