FOUR THE WEEKEND: NEWSLETTERS FOR PODCASTS
Four things to help get listeners to subscribe
People email me questions about all this email marketing stuff I write about, and rather than just share my two-cents with just that one person, I’m repurposing it for you, my dear reader. You deserve it.
QUESTION: Wondering how to reach out to existing and potentially new listeners for my podcast with an email list.
MY TWO CENTS: I believe the biggest thing is engaging your existing listenership and getting them onto an email list.
Don't worry about finding new listeners or subscribers just yet. Establish a direct line of communication with your existing fans before you start trying to expand.
At this early point you need to hone what the heck you're actually going to put into the newsletter. If you just say "sign up for updates," well… that's pretty bland and I wouldn’t expect a lot of people to sign up. I've seen lots of media outlets over the years do that. You sign up, then it's just a bunch of copy and pasted links to their existing content.
BORING.
That's a race to the bottom, and you don't want to win that race.
Treat the newsletter like an extension of the YOU:
Transcribe a few key quotes from some of the stuff you're talking about. Not everyone can listen to your newest episode all the time. Give them something to chew on. Trim your audio to something solid, then use a service like TEMI to transcribe it. It’s cheap and fast, so you might need to fix some things, but it’s pretty solid.
Take your show notes, copy and paste them into the newsletter, then expand on some of the links. They were important enough to mention in your podcast, so write something about each one. Provide insight and wisdom, not just links to a band’s social media accounts.
Get out and share more of who you are, and why you mention some of the stuff you do. I mean, you're in the ears of your fans, which is a pretty intimate place already. Go further. You are somebody's favorite podcaster - believe that! Don't be afraid to go deeper with your art and reveal who the heck is behind the microphone (read this newsletter from the As The Story Grows podcast to see how it’s done).
Make it so good, people want to share it. Bands got big before social media, right? If your email newsletter is good, people will forward it to their friends. Think of HOW that would happen. What’s something you read or saw or heard that was so good you told a friend about it? Work backwards from there.
Make it a no-brainer for listeners to subscribe to your podcast. Not everyone will sign up, but that’s okay. Offer something of value, share your wisdom and insights, and I bet most of your devoted listeners will subscribe.
Shoot me questions about this stuff - ‘cuz hey, I started two pretty okay music blogs back in the day (Buzzgrinder in 2001, and Noisecreep for AOL Music in 2008).
These days I’m working with three big metal publicists in Atom Splitter PR, Freeman Promotions, and Adrenaline PR (they do press for everyone from Alice Cooper to Lamb of God to GWAR and like a million other bands), and I do the D2C email marketing for MNRK Heavy (High On Fire, Black Label Society, Ace Frehley), and previously did D2C email work for Death Row Records and direct to fan email campaigns for Holdtight PR.
Over 20 years of doing this music stuff on the internet, so hit reply to this email and ask me things for your project! Nothing makes me happier than helping you reach your audience - whether you’re an independent band, artist, photographer, designer, producer, podcaster, writer - whatever! Here to help.
And hey - I’m turning on SUBSCRIPTIONS at $10/mo. I’m gonna keep everything free and open for everyone, but if you appreciate what I’m doing, consider supporting this work so I can keep reaching independent artists with the gospel of email marketing.