Podcasting 101: Email Marketing Hacks For Podcasters
- 7 min read
- Mar 4, 2024
Close your eyes for a while, then picture your podcast as a physical store. You'll see people coming in and out all day, all year round. Let's call these people window listeners; they are not ready to stay committed; just binge listening to whatever comes their way.
At this point, you'll need to take a look at your podcast analytics. You'll see the number of potential regular listeners that come your way and never come back.
It's usually a scenario of 1000 visitors to your podcast; only 50 comes back for me. There's always a 950 that won't come back if you don't have a solid email marketing strategy in place.
Outside of your podcast, the next best tool to build a relationship with your existing and potential listeners will be via email marketing. While email marketing is a long-term strategy, you still have opportunities to grow your podcast listenership even in the short term.
We mean it's possible to have the 3,800% ROI that email marketing is known for if you can apply these email marketing hacks. To make this happen, you'll need to do beyond sending out regular and plain emails to everyone on your list.
In this piece, the focus will be on email marketing hacks that will shoot up your podcast statistics into the positives;
1. Don't Quit or Take a Break
There's a reason why we started this piece like this, we've seen many podcasters quit both their email marketing and podcast too soon. In our article about Why Nobody Cares About Your Podcast, we stated clearly that podcast growth does and cannot happen overnight. It's quite problematic seeing the number of podcast shows that have failed and packed up. The key to winning in the podcast game is learning to stay long enough. While the hacks in this article might get you to faster to your goals as a podcaster, we can't promise that the roads won't be bumpy. When you are at the bumps, don't quit but keep your heads up and keep going.2. Get It Right With Your Subject Lines
We feel like writing about this twice for you to understand how important it is to the success of your podcast email marketing. We've seen many podcasters (and even non-podcasters) overlook this important aspect of an email. The subject line is why 33% of recipients open their emails and why 69% report an email as spam. Ensure your subject line is targeted and listener targeted. It's not enough to spend all of the time on the email body, neglecting the subject. The most important is to be able to convince your recipient to open the email with an intent to read and take action. Bonus: Keep the subject lines short. We heard that subject lines with less than 30 characters have an above-average open rate. That's why we say you should keep it short, simple, and, most importantly, catchy.3. You Can't Get It Wrong With Storytelling.
Once you are on track with your email subject lines, the next is to deploy another secret tool: storytelling. Yes, it's a powerful tool that can be deployed into your podcast email marketing. There's a reason why we all keep going back to our sweet grandmas while young. Aside from the goodies, we love the stories they tell. The human brain loves stories; there's a reason why there's a Netflix segment for "Feel Good Movies," that's because our brains can't ignore it. With storytelling, you can stir emotion, stimulate imaginations, and create a desire in the mind of your recipients towards your podcast show. Humans are prone to emotionally-driven decisions; that's where a well-told story can help increase your podcast listeners within a short time.
4. Personalize Every Email and Contact
Personalization is the reason why you feel like the email in your inbox is specifically made for you. There's this study by Monetate that we feel you should look at; it reported that 79% of businesses that carried out a personalized email campaign exceeded their revenue goals. Why can't it be you also? Never send out an email to an existing and potential listener without personalization. As simple as using a contact name, you'll be surprised at the result. MailChimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, and many other email platforms allow personalization.5. Pay Attention to Your Metrics
Don't just look at your open and click rates and stop there. They are just a point of entry for looking at other metrics. Look at your bounce rate, spam rate, and most importantly, your conversion rate. Combining these metrics tells you one thing as a podcaster; what you are doing well and how to improve on it and what you need to trash ASAP. It's about channeling your time and resources to what works. You cannot be shooting without a target in sight. Over time, you'll get tired and out of resources.6. Take Advantage of Social Proof
Yes, there's room to employ social proof in your podcast email marketing campaign. There's a science behind social proof, and that's why we adopt the way it is described by Angie Schottmuller, a Growth Marketing Expert;"The social proof psychology principle states that in time of uncertainty, people will most likely look to others for behavioral guidance. Customer words, numbers, and visuals can boost credibility, convey relevance, answer questions, and counter objections. With social proof, you may experience close to 400% improvement.As a podcaster, there are innumerable ways you can utilize social proof in your email marketing campaigns. The easiest will be to tell the recipients how many people listened to the last episode of your podcast.
