Why Your Podcast Needs an Email Newsletter

Have you been podcasting for a while?

Are you wondering why you’re not growing as fast as you’d like?

Well, the good news is that there are a ton of different ways to grow your number of podcast subscribers and listeners. One of the best strategies is to launch an email newsletter.

Chances are, you entered the podcasting game because you’re good at talking (or at least you have something to say), so you’re probably a bit hesitant about tapping words onto a page that will get sent out to your audience.

And you should be! Once you hit send, there aren’t any redos or edits. You can’t just delete an email like you can a podcast episode!

All jokes aside, an email newsletter is one of the smartest ways you can grow your podcast, reach new listeners, and even grow new income streams.

In this article, we’ll break down the basics of why an email newsletter is the perfect tool to grow your podcast, how to launch one, and the specific ways you can use one to gain more podcast subscribers.

Let’s dive in.

What’s the Purpose of a Newsletter?

You’re probably wearing a dozen different hats as a podcaster. Do you really have to throw another one on and start a newsletter?

Chances are, you might be weary about starting another thing. But if you’re dedicated to growing your podcast and interested in growing new revenue streams, then adding a newsletter is a great path to take.

The reality is that the most successful creators don’t just create through one medium. They typically have one main communication channel with additional mediums integrated in to help grow their brand and ecosystem.

For instance, look at someone like Pat Flynn. He’s a great example of someone who has found success in several different mediums including a podcast, an email newsletter, a blog, and a YouTube channel. Plus… he’s a multimillionaire.

While Pat Flynn is a rockstar podcaster, he raves nonstop about how effective email newsletters are.

There are countless reasons why people start an email newsletter. But as a podcaster, the best reason is because it’s a way to reach new people and connect on a deeper level with your current audience.

As a podcast creator, you should always be looking for new ways to connect with your listeners. And chances are, your listeners don’t only listen to podcasts. They likely consume multiple forms of media. Maybe they listen to your podcast on their commute to work. But once they’re at work, they probably open up their email inbox.

Voila! The email inbox is the perfect place to remind them about your podcast, engage with them, and add more value to their lives. Why? Because everybody checks their email, whether it’s when they first get to work, when they wake up, or when they’re taking a break in the loo!

An email newsletter is a way you can improve your communication with your audience. If you’re on Spotify and your listeners forgot to enable notifications to find out when you release a new podcast, they might miss your latest episode. But if you have them on your email list, you could send a weekly teaser email where you can share some of the highlights from the show, enticing them to listen to the full episode.

Simply put, an email newsletter is a brilliant and easy way to remind your listeners about your show, but that’s not all. You can also use it to grow your audience, as you’ll read about next.

Why Listen to Me? I’ve managed two e-commerce email newsletters over the years including one with 100,000 subscribers and one with 30,000. I currently run a digital media business, Hockey Question, that gets over 50,000 visits per month.

Why Is Email Newsletter Important?

Curious about what makes email newsletters so powerful? It’s the same reason podcasts are.

They’re an opportunity for you, as a creator, to interact with your audience, share awesome content, and provide value. Sure, newsletters are the written word, while your podcast is audible, so they’re different in that sense.

But a lot of the why behind the value of podcasts is the same with a newsletter.

It’s a channel to meet people where they’re at.

Chances are, you’re not looking to start an email newsletter just because. You’re likely considering one for the sole purpose of growing your podcast because that’s your main thing.

So how can an email newsletter benefit your podcast?

The main way is by being an incredibly effective marketing tool.

Let’s look at a few statistics about email newsletters.

Did you know that the return on investment (ROI) of email is about 40 to 1? Some sources, like Campaign Monitor, state that it’s even as high as 42 to 1.

What does that mean? It means that for every $1 you invest in email, the average return you should expect is $42.

In other words, if you were to invest $50 per month in email, you could expect $2,100 in return. If you spend $150 per month on email, that return jumps up to $6,300.

How does email stack up against social media?

Well, email newsletters are 40% better at converting audiences than Facebook or Twitter.

Most people think email newsletters are just kind of annoying, boring, or even spammy, butdata is showing otherwise. It’s not just marketers raving about email. Consumers are raving, too. 61% of email subscribers want to receive promotional emails every single week. 38% want to receive emails more than once a week.

Those stats are based on promotional emails. Imagine how many more people want non-promotional emails in their inbox, like say… an engaging newsletter from their favorite podcaster?

It’s clear to see that email newsletters are incredible marketing weapons at your disposal, but they’re also incredible for brand-building.

Think about your podcast for a moment. How effective is it as a communication channel with your audience? Pretty good, right?

Well, considering it’s only a one-way channel, it’s actually pretty limited. How does your audience speak to you if they have feedback on an episode?

By leaving a review.

Sure, there are other mediums like social media where they can comment on a post or DM you. But social networks can be unreliable since they’re based on shifting algorithms and are flooded with fake accounts. It can also be difficult to reach someone since DMs can be marked as spam or blocked and comments can get easily missed.

Email, on the other hand, is a direct and personal way you can invite your audience to engage with you in a two-way conversation. A newsletter allows you to build mutual relationships with your listeners.

Plus, podcasting platforms act a lot like social media and search engines since they’re based on complex algorithms and have plenty of restrictions when it comes to creativity and interactions. So when you launch a newsletter, you own that audience completely. At any moment in time, your audience on Spotify or Apple podcasts could be gone. By inviting your listeners to join your email list, you ensure that you have access to your audience forever.

How Do I Make a Podcast Newsletter?

So you can see just how valuable a newsletter can be to your podcast, but… how exactly do you go about creating your own newsletter?

While you might think it’s going to be a long, drawn-out process, it’s never been quicker thanks to modern newsletter platforms like beehiiv that make it easier than ever for creators who are brand new to the email game.

Here are three simple steps you can take to launch your own newsletter:

1. Pick an Email Newsletter Platform.

While you might be thinking you’ll just send out emails from your personal email account, it won’t work out so well due to spam filters and email list management. Instead, you’ll need a powerful email service provider to help you manage everything with ease.

We recently wrote an article you can check out comparing and contrasting three of the most popular newsletter platforms: Constant Contact, MailChimp, and beehiiv.

While it’s important to analyze a few of the top platforms, try not to spend too much time on it as you can always switch later on. It’s most important to launch quickly, so you can begin growing your podcast and engaging with your audience. If you want to get up and running in no time, you can sign up for beehiiv for free today!

2. Start Collecting Email Addresses.

Once you’re set up on your platform of choice, it’s time to start growing your email list. In order to grow your list, you need to create a newsletter signup form. Unfortunately, podcasting apps like Spotify and Apple Podcasts don’t allow you to collect emails right on their platforms. Instead, you’ll need to direct people from those apps to your website, so they can join your email list.

When you create a free beehiiv account, you automatically get a free signup form landing page. Here’s a video walk-through showing you exactly how you can customize your landing page where your listeners can subscribe to your newsletter.

3. Create an Email Newsletter Template.

You’re probably wondering, “Now that I’ve launched my newsletter, how do I promote my podcast via email?”

When you’re first starting out with an email newsletter, it may seem overwhelming to think about how you’ll promote your podcast, especially since you’re primarily managing your podcast. So to save time and streamline your efforts with your newsletter, it’s best to create a newsletter template, so you can easily plug and play your content every time you sit down to write.

Here’s a quick guide you can follow to come up with some ideas for your newsletter format.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to content, here are a few things you could include in each podcast newsletter:

• Your logo

• A quick greeting (1-2 sentences is fine.)

• Episode number or title

• A summary of the episode

• Names of any guests (and an image of them, if you have one)

• Most important: A call to action to listen to your podcast with a link

Warning: Always preview your email newsletter to test that the link actually works before you hit send!

Try to build curiosity with your writing to entice people to listen to the full episode.

Bonus: The Key To Growing Your Podcast: Hit Send Consistently!

Are you wondering, “How do I get 1000 listeners for my podcast?”

Well, if you want to tap into rapid podcast growth using an email newsletter, it’s going to take more than just sending out a reminder newsletter every time you release a new episode.

This may seem obvious to you, but just because you start an email newsletter doesn’t mean it will be successful or that it will be a huge help on the growth side of things. The most critical success factor for any newsletter is the same one for podcasts — consistency.

Yes, you need to make sure you’re sending an email newsletter every time you release a new podcast episode (at the bare minimum). With a templated newsletter, you should be able to fill in the blanks quickly, so your newsletter acts as a simple reminder to listen to your show.

But if you want to take things to the next level, you can start to integrate even more content like tips related to your podcast niche or exclusive content for your email list that’s not found on your podcast.

By creating engaging content with your newsletter, you’ll not only be able to bring current listeners back to your podcast, but you’ll also begin attracting new listeners.

Podcasters who find the most success with their newsletter use it to draw in new subscribers by first funneling people to the newsletter, so they eventually join the podcast.

Set a Goal & Launch

Now that you’ve learned about the potential of leveraging a newsletter, it’s time to take action. The key to success in anything starts with setting a goal.

What’s your goal for your podcast? Are you looking to grow to 1,000 subscribers? 5,000?

Maybe you want to double your subscribers by this time next year, or maybe you’re looking to grow your podcast earnings so you can quit your job and do it full-time.

Whatever your goal is, you need to write it down, set an end date, and set up milestones along the way to get it done.

If you’re ready to grow your podcast with a newsletter, then get started with beehiiv today. Built by the same team who built and grew Morning Brew to millions of subscribers, we’ll give you the complete toolkit to grow your listener base in no time.

Launch your podcast newsletter on beehiiv for free today!