TPU47 – Podcast Email Marketing – How Podcasters can use Email Marketing for Monetization

Episode-47

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[00:00:00] Dilip: A lot of people aren't even looking at analyzing their listeners to an alternate medium using which they can later market to that.

[00:00:13] Welcome to the podcasting university, looking for help on starting your own podcast. Then this is the place to be. We will help you with everything from selecting your topic to promoting and monetizing your podcast in the simplest language. Listen to other podcasters, who've been through the grind and learn from them

[00:00:33] as we interview them every week. You can find more details on the podcasting university.com.

[00:00:47] Hello, and welcome to episode 47 of the podcasting university. This is Dilip your host. And in this episode, we are going to talk about email marketing in podcasting, everything about email [00:01:00] marketing, the importance of email marketing and how to get started with email marketing if you are a podcaster. Something that a lot of podcasters, at least in India, aren't really focusing on is email marketing.

[00:01:14] In fact, a lot of people aren't even looking at channelizing, their listeners to an alternate medium using which they can later market to that audience. So before we get into all of that. And before we even start talking about email marketing, I think it's important to talk about audience retention and what are you doing about it?

[00:01:37] I see that there are so many different podcasts out there that are with about 45000 and 75000 views who aren't really using any call to action in their show. In fact, I should rather say that they're only using a cliched call to action which is asking that audience to subscribe to that show. But [00:02:00] the question is, what good is that subscription?

[00:02:04] If it is only to keep building on the views for your show, then it is absolutely fine. But then once again, what good are those views, if you are not doing anything with those views? What we need to understand that, the listener turnover is pretty high, even in podcasting, while the engagement and the attention spans are pretty high,

[00:02:32] when it comes to people, listening to podcasts, then listen, our turnover is high for every new subscriber that you gain, you are losing some subscribers. And if you're only focusing on building the views, building listenership, what may happen is there are a lot of those listeners who will leave your show, who will stop listening to your show and because you didn't have any plan to retain them, you've lost all of those listeners that [00:03:00] you had spent a lot of hours trying to build. The fact of the matter

[00:03:04] is that you are generating a lot of traffic for the podcast host or the podcast hosting site on which you're hosting your podcast, but you are not doing anything other than that, the podcast host or the podcast hosting site can make money with all of the audience that you are generating. But what is it that you are doing

[00:03:27] with that audience, hence it is important to divert that listeners or that audience to some other place that you have much more control over. And that is a website, but you can also do that with some kind of a special channel, like for example, if you have your own telegram or you can direct them to a WhatsApp group or even a Facebook group

[00:03:52] but divert them to some place which you control, where you can do what you want with those audience. [00:04:00] While I do not recommend third-party apps again, as it will be repeating the entire cycle, I would in fact, recommend putting together a website, even if it is just a one pager with some details about you and all of the episodes that you've released, that is also fine, but it should be a one pager website,

[00:04:22] for your show. Now there are a lot of services out there who helps you put this one pager together. Like for example, there is something called a pod page and there are a lot, many other services as well, but whatever service you pick, it is important to understand that you have to have control over that one pager.

[00:04:40] You need to have the control of inserting ads or content that you want to insert into that one pager. It is at this one page website that you are going to continue your conversation with your audience, build engagement, and also [00:05:00] build your email subscriber list. If you need help with setting up your podcast, website,

[00:05:05] then you can avail of my website building services, which involves setting up a WordPress website with your podcast embedded into it. So, which means that if you divert people to that page, they will also be able to listen to your podcast on that page. Now, the service starts at about Rs.499, plus the domain and the hosting costs in total it'll cost you approximately about Rs.2,500 for a year.

[00:05:31] This is a renewable yearly fees that you might have to pay. And I think if you look at it from a larger perspective on what you stand to gain, that's 2,500 rupees is something that you should consider investing. Now, coming back to what we were talking about, the question is why do you have to divert your traffic to a website?

[00:05:52] Now, let me give you some advantages of doing this. Number one, if you divert traffic to a [00:06:00] website that you control, you will be able to better engage with your audience. Your audience can comment on your podcast, comment on the website. They can talk about things that they would like to hear. You can talk with them and engage with them.

[00:06:13] And all of that thing is possible, if you divert them to a website that you control. You can gather feedback and also called source content for your podcast. Now, imagine that people visiting your website, comment on your website and tell you what they would like to hear. That is content. That is content, that you will be able to further use

[00:06:34] to create episodes for your podcast. In fact, you would also be able to gather a lot of feedback about your podcast. They will be able to come and comment and tell you if there is something that they don't like. You can get all of this feedback on that website. You can use that website to promote your courses, services, consultation, whatever it is that you were looking to monetize with, you can promote all of that to the [00:07:00] audience on that website.

[00:07:01] And you can also promote future episodes to your audience even before it is released. So having a website and diverting your listeners to that website helps you in a lot, many different ways. Now imagine how would you feel if you could see who your podcast listeners are and ask them what kind of content they would do?

[00:07:27] Imagine, if you are able to know the kind of demographics of the audience, who's listening to your show, how much control you will have, what, what water you are generating in terms of content. And also if you're looking at monetizing your podcast, but then the question is how would you do that? It is here that email marketing comes into the picture, email marketing has been and is, and it continues to be one of the biggest and

[00:07:56] best ways of marketing. In fact, I would say it is not [00:08:00] just marketing. In fact, it is one of the best ways of interacting and engaging with your audience, building that confidence and trust in your audience about you and showing them that you care for them. And that engagement with your audience is what will give you that required leverage to go and promote products and services in your emails and your audience who has a trust in you, has a high possibility of purchasing from those recommendations.

[00:08:29] Now, when it comes to a podcast or, from a podcasting perspective, there are a few things that you need to do in order to prepare yourself for email marketing. What are those? The first one is that you need to build a list. And in order for you to build a list, you will need a website with an opt-in form embedded on the website where people can enter their name and email

[00:08:52] in exchange for a goodie that you are going to give them and you will also need an auto responder. Now all of [00:09:00] this comes with some charges, but if you don't want to pay initially, there are some free services. Also, I would recommend if you can shell out some money and, uh, for the auto autoresponder and want an auto responder, that has a lot of features, but if you want to get started for free

[00:09:18] then there is a free service, you can go to SendFox, they have a free tier and you can use them, but if you're ready to pay and don't want to pay a monthly recurring charge, then SendFox also has a one-time fee payment option, which is a very nominal amount of, I think, about $49. You can go and pay that and use send Fox for the lifetime that gives you a lot more features and a lot more control over the kind of emails that you're going to send

[00:09:45] to your subscribers and listeners. Number two, you will need to offer something to your listeners in return for which they are going to give out their email address to you. In marketing language, we call this the lead magnet. What is a lead [00:10:00] magnet? A lead magnet can be anything from a checklist, a handout, an ebook, or even an email course.

[00:10:08] If you visit my website at thepodcastinguniversity.com, you will find one such lead magnet which is a 4-day ecourse where people can subscribe and a chapter is sent to them every day in an email. That is also an extremely good and high converting lead magnet. But how do you get a lead magnet done? You can either outsource it, but then that comes with a cost.

[00:10:33] I would recommend creating one by yourself, which is not only the most economical option, but it will also give you an understanding of going ahead and setting that entire marketing funnel up, that marketing channel up. It gives you a lot of understanding knowledge. You will create something that your audience will be able to relate to.

[00:10:55] Not something that I would recommend is to create something out of your [00:11:00] show because you already have content out there. You could create, maybe checklists or a handout from the snapshots of the interviews that you've done. You can even create a handout yourself or something of that sort. So since you already have a lot of content in the form of your podcast, I would recommend using that content and creating a lead magnet.

[00:11:20] The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that it should be of value. It should be valuable enough for somebody to exchange their email address for that. And the easiest way of understanding and knowing if it is valuable enough, is to ask yourself if you are willing to give out your email address in return for that lead magnet.

[00:11:41] If the answer is yes, then your audience is in all likelihood going to do that. The third thing, the third thing is writing a series of emails that can engage your audience. It has to start with a welcome email where you're welcoming your audience and giving them the link to download that lead magnet.

[00:11:59] After [00:12:00] that, you can write a series of emails where you talk to them, introducing yourself, asking for their introduction and trying to engage with them by giving them some solid, valuable content. You can periodically send them surveys, questionnaires, even ask them opinions about what they would like to hear on the show. Make them a part of the entire podcasting process.

[00:12:24] And they would feel like they are part of the community. This also helps in building their confidence and their trust in you. And that is what the end goal is all about. Once you have built that level of engagement it becomes easier for you to go ahead and market to them. And when you're able to do that, that opens a whole new world of monetization opportunity.

[00:12:48] Email marketing is considered evil by a lot of people because of the amount of spam some marketers send out, but if you have planned it and you use it the right way, then it can [00:13:00] become one of the best assets in your podcasting journey. Do let me know your thoughts about email marketing for podcasters, you can send in your opinion to dilip@thepodcastinguniversity.com.

[00:13:14] That's all that I have for this episode. I hope you are able to know the importance of building an email list and email marketing in your podcasting journey. If you have any questions, you can visit the podcasting university.com and drop in your questions there. And I will respond to them. Visit is the podcasting university.com for the shownotes

[00:13:34] and the printable transcript for this episode. If you have any questions, you can always use the contact form there and drop me a question don't forget to join the four day ecourse on the basics of podcasting, if you are new to podcasts and your plan to get started with your podcast. And don't forget to subscribe to the show because this show will help you with a lot of podcasting tips and tricks in your journey to getting started with your show.

[00:13:59] That is all that I [00:14:00] have for this week do is hit the podcasting university dot. For the show notes and the printable transcript, I'll be back again the next week with another interesting discussion and an interesting guest until then keep listening to the podcasting university. You all have a wonderful rest of the week.

[00:14:20] Guest: Next week on the show. System number two is your launch mechanism and a mistake, many people make is hitting publish on their first episode or two or three episodes and thinking that that's a launch and they, oh, I launched my podcast, but there's a lot more that goes into it to really help you build that momentum.

[00:14:42] Dilip: From the moment you release that first episode. So don't forget to join me next week.[00:15:00] .