Email Marketing 101 for Podcasters (Everything you need to get started)
The history of email dates back as early as 1961 and the development of CTSS technology. This technology was the seed of an idea that subsequently led to the design of email more formally by Ray Tomlinson in 1971.
Because email is over 50+ years old, it’s one of the most ubiquitous and reliable marketing channels you can leverage. But sadly, many podcasters are not taking advantage of this channel. My goal with this article is to convince you to start an email list or newsletter to deepen your connection to your podcast’s audience.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing simply refers to the practice of using email as a channel to communicate with your prospects and customers. Email can be used for promoting your brand, selling a product or service, updating patrons of your art, and so much more.
Email is used in a variety of creative ways in marketing, including newsletters, one-time emails sent for sales campaigns or promoting a new product, auto-generated emails from user-generated content or RSS feeds, and so much more.
Why you should start an email list for your podcast
Ownership (the ORB framework)
Email is an incredibly powerful tool, but in order to understand why email matters, we need to start by placing it within a broader framework.
I’ve found the ORB framework from Corey Haines to be incredibly helpful.
ORB stands for Owned, Rented, and Borrowed marketing channels.
Owned: Channels that allow you to directly own the relationship to your audience (email, SMS, website, podcast RSS feed)
Rented: Channels that give you limited access to your audience and ultimately own that customer data (ex: Social media)
Borrowed: Channels that give you access to somebody else’s audience (guest podcasting, guest blogging, retweets, etc)
Image Source: Swipefiles
All three types of channels are important for marketing and growing a brand. But at the end of the day, owned channels like an email list give you the most leverage because you own them forever, they can’t be easily taken away (eg. algorithms hiding content from users, etc), and their value compounds over time.
Direct access to listeners
Email unlocks two-way communication with your audience so you can ask for feedback, get ideas for new episodes, collect questions to feature on your show, and simply have private conversations to get to know them even better.
Financial opportunity
Owning a list of emails is a valuable asset because it gives you the ability to sell directly to that list of people in a channel or sell ad spots within your newsletter to increase the value you offer to advertisers.
Reliability
Email has been around for 50+ years and is used by over 4 billion people around the world. It’s also the key that unlocks access to hundreds of apps and accounts that we use for navigating the internet daily. Translation? Email is probably not going away anytime soon, but your favorite social media might, so it’s worth investing in a channel that will stand the test of time.
The building blocks of a successful email newsletter
Most articles on this topic go straight to setting up an email service provider and skip over the real meat of an email marketing strategy: What do you write? Who do you write it for? How do you craft your content to engage readers? How often do you send it?
We won’t leave you hanging.
There are 6 key building blocks for a successful email newsletter:
Type (global brand vs podcast-specific)
Format
Topic
Target audience
Job-to-be-done
Schedule
1. Type
Great newsletters have a clear purpose that fits within the larger context of their marketing strategy. Within podcasting, there are a few main approaches to using email marketing: the global brand newsletter, the sub-brand newsletter, and the podcast-specific newsletter.
The global brand newsletter is a newsletter that relates to your entire larger brand, not just the podcast. It could feature blogs, essays, or many different types of content, and may even mention your podcasts, but it does not exclusively focus on your podcast. Examples include Cal Newport’s email list and Seamwork Radio.
The sub-brand newsletter is a newsletter that falls under the larger umbrella of your company or organization. It’s both standalone and integrated at the same time. Examples include 5-Bullet Fridays by Tim Ferris and the Yo! Podcast by Rob Hope.
The podcast-specific newsletter is, as the title suggests, a simple newsletter that features every new episode of the show. These range from a simple description and link to listen all the way to in-depth show notes that include a long description, timestamps, links mentioned, and even a transcript. Examples include Creative Pep Talk and Intermittent Fasting Stories.
2. Format
Great newsletters craft a well-defined format that helps readers know what to expect. The format of your content simply refers to what you put inside your emails. There are several common formats, and probably thousands of variations to these.
Essay: Essays are newsletters that are effectively long-form written content. Many Substack newsletters follow this format, like the Burnt Toast newsletter and Cal Newport’s weekly newsletter.
Curated: Curated newsletters are focused on a specific topic and curate information, whether that is links to the most recent news in tech, policies in Washington, or health-related medical science. A great example of a Curated newsletter is Tim Ferris’ 5-bullet Friday.
Structured: Structured newsletters follow a consistent format each time to build consistency and simplicity. Examples include James Clear’s massively successful 3-2-1 newsletter and Trends.vc.
Miscellaneous: Miscellaneous newsletters is a catch-all category that represents the many different miscellaneous formats of content that exist out there like repurposed content, community Q&As, transcriptions of podcast episodes, and many more variations.
3. Topic
Great newsletters are centered around a consistent topic of interest, which acts as a filter to help attract the best audience and contributors (guests, etc) to your brand. For most podcasters, the topic of your newsletter should reflect the topic of your podcast to provide consistent value to your audience.
Topics include general categories such as wellness, politics, business, faith, and DEI. They could also include niches like RC airplanes or marketing for dental practices.
You can get inspired and research topics by browsing the top charts on Apple Podcasts, searching Substack, or doing your own research online.
4. Target audience
Great newsletters speak to a hyper-specific target audience. The target audience will largely be determined by the topics that you engage in, so this item is largely related to the previous point. But it’s absolutely critical that you define who you are talking to, and who you are not talking to.
Be inclusive and kind to everyone, but don’t try to make content for everyone - be specific!
There are a ton of podcasts that target their audience well. But here are a few specific examples to get you inspired:
Seamwork Radio – This podcast and newsletter serves women who want to make their own clothes and live an intentional lifestyle marked by craft, thoughtfulness, and slowing down. They do a great job of crafting content that consistently delivers at serving this audience.
Founders by David Senra – This is a show unequivocally focused on talking to entrepreneurs and business owners. The target audience is literally the name of the podcast, and the content is based on the concept of reading books about ofunders. It’s so simple but David executes at a high level that does not disappoint.
Deep Questions with Cal Newport – Newport speaks to a very broad audience of “knowledge workers”, but he does an excellent job of being very specific. Because each episode of his podcast answers questions from real podcast listeners he obviously has a ton of experience to draw from. He is a great example of somebody who knows their audience deeply, and the writing in his newsletter shows this too.
5. Job-to-be-done
Great newsletters solve a job-to-be-done. One of Clayton Christensen’s famous contributions to marketing was the concept of a job-to-be-done. Simply put, this is the idea that every customer buys a product or service to solve a job in their life. The same is true in podcasts. People don’t just listen for the heck of it. They listen because they need inspiration (interviews), they want community (AMA episodes), they want to escape reality because it was a hard day at work (comedy), they can’t fall asleep (sleep sounds podcasts), they are bored and want to be thrilled (true crime), etc etc.
As you hone into your topic and target audience, ask yourself what jobs you hire podcasts in your life to do. How could you make a newsletter and podcast that solves somebody’s job-to-be-done?
6. Schedule
Great newsletters follow a consistent schedule. This advice is not novel, but it is critical. Select a pace that is both achievable by you (for sustainability) and enjoyable by your audience. And don’t assume that it’s always better to put out more content. We are all inundated with hundreds of notifications every single day, so sometimes less is more.
When in doubt, study your favorite newsletters or start with a weekly schedule (that tends to be the most popular).
How to start a podcast email newsletter
Hopefully, by now we’ve convinced you to start your own email marketing strategy. If so, let’s dive into the main steps you need to take to get started.
Build your newsletter strategy
Set up the technical details
Collect emails
Send emails and grow
1. Build your newsletter strategy
The first step to starting a podcast newsletter is to walk through the seven building blocks step-by-step. Choose your newsletter type (global brand, sub-brand, podcast-specific), format, topic, target audience, job-to-be-done, schedule, and growth strategy.
Choose a clear newsletter name, logo, and clear one-line pitch. But don’t obsess over your logo. It will probably change over time and it’s ultimately not going to make or break your list.
Try to write out a simple one-pager that defines your marketing strategy, covering each of these seven building blocks at a high level.
2. Set up the technical details
Once you’ve decided on the softer details in step one, it’s time to get technical. The main steps you need to take here are to choose an email service provider, create your account, set up a standard newsletter template, write and set up an automated “welcome” email, and import your first emails.
There are countless articles out there that dive into the details of this technical stuff, so I’m keeping it intentionally vague here.
3. Collect emails
The next critical step in this startup process is of course collecting your first few emails, and importing them into your email tool to actually build a list. Keep reading to learn some tactical strategies for getting your first 1000 subscribers.
4. Send emails and grow
Last but not least, once you’ve built a newsletter strategy, set up your email tool, and collected a small list of emails, it’s time to start sending regularly scheduled content! The name of the game here is to start small and keep the pressure low on yourself. Use the first few weeks and months to experiment, iterate, and ask for lots of feedback from your friends and family. They’ll be happy to help out.
How to get your first 100, 500, and 1000+ subscribers
Growing a newsletter is hard and time-consuming work. It does NOT happen overnight. But there are some tried-and-true methods for growing your list.
Circling back to the ORB framework we mentioned earlier, we need to walk our way down the list. If email is an owned channel we want to build, then we need to leverage rented channels (social media, youtube channel, etc) to build it, and we need to use borrowed channels (other people’s audiences) to grow our rented channels.
It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. So before we go into specific tactics I want to zoom out for a moment.
There are many methods for growing your newsletter and subsequently growing your podcast, but before we can apply these methods there are a few prerequisites: We need high-quality content delivered consistently.
In product or business terms, we need to make sure we don’t have a leaky funnel before we start pouring fuel on the marketing fire. If we have a crappy product (e.g. newsletter) or an inconsistent release schedule, we will lose more people than we attract and waste our efforts.
With all my disclaimers out of the way, here are a few tactical methods for getting your first 100, 500, and 1000+ subscribers.
0 to 100 subscribers
Send to friends and family
Ask friends and family to each send the newsletter to 3-5 friends who would like it
Add links to your podcast description, social media profiles, email signature, etc
100-500 subscribers
Add a short host-read call to action in your podcast intro or outro
Include a CTA to forward the email to friends at the bottom of each email
Submit the newsletter to blogs (ex: best mental health newsletters 2023)
500-1000+ subscribers
Share content on social media with CTA to subscribe to the newsletter
Create a lead capture resource (a free ebook, PDF, or email course that you can download after you share your email)
Guest appearances on other podcasts to promote it
Cross-promote your newsletter on other newsletters with a tool like Convertkit’s Creator Network or Substack’s built-in newsletter recommendation feature.
Run a referral program (Sparkloop, ReferralHero, Viral Loops)
Ask any guests or collaborators to share on their channels
Collaborations with other podcasts and newsletters
7 Best podcast newsletter examples for inspiration
So far this post has outlined what email marketing is, why it matters to podcasters, the building blocks, and how to get started. This has been a bit theoretical, but we won’t stop there. Below is a curated list of successful podcasters who are using newsletters as a part of their overall marketing strategy.
5-Bullet Friday by Tim Ferris
5-Bullet Friday is a massively successful newsletter with over 1M subscribers. Tim Ferris has built a bit of a cult following in entrepreneurship, lifestyle design, self-development, and even more niche topics like psychedelics.
Learn more and subscribe to 5-Bullet Friday here.
Newsletter type: Sub-brand newsletter
Format: Listicle
Topic: Self-development, lifestyle design, performance, entrepreneurship
Target audience: Entrepreneurs, people interested in self-development
Job-to-be-done: Educate entrepreneurs
Schedule: Weekly
C-Crets by Keith Powell & Ricky Robinson
C-Crets is a media company created by Keith Powell & Ricky Robinson that offers Executive Coaching and advice for climbing to the c-suite, DEI, and more. They run a podcast, write blogs, and do coaching and online courses as well. C-Crets uses an email newsletter to notify their audience about new podcast episodes and blogs they create.
Learn more and subscribe to C-Crets here.
Newsletter type: Global brand newsletter
Format: Editorial
Topic: Executive coaching, leadership, crporate careers, DEI
Target audience: Underrepresented employees looking for a career in the C-suite
Job-to-be-done: Up-leveling skillsets, career development
Schedule: Weekly
Intermittent Fasting Stories by Gin Stephens
Intermittent Fasting Stories is an interview style podcast hosted by Author Gin Stephens. Each week she interviews a real-world intermittent faster to learn about their experience with intermittent fasting and to uncover tips and tricks. She uses here newsletter to notify users of each new episode that drops automatically.
Learn more and subscribe to Intermittent Fasting Stories here.
Newsletter type: Global brand newsletter
Format: Podcast show notes
Topic: Intermittent fasting, health and wellness
Target audience: Anyone interested in intermittent fasting
Job-to-be-done: Inspire people on their intermittent fasting journey, connect people to a like-minded community, educate through practical advice
Schedule: Weekly
Yo! Podcast by Rob Hope
The Yo! Podcast is a show that talks to entrepreneurs, indie-hackers, and bootstrappers building businesses online. Rob Hope previously ran and sold a site that curated inspiration called emaillove.com, so he’s a big believer in email marketing and an expert practitioner of the craft. His newsletter is an interesting example of the blurred lines between different newsletter types. In some ways it is a podcast specific newsletter, but in another sense it is a sub-brand of his personal brand robhope.com.
Learn more and subscribe to the Yo! Podcast here.
Newsletter type: Sub-brand newsletter
Format: Podcast show notes and curated links
Topic: Entrepreneurship, design, lifestyle
Target audience: Entrepreneurs, indie hackers, creators
Job-to-be-done: Educate and inspire entrepreneurs
Schedule: Monthly
Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky
Lenny’s Podcast is a show that dives into product management and growth from a former Product leader at AirBnB. It’s also the #1 business newsletter on Substack, so it’s definitely worth analyzing in more detail. This is an interesting example because Lenny’s Podcast is separate but intertwined with Lenny’s Newsletter. The newsletter is a global brand newsletter that shares a blend of podcast episodes, long-form articles, and community Q&As.
Learn more and subscribe to Lenny’s Podcast here.
Newsletter type: Global brand newsletter
Format: Hybrid: Essays, Q&A, podcast show notes
Topic: Product, Growth, Career development
Target audience: Product managers, Growth, and aspiring leaders
Job-to-be-done: Education, Career development, up-leveling skills, inspiration
Schedule: Weekly
Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith
The Burnt Toast is a Substack, podcast, and community that is “dismantling diet culture and anti-fat bias.” This publication is written and hosted by Author Virginia Sole-Smith, a former freelance writer who transitioned from writing for large media companies to being an independently supported author via Substack. This newsletter is the central hub for her weekly essays, community Q&As, and new podcast episodes which she shares in audio and written format.
Learn more and subscribe to Burnt Toast here.
Newsletter type: Global brand newsletter
Format: Podcast show notes with transcription
Topic: Dismantling diet culture and anti-fat bias
Target audience: Parents, people navigating diet culture and anti-fat bias
Job-to-be-done: Educate, build community around a shared topic of interest
Schedule: 3x per week, “I now publish Burnt Toast three times a week (Tuesday essays, Thursday podcast episodes, and Friday Threads)” (source)
Seamworks Radio by Sarai and Haley
Seamworks Radio is a podcast hosted by Sarai and Haley that talks about the craft and lifestyle of sewing your own wardrobe.
Learn more and subscribe to Seamworks Radio here.
Newsletter type: Global newsletter
Format: Editorial
Topic: Sewing, lifestyle design
Target audience: Women interested in sewing
Job-to-be-done: Sewing education, inspiring people to live a thoughtful lifestyle
Schedule: Weekly
Conclusion
Hopefully you’ve been convinced that email marketing is not just a throwaway marketing tool used by pseudo-luddites. Instead, it’s an underutilized marketing tool that opens direct communication with your audience, opens financial doors, and can ultimately grow your podcast in the long term.
One more pro tip: Check out Capsho, the AI-powered content marketer so you can speed up your workflow of writing emails, show notes for your podcast, and so much more!
Email marketing is a complex and multi-faceted discipline, so this article merely scratched the surface. If you want to learn more, I recommend the following resources:
Capsho’s blog – You’re already here, so look around to learn more and get inspired!
Emaillove.com – Get design inspiration, how-to guides, and tips for increasing your open rates and click through rates
Swipewell’s email examples – A curated list of inspiring emails from Swipewell by Corey and Connor
—
This is a guest post by Colby S. from Resound. Colby is a Product Manager at Resound, the AI podcast editing app for creators. He has 3+ years experience as a lead marketer in the podcast industry and 6+ years experience in Audio Engineering and Music Production.
