How to Promote Your Podcast by Creating an Email List

Although you'd hope that people would just subscribe to the RSS feed of your podcast, many people don't, for various reasons. It's always good to give people more options in order to find out about your podcast. Email lists can be less intrusive than having to download audio, and as long as you're not spamming them, many users find it helpful to be reminded when a new episode is ready.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• computer
• internet

1. There are many different options you can use to create an email list. Do some research and find one that's right for you. L-soft is an option to manage an Listserv community. Blognet and Feedblitz are free services online.
2. Follow the instructions on the service that you choose and set it up.
3. Advertise your email list in order to get people to sign up. If you have a website, put an announcement up so people know it exists. Emphasize convenience and explain to them how often they can expect updates.
4. After you have subscribers, now you can think about how often you want to send out an email, what format you want it to be in, and what you want to say in your text to update them on new information and get them to listen.

Tips & Warnings

• Some have found that, when it comes to email newsletters, frequency is more effective than density of text. Don't go overboard with the frequency, but keep things very easy for your user, and they'll be more likely to click.
• Once you have an email list, think about the design, deliverability, and usability of your newsletter. Provide pictures and links to make things eye-catching and effortlesss.
• Pay attention to content. Ideally, content will be the driving force behind people signing up for your email list or RSS feed: because they want to hear more.
• Don't spam the people on your user list.
• Don't add people to your email list without their permission.