You may well be publishing your podcast for reasons other than cash flow, for fun perhaps but things can still go down the toilet when you least expect it.
An email list allows you to keep in touch with your most rabid fans.
Let’s imagine a situation.
You’re publishing your podcast on a free site. Your show notes are there, your audio is too, obviously.
Everything is fine.
The free site holds all your content and interactions with your subscribers.
Now, unbeknownst to yourself, the free site goes bankrupt.
Everything you have published has disappeared into the ether.
Seems unlikely?
Well at the end of 2017 Soundcloud was almost in this situation. A round of funding and job cuts kept the service going but what if?
An email list allows you to contact your fans, let them know what’s happened and direct them to another site for your content.
If you have your own website, a wordpress.com free site is an absolute minimum and a paid site better, you have a place you control and own. Yes wordpress might go belly up, but that’s less likely though stranger things have happened. So we’ll assume they are reasonably stable.
Asking people to sign up to an email list if they like your content is not a big step for them and you can sweeten the deal with a newsletter discussing upcoming shows to maintain interest and contact or a checklist covering how to work for or with your organisation
If the ship hits the sand you have a way of letting your people know what’s going on while you rearrange your affairs.
A podcast as part of a business means an email list is essential.
Your audio content builds your brand. It creates a space where people come to know, like and trust you. The email list can then be used to drive funnels and so on. It’s not rocket science, it has been around since the interwebs began and, done properly, works.
Sp try not to stay on “free” space for too long or at all.
Contact Jon:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjonmoore/
or email at: jon@mrjonmoore.com