Fixing your broken newsletter strategy.
Hey Pod Pals!
This newsletter was lovingly curated (without the use of any AI) in real time on Thursday morning at 9:26am CST.
My morning routine is all kinds of jacked up because I had to go and get my labs done for my yearly physical.
I'm down about 20lbs from last year so I'm actually excited to see where my numbers are at....of course I have a spreadsheet to track all of my lab info for the past decade or so...LOL!
Whether it's podcast downloads or my A1C score...I like tracking numbers!
📈 Today we are going to talk about fixing your newsletter strategy.
In my opinion one of the BEST decisions any podcaster could make is to start a companion newsletter that they send out each week.
I've been pretty preachy about this for the last couple of years and I've seen many of you take action...bravo! 👏
With more of you taking action on this newsletter strategy I've also been seeing an uptick in the amount of questions I get along the lines of:
-Adam why does my newsletter open rate suck so bad?
-Adam I'm burning out from all this extra content...help!
-Adam I can't get anyone to actually SUBSCRIBE to my newsletter! What am I doing wrong?
In today's newsletter I'm going to address each of these newsletter fixes one at a time.
😱 Problem: Your newsletter open rate is terrible.
The industry "standard" for a good open rate is about 30%. I prefer to shoot for 50% or above for this newsletter each week.
Many of you are telling me that your open rate is below 20%...so let's fix it.
The main issue for many podcasters is that their newsletter content isn't actually adding any value.
Here's the fix:
✔️ 1. Please stop using your newsletter as a promotional email. Many of you just use it to promote your latest episode and this is a BAD MOVE.
When you send a promo email it's the same as getting another $10 off Tuesday email from Kohls.....who cares!
✔️ 2. Start adding VALUE with your newsletter by addressing a new topic each week that you didn't already cover in your latest podcast episode.
✔️ 3. I highly recommend that YOU write the email....not Claude or ChatBot 5000.
✔️ 4. Write the newsletter that you actually enjoy writing and that you would actually want to read yourself!
😱 Problem: You are burning out from having to create a fresh podcast episode and a fresh newsletter every week.
I get it....many of you are driving the struggle bus when it comes to putting out weekly podcast content and now I want you to create weekly newsletter content too?????
Here's the fix: Use my Content Flywheel Strategy
When I sit down to write this email every Thursday I'm not spending hours at my computer asking myself...
What shall I write about today???? 🤔
As always, I've got a system and here it is:
✔️ 1. I create a podcast episode.
✔️ 2. About 8-12 weeks later I will use my notes from that podcast episode to write a newsletter.
Example: Today's newsletter was inspired by episode 630 which was released on July 30th.
You will notice that this newsletter is not the exact same content as that episode.
I just use the notes to get my brain waves cooking and then I attack the issue from a new angle.
😱 Problem: Your podcast listeners are not subscribing to your newsletter list.
I think the main issue here is that most of you aren't telling your podcast listeners about your newsletter and if you are....
you probably aren't giving them a good enough reason to hit the subscribe button.
Here's the fix:
✔️ 1. If you really want to focus on growing your newsletter list I would make your newsletter your podcast intro and outro CTA for 6-10 consecutive episodes.
✔️ 2. When you give your CTA on the show be sure to tell your audience who your newsletter is for and what they will get out of it.
Example: When I talk about my newsletter on the show I like to remind my listeners that if they only listen to my show they are only getting 50% of my best FREE content.
The other 50% is inside of my weekly newsletter where I cover a completely DIFFERENT TOPIC than what I cover on the audio podcast.
➡️ It's called FOMO Pod Pals.....let's start using it to get people reading your newsletter!
So I hope our little chat today has inspired a few ideas to help you improve your newsletter strategy.
If you could use some help I'd encourage you to join my Skool community and upgrade to the Premium Tier.
I've added my High Value Newsletters For Podcasters course inside of the Premium Tier of the community which is only $19/month (price goes up on October 15th!).
Talk to you next week!
Your Pod Pal,
Adam
⭐️ P.S. Here's the scoop on my podcast episode this week!
🎙️ Podcasting Business School EP 640: Email Marketing Tips for Podcasters with Liz Wilcox
In this episode I invited my Pod Pal (and the new owner of Smart Passive Income) Liz Wilcox onto the show.
We discuss the DO's and DONT'S of email marketing strategies for podcasters.
If you want to build your email list this episode is for YOU!