Prologue
A "Secret" All Podcasters Know ...
All podcasters know that, when you publish a podcast with your email address in the RSS feed, you're going to have people take that email address and send you:
- Sales pitches
- Guest pitches
- General spam
You could ignore everything, but if you do that, you'll also miss out on some great opportunities, like email from listeners who want to work with you and sponsors who want to buy ads.
Unfortunately, because of how podcasts are distributed, there's nothing we can do about people scraping our emails and sending us junk, but there are a couple of great email tools that will help you work with high volumes of email to sort through everything in a timely manner and make sure you don't miss any great opportunities.
I've got them listed below. But in general, whether you use these tools or not, I advise you to get a dedicated email address that's just for your podcast and use that in your RSS feed. It's a small (and free) thing you can do to segment everything away from your "real" email address, so you can work with general podcast email and pitches on your own time, not whenever somebody decides to "interrupt" your main email box.
Also in this issue of Big Podcast Insider, The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing, which will help you to both position yourself as an influencer as well as hire other influencers to promote what you're doing. And some important YouTube information that I couldn't include in the previous issue.
Podcaster Opportunities
The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing
A couple of things about influencer marketing that are important to keep in mind:
- Yes, being "endorsed" by somebody with a lot of clout and followers can be a nice boost to whatever you're doing.
- You have to be ready to take advantage of the boost by transitioning somebody else's audience to become your audience – endorsements don't always stick!
This guide is helpful for a couple of reasons. One, it will help you to be successful with the influencers you hire for your marketing. But maybe even more importantly, it will show you how to position yourself as an influencer and see that type of marketing to others.
Take a look and get yourself set up to win!
Podcast Marketing
YouTube is #1 for Podcasters on Headliner - Here is Why
The last issue of Big Podcast Insider was all about YouTube and podcasting.
This information is also important and explains why YouTube is the #1 destination for audiograms from Headliner.
- Searchability: Having podcasts on YouTube means they are indexed on the third (or second depending on how you count) largest search engine in the world.
- Serendipity: When one YouTube video ends, another begins. Autoplay on YouTube can give potential listeners a quick exposure to the beginning of your podcast. Bonus: Put something interesting in a cold open to hook them.
- Shareability: YouTube links are almost universally shareable and almost any site recognizes them. Plus, they come with metrics and tracking
- Showing Up: Put your podcast where your audience is to remind them about your show and why they like you in the first place. If they subscribe to your YouTube channel, having your full episodes appear gives them one more place to start listening.
Podcasting Tools
Sentenc.es - A Disciplined Way To Deal With Email
This isn't a "tool" as much as it is a strategy. Basically, it's a personal policy that all email responses, regardless of recipient or subject, will be three sentences or less.
Would that work for you? It doesn't work for me ... but the concept is solid and can be modified to help you be better about responding to email.
In short, have limits, either time or length (or both), that will improve how you work with email.
Mailman - Take Control of Your Email Inbox
Mailman is a program I have been using for several months and I love it. It minimizes interruptions and will make you more productive.
Mailman allows you to control who can send you emails and when.
- VIPs – Configure VIPs in your account so that their emails land in your inbox immediately.
- Batch Delivery – All non-VIP emails are delivered to you in batches at your defined time slots. No more interruptions throughout the day.
- Screener – Screen emails from the first-time senders. With Mailman, you'll never see another unsolicited email in your inbox again.
- Do-Not-Disturb – Set the times when no new emails should come in.
If you want to take control of your email inbox, Mailman is worth a look.
Paced Email - The BEST Email Tool for Podcasters
Here's the problem ...
As podcasters, we have to have an email address listed in RSS feeds. And that means anybody can get that address, build a mailing list, and spam us.
Last week, I got the same message from a publicist three different times, to three different podcasts. The same message!
Fortunately for me, I have Paced Email, a service that batches up all the random requests and pitches sent to my podcast and delivers them to me in a single, "digest" message, that's easy for me to read in just a couple of minutes.
I can see the messages I need to see, while ignoring everything else, like the three messages from the publicist who obviously didn't listen to my podcasts and know that two of them don't have guests at all.
Seriously, this is the best email tool for podcasters.
Podcast Production
Zoom Church - SNL
This is a comedy sketch, but as a podcaster, you've probably lived a similar experience at least once. So I'm including it here. :)
The Wrap Up
The Wrap Up
My goal is to better empower podcasters to be more successful spreading their messages and make more money with their podcasts.
I'd love it if you'll help me spread the word about this newsletter by sending your podcasting friends to bigpodcast.com/newsletter.