Every podcaster should have a mailing list. So to back up that statement, I’ve finally created one for The Podcasters’ Studio podcast and website.
As a podcaster, the main reason to create a mailing list is to make sure you never lose contact with your audience.
Websites can crash, iTunes can shut off your feed with no warning (I’ve seen it happen), feeds can break, etc.
If these or any number of other problems ever plague your show, you’ll have no way to tell your audience how to find you again, They’ll just think you stopped podcasting.
So why would you ask people to sign up to your list if they’ve already been nice enough to follow you on Twitter, “like” you on Facebook or subscribe to your podcast? Two reasons.
As I said before, third party sites like Facebook (fb) can turn off your page without warning leaving you with no way to update all those people who are following you there with the details of what happened to your page. Perhaps you violated some terms of service you weren’t even aware of (what you didn’t read them all?). Or maybe someone on Twitter reported you for a violation you didn’t actually commit and now they’ve suspended your account. The bottom line is someone else is in charge of access to your audience. A mailing list is a way to make sure the control stays in your hands.
Also, many of the people who “like” your page, or follow you tweets will never see the majority of the content you post to your social sharing sites. The fb algorithm decides what gets seen and who gets to see it and Twitter is such a fast moving stream of content that unless your “followers” are sitting there looking at Twitter when you post, it’s likely they’ll never see it. Your content only reaches a small percentage of the people who have said they want to see it.
By having an email list, you can maintain a line of contact with your audience should anything ever go wrong with your podcast and/or you can send out regular updates to include the content that likely didn’t get seen by the majority of your audience. A mailing list is simply the best way to ensure that most of your content gets seen by those who have said they want to see it.
So, my tip for today is to create your own mailing list (I used Mailchimp – free) to make sure you never lose touch with the audience who wants to stay in touch with you.
I hope you signup to my list but no worries if you don’t. I’m always available for help via email (ray@thepodcastersstudio.com), twitter, Facebook, G+ and anywhere else you might find me online.
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Thanks!