Grow your podcast with email newsletter marketing

Podcast Creation and Marketing with Podmotion

In this episode of the Podcast Production and Promotion Podcast we speak with Tyler McCune, a professional email newsletter writer in California.

Tyler owns Copy By McCune. He has an impressive roster of clients for whom he writes newsletters, and is also a content strategist and copywriter

Tyler and host Sheelagh Caygill speak about how to use email newsletters to help grow a smaller, independent podcast.

Tyler recommends beginning marketing with writing email newsletters, rather than focusing on long sales letters, which can be more complicated to develop.

Grow your brand

With email newsletters, it’s probably best not to start one off with the sole intention of growing your audience. For existing listeners, a newsletter can really activate those listeners and take them from being someone who simply listens to your show to someone who becomes a real fan of you and your brand.

Use a show to really engage to really engage your existing fans and overtime you will be positioning yourself as a thought leader. And of course, in each newsletter, you can ask your readers to share it with anyone who will be interested.

Getting email newsletter sign-ups

Heard of the ethical bribe? You want people to sign up to your e-mail newsletter list, right? this is where the ethical bride comes in. You give the potential newsletter to read something that they want. Here are some examples: a hidden podcast that only newsletter subscribers have access to, a free template, or an e-book. Choose the right lead magnet for your your listener. But for podcast fans, an audio file is a good choice, given that they already like podcasts.

You could use something that you once sold as a lead magnet. That allows you to put a value figure on the lead magnet.

Writing style

Your writing style will depend on your audience. Your style should come out of your personality, and usually most email newsletter writers tend to write a newsletter as though they are writing to a friend. However, this does take time, and for some writers it can take years to nail their persona.

Of course, this style doesn’t lend itself to every podcaster who gets into newsletter writing. It’s important to think to think about the persona you want. For some podcasters, they will want to be seen as thought leaders, an so that can mean including things like industry updates, as well as your own news.

Remember, it’s hard to compete with well-established thought leaders or marketers, so don’t try to compete with them. Go off script and focus on building a bond with your listeners. If you go along with the storytelling format, be sure to infuse your stories with meaning.

Promoting your newsletter on social media

Before you begin promoting your newsletter on social media, think about what you want in terms of the end result. Go back to your opt in or ethical bride and ensure it aligns with your end goal. Sell the benefit of subscribing - what’s in it for them?

To this end, Tyler recommends the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie - which gets readers to focus on thinking from another person’s perspective, and thinking about what makes them happy.

At the end of the day, if you keep the experience of writing fairly simple. Talk to your email newsletter readers as you would to a friend, or the way you talk to your podcast audience. If you do this, over time you will improve and people will like what you do.
Show notes:

Tyler's first interview with Sheelagh.

Marketing Bullets - by Gary Bencivenga.

Swiped - for control and test copy.
Find Tyler at