Newsletters for Podcasters: Tools, Tactics, and Tips to Boost Your Show’s Impact

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:00

Welcome to the circle sessions featuring the circle of experts. Each week, one of the Circle of Experts joins me to talk about critical aspects of growing your podcast. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles and Izzy Dadosky from Rebel Marketing, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. This week, Tonnisha is here. Tonnisha is on a mission to help small businesses level the playing field through her digital marketing solutions. Tonnisha, thanks for joining me again today.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:00:34

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:36

So I what you wanna talk about today, it's interesting because when I started to come into doing the podcasting stuff, ten, twelve years ago Mhmm. Mhmm. After my career in radio, I I knew that newsletters, our topic, were out there. But it's that it's that because it's so old school, I didn't pay much I didn't pay much attention to it. Yeah. It's like, oh, okay. Who does newsletters? Dada dada dada. And and now now that I've been looking at it, it's like it it it works so well.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:06

It it it it's like, it's an automatic you need to be doing this.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:01:10

Yeah. Sort of thing.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:11

Yeah. Exactly. So yeah. So touch upon how what do we wanna talk about newsletters? Yeah.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:01:16

You know, that sentiment about email, marketing, it rings true for so many people where it's like, this is, like, the old way of doing things. But email is not dead. It is alive and well. And so, yes, today, I wanted to talk about how, you can keep your podcast listeners And so, you know, unlike social media, with email marketing, you own these emails. You own this list of people. With social media, which I know we've talked about before, if you make a post, you'd hope that the algorithm favors you enough for people to see it. But with your email newsletter, you can look at the data of your audience and determine what is the best time to send that email to make sure that they will see it. So you don't have to worry about algorithm changes in your inbox.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:02:17

Also, with email marketing, it just allows you to build deeper relationships with your subscribers. So, you know, it's one thing to get them to listen to the podcast. How can you really build community? I think about when I when I was trying to put this together, I thought about Crime Junkies, which is a true crime podcast that I'm a huge fan of. And they've done such a great job of, like, building an entire community behind their work. And they're not just talking about, you know, these crimes and them leaving them where they are. I mean, this community is sending them clues and also playing a part in their investigative research for their podcast. They have an app. They have, they do live podcast shows across the country where people are coming in just to hear a live episode.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:03:11

So this is really your opportunity to turn people from just a casual listener while they're working or in the car to really having a community of people that will back you and support your work.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:22

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And and I think there are a lot of nuances. Well, there are a lot of nuances to newsletters that, that first of all, I wanted to kinda get your opinion on there's so many opportunities, so many software, you know, the constant contact, that you we know the names now because they've done some advertising and sponsorships, especially in in the podcast realm. Mhmm. Are there differences in those different companies other than just price point have you seen?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:03:54

I'm gonna be honest. You know, I've been working in email marketing for, like, ten years, and they are all pretty much the same. It's it's really just all about being more user friendly. Like, I think the Constant Contact, the Mailchimp are more user friendly. But now once we start talking about getting really deeper into, like, email automation and you're building sales funnels and things like that, you're gonna need something a little more, complex like, ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit or even some of those, that may be attached to a CRM or a a customer relationship management tool. But if we're just talking about we want to at least start to build community, we wanna start getting into the habit of sending newsletters and doing that, you know, weekly or monthly communication, I think starting with, like, a Constant Contact was, like, one of the first Mhmm. Ones around and then also Mailchimp. So I would definitely start there.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:05:01

The great thing about Mailchimp and Constant Contact is that it's pretty much drag and drop. Mhmm. So if you are just like, I have no idea what I'm doing. They have prebuilt templates for you, and they will kinda set the parameters about where things go and how things look, which, as you learn, that may become frustrating because you wanna make it a little more custom. And so, you know, if you have people that know coding, you can code your own emails and upload the code and everything like that. But I think it's a great start for people. It's to start with a Mailchimp or a Constant Contact. I think cost wise, they're they're really great, for someone who maybe has, you know, a hundred subscribers or even if you have a thousand.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:05:49

Yeah. It's it's a great place to start for sure.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:51

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. The the the the look at what when I've done some look and compare and contrast, it just kinda look at I've seen at least, the number of subscribers are allowed at each level. That may be Right. Where you're looking at, a a price point difference. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:09

I think even one of them, which I was kinda surprised that, at the a higher paid level, you could then actually schedule out that email. If you could if on the lower level, it's like when you create it, you gotta send it now, which is that

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:06:21

once you

Brett Johnson [: 00:06:22

you know, it's like, well, that's kinda a little trickery. Like, you know?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:06:25

And, you know, it didn't used to be like that. But as people I've been using Mailchimp for a little over ten years now, and it didn't used to be like that. You used to be able to have a free account for up to, like, 2,000 subscribers, and you could schedule. You could do all types of automations. But as people have caught on, like, wait. This is a great tool for me to make money in my business and to, you know, build a community for my business. They're kinda like, Okay. So over the years, they've definitely, raised the prices, but they've also added more features.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:07:00

Features. So another thing to consider along with your newsletter is within Mailchimp, you can send text messages. If you wanna send a text to the people that are really loyal or the people that are always active and engaged. You can text them when a new episode drops and send them direct the link directly. So which is, you know, goes into just, you know, one of the types of newsletters that you can send is, like, an episode, like, episode available type of emails or an episode recap and insight. So this could be, like, a short breakdown and the takeaways from each episode. If you happen to have a guest on the podcast, this could be an opportunity to feature them, and maybe that's an incentive for us, or even an incentive for people who may wanna sponsor your podcast to know that you have this email newsletter. You're gonna send a recap of every episode, and that's an opportunity to highlight people that support you or come on to the show.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:02

Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've always been the advocate that if you're going to get your podcast sponsored I've had this conversation with with podcasters that I work with that are looking at that option, but at the same time, you just kinda wanna know how to do it. I I mentioned to them. It's like, yeah. It's the podcasting medium is never was really never designed to be, a sponsorable platform. It it it doesn't it it it works, but it it and and what I mean is the mechanism behind the RSS feed and that sort of

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:08:30

thing Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:31

Compared to other things. Now adding other nuances to your podcast like a newsletter is one more dimension that you can give numbers to that Right. You own those email addresses, and you know all about what's going on versus, well, I know I have so many views on TikTok, and I know I have so many views on YouTube. Well, that again, you're playing against algorithm. There's no algorithm to to newsletters. Right. You're that you're fighting against. They get a breakthrough.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:58

They get a pay to get to reach more of your subscribers. It's not bad. Nope. Nope. So and, oh, those pieces. Let's get into the creativity part. You mentioned a little bit about, you know, advocating, to listen to the next episode, you know, different newsletters, and I guess it needs to fill that void of why am I subscribing and what keeps me subscribed to it.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:09:29

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:29

Yeah. And I think podcasters have an opportunity to be really creative with newsletters beyond Mhmm. Saying it's coming up next. What are some thoughts that you have too?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:09:39

Yeah. You know, another great thing you can do with your podcast is kinda curate some resources that relate to the podcast. So, sticking on this whole investigative journalism type thing, You know? If there are news articles relating to the stories that are being told, that's something you can share. I think most people that are into, like, true crime and things like that, like, we also want to read the articles and get really deep into some of these cases. And so if you're able to give people that information, it kinda makes them feel like they're also a part of the show. Yeah. Or maybe even, I know Yasmin, and Izzy have a podcast now, and so they're giving a lot of marketing tips and things. And, some of the the things I, you know, see her send in her newsletter is, like, more tips beyond just what was talked about on the podcast, more resources.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:10:39

So think about different way I mean, even as you prep for your own episodes, whatever information you're looking at to prep, send that in your newsletter as well and give people the opportunity to go deeper into the topics that you're talking about.

Brett Johnson [: 00:10:54

Right. I'm, potentially working with, an attorney out in California, but she her her specific niche is working with passport problems, getting in and out of Canada.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:11:06

Okay.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:06

So it's it's really interesting about the nuances of traveling back and forth to Canada. Yeah. You know, until you do it numerous times, you don't realize this could be a problem or this could be a problem. You know, we just think Right. We do have the allowances that, hey. Just bring a passport along and you can probably get in. Well, there are other things that can go on. Well, you know, looking at putting a podcast together for her, I do wanna put together a newsletter for her.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:28

But at the same time, it's like, okay. Let's go beyond what your podcast is about. How about if you were to let's take it one step further. Well, if you're going to Canada from the let's say from The United States' point of view, maybe she'd wanna do something in her newsletter about Canada destinations.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:11:46

Yeah. So things to do.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:48

Fun things to do.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:11:49

There. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:50

It gives the opportunity to work with another partner part of, like, possibly a travel partner and possibly, you know, income stream. That sort of thing. So it's it's that can you can you can you put some, some different nuances to that newsletter? Maybe newsletter. Maybe build a brand around who you are. Yeah. Person a personality driven type of newsletter that enhances you, enhances the the podcast if you have the opportunity. Again, don't make a stretch of it. But if

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:12:18

there's Mhmm.

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:18

You can connect the dots of that. Wow. I really wanna I really wanna subscribe to her newsletter because she's talking about Canadian destinations, and that's why I'm listening to her podcast anyway because I'm going to Canada. It's like it's a win win for the listener. You know?

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:12:32

Exactly. So I

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:32

think I think looking at

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:12:33

that perfect way to tie in. And it's not necessarily, like, exactly what she's talking about, but it's still related to Exactly. The topic of traveling

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:45

Yeah.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:12:45

As an American citizen to Canada.

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:48

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, once you have built that newsletter up, of course, you're gonna get some numbers. You're gonna see things of how the recipients use your newsletter, basically. So can you go over some of those, statistics and what to look for? What do they mean? What should you really not be too concerned about? But others that it's like, yeah. This one is really the most important to take a look

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:13:14

at. Yes. I would definitely look, of course, your open rates. And with any newsletter platform that you're using, I know Mailchimp and Constant Contact put together what's called benchmarks per like, by industry that will allow you to kinda compare your open rates and things to those of others. But also keep in mind, it's gonna depend on the size of your email list too. So if you have 10 subscribers and a 50% open rate, that's really good. But don't be discouraged if now you have a thousand subscribers and maybe a 20% open rate. That still may be pretty good depending on your industry.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:14:01

And in this case with podcasting, there's still, to your point, a lot of the unknown about, you know, what are the benchmarks for for a good podcast? How do we determine what that looks like? Especially because a lot of that data, on the back end is truly owned by the person. Like, you don't necessarily have to share your downloads or share how many listeners that you have. So it's kinda, you know, try trying to compare what that looks like. But always look at your open rate as well, as an indicator of, like, okay. Do I have good subject lines? Great. I do because people at least open my email. Now something else to think about is what they call, the CTR, which is a click through rate. So looking at how many people are actually clicking on things in your email.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:14:53

So if you are sharing a link to the podcast episode, out of those a hundred people that opened the email, how many of them are actually clicking onto the episode, or how many of them are clicking on, the LinkedIn profile of the person that you put as a guest speaker, or, when we're talking about getting sponsorship and advertising on average, how many people are clicking the links of the businesses or people that you're featuring in the in the episode? Because that data can also be used as a pitch to get other people to want to pay to be a part of your exclusive newsletter. So those are things to think about. I think, also, you may see something called a hard bounce versus a soft bounce. So a hard bounce could simply be someone, you know, accidentally typed .co instead of .com in their email list, or it could just mean that maybe their inbox, doesn't exist. The email doesn't exist anymore. And if you're using this this is why it's so important to use an email marketing tool and not just sending emails on your own because your platform will kinda clean all this up for you. As someone, you know, unsubscribes or if somebody is a hard bounce email, they'll automatically be removed from your list. Another thing, you so the soft bounce, just to go into that, a soft bounce could mean that maybe at that time, that person was receiving a lot of emails and their server couldn't handle it.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:16:32

Or maybe there is a problem with Gmail's or Yahoo server at the time, so it can't go through. Or that person's, mailbox could be full at that time. So I know in Mailchimp, Mailchimp will try to keep sending that email a few times before they will say, okay. This email is not a good email, and they'll put it, you know, as a hard bounce. So those are just, like, the basic of some of the, analytics that you may see on on your newsletter. Something else that you could get into that a lot of the platforms can do for you is to segment your list of people that are really engaged versus people not so engaged. Yeah. And we talk about with these platforms, you're really paying to host your email list in these platforms.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:17:25

And so if you have a bunch of people that are kinda just dormant on your list that you're paying for, we can remove them and focus on the people that are really active, which will improve your numbers, which could improve your opportunity to get sponsorship because you have more engaged people on your list.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:44

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The big thing is to understand, to me, understand what those numbers mean and grow with it, whether it's a monthly newsletter or a weekly or whatever whatever the case might be of of knowing where things are. And it and then it then it leads to that, as you mentioned, that click through rate Mhmm. Of okay. That click through rate, if if you read between the lines, like, you need to figure out where do you want them to go the next step. And do you have a podcast website? Mhmm.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:11

Are you just directing them to Apple Podcasts for the, you know, link to the to the episode? Okay. Great. Is that you have to think about the user experience. Is that where they're actually going to listen to an episode, or do you want them to read more? Like you said, research information could be additional research or or or a layout of the research information that they did for the episode. That's where the click through is and and kinda see if people are more interested in reading the documents that you

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:18:37

looked at sort of thing. Right. Right. Test the

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:39

test the waters and see what your audience is interested in doing Yeah. Beyond just the norm. Oh, I'm gonna link it to to so they can listen to the episode. Well, they're probably already a follow-up of your podcast anyway. Right. So why send them again to that when they're already listening to your podcast? Give them that additional that and that feeds their hunger to wanna stay Mhmm. A subscriber.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:19:01

Exactly. Because you could just keep you know, at the bottom of your email, there could be just something that's just always there about going to the podcast. Sure. But the content is just like you said. It's it's a way to keep them engaged, make them feel like being a part of this newsletter is like an extension of the show that they're already a fan of or already a subscriber to. How can you, be able to kind of keep them engaged and keep them active and keep them excited about what you're doing with your show?

Brett Johnson [: 00:19:38

Plus one more bonus. It's a great opportunity and and an easy way for that listener to share with another person that may be coming to a new listener. Mhmm. Yeah. If nothing else, even encouraging them to share the newsletter. Mhmm. So with a but if it if this hits a note with you and you have a buddy that may like it as well, please share the newsletter, you know, that sort of thing. I think we I think we missed the opportunity.

Brett Johnson [: 00:20:03

That's a really easy way to grow your followers on a podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Really easy. And and that's that's all in making that newsletter just something that's looking to to create something that is look, that the recipient is looking forward to.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:20:18

Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, when it I was just talking to somebody. She was like, I just went through my inbox and was unsubscribed from so many newsletters that I wasn't, you know, reading. And I think so many of us, you know, are subscribed to so many things on top of our emails, you know, being bought by someone. So now we're getting all this spam. So you really have to give people a reason why they should stay subscribed subscribed and stay engaged with you because they're already getting so much that it's easy to either just ignore it or unsubscribe. And, you know, I know Gmail will be like, hey.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:21:00

You haven't opened this person's email in a while. Do you want me to just unsubscribe you from from that? And that was something, I remember when it when that was starting to happen that a lot of email marketers were like, no. But, honestly, for me, I say I would rather someone unsubscribe than to mark my email as spam. Mhmm. Because once you get too many spam complaints, now we have a whole different problem on our hands. So please, I I I always encourage people to let people unsubscribe. Don't make it so difficult for them. I actually put the unsubscribe button.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:21:40

It's usually at the bottom for my newsletters. I put it at the top. Like, hey. If you don't wanna be here, please. Like, no hard feelings. Like, please, please go because I would rather that than, you know, Gmail or someone thinking that I'm, you know, spam or something.

Brett Johnson [: 00:21:59

Yeah. No. That's a good point because it's only gonna help your numbers. It's gonna help your click through numbers. It's gonna help your, you you only wanna talk to the people you want to be listening to you. So Exactly. You're right. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:09

You're right. Don't take it. When you see unsubscribed numbers happening, things happen in life. They just, they may not be into what you're doing now, and that's okay. That's okay. I I think if it were something that you did, you'd probably hear from them more likely. You know? Exactly. Because if you really poke at somebody that hard with what you've done, they're gonna complain about it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:30

They they will. They'll they'll tell you why they're leaving, and because you upset them so much or this is not what I thought your podcast is gonna be, and now it's turned this. I just can't anymore. You'll get that kind of feedback.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:22:42

Yeah. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:43

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Well, there are a ton of nuances to newsletters, and I think we've developed this out that it's I hope that the listener thinks and and knows, like, I don't have one. I should have one. Mhmm. But I gotta begin somewhere. It really is Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:22:58

Fairly easy to begin, but at the same time, it's something to manage. And you've managed a lot of people with their newsletters. What would be the best way to contact you just to, you know, talk a little bit about the journey of how to start and how to keep it alive and and thriving for them.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:23:13

Yes. Yes. You can go to my website, tjecommunications.com, and set up a free consultation, and we could talk about getting started. We could talk about different platforms. So, yeah, I've been working in email marketing for, like, ten plus years, and it's something that I I really love and I'm passionate about. So I have a lot of information I would love to share. Just reach out.

Brett Johnson [: 00:23:38

Yeah. And, if you've got one now with your podcast and just isn't doing what you think it should be doing or you're thinking about adding it on, we're gonna bring Tonnisha in as well too. You can contact me on my calendar as well at mypodcastguy.com. We'll we'll do the same thing. Yes. It's if if nothing else, look at this as a marketing tool that you really, really, really should consider. It should be it should actually be maybe on top of what you do with social media, quite frankly. And and so look at it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:06

It is that important that it's an investment in your podcast or your business as a podcast, whatever, of looking at that monthly monthly fee for a a newsletter. It's worth the while. It really, really is, because you're already a content creator. That's what a newsletter is. It's just another content creator access point and outlet. Exactly. Exactly. Well, thanks for joining me.

Brett Johnson [: 00:24:28

You talk we'll talk to you next time.

Tonnisha English-Amamoo [: 00:24:30

Alright. Thank you.