Why Your Podcast Needs a Newsletter, Part 2
Arielle Nissenblatt takes us behind the scenes of EarBuds
Hi Besties!
You know her, you love her, and you’re definitely going to want to read this Q&A on companion newsletters with her… I’m talking about none other than
, founder of EarBuds Podcast Collective.
What’s the basic premise and tagline of your podcast?
AN: The ultimate podcast recommendation podcast, bringing you five podcast episodes on a theme, each week curated by a different person.
When and why did you start your companion newsletter?
AN: Actually, the newsletter started first! EarBuds began in 2017, and the podcast kicked off in 2019. I started it as a companion to the newsletter and to give advertisers more bang for their buck. The podcast has changed shape a few times over the years — it went from a completely solo show to an interview show to a hybrid show — but the newsletter has more or less stayed the same for seven years.
What’s your strategy? How do your podcast and newsletter play off each other and work together within your ecosystem of content, promotion, and monetization? How does your newsletter serve your podcast?
AN: I write the newsletter first. It’s a subscriber-curated newsletter, so curators submit their podcast recommendations via a form on our website. When their themed list is selected, we populate our newsletter template, add some more elements (classified ads, community news, our spotlight podcast pick), and then get ready to send it out. While the newsletter is being put together, we are also working on a script for the podcast episode. We reach out to the curator we’ll be featuring that week with a list of questions for them to answer via voice (submitted through an mp3 file), and at the same time, I record the intro and outro for the episode, as well as some of the other elements (ad reads, podcast news, and tidbits). Then, once we have the voice clip from our curator, we stitch it all together, and we’re good to go. The newsletter goes out on Sundays, and the podcast episode to accompany it goes out the following Tuesday. However, that schedule could change. We’re always evaluating publish dates and times for the best chance of high open, click, and download rates.
Where do you host, and why? Are you satisfied with your hosting platform?
AN: This podcast is hosted on Spreaker. It was initially hosted on Castbox, which is a podcast listening app (not a dedicated host), and it had a lot of limitations. Spreaker is much more robust, and it allows us to insert pre and post-roll ads to make a little extra cash. I am generally happy with it. I use other hosting providers for other podcasts that I work on — I love keeping up with software and services for audio and digital content creators, so I tend to move around a bunch.
For the newsletter, I use beehiiv. I switched just last week, so TBD on everything, but I really like it so far. I moved from Mailchimp. I was there for seven years, and it continued to get more and more expensive. I was enticed by beehiiv's nice landing pages, which are easy to set up and maintain.
What’s your #1 tip for podcasters who are thinking about starting a companion newsletter for their show?
AN: Make sure that if someone were to discover your newsletter on their own — independent from your podcast — there’s enough value there beyond just pointing them back to the podcast. A newsletter that basically just summarizes the episode and then links off to the podcast can be helpful, but if you really want people to stick around, it should offer something else. Think of a visual component you can include that you may have referred to on the podcast. Maybe there’s an infographic, a picture of a meal you made, anything that adds value to the newsletter. Make sure your pieces of content that do point back to your podcast also stand on their own.
Thank you so much, Arielle!
➡️ Make sure to listen to Feedback with EarBuds: The Podcast Recommendation Podcast and subscribe to EarBuds Podcast Collective: The Podcast Recommendation Newsletter to get the latest in your inbox.
➡️ Did you miss part one of this series with
of ? Read it now:
P.S. If you want to start a companion newsletter or take it to the next level, check out my newsletter course for . Half the posts are free, and the other half are just $10!
So… ROLL CALL! 🗣
I heard from a bunch of Besties about your companion newsletters, and I would love to hear from more. If you have a companion newsletter for your podcast, tell us about it in the comments below.
Follow me @courtneykocak on Twitter and Instagram. For more, check out my website courtneykocak.com.
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 | A guest post by
|
Thank you for having meeee!
My podcast La Vida Más Chévere de Childfree Latinas has a companion newsletter here on Substack. It goes deeper than the episodes and further explores some themes that come up in in the podcast. There are also additional segments, like the podcast recommendations ¡El Playlist! That comes out on Fridays. Then Self-Love Sundays is on the 3rd Sunday of the month. So far the readers are enjoying it all.