Failure is painful.
It sucks to create something that you put so much effort and soul into, only for it to turn into nothing. It sucks!
I could feel how difficult it was for a client of mine on a call recently.
She had started an email list for her podcast, expecting it to take off in the same way that her podcast had done.
But it… didn’t.
And she was left with a great podcast but no marketing strategy beyond crossing her fingers.
But that wasn’t the end of the story.
If I meet a podcaster who tried email before, they’ve probably come my way because they’re at least curious about trying email again.
That tells me that there’s something there.
Maybe a pull factor like they felt comfortable with email, maybe a push factor like their latest non-mail marketing strategy isn’t working out for them either.
But the question they ask me is always the same: “Why didn’t email work for me last time?”
I can’t give you the answer to that question here, because the truth is that there are a tonne of potential reasons.
But I can tell you that I know that failure hurts. I’ve failed a whole load of times in my life.
The first time I applied for university, I missed out on my chosen place in my chosen university by a single mark.
I’ve also been studying French intensively for the last 15 years and yet sometimes the person at the boulangerie will stare at me utterly blankly when I say “Une baguette, s’il vous plaît”.
Hell, I also failed at email!
The first iteration of my email list consisted of me shooting out an email on the first topic that popped into my head, whenever I thought about it, to whoever stuck around long enough to read it.
That's not a strategy that's going to get you anywhere close to success.
So if your podcast marketing journey brings you to me via a first failed attempt at email, believe me, I understand where you’re coming from.
And that I care about where you’re going next.
You can make email work for you.
You can use what you learnt the first time round and make your podcast’s email list better, more effective and a focal point of your podcast experience.
It can become that beloved community maypole that your audience gathers around. You just need to be ready to take a deep breath, get really honest with yourself and then resolve to move forward.
If you need any help picking up the pieces from your last email list, get in touch with me.
I’ll help you work out where to go from here.
Don't stop believin',
~Sarah at CopyHop~
I'm Sarah Hopkinson and I write meaningful emails that help podcasters increase their revenue and build a community around their podcast.
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