List building for podcasters is not just growing your audience the way everyone tells you, which is to go on other shows or post on social media. That’s simple. Those are the basics, but I can tell you firsthand, that’s not actually gonna really move your business.
What will move your business is building your list and growing your contacts, your network and your leads.
Podcast listeners are a mystery. You don’t get data from Apple or iTunes on who’s listening, so that’s the kind of thing you have to figure out: What’s the system I need to build to get that information myself? How do I set that all up?
And what do I do with my list once I’ve built it?
Having the right tools in place will help you not only grow your audience, but make sure your podcast is delivering for you, your customers and your business.
Let’s dive into some tools to help you start building your list today.
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Look professional with Canva
If you’ve got a podcast out there and you’re wondering how to get more people on your list, the first thing you need to do is make sure you have your social media pictures and profiles updated.
You want clean pictures and clean headers across the top of the page that look nice. You want your photos sized properly. All your platforms should look consistent.
The website Canva can do all of that. You can use their tools to create pictures and graphics in exactly the format you need — Facebook cover, Instagram post, social ad — and make sure everything looks crisp, nice and consistent.
Canva’s forms and templates not only make sure your content is the right size, but there’s also some design to it. The content looks professional, so when people find you and start to get to know you, they find platforms that look professional and well crafted, and that builds trust for your brand.
You can also design your podcast episode cover art on Canva by adding messaging to your own images or the site’s stock photography and stock images.
I use Canva for my cover art. I upload images of my guests and build out unique custom messaging for each episode. So make sure you have Canva onboard to get you moving. It is really user friendly and not the hardest thing to learn.
Offer something of value
The second thing, if we’re building a list, is to ask, “How do I get people to want to give me their information?” That’s what this whole thing’s about, right? To build a list, you need people’s emails, phone numbers, Facebook identifications… And you’re not going to get that unless you find some way to give them valuable information.
So, figure out how you can offer value. Then, put that in some kind of downloadable form — a writeup they can download in PDF form, a list, a test, a quiz, video training… Whatever it is, offer a valuable, downloadable piece of information that people listening to your episode would want.
And that’s going to be different for everyone. There’s a million types of podcasts. But you know what your audience wants and what they’re listening for. You know what questions they’re asking, so you have to design something that helps answer some of those questions.
Evernote
I know those ideas aren’t always coming to mind quickly, so as they come to you throughout the day, you need a place to immediately write them down. I use a note taking application called Evernote.
You can just put ideas on a notes app in your phone, and that’s fine, too. But I like Evernote because it syncs online so that I can make notes in my phone, or I can jump onto my computer and that information will be there. Then I can just copy and paste it into the next place I want to put it, so I don’t have to retype it from my phone into my computer.
Evernote stores and tracks the notes, and you can tag content. Every time you have an idea, you can tag it with a different word that tells you, “Oh, this is about blogging,” or “This is about cars.”
Tagging will categorize your ideas in whatever way makes sense for you. There’s a lot of other functionality to it, but at its most basic, Evernote is just something you can go to at any point in time to leave notes and write your ideas down.
Do not rely on yourself to try to remember everything. You will forget the amazing ideas you had. As soon as they come to your brain, just shoot yourself a little note to remind yourself. Maybe create a folder of ideas for specific things that you can populate at any time for prospecting.
What does your audience need?
Among those ideas should be ideas around how to come up with a useful list, tool or piece of valuable information that will be helpful to your audience.
Think of it this way: The things that are most common are some kind of how-to information or step-by-step guide or list of resources. Maybe it’s an FAQ, where you provide answers to frequently asked questions.
If it’s not tools or resources, maybe it’s some kind of step-by-step process for handling a typical problem that you’re solving.
So think of it like that. What are the things you can help with that deliver value?
Make it look good
Once you’re forming ideas and gathering notes and writing, you need a place to build them.
And guess what. You can go back to Canva.
As you write out your guides or lists or FAQs, you can then put it into Canva and design a nice looking, downloadable object. They have pre-built templates for that, too, so you can create an amazing looking document and then download it as a PDF.
Now you have something that people might be willing to give you their contact information for. That’s where list building starts.
Put yourself in writing
So you’ve got this lead magnet, this valuable item your audience can download. Now what do you do with it? How does it build your list?
Most of us would talk about it on our podcast. But here’s the trick: That alone isn’t going to do it. Talking about your content in your podcast isn’t going to bring in someone new, and you need to draw in additional eyes and ears.
The next best thing you can do is to write a blog.
Yes, you actually have to type on your podcast. If you can’t do that, maybe have someone transcribe for you.
Now, I’m not talking about show notes. I’m talking about actual, thoughtful content — a written form that can live on its own. You write that as a blog, and within that blog, you can drop that useful download call to action.
Say you have a coaching business, and you came up with the four best steps to get started solving that problem you’re coaching on.
Write an article about why this is a big problem for your client. In the middle of that, you say, “If you want to get started solving that problem today, download my useful tips on how to get started right here.”
Then you keep on going with the article so it’s embedded naturally with the flow of the content. If people are interested, they’ll click and download, and to download the content, they need to give you their email. The blog is free to read, but if they want more information on how to get started, it’s right there for them to download with the easy exchange of information for their email.
That’s how you start building that collection, building that list of people you need to connect with.
Medium.com
If you don’t have a blog, I’m not saying you have to go out there and build a website. I’m trying to keep this easy for you.
At Medium.com, in a couple of seconds, you can sign up for an account and start typing. Today. And it doesn’t have to be fancy. Just type your first little blog right there, and embed that downloadable item right in the middle of it.
You can make that blog look a little more professional later — again with Canva — but sit there at first and just write from the top of your head. Get it out on paper. Don’t worry about it being perfect.
Then go back and figure out places to add formatting or pictures. Now you have a nice looking blog that has your downloadable item, your lead magnet, embedded into it. And that’s one more place people can find you. They might already be on Medium and discover your blog, but now you also have a place you can point people to.
Within your social posts, you can say, “Hey, I just wrote this article on this. Go check it out.” Or even in your podcast, telling people to go read more can drive them to that content.
You can also run a Facebook ad that can connect directly to your lead magnet or the article that contains it.
What I’m saying is you can create a place to point to besides your podcast. Not everyone listens to podcasts, but a lot of people do read articles. A lot of people on Facebook will click on something that takes them somewhere else. That somewhere else could be your blog and, within it, your lead magnet.
That’s how you expand your list building into those audiences, even if they aren’t listeners yet.
Get organized
Now, maybe you’re not to these steps yet. Maybe you’re not even podcasting yet. Maybe you are, but you’re still trying to figure out how to get content that’s not coming naturally to you.
At the very least, do an interview with someone. Go out there, find someone you want to talk to who is interesting, and schedule an interview. There’s a great app called Calendly. With Calendly, you can easily set your times that you’re available for phone calls, then send that link to someone. They can just pick a time, and Calendly automatically schedules a call for you.
Then you can connect that to another software called Zoom, which is a way to do video calls with this person one-on-one. That video call can be downloaded as content that you can redistribute as a video on YouTube or Facebook, or you can pull the audio from and make a podcast out of it.
That content alone can be the basis of how you can come up with ideas for this lead magnet that we’ve been talking about.
Stay in contact
What so many people are missing is a place to get people’s information. And as a podcaster, that information is huge because it isn’t spoon-fed to you. So use your lead magnet as one way to get that information and start your list building.
These tools are all ways to figure out how to get the information of the listener and start to bring them into your community. And again, that community is huge. Controlling your list is huge. You need to know who your customers are so you can actually communicate with them, even if they’re still cold and not ready to buy from you.
As you keep building that list, you can email subscribers weekly on what you’re putting out there: “Hey. This is the latest episode that came out in the podcast. And by the way, if you want to work with me or download something that I’m selling, click here and buy.”
With that email, you have control of reminding them of the next podcast they should tune into. Sometimes, people stop listening to podcasts, or your show falls off their lists. But if you have their email, now you’re in control of how often you send things.
Over time, you build a relationship. Maybe not right now, but maybe in a month or two, they’re ready to actually pull the trigger and work with you.
That’s what you want — an ownable list that isn’t controlled by Facebook or some other platform. That’s what most podcasters are missing.
Once you discover your audience and take control of those communications, you can really begin to understand who you’re working for and where to go next.
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