9 Ways to Optimize Your Podcast's Website for Email Subscriptions

On yesterday's episode, I spoke the need to collect first-party data since third-party data is not long for this Earth. On today's episode, I talk about some simple ways you can update your website in order to optimize it for growing your email subscriber list.

Here are 9 ways you can optimize your podcast's website in order to grow your email subscriber list:

Make sure your sign-up form is prominent. A lot of people bury their newsletter sign-up at the bottom of the page or on the “Contact Us” page. Give it the prominence it deserves.

Reduce the fields in your sign-up form. Research shows that the more fields you have, the fewer people will sign up. Unless you require specific information to segment your audience, I recommend starting with just the email address OR name and email address.

Give something away for every subscriber. If you want to grow your list fast, offer something like a free sticker, custom piece of art, shout out on the pod, etc. for signing up. Remember that if you go with something physical that you have to mail, you’re going to need to mail it. And in the U.S., postage is at 60¢ plus the cost of the envelope, sticker, and your time. It can get pricey, but it may be worth it depending on how you monetize your show and your email list.

Add a timed pop-up or exit-intent pop-up on your homepage. You’ve all seen this before. The box pops up after a few seconds on the site asking you to sign up for the newsletters. You’ve seen them so often because they work. An exit-intent popup works by triggering when the site detects the mouse moving to the top of the screen (signaling that the visitor is about to bounce).

Add pop-ups on your most popular content. If you don’t want everyone getting hit with a pop-up, you could only put it on pages that are high performers.

Require registration for blog comments. If you take comments on the show, you could require that the visitor registers first. In that registration process, you could include an opt-in box. Just be sure you’re following GDPR/CCPA/etc. guidelines.

Test & update your CTAs. Have you not been getting many sign-ups? Maybe the copy isn’t landing with your audience. Try changing up your Call-to-Action and button copy.

Make a quiz. People like to interact with fun quizzes and polls. Put one on your website and require the user to sign up in order to see the results.

Create a survey. Ask your listeners to give you feedback about your show and at the end, give them an opportunity to sign up for your email list.

There you go! Nine ways to grow your subscriber list. Thanks for listening to GMP!