Yes, you’ve heard the main section of this episode before — about the importance of building an email list as part of your audience engagement strategy. But the intro and outro are new, as Jerod explains why we decided to rebroadcast this episode this week.

The smartest showrunners know that their podcast is only the first step in building a deep, meaningful relationship with an audience. The next step, one that should never be overlooked, is building an email list so your most engaged listeners can take the next step in connecting with you.

In this episode, we provide an overview about email. There is a lot to cover. (Next week, we’re going to build on what we discussed here and take list building to the next level.)

Jerod and Jon dive deep into the following topics:

• Why Jon thinks he is doing email wrong (and why Jerod disagrees with him)
• The importance of being human in how you approach your email subscribers
• The benefits of building a base of email subscribers as you grow your show
• What is more valuable: an email subscriber or an iTunes review?
• How email played a huge role in the initial launch of The Showrunner Podcasting Course
• What you should do when people hit Reply on your mailings (if you really want to build an audience)
• Why you should view your email schedule like your podcast schedule
• The two roadblocks to email registration that you need to remove with your site design and copy

This week’s listener question is from @alexcforrest, who asked: How do you decide if you should have a co-host?

And this week’s podcast recommendations are:

• Jon: The Moth podcast
• Jerod: Three Month Vacation Podcast by Sean D’Souza — Episode #39: Why Infotainment Creates Binge Consumption in Readers and Listeners

Listen, learn, enjoy:

Listen to The Showrunner below ...