Marketing: Building Email Communities: How to Grow a Raving Audience, courtesy of social media examiner
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOAm4dR0tns
Listen on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/building-email-communities-how-to-grow-a-raving-audience/id549899114?i=1000749416793) | Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ipgPc7fIhLY0DP5Qr0qmj?__s=4hybyoxwijsbdpfuiwhq) | Amazon Music (https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/10c08ca3-1d05-40eb-9bbf-5263f3655e71/episodes/ecb5fd5d-63b4-4772-959a-bf19085c6c28/social-media-marketing-podcast-building-email-communities-how-to-grow-a-raving-audience?__s=4hybyoxwijsbdpfuiwhq):
Read the show notes on Social Media Examiner (https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/10c08ca3-1d05-40eb-9bbf-5263f3655e71/episodes/ecb5fd5d-63b4-4772-959a-bf19085c6c28/social-media-marketing-podcast-building-email-communities-how-to-grow-a-raving-audience?__s=4hybyoxwijsbdpfuiwhq)
Facebook groups get deleted, algorithm updates decimate reach, and features disappear overnight. Paul Gowder, the founder of the leading online community for Native American arts and culture, experienced this firsthand when Facebook deleted his 85,000-member group without warning.
Email offers something social media platforms can never guarantee: ownership. Social platforms change constantly. Your email list stays with you.
Entry-Level Email Sequences to Nurture and Grow Relationships
Entry email sequences are a great way to grow trust and loyalty with new audiences. Use these to answer questions that are often asked by people who are new to your business, experience, or product.
For Disney travel planners, a beginning sequence might look like this:
Email: What to pack for your first cruise.
Email: What to expect on embarkation day and how to check in.
Email: How to plan excursions and activities during the cruise.
Email Sequences to Resurface Your Best Content
Paul’s Throwback Thursday sequence demonstrates how to systematically leverage existing content from your back catalog.
At the beginning of each year, Paul and his virtual assistant select the 52 blog posts they’ll feature in the upcoming Throwback Thursday sequence. They write all 52 emails at once, ensuring consistent coverage of their best content.
Then, every Thursday, subscribers receive an email highlighting older content from PowWows.com. The sequence runs 52 weeks, covering 52 different pieces of content throughout the year.
For content creators with significant archives, this strategy ensures new subscribers see your best work regardless of when they joined your list. If your best podcast episode is number 5 but you’re now on episode 700, new subscribers will never find it unless you surface it intentionally.
The approach works for any content format. Podcasters can create “Podcast Monday” sequences featuring their top 10-20 episodes. Bloggers can highlight their most valuable articles. YouTubers can resurface their best videos. The key is selecting evergreen content that remains relevant over time.
Three Ways to Get People Into Your Sequences
Paul uses several strategies to drive people into his email sequences, with some approaches working better than others.
His favorite tool is Grow.me, a plugin that embeds email opt-in forms in the middle of WordPress articles. As readers scroll through content, the opt-in form highlights itself, making it impossible to miss. On mobile devices, where sidebar and footer forms disappear, Grow.me ensures every reader sees the call to subscribe.
The plugin’s real power comes from category-based targeting. If you write about multiple topics, you can display different opt-ins based on WordPress categories. A Disney travel planner could show cruise opt-ins on cruise articles, theme park opt-ins on theme park content, and all-inclusive resort opt-ins on resort posts. This topical relevance dramatically improves conversion rates.
Link triggers inside existing broadcasts provide another entry point. When sending weekly emails to your current list, mention other sequences you offer. Paul might write: “By the way, this is our 30th anniversary, and we’re planning a big giveaway this summer. If you want to get on the waitlist and know when the contest starts, click here.” When someone clicks, the email platform tags them and automatically enrolls them in the anniversary sequence.
Link triggers at the end of sequences work well, too. When someone finishes What to Expect at Your First Powwow, Paul mentions other relevant sequences with a call to action, such as “We also have a series on tracing your Native American family history,” or “Join our Native American book club,” or “Sign up for our travel group.” This keeps people moving through additional sequences rather than dropping off your list.
Landing pages offer another highly effective approach. Paul creates clean pages with no navigation, headers, or footers—just text explaining the email series and an opt-in form. These pages work perfectly for podcast appearances, conference presentations, and even casual conversations. Paul can say, “Go to powwows.com/powwow101, and you’ll get an email series over ten days explaining everything about attending your first pow wow.”
These same landing page URLs work across social media. Share them in Instagram and Facebook stories, in reels, in social posts—anywhere you can add a link. Because the URL is simple and memorable, people can actually type it into their browser if they’re watching a video where clicking isn’t possible.
Pro Tip: Facebook lead ads deliver subscribers at a low cost. These ads let people opt in without leaving the Facebook platform, significantly reducing friction. Paul pays 12-20 cents per email subscriber through lead ads. Use an automation tool like Zapier to automatically transfer leads from Facebook to your email platform.
Other topics discussed include:
How to Let Your Audience Guide Your Email Sequence Development
How to Manage Email Sequence Frequency and Avoid Overwhelm
How to Write Emails That Feel Personal
Today’s advice is provided with insights from Paul Gowder, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast.