Help › Features

Fan Mail (Text the Show)

Fan Mail gives listeners an easy and direct way to connect with you—as easy as texting! 

With Fan Mail, listeners can text your show to share encouragement, questions, and feedback. We gather all those responses within your Buzzsprout account, giving you an easy way to review and respond in your next episode. You've always been able to communicate with your listeners, now they can communicate with you!  
 

How does it work? 

Fan Mail uses SMS to give listeners the ability to text your show directly. When you enable Fan Mail in your Buzzsprout account, we will drop a link in your episode descriptions. Your listeners will use that link to text your show! When a listener clicks the link in your episode description, a new text message will open on their device, directly to the show! It's that easy!
CleanShot 2024-06-06 at 14.27.24@2x.png

Get Started! 

You can enable Fan Mail in any paid Buzzsprout account, by going to the Fan Mail tab on your Episodes page. Scroll through the page to see how it works, and then click Turn on Fan Mail to get started!

You'll decide what you want the text link to say and where you want it to show in your descriptions, click Save and you're all set! Once listeners start texting your show, you can find those messages in your Buzzsprout account under the Fan Mail page!
CleanShot 2024-06-06 at 15.10.10@2x.png Want to see it in action? Check out this video walking you through the Fan Mail feature!

Note: It can take up to 24 hours for the text link to appear on the directories after you enable the feature.

How do I respond to Fan Mail?

We don't share phone numbers through Fan Mail, so you won't be able to text your listeners back, but you already have a way to respond, within your episodes!

If you use Fan Mail for your podcast, we recommend adding a Fan Mail segment to your episodes and reading and responding to messages that way! Each message that comes in through Fan Mail will include a location and the last 4 digits of the phone number. You can use those details to let the listener know their message reached you!

Pro Tip: You can block senders! If you get Fan Mail you don't approve of, you can block that sender from within your Buzzsprout account. And you can unblock them at any time.

Using the Buzzsprout App? 

You can enable Fan Mail within the Buzzsprout App too! Go to the More page and click the Fan Mail option. Then scroll down and click Turn on Fan Mail!
CleanShot 2024-06-03 at 08.22.29@2x 2.png
We hope you love hearing from your listeners through Fan Mail! If you have any questions please reach out to support@buzzsprout.com.