How do I share podcasts through the Feed Element?

In this article, we are going to show how you can pull in podcast episodes through the "Feed" element.

With the "Feed" element in the Drag & Drop Email Builder, you can connect the RSS feed of your blog to your message and easily share new blog posts with your subscribers. If the blog post includes a podcast episode, then the "Feed" element will automatically detect this and display an audio player.

Note: the audio player is displayed using HTML5 audio, and not all email providers and devices support HTML5 audio at this time. If the email client is unable to play the podcast and the user clicks on the podcast link, they will be taken to the URL marked in the corresponding RSS post. 

Step By Step Instructions

1. Click and drag the "Feed" element to the desired spot in your message.
   
   
   
   
2. Then, you will see the "Feed" settings on the right-hand side of the editor. Enter the RSS feed URL into the "URL" box. 
   
   
   
   
3. Once the RSS feed is verified, you will see your most recent blog posts in the editor. The post will include an image, title, description, and a link to your blog. If the post includes a podcast player, that will display underneath the image once the message is sent.
   
   
   
   Note: if the email client cannot display the audio player, it will disappear and the subscriber will not be able to see it. Clicking the podcast link will send them to the post on your site. 
   
   
4. You can edit the formatting and display settings of the feed from the "Feed" settings. First, you can search for specific posts in the "Categories" section.
   
   
   
   
5. You can click and drag the "Number of Posts" toggle to change the number of posts that display. You can share a maximum of 15 posts.
   
   
   
   
6. You can edit the layout of the posts to "Postcard," which displays the posts in one row with the image to the left-hand side. Or, you can use the "Block" layout, which displays the posts in two rows with the title above the image and the remaining information below the image.
   
   
   
   
7. Next, you can display the posts in descending or ascending order based on the date. 
   
   
   
   
8. You can change the color of the font in the element using the "Text Color" picker.
   
   
   
   
9. You can choose which information you would like to display using the "Image," "Author," and "Date" toggles. You cannot remove the title of the post.
   
   
   
   
10. Lastly, you can reorder the title, author, and date information by clicking the icon on the left-hand side and dragging the blocks into the order you want.
    
    

And that's it! Now, you can send your podcast episodes and blog posts to your subscribers.

Will the audio player display in all email programs?

Not all devices and email apps support HTML5 content like audio players. Although most popular email clients, like Apple Mail, will display the audio player, some other platforms, like the iOS Gmail app, will not. Email clients that do not support HTML5 content will display a fallback image where a reader can click to listen on the website. The email clients that support HTML5 content that will display the audio player are listed here: