Creating a podcast is an excellent strategy for connecting with a target market of possible buyers. To be successful with a podcast, you need listeners—ideally, many of them. No one wants to go to the trouble of starting a podcast and making it only to feel like they’re talking to no one.
That poses the apparent issue: how can you attract an audience to your podcast? Which method of advertising will be most effective in boosting participation? How can you ensure that your download counts are trending upward daily?
To reach a wider audience, consider implementing some of the suggestions below. The methods are both conventional and straightforward to put into practice, as well as more novel ideas.
If you are starting from scratch, choose five and utilize them for six months (with no advertising at all). Start with the most promising and track your development.
What Is a Podcast?
We call podcasts online audio broadcasts that may be downloaded and listened to at the listener’s leisure. A podcast episode is a single audio recording. The podcast host facilitates the discussion, tells the story or gives the news.
To put it simply, a podcaster produces podcasts. Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts (iOS’s podcast app) host podcasts.
Advice On How to Promote Your Podcast
Videos, music, podcasts, and other creators may gain cash support on Patreon. While monthly campaigns on Patreon are a great way to speed up the fundraising process, donations still take a few days to process.
If Patreon isn’t working for you, find an alternative to Patreon before committing extra time. Patreon may be great for your needs at the moment, but it’s wise to have a fallback plan in place, just in case. As crowdfunding grows in popularity, more and more people are looking for viable alternatives to Patreon.
We’ve prepared a few promotion suggestions and methods to help you get the word out about your podcast and attract new listeners. There are three main groups: production, optimization, and promotion.
- The First Step Is to Create Excellent Content
Producing and delivering high-quality audio is key to podcast marketing. Creating high-quality content is essential to attracting and keeping an audience.
High-quality podcasts have intriguing stories, exciting guests, and outstanding audio. Show notes, episode descriptions, and audio transcripts should be considered.
In other words, you need to know who you are talking to. Millions of people listen to podcasts daily to acquire updated information or have fun. By focusing on specialization, you can better assess your readers’ interests and find your potential audience’s age, education level, area, and hobbies.
- Spend 10 to 15 Minutes With Your Market
The best ways to grow a podcast’s audience are typically evident. Spending 10 to 15 minutes daily communicating with social media followers may increase their loyalty.
Podcasts are popular because they have an informal, conversational tone. Maintain the casual style that makes podcasts seem to come from familiar voices.
This need not be difficult, either. It’s as easy as reacting to comments on Instagram or starting up discussions on Twitter by asking questions.
- Sort Out Your Email Approach
Email your listeners every time a new episode is published to keep them informed. Some podcasters space out their emails, so episodes experience a download increase days after going live.
You may only email your list when you have a great interview or guest. Most podcasters send out a monthly or weekly email summarizing recent episodes.
- Promote Your Show’s Best Audio Clips
Create social media-friendly “audiograms” from your podcast’s dialogue. An audiogram is a podcast featuring a waveform, static background, audio narration, and subtitles. Since people who listen to podcasts are more likely to be online, audiograms are often used to promote podcasts on social media.
Digital channels are effective for distributing podcast material and reaching a wider audience. Audiograms might attract people’s attention on TikTok or Instagram. In one experiment, an audiogram attracted five times as many viewers as a still picture.
- Explore the Most Popular Podcasts
Consider the state of the podcast industry while you create your own. The 2019 Google algorithm update that indexed podcasts for SERPs is a significant advancement in podcasting (SERPs).
Voice search is becoming more popular among podcast listeners. Broadcasters that want more listeners are prioritizing podcast SEO. There are tremendous SEO benefits to maintaining a podcasting schedule.
Regular user traffic to your podcasts and website indicates to search engines that you are a credible content source. In the long run, it will help your website’s search engine rankings and reputation.
Many internal and external factors may affect the frequency at which a podcast is released. The most important thing is to set a schedule that works for you and adhere to it as much as possible.
Find out how frequently your viewers desire new episodes by doing a fast survey and checking the posting frequency of your top two to three rivals.
You should also be aware of these other podcasting trends:
- Always remember that your audience values high-quality content above everything else.
- Podcast hosts get a lot of respect and trust from their audience.
- Commercials on radio and television are losing money to podcasts.
- Podcasts have been increasingly popular among those aged 50 and above.
- Finding new podcast listeners will be data-driven.
For you as a podcaster, what do these movements imply? If you make good podcasts, you may reach a large audience.
- Make Connections With Other Podcasters
To make a name for yourself in the podcasting world, you must get along with your fellow podcasters. Consider no other podcasts to be in direct competition with yours instead as your equals.
Many podcasters join Facebook groups to provide and receive feedback and support. Sharing a podcast you enjoy with your listeners might improve your audience growth. If you help out another podcaster, you will both benefit from the goodwill you have generated.
- Show Your Availability as a Guest
As you network, you can propose appearing as a guest on related podcasts. You may even switch places by trading guest appearances on your respective shows.
It is an excellent strategy to keep it from being too promotional. You feel compelled to provide something of worth to someone else’s readership. You may help the presenter develop a high-quality episode and advertise your podcast to their audience.
- Submit Your Podcast to Directories and Aggregators
A podcatcher is a software used to listen to audio or video podcasts. Apple Podcasts, the built-in podcast software with iOS, is the most popular podcatcher available.
However, there are a plethora of others, such as:
- Google Play
- Spotify
- TuneIn
- Podbay
- iHeartRadio
- SoundCloud
- Podtail
Locate 25 more podcast directories to pitch your program to. Register with each podcast index and provide your RSS feed so that fresh episodes are distributed instantly.
By doing so, you will be discovered by new listeners when they search for content on their chosen audio app. Among the many podcast promotion strategies, this is among the most efficient.
- Infiltration of Word-Of-Mouth Referrals
Among the many podcast promotion options, word of mouth is among the most powerful. The first step in spreading your message is locating the best venues to do it. You are responsible for going to the physical locations where your target audience gathers.
Find podcast-related events happening near you, such as conferences, meet-ups, or other gatherings. Then, when you do go, make preparations in advance so that you may get the most out of it.
You may build your network to the max by conversing with the other participants and the presenters. Feel free to introduce yourself and explain that you produce a podcast related to the topic.
- Get Your Episodes Transcribed
Findability in search engines is your goal, right? One must become an SEO expert. You can include transcripts in your show notes and incorporate related SEOs.
By transcribing, you help Google find and index episode terms. It also makes it easy for your target audience to locate your podcast if they search keywords on Google.
- Try Social Media Online Promotions
Social media advertising is a great option when you need to stand out from the crowd. Choose a site where your target audience hangs out to promote your podcast.
Target a specific demographic to optimize social media advertising. Ads may be retargeted to those who have visited your website or blog. Your existing followers, email list, or website visitors may develop lookalike audiences. If you already have a following but want to expand it, this strategy is the way to go.
You may want to target people with a specific activity or phrase if you are just starting out. Digital marketing podcasts appeal to social media users.
- Do Cross-Post Your Episodes
Keep in mind that we already advised you to show up everywhere. That includes online networking sites. You should share your episodes on all of your social media accounts.
Rerun your past episodes and get the word out! No hard and fast rule says you may only advertise the most recent episode. The older ones are great to share as well.
- Take Advantage of Influencer Marketing
Influencers may help your podcast get more listeners. To promote your podcast, contact someone whose audience coincides with yours.
Remember that there is an expectation of karma with this podcast promotion method. Contributing mutually is a prerequisite for working with influential people.
You could have given them a plug on your program, provided them with free stuff, or paid them money. Understand that every influential person has an agenda, and be flexible in working with them.
- Hold a Contest and Hand Out Prizes
Give your target audience something valuable and motivate them to take action to win. As an incentive and a time crunch, giveaways get people moving.
If you want to promote your program, ask viewers to upload their favorite episodes using a specific hashtag for a month. That gets them in the running for the reward, and you may reveal who won at the end of the month in one of your podcast episodes.
Final Thoughts
A high-quality podcast is the bedrock of every successful podcast marketing campaign. You may need to try several approaches until you discover what works best. If you produce great material, your listenership will rise, and you will get champions.