A podcast is an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device for easy listening. Podcasting allows brands to communicate to a captive audience. With lifestyle on-the-go, the power to have the podcasting on demand allows companies and brands tell their story anywhere at any time, which helps to establish authority in your industry and create advocates for your brand along the way.
If you are looking to Publish a new podcast or promote an already existing one, there are a few things that you should keep in mind.
The Two Pillars of Podcasting
Before jumping right into the top promotional strategies, let us take one step back to assess the foundation of a podcast. We will start with the two main pillars of podcasting, quality content and time. We need to make sure what we are currently creating is worth promoting and that we have realistic expectations around the timelines of success.
1. Quality content
Marketing a bad product is a waste of time. No amount of money, creative marketing angles, or Hail Mary strategies will grow a stale podcast. So, before you start trying to crack the code on podcast marketing, first make sure it is up to snuff.
What makes a good product? It must hit these three qualities:
Valuable: Your listeners need to gain something from the episode. They either learned new information or a skill, were entertained, or satisfied a curiosity.
Unique: Your podcast’s point of view adds something new to the conversation, however slight. Uniqueness varies for every topic so start by creating Venn Diagrams against others in your niche. If too many data points land in the middle, focus on refining your differentiating factors first.
Sticky: You podcast needs to capture and sustain an audience’s attention. If your current listeners are not consistently consuming your episodes in full, focus your efforts on the content better. Listen to podcasts that are like yours, study their formats, content, and structure. Think about how you can incorporate those features into your show and improve upon what they have created.
The best long-term strategy to promote a podcast is by providing value. Gimmicks and shortcuts may work in the short term, but they will not sustain you. Instead of leaping on the latest marketing trend, focus on creating value through strong relationships and quality content.
Time:
With quality content under your belt, next turn to the second important pillar: time. We know Rome was not built in a day and the same can be said for podcast audiences.
Remember, many hosts produce a podcast for 5-6 months before seeing major upticks in their listenership. That means persistently promoting ten top-notch episodes that ultimately see minimal engagement. Do not get discouraged. Podcast marketing is a long-term endeavor.
Trust that promoting a podcast takes time and growth depends on consistently producing engaging content.
These two are the most important to remember when willing to create podcasts that are create a lasting impact on the audience, other important factors to take into consideration are:
2. Market Your Product.
When it comes down to it, your podcast is your product. You must market your “product” to increase your reach. Start by supplementing your podcast with blog posts, microblogs or even YouTube previews. Next, focus on cross-promotion with other brands, podcasts, or newsletters. Engaging other influencers in your specific focus area is another means of reaching out to more potential listeners. Whenever you publish a new episode, promote it through your social media channels and have your guests promote the podcast on their personal and business social media accounts as well. The key is to ask for shares and recommendations early on. Make this happen faster by deliberately asking for shares and recommendations early on, whether it is on air or off-air, or perhaps as a call to action in your blog post or show notes.
3. Make promotional clips.
Generating clips is one of the more popular forms of marketing in the world of podcasting. Since there are so many podcasts available online, it is important to show your potential viewers who you are, what you do, and what your show is about.
If your show is audio-only, you might consider bringing on a freelancer to make an eye-catching video to accompany your clip. You could also use a PowerPoint-like slideshow to go along with your audio snippet.
Promotional clips can be shared all over the internet. Create your promotional clip around an intriguing cliffhanger or a funny segment on your show. Be sure to tag your podcasts’ name and include the best ways to find your show and how to contact you.
4. Promote your message — everywhere.
When launching your podcast, don’t forget to blast your message on your website, social media, and anywhere else you can catch the eyes and ears of potential listeners.
The first few weeks of your podcast launch are critical. Apple Podcasts uses these weeks to determine how your podcast should show up on a listing. If you get a lot of attention and popularity during this time, you will rank high on their lineup.
A good Apple Podcast ranking will work wonders for your podcast in the long term. It makes it easier for people to find you and helps you climb above your competitors.
5. Be a guest on other podcasts.
You can also get exposure and market your podcast is by going on someone else’s podcast. When doing so, you will follow whatever format and direction their show typically takes. The idea is that you can plug your socials, personal website, and podcast to a whole new audience. Just make sure that your expertise aligns with the podcast you are going on.
6.Focus on niche topics.
The truth is there are millions of podcasts out there. To stand out from the crowd, you need a cutting edge. If your focus is too broad, you will be crushed by the competition.
Think about ways to twist popular topics into your specialty.
For example, creating a standard fitness podcast is not going to get much traction given the abundance of fitness-related material available. However, look at Biceps after Babies. This podcast has been extremely successful because what mom does not long for biceps after having babies? It’s a broad enough topic to catch the interest of mothers nationwide yet narrow enough to avoid getting lost in the stream of options.
7.Invest in professional equipment.
One quick way to establish yourself as an amateur is to use subpar equipment. We know that starting a podcast is a bit of a gamble — will it even work? But really, nobody wants to listen to a crackling voice or barking dogs in the background.
If you are going to do this right, go ahead and invest in a proper microphone. Also, make sure to record your episodes in a quiet room with no distractions or unwanted ambient noise.
8.Do not give up.
Most podcasts take a while to build up momentum. Expect to publish at least 20-30 podcasts before you start to see some traction.
If your podcasts are falling short after six months, consider ramping up the material. Ask yourself questions like Is my podcast engaging? Am I getting any reviews?
Try to bring in interesting guest speakers, boost your ads on Facebook, or try out a new niche.
9.Promote Across social media.
Social media gives you a myriad of different ways to share and promote your new podcast episodes.
You can promote videos, images, teaser clips, quotes from interviews, and more. Instagram alone has a ton of powerful tools for growing your audience, like Instagram stories, live videos, and posts.
10. Optimize Each Episode for SEO
There are some serious SEO benefits for publishing every podcast episode on your podcast website as a new post.
You can include an embedded audio of the episode, as well as a transcription and show notes. The written content is what will help you rank in the search engines for relevant keywords. However, Google has recently started ranking audio content as well, so you can double down on your SEO efforts.