Whether you’ve got a brand spanking new podcast, and you want the world to know about it, or you’ve been going for a while but you’ve noticed a drop off in listeners, promoting your podcast can be difficult if you don’t know where to start. Much like SEO, podcast marketing is a long term endeavour – try not to be discouraged by low download numbers or low listening rates – promoting a podcast takes time, and relies on consistently producing engaging, quality content.
Keep reading for our top tips on how to get your podcast out into the big wide world…
Focus on your audience.
If your podcast doesn’t have an audience, you’re really just alone in your room talking to yourself. And while there’s no shame in that, it’s much more fun to get other people involved in the conversation.
Having said that, there’s no point trying to market to everyone and anyone – you need to really think about who you want your audience to be. Who will be gaining the most value from your show? Is it a podcast about how best to budget in the current economy? Or is it an ongoing discussion around rare bird species in the British Isles? These two potential shows will have wildly different audiences, and you don’t want to get them mixed up.
Taking your time, and putting effort into understanding your audience is the first step in making sure you’re promoting the right kind of content, on the right platforms, and that you’re targeting the right people.
Experiment and measure your results.
Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve got a few months worth of episodes under your belt, it’s always worth trying new things – experiment with content, and find out what works and doesn’t work.
While you’re experimenting, make sure that you’re also recording and measuring your results – it’s much harder to figure out what’s working and not working if you can’t remember what you did last month.
Distribution.
While producing quality content for your podcast is half the battle, you also need to be making sure that people can find it. Make sure to submit your podcast to different aggregates and directories – a few of the big names are Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify, but there are many more: TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, Pandora, Listen Notes, PocketCasts, BeyondPod… It’s a jungle out there.
Create an account with each service, and set up your RSS feeds so that each new episode gets uploaded to these locations – you need to make yourself easy for listeners to find, and there’s no easier way than by going mainstream.
Get to know your social media.
In terms of promotion, social media is the gift that just keeps on giving. Podcasts are a potential goldmine for social media content, because they can be easily transformed into short form video content – soundbites, bloopers, teasers…
Short form video content has been dominating the social media market over the last few years – the arrival of TikTok changed the game. While in general, you should think carefully about who your audience is and where they might be (ie, Linkedin or Twitter) – almost everyone can find an audience on TikTok. Generating 1.53 billion users in just 7 years, TikTok has been so successful that it promoted the launch of copycat media on other social channels – Facebook and Instagram now have reels, and Youtube has ‘shorts’. If you’re still not sure, take a look at these tips from podcast hosting platform Castos on how to promote your podcast on TikTok.
Create a website:
It might sound simple, but having a good website can make or break your online presence. SEO can take a while to really get going, but once you’ve got a good organic search presence, your audience will have no trouble finding you.
Make sure your website is optimised with relevant keywords, and is updated with regular, fresh content – links to your podcast, links to your social media. Include content that is relevant to your audience, but not necessarily directly advertising you. For example, if you run a sports podcast, keep an up to date link to the BBC Sports section, or Sky Sports News. It all helps to keep your audience engaged!
Hopefully these expert tips will help you in your podcasting adventures. If you’ve got any questions, please get in touch with the team at Winchcast, and we’ll help you out with some expert advice. And stay tuned to this blog for more tips, chats, and all things podcasts
