You’re likely reading this blog post because you’re having some trouble building your podcast audience. By the time you’re done reading this, you will have 10 creative marketing tactics to promote your podcast in 2020. Podcast promotion has become a popular topic as the rise of podcasting has swept the marketing industry by storm. Key Takeaways:
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The importance of early engagement
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Where to put your focus
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10 podcast promotion tactics
Before You Start Promoting Your Podcast
Before you start worrying about promotion, it’s really important that you first focus on really nailing the basics of podcast setup. If you do this wrong, your podcast isn’t going to perform well, no matter how much you promote it.
So, first things first: Make sure you’re getting it listed on the three big platforms: iTunes, Spotify, and Google Play/Youtube, which together account for more than 50 percent of all podcast plays.
iTunes accounts for the largest percentage of all podcast listens, so you need to make sure you do well on that platform. This means that whenever you share your podcast link, whether on social media or another channel, you should share your iTunes link.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that getting into the “New and Noteworthy” section of Apple Podcasts can make or break your podcast. This is a section where new podcasts with early interest get placed in the iTunes Store and on the podcast app.
Apple doesn’t share the exact requirements for getting placed in “New and Noteworthy”, but a few things likely impacting this placement:
- Having a large audience before submitting to iTunes
- Having more than 3 episodes uploaded before submission
- Quality episodes
- Early engagement
- Publishing cadence
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Keeping all of that in mind, there are plenty of other things you can do to promote your podcast and grow your audience. Let’s take a look at some tactics you can use.
10 Podcast Promotion Tactics
Check out these 10 tactics to grow your reach and maximize your podcasting efforts.
1. Start with word of mouth.
Everyone has to start somewhere. You should start by telling your friends and family about your new podcast. They are the most likely to listen, share, and review your podcast. If you asked 10 family members to leave a review, listen to an episode, and share on their Facebook or social media; you would be ahead of the game.
This is likely to be a low effort task that yields high reward. Like I said above, having an early interest in your podcast is key, having a review from your family members and friends can’t hurt.
2. Email your database.
After your friend Max and Aunt Tanya give your podcast a positive review, you should send a promotional email to your contact database. The contacts in your database likely have some brand loyalty and are interested in what you have to say.
In your email, make sure to mention how much you would appreciate a review, and share it on social media. You can keep track of those who make the effort and show them a little extra attention by commenting and re-sharing whatever they post.
3. Create show notes from your episodes.
If you want to funnel more people to your podcast you can turn your episodes into show notes. We used this tactic for one of our older podcasts in order to highlight marketing news but to also attract new listeners for people outside of our contact database.
Having show notes not only drives more listeners to your podcast but if you optimize these notes for a specific keyword, you can drive more traffic to your website. It sounds like a good win-win scenario to me.
4. Put your podcast on YouTube.
In addition to showing notes, you might consider filming your episodes. As seen in the graphic above, Google Play/YouTube accounts for 12 percent of all podcast plays. This means that some people prefer to “watch” a podcast over listening to it. Incorporating video into your podcast can be a great way of getting these extra plays and getting your content in front of a greater audience.
While podcasting gives your brand a voice, video helps give it a face. Not only does this help promote your podcast, but it builds trust with your customers and potential customers.
5. Promote on social media.
This is a no-brainer. If you have a podcast, you should be promoting it on social media. Planning out a social media promotion strategy can take some time but it will ultimately drive a lot of people to your podcast.
If you are a fan of other podcasts, which you likely are, take note of what they use to promote their show. Some of the most popular podcasts will take a short segment from their show, post it on social media and get a lot of traction out of such a small part of a large idea.
6. Cut your YouTube clips into key takeaways.
After you’ve uploaded your video to YouTube, you can cut your clips and share them on social media. As we know, video consumption has been on the rise for the past few years and shows no signs of slowing down.
You can extract key points in your podcast conversation and provide that for your social media audience, include it in other blog posts on your site, or share them in an email. This also makes it easier for people to share your thoughts across social media platforms.
7. Create custom quote graphics.
Once you have cut your clips to show the most important sections, flip those into a custom graphic to share on Facebook and Instagram. Users on these platforms are constantly posting quotes of inspiration, ideas, and funny saying on their stories or reposting to their personal accounts.
You can even use these graphics on Pinterest. Adobe Spark is the best when it comes to creating quote graphics for all different social media platforms. It allows you to create the quote copy once, and then adjust the sizing to fit all platform dimensions.
8. Engage with your peers and business partners.
If people are commenting, sharing, and engaging with your social media posts, emails, or videos, make sure to comment back. If people are taking the time to respond to a question or comment on an idea, you want to make sure they feel heard. As your audience grows this will become harder to get to everyone but will be even more important.
Your long-time listeners will appreciate the shout-outs and comments as you start to build your audience. Not only is it polite to respond to messages, but engaging with your audience can help you build new ideas for upcoming episodes or help you get other industry leaders on your podcast.
9. Create an incentive contest or program for your listeners.
If you’re having trouble getting people to go on the different platforms and leaving a review or a comment, you might want to consider running an incentive contest. For example, you might have a bunch of brand swag laying around your office collecting dust, why not offer that to your listeners? They get something for free, promote your brand, and you get a review on your podcast. That is a win-win-win.
You can tell your audience to leave a review on iTunes, post a picture of their review on social media with your podcast’s hashtag and they will be entered to win a prize, or the first 20 people to do so can get a t-shirt, mug, or other swag.
10. Be a guest on other podcasts.
Being a guest on another podcast is an easy way to tap into another audience. This is also a great way for you to build relationships with others in your industry. You might even learn something new about podcasting by going to someone else’s studio.
This will give you the opportunity to share your ideas and position yourself as an authority. Once you have gained another audience’s trust, your podcast can act as another resource for information.
Need help building your podcast audience?
If you still need help building your audience, you might want to consider a promotion plan and persona research. Pepperland can help you understand your audience, plan a full season of episodes that appeal to your listeners, build a promotion plan, and get your podcast up to industry standards.
Whether you need help getting on iTunes, buying equipment, creating podcast artwork, finding good show music, or anything in between, we can help you.
