Podcast Audience Growth: Content Strategy

Lucas C. Howard
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read

Growing your audience is a matter of grabbing attention. Hoping to be featured on any given podcast platform is not a strategy for audience growth. Focus on what can be controlled. Content marketing is an increasingly effective strategy and one that can be executed with minimal cost.

  • 92% of marketers say that social media is important to their business. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)
  • Only 30% of B2B marketers say their organizations are effective at content marketing, down from 38% last year. (Content Marketing Institute, 2015)

Pillar Content

If you already have published episodes, the hard part is done. Your pillar content (each podcast episode) provides the blueprint for a large and consistent monthly output across many platforms.

Despite the growing popularity of podcasts, most people aren’t casually scrolling lists of shows while waiting in line or riding the train. The thumbs seen scrolling smartphones all day are most likely in just a few places; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, or Snapchat. This is where your audience’s attention begins.

Hollywood

To steal the attention from the major social platforms and back to your pillar content, taking a page out of Hollywood marketing helps.

Their pillar content is the upcoming movie. Everything they do to promote it is “supporting text”. This includes posters, trailers, extended scenes, early screenings, promoted articles, journalist reviews, fast food toys, and tons of other clever tactics to get audiences attention.

All of the supporting text is built straight out of the pillar content, and that’s the point.

Choosing Platforms

Each platform is unique and needs to be treated as such. What appeals to audiences on Instagram doesn’t always work for Facebook. However, don’t assume that you need to be everywhere. Start with one or two platforms that you think (don’t overthink to the point of inaction) your audience is active on. A couple active accounts is better than many that are idle.

Searching each platform’s best practices, ie) “Instagram best practices”, helps not just in creating for that platform but also in choosing if it’s right for your audience.

Consider your audience and subject and where they might collide. Podcasts about writing or reading would likely find their audience on text-heavy platforms like Medium. Video game audiences are probably busier on video based platforms like Twitch or YouTube.

The Content

Again, each platform should be given unique “creative”, aka “content”. Each creative should be based off of your pillar content. Spend a bit of time on each platform and just take note of what interests you or is “thumb stopping”. Here’s just a few ideas of how you can dice up your pillar content:

  • Overlay quotes onto stock photos from Unsplash, Picjumbo, or Pexels (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook)
  • Shoot outtakes or behind the scenes footage with your phone (YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram Stories).
  • Transcribe or summarize subjects or interviews and post to Medium or pitch to relevant blogs or publications as a guest post.
  • Livestream your show anywhere and everywhere. Even friends often don’t listen to shows, but a “Karen is live” alert often makes them curious enough to join in (Periscope, Facebook, Twitch).

Remember, an imperfect strategy that is executed is better than a “perfect” strategy that never happens. The best strategy is posting 5 pieces and seeing which one does best.

Sources

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Lucas C. Howard

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Watching and helping people and companies grow. Learning from top-tier advertising pros and sharing the journey.

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