How to market your podcast

Sabina Wex
Nov 6 · 4 min read

If you follow me AT ALL, you’ll know that I recently produced a podcast called “Math Therapy,” where a math educator works through guests’ math traumas one problem at a time.

“Math Therapy” has only been out for three weeks, but we’ve had over 1,000 listens, received press attention, had our host featured on other podcasts and have over 75 ratings on iTunes!

But one of the things I often heard from fellow indie podcasters and network podcasters alike is:

Making a podcast is tough, but marketing your podcast? That’s something people haven’t quite figured out yet.

So I thought I’d share a bit about how we got so much attention for our very new podcast.

1. Leverage your existing skills

You may have few resources when you start a podcast, but you definitely have some sort of skills to help you get the word out.

For instance, as you know, I have a background in PR. So I started talking to my media contacts to see if we could get some coverage in October, when the podcast launched. I’m good at writing cold emails, so I reached out to other podcast hosts to see if we could get the “Math Therapy” host on their show — and it worked!

So do what you know. You’re probably making a podcast about a certain topic because you’re interested in it, and know other people who are too. So send it to them! Even if you don’t know people in this area of interest, but you think that they’d love the podcast, send it their way. It’s amazing how many people get back to you and listen to your podcast because you’re aligned with what they’re doing.

2. Be proud of what you produced

You have social media, it’s free, so USE. IT. This is not the time to be shy. You made a PODCAST. You like to talk, so talk away on social media about this amazing thing you created!

For “Math Therapy,” we created a few social media assets that we could drop for every episode, including:

· A graphic for the day the episode drops (which we also send to our guests for them to promote the episode to their audiences — key to getting more listeners)

· Short videos with our guest that week (which we filmed the same day they recorded the episode with us). We drop these two days after the episode’s initial release to remind people that the episode is out.

· A great quote from each of our guests. We post the quote four days after the initial episode release to remind people that this is a really good episode!

We decided to release all our social media content on our host’s feed because she already has a decent-sized social media following. But it’s incredibly important the host be promoting the podcast, as she is the voice of it and people KNOW who she is. As a producer, promoting the podcast on my social media isn’t as important (though that doesn’t stop me, I want everyone to listen).

A good social media blitz needs to be planned not just week-by-week, but also BEFORE the podcast even first airs. We promoted the podcast for a week before it initially dropped so that people could hear our trailer, subscribe and possibly even rate and review the podcast before they heard the first episode. That way, we had people who were excited to listen when we dropped episode one.

Don’t fear what others think. Be proud of your show. Mention it in conversation. Promote it on your personal social media channels. You did something really hard! Most people are happy for you. I’ve gotten so many messages from people I haven’t talked to in years who said they LOVE the podcast and are so impressed that I produced it. So don’t be scared!

3. Leverage your network

Take steps one and two and you’ve got step three: ask your family, friends and community to boost you by rating, reviewing, subscribing, social media sharing and, of course, listening to the show.

Again, be proud of your show. If you’re still feeling weird about asking family and friends to promote you, explain to them that you need their help to keep the show going. It’s going to be awkward, but it’s essential to have those initial listens so that other people can find it. Plus, most people are really happy to help out!

For “Math Therapy,” we made all our family and friends subscribe, rate and review the show. Soon enough, people we didn’t know started rating and reviewing the show! So now we have over 75 ratings and reviews, which makes the show easy to find and attractive to new listeners.

Our host also did a great job of using her network to increase our listens. Our host is a math educator, and has a lot of connections in the STEM industry. She made lists of people she knew from those communities who would be interested in hearing the podcast. The day the podcast came out, our host sent out over 200 emails to those who she thought would love the podcast.

The email didn’t say much, just that our host started a new podcast called “Math Therapy,” a brief description of show, and instructions for how to go to iTunes and subscribe, rate, review and listen.

It was VERY effective. It’s part of the reason we have so many 5-star reviews on iTunes.

Tell me about your podcast below and I’ll make a marketing suggestion for you!

And if you’re in Toronto and looking for a great way to create, grow and improve your podcast, I highly recommend enrolling in Podcast Night School from the phenomenal podcast production studio, Vocal Fry Studios. I just completed the program and learned SO much.

Written by

Trying to decode PR, one blog post at a time.

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