Podcast Fans Are Listening, Are You Getting Heard?
Your Podcast Promotion Game Plan
Podcasting is blowing up. It seems like right now everyone and their mother has a podcast, so standing out in order be heard is more crucial than ever. The good news? You’ve found your niche, you know who your target audience is, and your production quality is on point.
Now all you gotta do is court those listeners and get them hooked.
The biggest factor in growing your audience is time, as most podcasts don’t become hits instantly. The trick is to think about marketing and promotion as a marathon rather than a sprint. Here are three more things to think about when promoting your podcast.
Get found
They say “if you build it, they will come”, but not without the help of keywords.
Your metadata — the podcast’s title and description tags — influences how your pod will show up in Apple Podcasts. Title your podcast episodes with a primary keyword, while adding secondary keywords in your podcast description. Including ID3 tags in every episode (which are used to store track ‘title’, track ‘number’, ‘artist’, ‘album’ etc. and even the track artwork) will help specific episodes show in iTunes search.
There are also still people out there who don’t listen to podcasts (gasp!), but yours may just be the valuable source of wisdom/laughs/companionship they need. If they’re not actively using Apple Podcasts or Stitcher, how are they going to find your content?
If you have a website, you’re off to a good start. Have a blog on that website? Even better. If not, at the very least you should be publishing detailed show notes for every episode. By publishing keyword-rich, searchable content, your chances of recruiting even more qualified ears grows exponentially.
Imagine your dream listener. What might they Google when looking for the information you provide? These are the words and phrases that should be peppered throughout your blog, show notes, or any supporting content you own. Google’s planner is a great resource for finding the most relevant keywords to plug into your content.
Look to and beyond your followers
Your current audience is one of your biggest assets, and if you’re lucky, you already have a few loyal fans who consistently retweet you and recommend your show to friends.
Invite listeners to review your pod on Apple Podcasts (and anywhere else they can) if they love your show because word of mouth will always be a podcaster’s best friend. Don’t be afraid to explain how important reviews are for helping people discover great podcasts and always make it simple for them to take action.
Sharing to your followers is great, but don’t miss out on a wider audience. Before recording, ask guests if they will be willing to promote their upcoming interview — either on their website or to their own social media followers.
At the same time, you can get active in the online communities related to your expertise (like Facebook groups). Get a feel for the forum first and become a regular participant in the conversation before sharing your content.
Also, focus on building your email list from organic traffic to your site (which is now very SEO-friendly). In an ideal world, new subscribers opt-in to your newsletter, you email them when a new episode drops, they click and listen, and share with those friends who ultimately become subscribers and listeners too.
Track, analyze, and repeat
Hopefully, you’re already sharing every episode on all your promotional and social channels. Now, make sure you can see what’s actually working. Create a dedicated link to your latest pod episode through a service like Bitly for every place you intend to share (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). If you know where your traffic is coming from you can closely analyze where your audience is engaging…and where they are not.
