Marketing a podcast and the team that does it
PRX’s Chief Marketing Officer reflects on how she designed the marketing department and how they work together to build audiences.
Marketing is part of every industry. Sometimes the goal is to get the product in front of as many eyes as possible. Other times, it’s about getting in front of the right eyes. Many times it’s both. In the podcast business, we’re getting into people’s ears, but the concept is still the same. Podcasting has grown tremendously in the past few years, so it’s no surprise that the industry behind it has grown as well.
PRX has a portfolio of 127 podcast programs. That’s 127 shows to pitch for third-party promotion. One-hundred twenty-seven shows to post on social and seek potential press opportunities for. One-hundred twenty-seven shows that need to be heard.
The only way to accomplish all of this is with a talented, ambitious team. In the last year alone, PRX grew from having two marketing and public relations professionals to nine. To build this team I thought hard about what roles were needed and how everyone would work together. Of course, the vision has gone through many iterations, but as the ink dries on the last offer letter, I’m so pleased with the final result.
Meet the PRX marketing team
PRX’s marketing team is comprised of positions dedicated to specific departments in the company and a few who focus on the company as a whole. On an organizational level, there are:
- An audience insights analyst who tracks KPIs, creates download projections and models, and tells a story with our data.
- A public relations specialist who builds out media and publicity strategies across all of our brands and shows; pitches press opportunities and prepares talking points. Press is an important part of any project which is why this position is so vital.
- The director of brand marketing is especially critical for a company with multiple brands like PRX. This role makes sure we are represented consistently across digital and physical spaces and seeks new arenas for us to enter.
- The director of audience growth and marketing is dedicated to (surprise!) growing audiences through third party promotion, cross-promotion with other podcasts, and content strategy.
- A digital content manager handles PRX owned digital properties and overarching digital strategies.
Embedded in other teams are a marketing coordinator, who creates assets and strategies for the Radiotopia network; a senior manager of marketing and audience engagement, who works with our stations’ services department to promote terrestrial programs; and a marketing manager, dedicated to the training teams and PRX Podcast Garages.
All of these roles work with each other to amplify our shows and our organization’s message.
How we operate
Before any of the work got done, we had to tackle the processes by which to do it. That meant choosing tools and platforms that make our jobs more efficient, determining metrics, setting up tracking systems, and brainstorming creative endeavors across digital platforms. As a team, we talked about the things we want to accomplish and why these things were important to us and for our producers.
When it comes to marketing podcasts, the questions we ask ourselves include:
- How do we get in front of new audiences, even ones that have never listened to a podcast?
- How do we create engaged, habitual listeners?
- When do we activate the press and why?
- How can we utilize all of our resources have to make a bigger impact?
The marketing strategy behind Radiotopia’s newest show Passenger List is an example of when all of these questions were answered well. Launched in mid-September, Passenger List is the first limited-run fiction podcast in Radiotopia. There are heavy hitters in the cast — Kelly Marie Tran of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Patti LuPone of Sweeney Todd, Colin Morgan of The Fall, and Rob Benedict of Supernatural — which we leveraged to get press looks with The Hollywood Reporter, Vulture, and Bello Collective before launch. In house, we published a Q&A with the creators of the show on our blog. To engage people who aren’t in typical podcast spaces, we ran a wild posting campaign in multiple cities, inviting people to “join the investigation” into the mystery explored on the show.
We’ve seen amazing audience growth and engagement via social media — Twitter and Instagram grew from zero to over 1,200 and 450 respectively in one month — and a weekly newsletter that keeps listeners participating in the world of Passenger List with immersive, in-world copy. Many of these ideas and plans were new for marketing at Radiotopia, and PRX as a whole. Our team took several risks, and they paid off.
Not all of our podcasts require this level of marketing, but the strategy and execution behind Passenger List serve as a beacon of what can be done. As we move forward as a newly formed team, the goal is to bring this collaboration, creativity, and will to succeed to every marketing plan.
Now that we are a team of nine, we have the capacity, range of perspective and expertise, and time to deep dive into marketing tactics across PRX. We plan to continue to ask questions, take risks and highlight the incredible work that comes from our producers.
