In this day and age, when businesses are coming up with great solutions for everyday challenges, the next big thing is a podcast. If your business seeks a unique way to connect with potential customers and provide them with valuable information, creating podcasts might be the best solution.
Podcasting is a wonderful medium for content marketing! In fact, if you have the talent to create a good podcast, you can be sure of getting many listeners worldwide. However, it is not a piece of cake! You need to ensure you promote your podcast in the right way to create a sizeable base of listeners. If you master this skill, you can make a good living and establish a solid name in this field.
Sounds great, isn’t it?
To help you achieve this, we have decided to bring up this topic today. In this blog, we are going to talk about the following topics:
- What is a podcast?
- Easy tips to promote your podcasts the correct way
Are you interested? Great, stick on!
Table of Contents
WHAT IS A PODCAST?
A podcast is a form of digital audio that involves creating and dispersing audio or video files over the web. It is a type of on-demand content that allows listeners to download or stream episodes to their devices, such as smartphones, tablets, or computers.
Podcasts can cover various topics, from news to entertainment and education. They are often created and produced by individuals or small teams and are typically distributed through various platforms, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.
One of the main benefits of podcasts is their accessibility and convenience. Listeners can subscribe to their favorite shows and receive automatic updates whenever new episodes are released. Additionally, podcasts can be consumed on the go, during commutes, workouts, or other activities.
Another advantage of podcasts is the variety of formats they can take. Some shows feature interviews, discussions, or debates, while others may be more scripted or narrative-driven. This versatility allows creators to experiment with different styles and cater to different audiences.
TOP 15 EASY AND EFFECTIVE TIPS TO PROMOTE YOUR PODCASTS
Promoting a podcast can be challenging, especially in today’s crowded digital world. But with the right strategy and approach, you can widen your audience and reach your target listeners. Here are some tips to help you effectively promote your podcast:
1. Optimize your podcast for search engines
Optimizing your podcast for search engines (SEO) helps increase its visibility, making it easier for listeners to discover your content. Here are the steps to follow:
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Choose Relevant Titles and Descriptions
Use descriptive and keyword-rich titles and descriptions that accurately reflect the content of your episode.
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Transcribe Episodes
Including a transcript of your episodes makes it easier for search engines to understand the content of your podcast.
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Utilize Metatags
Metatags, such as “title,” “description,” and “keywords,” provide additional information about your podcast to search engines.
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Use Relevant Keywords
Research relevant keywords your target audience uses to search for podcasts in your niche and include them in your episode titles, descriptions, and metatags.
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Publish Show Notes
Show notes provide additional context and information about your episode and help search engines understand the content.
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Host Your Podcast on a Dedicated Platform
Hosting your podcast on a dedicated platform such as Anchor, Buzzsprout, or Soundcloud can improve its visibility and rankings.
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Utilize Social Media
Share your podcast episodes on social media platforms and include links to your podcast website; this will help search engines find and index your content.
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Engage with Your Audience
Encouraging listeners to leave comments, ratings, and reviews on your podcast can help increase its visibility and rankings.
These tips can improve your podcast’s visibility and reach a wider audience. Remember that optimizing for search engines takes time and effort, but the results are well worth it. However, do not overdo this! Your first priority should always be the audience and not the machine.
2. Social Media
Social media is a platform for millions of active people. Therefore, utilizing social media to promote a podcast can help increase its reach and attract new listeners. Here are some quick tips to promote your podcasts on your social media pages:
1. Identify your target audience
Determine your target audience and which social media platforms they use most frequently. This will help you focus your efforts and reach the right people.
2. Create a social media strategy
Develop a plan that includes what to post, when, and how often to post. This can include promoting new episodes, re-posting popular episodes, and sharing behind-the-scenes content.
3. Consistency is key
Regular and consistent posting is important for building following and engaging followers. Choose a posting schedule and stick to it.
4. Use keywords and hashtags
Include keywords and hashtags relevant to your podcast in your posts to make it easier for people to find your content.
5. Engage with your followers
Respond to comments, answer questions, and engage with your followers on social media. This will help build a community around your podcast and keep listeners engaged.
6. Collaborate with others
Your audience is probably similar to that of other podcasters. Ask to set up a cross-promotion by getting in touch with those creators. It’s straightforward: You bring them up, and they bring you up. Start by contacting programs with comparable-sized audiences to your own. They will most likely react.
7. Utilize paid promotion
Use paid promotion options, such as Facebook ads or promoted tweets, to reach a wider audience and drive more downloads.
8. Track your results
Use analytics tools to track the success of your social media promotion efforts and make adjustments as needed.
Pro Tip: Focus on providing value, being consistent, and engaging with your followers, and you’ll be on your way to growing your audience.
3. Collaborate with other podcasters
Consider contacting other podcasters in your niche and proposing a collaborative episode where you both participate or promote each other’s shows on social media. Collaborating with other podcasters can help you reach a new and potentially interested audience.
To do this, you must attend podcasting events and network with others. You can also use social media platforms to connect with other podcasters, comment, like, and share their work to appreciate them. You may also join podcasting communities and forums to connect and collaborate with others and even offer to be a guest on their podcast first and build a relationship.
4. Post at favorable times
According to Megaphone’s research, most podcasters release their most recent episodes on Wednesday, Tuesday, and Thursday between 2 AM and 5 AM, with 5 AM receiving the most downloads.
According to Megaphone, most podcast downloads occur on Tuesdays at 5 AM. Moreover, Wednesday at two in the morning is the second-best time to post new episodes.
However, your results may vary because every podcast caters to a different audience, but we advise publishing new episodes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays at 5 AM EST. There are many advantages to publishing your material in the middle of the week, early in the morning.
Pro Tip: Do not release your episodes at midnight, please! You run the risk of having your podcast listed below other shows in directories like Apple if you post your show too early in the morning (i.e., at midnight)
5. Ask people you mentioned on your show to share
After you publish the episode, get in touch with anybody or anything you mentioned on your podcast. Ask them to share your show on social media by mentioning the quote in which you mentioned their product. Typically, only positive statements will make this work! This way, many people will talk about your show making it more popular.
6. Add value through your show
There are probably millions of discussions about your podcast topics on various platforms like Facebook, Quora, Reddit, and Twitter.
Tap these! One of your episodes might contribute something worthwhile to the conversation and attract a new audience.
Look for forums and threads about your program on each platform. Start adding value once you’ve located a few groups with sufficient interaction. But take care. This plan requires tact!.
Prioritize participating in the discussion without mentioning your show first. Being an active community member will be helpful when the ideal opportunity to market yourself arises.
6. Go ahead and create a website
Perhaps you started a podcast to advertise your company, blog, or website. If so, you should designate a landing page on your website just for your podcast. Ensure your landing page includes a list of all your episodes so listeners can locate them quickly.
Additionally, think about hosting the episodes with an embedded audio player on your website so that website users won’t need to go elsewhere to listen. Include summaries and links for each episode if you don’t have an embedded player.
Create a new website if you don’t already have one to put your podcast on. When you sign up for a hosting plan on some podcast hosting services, you automatically receive a website, making management considerably simpler. Discoverability will increase significantly if you have a website other than a podcast directory where your podcast can be found.
7. Choose your podcast length smartly
Your podcast’s content, industry, and genre will influence its length. It might be just the right length for your listeners—between 15 and 20 minutes. However, if your target audience wants more in-depth, exploratory material, 45–90 minutes might be more beneficial.
If your podcast episodes are too long, you risk alienating your audience. Therefore, aim for a podcast episode between 20 and 40 minutes; data shows that about 31% of all podcast episodes comprise this.
- Only 15% of podcasts are under 10 minutes long.
- 14% fall in the 10–20 minute range.
- 31% fall in the 20–40 minute range.
- 22% are in the 40 to 60-minute range.
- 17% last longer than 60 minutes.
8. Utilize Podcasting Ads
Ads on podcasts can be effective if done correctly. After hearing an advertisement on a podcast, more than half of listeners stated they were somewhat more likely to buy anything from a brand. Targeting the correct audience with the right offer at the right time is essential to making this strategy successful.
9. Offer bonuses for sharing
Encourage your audience to share your episodes by offering exclusive bonuses or promotions. For example, you can offer early access to new episodes, a special discount code, or a free gift for anyone who shares your podcast on social media.
The idea is to incentivize people to spread your podcast more.
10. Gain media attention with HARO
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) connects journalists with reliable sources. When you sign up for the site as a source, media professionals will contact you when they need answers to their questions or comments for articles, TV shows, or radio programs. In return, they’ll mention you and include a link to your website.
11. Email Marketing
Build an email list of your audience and send regular updates about your latest episodes. Offer exclusive content and promotions to your subscribers to keep them engaged and interested in your show.
12. Utilize Your Email Signature
This one is very simple. You should include a link to the podcast landing page in your email signature to promote.
This is a terrific approach to informing individuals not in your usual database, about the podcast. You can even ask your team or other speakers to do the same to amplify this effect.
13. Run Giveaways
Youtube is growing in popularity with time, so using your episode’s content on YouTube can help you increase its exposure twofold. However, the MP3 audio file must be changed into an MP4 format to be uploaded to YouTube.
After that, post the video and a branded graphic that will run the entire time. Include show notes, links to your website, other listening platforms’ subscribe links, and social media feeds in the description.
A different approach that takes more equipment is capturing audio and video as you create an episode. Instead of a static image on the screen, viewers can follow along while watching the host speak in real-time. If you interview guests or have a co-host, this is a fantastic choice!
14. Youtube
There are several ways you can use YouTube to promote your podcast!
First, you can use their advanced search options to target users who watch similar videos to the ones in your podcast.
Second, you can place your podcast icon on your YouTube channel, so people who watch your videos can click on the icon and go directly to your podcast! Finally, you can ask your listeners to go onto YouTube and subscribe to your channel. The more subscribers you have, the more people will be notified whenever you release a new video!
15. Encourage your listeners to leave reviews
One of your most effective strategies for promoting your podcast is feedback from listeners. For your podcast to appear specifically in the New & Noteworthy featured podcast section on Apple Podcasts, you must receive significant favorable reviews during the first eight weeks of its release.
Ratings are taken into account by Google when displaying search results; thus, the more favorable reviews you have, the higher you’ll likely rank.
Reviews also increase social proof by letting potential listeners know whether or not they will find your podcast entertaining and pertinent. After every episode, including a call to action (CTA) encouraging viewers to give the podcast a review if they found it helpful. This will also help you know your listeners better.
CONCLUSION
Promoting your podcast is key to growing your audience and building a successful show. You can effectively reach a wider audience and gain more listeners by utilizing various marketing strategies, such as social media, guest appearances, and email marketing.
Remember, the key to promoting your podcast effectively is to be consistent, creative, and engage with your audience. After you promote your podcasts well, you may even start monetizing your podcasts and earn a decent income. So, go ahead and take your podcasts to the next level.
Did you find this blog helpful? Let us know if you have any suggestions for us. We would also be happy to have some topics you would like to read next and serve you better. Stay in the loop as we update our content frequently; see you in the next blog!
