5 Simple Steps to Marketing Your Podcast (+ Free Workbook)
So You Decided to Start a Podcast?
You’ve locked in your niche topic of choice. Downloaded my Podcast Workbook to get a head start, recorded a few episodes, uploaded them to streaming services, and now it’s time to watch the listenership roll in! Not quite!
I’m going to break down the ins and outs of marketing your podcast so you can maximize your reach and grow your listenership online!
Today’s Blog Overview
Today we’re going to cover several tips and tricks for marketing your podcast. You can click on the link below to jump to any section that you’d like to learn more about:
- Step 1: You Have to Let People Know About Your Podcast!
- Step 2: Word of Mouth is Golden
- Step 3: Master Google Ads to Grow Your Podcast Audience
- Step 4: Curate Your Guests for Their Insight, Not Their Following
- Step 5: Be the Guest You Wish You Scored!
- My Challenge For You
- So What Did We Learn?
Step 1: You Have to Let People Know About Your Podcast!
It’s tough to hear, but there’s still work to do after you record and put out a podcast episode. You need to market it! Thousands and thousands of new podcast episodes are released online every week. Undoubtedly several popular ones share your potential audience. You need to let new and existing listeners know your podcast exists! Yes, your existing listeners too! Other podcasts are constantly marketing themselves. If yours falls off the radar for your current listenership, they’ll get scooped up by another podcast in no time. So you need to communicate consistently and loudly that you’re here, you’re worth checking out, and there’s a new episode ready to download!
Where are your podcast audience hubs? Where do your listeners connect with you? Make sure you’re engaging with your audience in those spaces and encouraging discussion so that there’s an active community for new listeners to join when they discover you!
Step 2: Word of Mouth is Golden
Yes, marketing your podcast is essential to your growth. But there will never be a stronger advocate for your podcast than a happy listener. People are more likely to try something new if a friend or colleague recommends it because they can share what they enjoy most about your podcast personally and honestly. They also know how to communicate their ideas effectively to their friend or colleague in a way you never could. So encourage that! Whether by holding listening party contests or cultivating online discussions inviting people to contribute constructively, you can help your fans share what they love most about your podcast with people they think would genuinely enjoy it too!
Step 3: Master Google Ads to Grow Your Audience
Google Ads are an incredible, surgical, customizable tool to target precisely the crowd who would be interested in listening to your latest podcast. You only pay when a user clicks your ad. So the more specific you can make your target audience, the more likely someone who clicks on your ad will follow through and check out your latest episode! You can even customize what search words you don’t want to be associated with your ad in case there are common words that trick uninterested users into finding your podcast. Further curating who you’re targeting with your ads. Remember, not everyone will like your podcast no matter how great it is, but you want to ensure that people will know about it!
Step 4: Curate Your Guests for Their Insight, Not Their Following
It’s tempting to go down a list on Twitter or Instagram for people with established followings and DM as many influencers in your podcast’s niche as you can until one of them says yes in hopes of getting your podcast in front of their massive audience. That’s a shallow, surface-level, sure-fire way to tank your guest episode with them before you’ve even set down to record.
It would be best if you always were thinking about the value of the content you’re creating and thoughtfully pitch potential guests on how you’d like to give them a platform to talk about things they’re passionate about. Be specific with your pitch. Do extensive research on your guest before contacting them to show you’re genuinely interested in what they’ll bring to the table and not how many ears they’ll get to your podcast.
When you approach guests with forethought, research, and integrity, you improve your chances they will take the time out of their day to record a podcast episode with you. The final result will be quality content that will drive listeners to spread the word about your podcast!
Step 5: Be the Guest You Wish You Scored!
One of the best ways to promote your podcast is to cross-promote on someone else’s! Build connections with other mutual podcasters within your niche and trade guest appearances on each other’s shows. You both get a moment in front of each other’s audiences, and as a natural consequence of guesting, you’ll promote the other’s podcasts to hype up the episode you featured on! Guesting on someone’s podcast is the time to be your most authentic, integral self because you want to show people what they can expect when they migrate over to check out your podcast! Consistency is vital, so be the guest you wish you scored and show them who you are!
My Challenge For You
Please take a moment to go through your different social media hubs and get a sense of where most of your followers go when they want to express their opinion or join in the conversation. Is it LinkedIn? Instagram? Facebook? Pick the one with the most active follower base and spend a week asking questions designed to get a conversation going. Suppose you find yourself having trouble cultivating conversations within your social media spaces. In that case, you might want to look into hiring a digital marketing team to take your online spaces to the next level!
So What Did We Learn?
- It’s not enough to podcast – you need to let people know about it!
- You can’t control word of mouth, but you can cultivate it by nurturing your online spaces
- Learn and use Google Ads to target your precise listener demographic
- Seek out guests with interesting ideas, not just their follower counts
- Guest on other podcasts to grow your reach, mutuals, and audience
- Hire a digital marketing team to maximize your marketing efforts!
My team at Jennie Lyon Digital Marketing Services Inc. and I are passionate about maximizing your online presence and building your brand. We’re happy to help you take your business to the next level. Set up a free call with me anytime. I’d love to see how we can market your podcast and grow your audience!
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