So you started a podcast. Great! Now what? Having an interesting topic and a few good episodes are not enough to gain listeners and subscribers. With a large population working from home and having less interactions, podcasts are becoming more and more popular. What differentiates yours from the hundreds of others going live each day? Are you doing anything to promote your podcast after it goes live? How can you maintain momentum after your launch? Those are just a few questions to think about.
Here are eight tips to best market your podcast:
- Promote on social media
This one’s a no-brainer! With podcasts, specifically, it’s good to think about the rule of three. Post a teaser before it’s live, promote it the same day of the launch and once more afterwards to attract those who may have missed your other posts.
- Make it “watchable” on YouTube
No, you don’t need to record it live – although, bonus points if you do. The easier method is to convert the audio to a video. The image can be as simple as your logo, podcast name and episode title. Learn why and how to put your podcast on YouTube, here.
- Invite guests onto your show
Doing this allows you to leverage your guests’ audience. Make sure you do your research and find shows that fit your brand or ones that have an audience you hope to reach in the future. This also gives you an opportunity to be a guest on their podcast one day.
- Publish episode write-ups
If you have the capacity to write a blog, it can be accompanied by a transcription of the podcast. This is beneficial in various ways – listeners can follow along as you talk, it allows you to dive deeper into something you may have said and it keeps the conversation going!
- Host giveaways
Everyone loves free stuff, and social media is the best platform for this method. Make sure that you’re giving away something relevant to your podcast. Otherwise, you’ll gain subscribers that probably won’t listen or remain a follower once the giveaway is over.
- Publish quality content, consistently
No one wants to subscribe to a podcast that publishes episodes sporadically. It helps to create a calendar of quality topics and adjust the schedule if something timely comes up. Tip: In our previous blog, we discuss ways to determine content effectiveness.
- Don’t forget a call-to-action
Encourage your listeners to take a secondary action once they’re finished with your episode! Whether it’s telling them to subscribe, share or leave a review, that second step will get your podcast more traction.
- Strategize your publishing times
Until you can make decisions from your own data (this takes time), it helps to take a look at popular podcasts to see when they normally publish. If they’re always pushing out new episodes on Tuesday mornings, that indicates a good time to gain subscribers and listeners.
As with other marketing initiatives, you won’t see an uptick in your listeners right away. Finding your groove can take trial and error, so make sure you aren’t afraid to test out a few different strategies to see what works for your show.
Need help launching your first podcast or just thinking about creating one for your company? Reach out to info@upraise.com to get started!