Competition in the copywriting world is tough, given the millions of blogs that litter the internet.
With podcasting, however, it’s just a fraction of it. This is why podcasting is considered a feasible marketing channel for both big and small businesses.
Launching a podcast is easy. The only challenge here is how to stand out.
Whether you are looking for ways to market your podcasts effectively or wondering to start your podcast promotion, we are here to help you.
Below, we share with you some of our top proven ways to market a podcast effectively.
9 Proven Strategies to Market Your Podcasts Effectively
Below, we have compiled nine proven tips and strategies to help you boost your podcast marketing strategies.
1. Understand Your Target Audience
If you don’t understand your target audience, you are not going far. You may think getting more eyes on the show will increase your prospective audience but this is far from it.
Your podcast is not for everyone, and it shouldn’t be.
It won’t help to throw in a ton of advertising money to attract as many listeners or downloads as possible. This will only create a temporary spike.
Your goal is to get long-term subscribers who like and value what you have to share. Figure out those people and start promoting.
2. Engage on Social Media
Unless you are living under a rock, having a social media presence is imperative for businesses in this day and age. And it is one of the best channels to promote your podcast.
You don’t have to stress about being a social media expert or being able to generate tons of witty tweets day in and day out.
Simply create an account or two across a couple of platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. We recommend you stick to one or two social media platforms where your target audience hangs out.
Get interactive with your audience, besides sharing links to your show. Here are a few tips to build an authentic social media audience:
- Be authentic, be human.
- Engage with your audience.
- Avoid being sales-y.
- Give value.
- Post visually appealing content.
3. Show up on Podcast Aggregators and Directories
This is a very simple but effective way to get as much attention as possible on your show. You can do this by manually submitting your RSS feed to all the podcast directories you know.
People use podcast directories and aggregators like Spotify, Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Google Podcasts, and YouTube’s podcast page to listen to podcasts.
When you submit your podcast RSS feed to many podcast aggregators, your show will be visible to many listeners who are searching for similar topics as yours.
4. Publish on YouTube
YouTube gets over two billion users every month. That’s a lot of potential attention on your podcast.
Start a YouTube podcast as this will build a solid strategy for getting more audience for you. If creating a video content is too much work for you, simply upload a static image alongside your audio episode.
If you want to get more subscribers, invest in a good podcast recording software where you can record video as well. This automatically primes you to use video podcasting format.
5. Repurpose Your Podcasts
In order to promote your podcast, you need to diversify the channels and formats for your content. This will place you in front of many potential viewers and listeners.
Repurposing is also a great way to share “new” content without stretching yourself thin. Here are some strategies to keep in mind:
- Transcribe your old podcasts and post them as blogs.
- Post shareable short-form videos.
- Make post-worthy infographics out of insightful facts.
- Post on all your social media platforms.
6. Call to Action (CTA)
Do not underestimate the marketing power of your current audience.
Make good use of it by including a quick CTA at the end of each episode. Remind your listeners to subscribe, review, share, or tell a friend about your show.
Do not come across as desperate, but definitely ask your listeners to take action if they liked your podcast.
7. Test the Best Time to Publish
Little tweaks like these can positively impact the growth of your audience.
Check the analytics page of your podcast’s host to see which days of the week your show has the most downloads. If your show is downloaded the most on Mondays, consider publishing your podcast episodes on that particular day.
If you are still new and do not have a lot of download data to analyze yet, you can do a little bit of experimentation. Typically, the most popular days for podcast publishing are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
8. Build Relationships
Another cost-effective way to advertise your show is to build relationships with people in your industry.
Support and meet (if possible) other podcasters in your niche, and you will be surprised at the amount of brand exposure and support you will get in return. Try these tips:
- Join social media groups for podcasters.
- Cross-promote.
- Invite them to your shows and vice-versa.
- Ask for shares.
9. Try Podcast SEO
It is important for your podcasts to get attention and for that you need Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This means following SEO best practices for your podcasts as well as your website.
A crucial SEO practice you must implement is to use targeted keywords. This will make your podcast show up when people search for a topic.
Another opportunity to show up and be on the radar of your target audience is your episode title. Give your target keywords a prominent place in your episode titles. The secret is to place your keyword or key phrase at the beginning of the title.
Conclusion
There’s a lot that goes into podcast marketing.
You need a mix of creating relevant content, understanding your target audience, utilizing social media, engaging with listeners and building a community with them, measuring performance with podcast analytics, etc.
By implementing our data-driven strategies, you can increase your reach, initiate engagement at a deep level, and eventually stand out in the ever-growing sea of competition.