The best way to promote a podcast successfully

• Deal with your podcast like a enterprise and get an internet site.
• Use honey traps and the rule of three to get extra listeners.
• Harness the facility of TikTok.
• Make a comic book about your podcast.
• Assume video first.
• Leverage lesser-known podcast directories.
• Use paid adverts if you happen to can.
• Don’t neglect about Pinterest.

Prepared to draw extra podcast listeners? Let’s dive in!

1. Deal with your podcast like a enterprise and get an internet site

Naresh Vissa is the Founder & CEO of Krish Media & Marketing, and the creator of the e-book Podcastnomics. He says the largest downside he sees in podcasters is that they don’t deal with their present sufficient like a enterprise.

He stated, “In the event you execute your podcast correctly, and run it like a enterprise, the advertising will deal with itself.”

However, what does this appear to be in follow?

Naresh says it’s good to be an early mover in a distinct segment. Certain, it’s good to go after one thing you might be captivated with, however the aim ought to be to concentrate on the long-tail niches of your audience — identical to long-tail key phrases.

In different phrases, don’t concentrate on finance for a podcast. As a substitute, converse on the ins and outs of a extra slender matter, similar to digital foreign money. The sooner you may hop right into a hyper-focused area of interest and make a reputation for your self, the higher.

However out of all of the business-like actions you must take on your podcast, maybe the largest is creating an internet site that captures leads and repurposes your whole podcast episodes.

Naresh stated far too many podcasters rely on the net hyperlink that their podcast hosts give them to advertise their present. Or they may say one thing like, “Discover my present wherever you hearken to your favourite podcasts.”

The issue is that this tactic prevents you from doing essentially the most vital motion — getting the identify and electronic mail handle of the listener!

These individuals coming to your web site to search out your newest episode ought to be directed to choose into your electronic mail record for a couple of causes:

• You’ll have a direct line of communication to inform them about episode releases
• You’ll be able to ask for suggestions
• You may make provides
• You’ll be able to ask for referrals to your present

And, with an internet site, you may repurpose each episode into:

• Weblog posts
• Transcripts and present notes
• Case research (that might in the end be used on your new e-book or course)
• Movies that you simply additionally show in your web site

Make your web site a one-stop cross-promotion machine for all issues associated to your podcast and deal with it as a enterprise asset. As a result of if you happen to play your playing cards proper, will probably be.

2. Use honey traps and the rule of three to get extra listeners

Jamie Kennedy – no, not the comic – runs Brave Moon Podcasts, a manufacturing firm for podcasters. She instructed me her promotion technique for serving to her purchasers and for serving to her personal podcast get extra listens: use honey traps and the rule of three.

She stated, “Share your episodes and use ‘honey traps’ to encourage listeners to hear and subscribe: If you publish new episodes to your socials, make sure to use ‘honey traps’ to encourage listeners and ask your followers to share with their associates. Honey traps are questions or statements that entice a listener to hear. For instance, ‘Do you need to know the key to getting 8 hours of sleep each night time?’ or ‘It is best to know these three issues about coronary heart illness.’”

Jamie went on to say, “If you publish about an episode, comply with the rule of three and ensure to publish about each episode no less than 3 times. It might really feel repetitive to you, however most of your followers might want to see one thing no less than 3 times to click on on it.”

Suppose you’re attempting to get extra individuals in your area of interest to hearken to your present or be a visitor in your podcast. In that case, Jamie additionally recommends collaborating in related on-line communities and boards and fascinating with the posts straight associated to your episodes.

“For instance, if you happen to discover a publish asking for recommendation on one of the best workouts for robust legs and you probably did a podcast episode with the highest 10 leg workouts, then share the hyperlink to the episode within the feedback part. You’ll get the eye of the unique poster and the eye of each different particular person wanting by the feedback for solutions.”

A phrase of warning, although. Watch out posting your podcast hyperlinks within the communities you’re in.

A few of them have strict “no promo insurance policies.” Others solely permit sharing your podcast hyperlinks on particular days. Backside line – all the time learn your group’s guidelines earlier than sharing hyperlinks.

3. Harness the facility of TikTok

Ehan Hunagle runs SEMDeck and hosts the SwitchCast podcast with Doug Tabbutt. Their podcast primarily makes use of TikTok together with their extremely optimized web site to advertise the present. Ethan stated the TikTok page began small, however grew shortly to greater than 67,000 followers and greater than 1,000,000 likes on their movies.

The key sauce based on Ethan is to create a video for each corresponding episode. Then, he repurposes the movies on his social media channels as Instagram Reels, Fb Reels and YouTube Shorts.

The movies should be brief, quick-hit fashion content material as a result of that is essentially the most helpful to market a podcast.

He additionally burdened that and not using a web site, you’re lacking out on prime alternatives to get your present discovered by your ultimate podcast listener.

To additional amplify the present’s attain, Ethan stated, “We publish a weblog publish each time a brand new episode is launched. We’ll embed the YouTube video in addition to the RSS feed of the podcast, add inner and exterior hyperlinks to the physique textual content of the publish, and optimize the weblog with tags, meta descriptions, web page titles, picture alt attributes, and different fundamental search engine optimisation ideas.”

These easy steps got here collectively to convey that coveted viral consideration to SwitchCast that each one podcasters dream of!

4. Make a comic book about your podcast

Admittedly, this was the best response I’ve heard to date to successfully promote a podcast. Christine Whitmarsh, higher often called Christine Ink on-line, stated she developed a comic book across the theme of her each day podcast for authors.

She stated, “The funny story follows creator Margena and her very animated mind (a hilarious character unto itself) to point out authors precisely easy methods to construct a writing behavior and grow to be a broadcast creator.”

As for the way she manages the creation of those comics, she makes use of an illustrator named Beena Parikh of the P66 Agency.

How enjoyable is that?!

5. Assume video first

Earlier than he started working behind the scenes serving to creators succeed, Bredan Aw hosted the Xin eSports podcast Your Life My Dream and his personal present Player Vs World. He stated of all of the techniques he sees creators utilizing to advertise a podcast proper now, video is getting essentially the most consideration and success.

Brendan says you may’t succeed with an audio-only method anymore. By recording your present as a video first, you give your self “an [amazing] alternative for content material syndication from only one pillar piece.”

His suggestion is to movie each episode. After that, he says to:

• Strip the audio to share as an audio-only podcast
• Share clip highlights to social media
• Edit the audio transcripts to make them extremely beneficial weblog articles, and
• Hyperlink to related episodes wherever you may (i.e. inside different weblog posts, in press releases, on social media updates – particularly in your bio, and even in your electronic mail signature)

6. Leverage lesser-known podcast directories

Isaac Mashman isn’t any stranger to podcasting. Not solely does he have his personal podcast and helps his purchasers get featured on podcasts, however he additionally set a large aim for himself to be featured on 100 podcast interviews and get 100 article/media mentions in 2023.

His greatest tip for easy methods to market a podcast successfully is to get your present on lesser-known podcast directories.

He stated, “If you first launch your present your RSS host will naturally get your podcast distributed to the bigger platforms similar to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify, however there are a large number of different platforms which are both lesser identified or not historically listed.”

Just some of the locations he recommends including your present’s RSS feed to incorporate:

He additionally recommends considering internationally. For instance, there are streaming giants in India and throughout the globe similar to Gaana and JioSaavn. Podcastinc reported, “India is ranked the third in podcasting trade after USA and China.”

They went on to say that round 150 million Indians are consuming audio streaming making it “an enormous alternative of progress for podcasts.”

Isaac says we must always get on each podcast listing doable so you may get your identify on the market to a plethora of individuals.

Assume this may take too lengthy? Right here’s Isaac’s fact bomb response to that mind-set: Do it anyway!

He stated, “Is that this time-consuming? Completely! Nevertheless, when you do it the primary time you by no means have to consider it once more.

All of those platforms function with their very own particular person algorithms, assist your search engine optimisation, set up backlinks to your web site, and make your podcast seem as if it’s the top-charting present which it’s sure to be.”

Seek for each platform you could find so as to add your podcast to, and benefit from the choices to share your social media profiles and web site hyperlinks wherever doable.

7. Use paid adverts if you happen to can

James Pollard runs the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast that includes greater than 200 episodes. He says that paid adverts have been the sport changer his podcast was in search of to make it “one of the sought-after podcasts within the monetary recommendation area.”

However, he doesn’t run the adverts to his podcast host, actually, they aren’t selling the podcast straight in any respect. As a substitute, he’ll run the adverts to monetary advisors (his ultimate listeners) to advertise a webinar or touchdown web page. In each webinar and on each touchdown web page, he introduces himself because the host of the podcast.

He stated, “This roundabout method has generated tens of hundreds of downloads previously three months alone, and I’m going to proceed doing it for so long as it really works.”

It additionally helps that most of the questions that individuals could be asking him are answered in his podcast episodes. By delivering plenty of worth totally free, he’s incomes his “subscribers.”

In podcasting and in enterprise generally, giving individuals a motive to stay round, and displaying them you’re reliable is the one method you’ll ever see a return on any advert spend.

8. Don’t neglect about Pinterest

Laura Rike says there aren’t sufficient podcasters utilizing Pinterest to advertise their podcasts. She extremely recommends promoted pins too as a result of these may be focused to your ultimate listener extra successfully and fewer expensively than Fb or Google Advertisements

She stated, “Whereas many could consider Pinterest particularly for recipes and craft tasks, those that don’t use it for podcasting are really lacking out on a chance to achieve their goal purchasers on-line. It’s really a very highly effective search engine, and has focused advert alternatives. It will probably additionally assist with familiarity and the ‘Know – Like – Belief’ idea, in case your listener goes to your web site after which later sees your advert on Pinterest, too!”

The best way to promote a podcast — A fast recap

To shut issues out, right here’s a fast recap of one of the best suggestions for podcast advertising methods which are working proper now:

• Deal with your podcast like a enterprise
• Use honey traps and the rule of three
• Get on Tiktok
• Make a comic book (or no less than specifically curated photos) to advertise your podcast
• Assume video first and use video on YouTube and all social media platforms
• Distribute your podcast to each listing you presumably can
• Make the most of paid adverts, and
• Don’t neglect about Pinterest

I personally plan on utilizing all of those concepts to advertise my very own podcast higher. Whereas visitor swapping is nice, I need to depend on extra than simply borrowing different individuals’s audiences to develop my very own. With a bit of luck, I’ll be having fun with bigger obtain numbers and monetization alternatives very quickly. Hopefully, you’ll be too!

New to podcasting? Take a look at our information on easy methods to begin a podcast!