There are tons of different ways to promote a podcast.
Some are fairly easy and don’t require a lot of effort, while some might take a bit more time.
I’ve tried to include a variety of different podcast marketing tactics so that you can pick and choose what makes sense for you.
I recommend choosing one or two simple podcast promotion methods (the first 2 are great starting points if you don’t already do them) and then coming back to add methods to your marketing mix.
Contents
- Ask People To Subscribe
- Submit To Podcast Directories
- Leverage Existing Assets
- Share Reviews & Testimonials
- Create An Email List
- Be A Guest On Other Shows
- Have Guests On Your Show
- Do A Giveaway Or Contest
- Social Media
- Paid Ads
- Search & Social Media
- Other Podcasts
- Be Helpful
Ask People To Subscribe
Sounds simple but new subscribers are the most important factor in ranking higher in Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes).
It also means listeners will automatically down new episodes when they’re published.
Submit To Podcast Directories
Apple Podcasts is the big player but Spotify and Google are quickly gaining ground as the go-to place where people find and listen to podcasts.
It’s important to have your podcast listed in as many places as possible (and they’re all free)..
Leverage Existing Assets
Mozilla puts there podcast, IRL, on their homepage that gets millions of readers:
If you have a website or email list, those are great ways to let your existing audience know about your podcast.
If you don’t have either of those, there are more details about how to get started a little further down this page.
Share Reviews & Testimonials
People love to hear their name on their favorite show!
This is a simple tactic that creates a virtuous cycle of new engagement.
The example below uses a Q&A segment, but can easily be done with reviews or testimonials as well.
Here are the steps:
- Ask people to tag or @ you on social when they ask questions (friends and followers will be able to find you and learn more)
- People like to hear their names spoken online – so once you mention someone, they will be much more likely to share that episode
- Their friends likely have similar interests and will want to check out the show
- Other listers will want to have their question said aloud (and get an answer of course)
- Repeat
It may take time to grow, but there are a number of benefits: It’s a natural and easy way to get engagement, grow your podcast audience, and grow your social media channels – all at the same time!
Create An Email List
An email list is a great way to let people know about new episodes, ask them to subscribe, do a giveaway, and more.
In order to start an email list, you’ll need your own website (see above) and an email marketing provider.
Be A Guest On Other Shows
People already listening to podcasts are the easiest group to get listening to your show.
Being on a guest on other shows with a similar audience is a great way to get exposed to new people and make new connections.
Within the desktop iTunes app, you can find shows with overlapping audiences to yours by clicking the ‘Related’ tab:
Start by seeing which of these shows have guests and reaching out to them.
You can also look at related shows to your related shows to expand your search.
Have Guests On Your Show
If it makes sense, having guests on your show can help by leveraging the existing audience of your guest.
Keep in mind that really big names don’t have a lot of incentive to share the episode, but you can make sharing easy for your guest by providing them with pre-written social media quotes and images.
Buffer has some great examples of what to send podcast guests.
Do A Giveaway Or Contest
When I first launched the Business Success Revolution, I did a giveaway asking people to subscribe to the show. Starting to see how these all tie together?
I simply asked people to take a screenshot after they subscribed and tag me on Twitter or Instagram.
The prizes you give away should align with your show in some way so you get relevant people (I gave away a microphone and podcast hosting). Don’t just give away an iPad!
Social Media
Creating audiograms is a popular way to share short clips from your show.
Headliner is a popular web app to create custom videos.
Certain podcast hosts offer the ability to create video clips.
And recently Overcast came out with a new clip sharing feature built into the app:
Paid Ads
Search & Social Media
On Facebook you can target by the type of mobile device. Meaning you can send people on iOS directly to Apple Podcasts and send people on Android directly to Google Podcasts.
You can also use Google Ads to target people searching for specific types of shows.
There are tons of people looking for shows…
For example, “best hockey podcast” gets 880 searches per month and the more general “hockey podcast” gets 3,600/month.
Other Podcasts
You can do either host-read ads or dynamic ads (or both) through networks like Midroll or negotiated directly with the podcast.
Overcast also has a simple ad platform that you can use to target specific podcast categories with a small banner.
Be Helpful
Join relevant Facebook Groups or forums help others. If you have an episode that relates to a question someone has, it can be useful to mention it along with your answer.
Quora is another great place where people are looking for help.
How do you promote your podcast? Do you have other methods that have worked well? Please share in the comments so we can all learn!
And if you haven’t yet grabbed yourself a copy of my totally 100% free Podcast Cheat Sheet, it’s a no-brainer add-on for your podcasting success! Sign up below to get yours!
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(Have thoughts or questions?)
Feel free to leave them below in the comments. I’m always considering new ways to grow your blog readership – including through Pinterest.
To Your Success!
Martine
