You started your podcast because you want to share your ideas, expertise, and passion with the world by sparking a conversation with an engaged audience. The keyword to take note of here is ‘audience.’ You need a group of people that want to hear what you have to say, and that requires having an audience that regularly tunes in and sustainably grows. To reach that audience, you need to actively promote and advertise your podcast.
We’ve put together some effective marketing and advertising tips that will help you promote your podcast and reach your target audience.
Podcast aggregators and directories
Make it easy for people to find your podcast by listing your show where people go to discover podcasts by submitting on podcast aggregators and directories. They act as podcast search engines and allow people to find you. The most popular place to submit your listing is to iTunes/Apple Podcasts, but there are many others. Create an account on these platforms and submit your RSS feed to each so that your new episodes will automatically be published on their platform:
- iTunes / Apple Podcasts
- Spotify
- Google Podcasts
- Stitcher
- TuneIn
- Spreaker
- Google Play Music
- Blubrry
- Digital Podcast
- iPodder
- Podcastpedia.org
Repurpose your podcast into a YouTube video
You can get more exposure by converting your podcast into a YouTube video and accessing YouTube’s two billion-user platform. You can upload your podcast by converting the MP3 audio file into an MP4 video format. The video portion can show a static image (or an Audiogram) of your podcast cover art while your podcast audio plays. You can take it to the next level and video record your podcast as you are recording it so your YouTube viewers can follow along.
Once you have a converted YouTube video, you can further break it down into 1-3 minute highlight clips. You can put those clips up on YouTube or any of your other social media platforms to promote what the podcast episode is about and drive traffic to your podcast.
Social Media
Get the word out about your podcast on your social media platforms. You’ll want to do a little research and be sure to promote or advertise on the social media platforms that your target audience is most likely to be using. If your podcast is about B2B marketing, you’ll probably want to focus on LinkedIn. If your podcast is about wedding photography, you may want to focus on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Once you’ve narrowed in on the social media platform(s) that will serve you best, invite your friends to like and follow your page and posts. Consistently publish interesting, entertaining and educational content that supports your show. You’ll also want to promote when a new show comes out, but you want to avoid being over-promotional. A good rule of thumb is 80% content and 20% self-promotion.
Paid Advertising
If you want to get eyes on your podcast fast and have the budget to advertise, you can explore some paid advertising options. This is an area where you’ll want to test the waters first before jumping in. You’ll need to do some testing and find out what is working and then add more budget to which advertising channels work for your niche and target audience.
The advantage of paid advertising is the ability to target an audience interested in your niche and podcasts. Some of the most popular places to advertise podcasts with paid advertising include:
- Social Media – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
- Google Ads
- Overcast
- Spotify Ad Studio
- Podnews
- Other Podcasts
Keep in mind two things:
First, building your podcast audience is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time.
Second, your podcast needs to be high-quality and offer value to your audience. If your podcast is poorly produced and ill-conceived, your listeners will notice and be turned off. No amount of promotion or advertising will keep a listener tuning in for multiple shows when the quality and value is lacking.
Want to avoid growing pains from the get-go? We specialize in helping podcasters like you produce quality audio content their audience falls in love with. Want to learn how we can help you? Jump onto a complimentary discovery call with our team, and we’ll show you how we can give your podcast production peace of mind!