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The Ultimate Guide to Podcast Marketing [+Tips for First-Timers]

While churning out new podcast episodes every week or month is tough enough, what gets all the more nerve-wracking is the humongous task of podcast marketing and promotion.

As Ross Simmonds, founder of Foundation Marketing, talked about in one of the episodes of the Marketer of the Month podcast, we need to transition from the CREAM ideology that says Content Rules Everything Around Me to the DREAM approach, Distribution Rules Everything Around Me. We couldn’t have agreed more!

So, in this blog, we talk about how you can promote your podcast, share some advice that we gathered from some marketers and podcasters, and finally offer some tips to those of you who are contemplating starting a podcast.

Let’s get started!

1. Actively Reach Out to Influencers and Industry Experts

We know, we know, you’re probably thinking you don’t need advice on this but hear us out. We are talking about getting people who can genuinely make a difference to your numbers. These can be influencers and industry experts.

This will involve consistent efforts at your end like regular follow-ups, outreach on social media platforms, tagging them on your posts, or creating something useful for them. Mind you, we are not suggesting that you become a stalker!

We got some of the most renowned personalities across domains and leveraged their audience. To name a few, we had Dr. Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, Patt Flynn, author of Superfans, Rand Fishkin, and many more industry experts on board.

In fact, when Forbes announced their 30 under 30 for the marketing and advertising space, we jumped on the opportunity and got some of the Forbes 30 under 30 awardees on our podcast for the Forbes series! Basically, grab every opportunity you get!

Tune NEW

2. Optimize Your Podcast Landing Page 

If you ask us, this is by far the toughest step of the podcast marketing checklist. In fact, we have optimized our landing page a dozen times before and we keep doing it at regular intervals.

Here’s an actionable step to start with. Make an SEO-optimized and eye-catching headline.

kyle kuhns podcast

This episode we did with Kyle Kuhns, a Forbes 30 under 30 awardee is a specimen of how a suitable and eye-catching title is a must. This landing page saw a conversion rate of 10%.

We have got another trick up our sleeves. (Hint: Interactive content!)

interactive content

Of course, when we are talking about engaging and SEO-optimized landing pages, interactive content like quizzes, calculators, and chatbots, cannot be too far behind.

Add quizzes to your landing page to make the experience more fun for your listeners!

You can also add a poll like this on your landing page to determine your next guest based on audience choice!

Vote new

3. Create a Transcript of the Podcast 

Podcast transcripts are a great podcast marketing technique as they essentially optimize your podcast episode for the search engine. Check out this podcast we created for our guest Morgan Norman. And within a couple of weeks, we saw it rank number 1.

top podcast

4. Share Your Podcast Episodes in Your Newsletter 

Find any and every platform where you can promote your podcast. And what better way to market your podcast than to share it with your email list?

Check out this episode that we shared in our newsletter. It has all the information your email audience needs before deciding whether they’d want to listen to the podcast. And as we mentioned before, an irresistible and search engine optimized title goes a long way!

podcast marketing in newsletter

5. Promote on Social Media Platforms 

Social media marketing is a step that you simply cannot skip. It is your best shot at getting your audience talking about your latest episode. In fact, it is through social media marketing that you reach audiences that are not your own (yet!). This is where you leverage your guest’s audience.

When we had Jonah Berger as a guest on our show, we decided to cut snippets from the show, including quotes, some anecdotes, and responses from the rapid-fire round that we conducted. We shared these assets across all social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

podcast jonah berger

Dr. Berger’s huge following helped boost the episode and it was one of our best ranking episodes to that date.

To give you an example, the image shown below is one of the posts we shared.

DESKTOP

Notice that we included the Wharton logo – this adds credibility. People are likely to stop and take notice due to the logo. Additionally, we shared logos of all the platforms where our podcast was streaming. This makes it convenient for the viewers to choose whichever channel they prefer.

6. Choose a Good Podcast Hosting Platform

Podcast aggregators or hosting platforms essentially help you to stream your podcast across multiple channels. But the benefits of podcast hosting have gone far beyond just that. If you’re a podcaster who is either doing it as a hobby or to make money in the future, then podcast hosting platforms even offer an entire website.

That’s not all, post-production activities will no longer be a pain as the whole process is made smoother and easier by these hosting platforms.

Most of these platforms also offer a dashboard where you can monitor your performance across all channels.

Monitor Performance

7. Conduct Giveaways and Contests

If there is one podcast marketing trick that works like a magic wand, it’s contests and giveaways. After all, who doesn’t like free gifts? To make this podcast promotion idea successful, share a giveaway alert on all your social platforms.

Highlight that the giveaway will take place in one of your upcoming podcast episodes. By doing this, you can ensure that those who participate listen to the entire episode. But for this to work, the viewers must feel that the gift is worth the effort. So keep your audience’s interest in mind.

PASTED

Source: easypromosapp

8. Be a Guest on Other Podcasts

Well, nothing beats this podcast marketing technique. This is incredibly crucial to ensure access to newer audiences. And when you present yourself as a thought leader, you can rest assured that you’re gonna get those sweet social media followers in no time!

Podcast Production Tips for First-Timers 

For the folks who are venturing into podcasting, fear not as we have got you covered! In this section, we will share some important tips and tricks to set you up for a successful podcast launch. Read on to find out more!

Decide on a Unique Format for the Show

There are thousands of podcast episodes going live every day. How do you ensure someone listens to your podcast by cutting through the clutter?

Short answer: Make it fun.

Long answer: Add sections to your podcast that are super interesting and engaging. How about a section where you answer questions shared by your audience? This might be difficult when you’re starting out, but it’s definitely worth a shot.

In our Marketer of the Month Podcast, we start the podcast episode with a rapid-fire round. It’s super fun and also gets people comfortable for the rest of the interview!

Glimpse from our interview with Ross Simmonds!

Ensure Good Video and Audio Quality

Let’s just get this out of the way because this is the most important step and anything and everything else could wait. Ensure good quality audio and video. Period. You can do this by using some must-have tools for your podcast.

While podcasts are traditionally meant to be audio-only, using a video may be the best thing you can do to promote your podcast better and make it stand out.

We transitioned from audio-only podcasts to audio + video and we have started to see increased viewership.

Investing in reliable podcast recording software is crucial to maintaining excellent audio quality, ensuring clear communication, and providing a seamless recording experience. Choose software that suits your needs and supports features like noise reduction and editing capabilities to enhance the overall production quality of your podcast.

Ensure Consistency 

When marketing strategies fail to work, it’s often consistency that is lacking and not the strategy. Ensuring consistency often takes care of every other aspect of podcast marketing.

If you want an episode to go live every week, you will have to make sure to reach out to a bunch of guests beforehand, get the podcast questions ready, make the recording edits, prepare the social media content, and basically every other step of the process.

Pro-Tips From Marketers and Podcasters 

We know you’re thinking of Googling a bit more to find what approach did the successful podcasters follow. Well, we read your mind in advance – and got a bunch of insider tips straight from some podcasters who’ve nailed it. Thank us later!

Ray Blakney

“Attending network events is a huge help for spreading the word about your podcast and connecting with great potential guests. Our team attends events in the affiliate marketing industry that are related to our podcast topic, including Affiliate Summit and Traffic Conversion Summit. But we also go to “creator” conferences like FinCon.” – Daniel Thrasher, Content Manager, ClickBank

Richard

“The best way to monetize a podcast is to have a business or product tied to the show. Don’t try to monetize the podcast itself, as that rarely works. If you get to 50,000 downloads an episode, you may be able to charge $1000 US for an ad spot. However, if you instead were selling a $1000 course and sold that to even 1% of your audience, you would make $50,000 US per episode. At Learn Spanish with Live Lingua podcast, I sell the Spanish tutoring we offer at our website.” – Ray Blakney, CEO & Co-Founder, Live Lingua

Conclusion

All the tips and tricks are important but remember why you started this. You might love the idea of sharing your views or you could be doing to expand the reach of your business. Whatever the reason, it’s important to stay true to your objectives for doing this.

Cut the clutter around you and focus on creating and distributing consistently. That’s it. That’s the final tip, folks! We hope this article helped you to get started with podcast marketing and promotion. We would love for you to try Outgrow, in case you’re looking to use interactivity to promote your podcast! Start your free trial now!

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