How to grow your audience.
Since 2016, I've been helping people build, launch and grow their podcast series. The biggest question after launching a podcast is - "how do I get more listens?"
You are not alone, and it's an important question to answer as any podcaster with purpose naturally wants to have a real impact.
The great part about assisting 300 people and worldwide companies in this process is that I can see directly what can be helpful for you.
Darcy Milne, Founder of Pro Podcast
Start with your audience.
They already love you, and asking them to share your podcast is one thing, but incentivising them to share it is even better.
Create a giveaway for anyone who shares the podcast online. The prize? It may be a consultation with you, a gift voucher or a bottle of wine. I've seen this simple trick engage and motivate an existing audience to share with a new audience.
The Network Effect
One great thing about having a podcast is being able to have guests. This allows you to purposefully seek out people with an existing following, interview them, and then have them share the conversation with their network.
Making it simple for them to share, such as by tagging them in Instagram Stories, is the easiest way to repost it for their audience.
Stand out on socials.
When I discover a new podcast, I usually see a short video highlight online first. Recording and sharing content online is now straightforward, and technology can assist with design, writing, and editing.
Here are my recommended tools.
Headliner (Free) - an excellent way for you to create shareable content for your podcast series.
Canva (Free) create episodes and social media tiles for your podcast. (Search podcasts in the templates section)
Riverside. fm (Paid) Capture audio and video content and then easily create and share clips.
swellai.com (Paid) - A Game. Changer. Drag and drop your audio, and this will create podcast titles and descriptions and write social posts for you.
Share content in the right place.
You don't need to post about your podcast everywhere.
Not only is this exhausting, it's not effective.
Spend 30 days posting on all platforms and then stick to the top two most effective platforms for you and your auidence.
Try TikTok and Instagram Reels for broader reach, as we are having great success here.
Plus, note that highlight snippets work better than full YouTube videos.
Share your podcast with publications.
Podnews (Free) - Share your new podcast series or a milestone with Podnews. With 30,000 readers online, it's a great way to reach new people, and we've been featured many times simply by emailing them.
Submit it for editorial consideration.
Spotify and Apple "New & Noteworthy" Submission (Free) - People looking for new podcasts often go to the "New & Noteworthy" section of the app and see what podcasts are featured. Those podcasts got featured by clicking the links and filling out a submission. It's not a guarantee, but it's well worth doing.
Create a podcast commercial campaign.
Spotify's Ad Studio: Spotify's self-serve advertising platform helps you create a commercial promoting your podcast and then advertise that to your ideal audience. You can select age, gender and location, making this specific.
This is great for brand awareness as $1,250 can get up to 225,000 impressions on the ad (not your podcast), with the goal for those who hear your ad to click on the pop-up banner to your podcast. Click-through rates vary (Reach out to us for more info)
Headliner Advertising: When people create free shareable content with Headliner, they listen to a podcast commercial. Via their advertising platform, you make it your podcast that they listen to, and this (unlike Spotify advertising) counts as a direct listen and starts at 25c/listen. (Reach out to us for more info)
Email Marketing
Develop an email newsletter to keep your audience engaged between episodes. Share behind-the-scenes content, episode previews, or additional resources related to your podcast topics. Include calls to action encouraging readers to listen to the latest episodes or share with their networks.
Podcast SEO
otter.ai is excellent for generating a transcript of your podcast.
You can then put this transcript on your website, so when people search online for content related to your podcast, it may be displayed to them.
Collaborate with Other Podcasters
Reach out for cross-promotion opportunities with podcasters in similar niches. You can guest on each other's shows or mention each other's podcasts. This can expose your podcast to a new audience that enjoys identical content.
Listennotes paid account allows you to search and email other podcasts.
Podcasting is an exciting journey, and from little things - big things grow.
For more support, information, or guidance, send me an email darcy@propodcast.com.au
Darcy Milne is the founder of Pro Podcast