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(By Johnny Peterson) We all want our shows to grow, but it takes more than just tweeting to your followers that you have a podcast! There is some great, low-hanging fruit that podcasters of any level can take advantage to promote your show. Here are 8 ways to do so!
Find out where your listeners hangout. If your ideal listener were a person, what would they be like? Where would they hangout, especially online? Find those places where your perfect listener would be viewing content and shopping, and ask those sites about advertising your podcast. For example, if you had a woodworking podcast, a simple google search brought me here. The more eyes in the audience that are in your target market, the higher rate of the ad conversion.
Get on other podcasts. There are a lot of services out there that exist solely to get you on other podcasts. Going on other shows allow you to expand your personal brand and podcast to new audiences. The larger the show, the more eyes on you and your podcast.
Bring guests on your podcast. The same goes for having guests on your podcast, especially ones with larger social followings than your own. You can use some of the same services that get you on other podcasts to find guests with different expertises trying to get on podcasts. Of course, remember to have a conversation with the guest about promoting the episode via their social media accounts.
Join online communities. Facebook and Reddit. There are a lot of groups and subreddits allow promotion for your podcast, these are totally free and will help you hone the pitch for your podcast. What sets you apart from everyone else with a similar podcast?
Advertise on similar podcasts The key here is to find the line between podcasts that are on the same road as your podcast, but not necessarily the same lane. You don’t want to cannibalize other audiences by trying to advertise on a show that is only different in name and host. For example, if you host a comedy podcast that focuses on your favorite films, don’t try to advertise on other film review podcasts. Rather, find other comedy podcasts that discuss different aspects of hollywood such as lifestyle or stand up comedians.
Leverage your audience Call To Action’s are podcasting 101. Asking your listeners to share the podcast with others can be great for organic growth, especially if you are a host consistently engaging with your audience. A perfect example would be The Ross Bolen Podcast. A major point of this show is the engagement (snapchats sent in from listeners posted to the show’s instagram) followed by calls to action to share the podcast with at least one person they know (known affectionately by the “gang” as their legal obligations).
Create Audiograms When I put myself in the listener’s shoes and come across a new podcast on Twitter or Instagram and it’s just a link to the show, I now have to make the decision to potentially commit 45 minutes something I may not be interested in. Put that against an audiogram, it’s much more attractive to hear a 30 second snippet of one of the more entertaining parts before making that decision to listen more. It’s definitely more work than just a copypaste of your link to Itunes. But it can also prevent them from just scrolling past without a second thought, and turn them into a listener.
Video your podcast. We all want to be on as many platforms as possible for people to listen to our podcast, but some are skipping out on one that is astronomically larger than all combined: YouTube. It doesn’t even need to be full episodes, just search “podcast highlights” on Youtube and you’ll find videos with millions of views on highlight reels of various podcasts. These video highlights can be a great alternative to audiograms for social media promotion.
Johnny Peterson is the CEO and founder of Straight Up Podcasts, providing professional podcast services and consulting. He is also the host of the Pod Logicpodcast. You can reach Johnny at johnny@straightuppodcasts.com