How To Promote A Podcast: 18 Experts Share Their Secret Strat87egies

OK so you've:

Been through ALL the blog posts
Asked your podcasting friend
Found guests
Edited your show
Finally launched

And... crickets.

Yep you feel like all your hard work has gone to waste as you only generated 74 downloads on launch day (which is a great start by the way!).

You're now not sure whether to continue your show, as it is a LOT of work, but it doesn't seem like people are actually listening to what you have to say.

Now this makes sense...

You probably have better things to do than waste your time creating audio content if no one will listen.

But before that, please do yourself a favour and learn a little more about how to promote a podcast before you give up.

Back in 2006, you could probably launch a podcast and get a shed load of listeners... not any more. You need to know how to promote.

To help solve this problem for you, we went to podcasters that have an audience... to ask them how they built it.

So sit back, grab a black coffee and scroll through the promotion ideas and strategies in this post.

We hope that this will give you the inspiration to continue your show, build an audience... and make the world a better place.

1. Mark de Rijk

When we asked Mark De Rijk from SME Business Podcast about the strategy that helped him to get more downloads, this is what he had to say:

"I am transcribing my episodes and reposting them as a blog on my website and medium. I also run an automated social media campaign using Missinglettr to push out to various social media accounts"

So Mark is capitalising on SEO value through transcription and them pushing out that content to social media... nice Mark.

Mark De Rijk runs the SME Business Podcast, giving a voice to founders of small and medium businesses.

Check out his show here: SME Business Podcast

2. Julie Alberding

Julie Alberding from Macro N Cheese shares what's working for them: hosting the show on their own domain.

This meant that people that wanted to listen to the show would land on their site and often check out their business.

They create custom cover art for every podcast and then add this along with their embedded bCast player, their guests social links and show notes for every episode. This also allows listeners to comment, allowing them to connect and gain feedback from their audience.

Here is what Julie has to say:

"The biggest change we've made this year, though, is to add full transcripts to each episode, and the feedback from listeners has been fantastic. We were even able to attract a coveted guest who refuses to be interviewed if a transcript is not included"

You can listen to the podcast here: Macro N Cheese

3. Serhat Kaya

Serhat Kaya, from The Growth Show, also shared details on how to promote a podcast and get more downloads. Their podcast is actually about growth... so it kind of makes sense ;)

Here is what Serhat Kaya shared with us:

"It's usually a combination of things:

Leveraging our guests' network and reach by sharing everything they might need so that it's easy as possible. These can be the links to our podcast, sometimes episode cover, or videos. It helps to point out that the more people tune in, the more people also engage with this particular episode and, therefore, with the guest. It's a win-win.

We are teasing snippets of an interesting part of the episode right before the intro to increase downloads. This increases the chance that people continue to listen.

Answering questions on Quora with insights from our podcast and leaving the link to the right episode for further interest.

There are lots of other things we do and try. One thing we still need to try is having five guests and having with each one a short conversation about a certain topic. Different and special format. But here is what makes it interesting: 5x the power of guest network reach, and people interested in a certain topic get insights from five different experts. Chances are that they listen to all five short talks"

The summary of their approach:

Use your network
Use your guest's network
Create avenues for your audience to connect with you
Give teasers that intrigue listeners

You can listen to the podcast here: The Growth Show

4. Carissa Andrew

Carissa Andrew is the founder of The Author Revolution Podcast, and she gave the credit of more reach to her shift from Libsyn to bCast.

Here's what she thinks about her podcast's reach after switching to bCast:

"I swapped from Libsyn to bCast! I wasn't sold on using Libsyn, but I signed up because it felt like the only place to run my podcast from, based on the people I had spoken to at the time. But a friend of mine recommended bCast a couple of months ago, and I decided to give it a try. I loved the interface immediately, but the surprising advantage of moving was a broader reach (the podcast was loaded on more sites like I Heart Radio and more), where I didn't have that before. Plus, just with the native swap itself, my downloads immediately saw an increase. It was fantastic!"

Sometimes podcast growth can be a simple as switching podcast host ;)

Check out Carissa's podcast here: The Author Revolution Podcast

5. Tom Hunt

Our founder Tom Hunt wanted to chime in with what has worked with his podcast: Confessions Of A B2B Marketer...

"On EVERY episode I ask people to rate and review on Apple Podcasts. And then if they send me a screenshot I will read out the review and give a shout out to their businss on the show. This builds relationships with listeners AND gives more social proof on Apple that helps get us more subscribers"

Thanks Tom!

Subscribe to Tom's podcast here: Confessions Of A B2B Marketer‍

6. Akeel Jabber

Akeel Jabber from the SaaS District told us how to promote a podcast for free AND for the long term. They SEO optimised YouTube video versions of their show and then gained exposure on social media through cutting down and sharing clips.

In his own words:

"We started taking our 45 min-1 hour-long video podcast interviews and then repurpose them into 8-12 minute videos that would be based on questions that we could try to rank keywords for on our YouTube channel. We'd also create 1-2 minute video clips for social media to go back to the full video. Still, our optimisation strategy for YouTube SEO is our long term play since podcasting channels don't have much for ranking through search"

You can listen to Akeel's podcast here: SaaS District

7. Elena Yemelyanova

The more people that can relate to the situations, circumstances, and experiences that you discuss on your show... the greater emotional connection they will feel.

Elena Yemelyanova from U Radio shared that their show: U Talk grew once they started doing this.

The show shares stories from Canadian's with diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds about their struggles and experiences.

If you can connect with people emotionally, they will keep listening to you... this means more downloads ;)

Check this out in action here: U Radio/ U Talk

8. Hans van Gent

Hans van Gent from the User Growth Podcast also shares some wisdom...

Hans emphasised that the recipe to get more downloads is to syndicate the content from your show into every possible format.

He shared his complete workflow:

"For me, it all starts with a long-form (around 3k words) blog post. I then ‘cut’ that piece up into shorter formats for people that want to consume my content in different ways. I create a shorter version of it and create a video out of it; I use a bit similar transcript of the video to create a podcast episode out of it, and so on. And of course, each piece links to each other, ‘want to consume this piece of content in audio, check it out here…’, etc. That interlinking helps a lot"

And if your podcast is new:

"If you're just starting out, of course, don't forget to submit your podcast to all different directories out there (there is so much more than just the iTunes or Spotify directory, and each directory gives you the opportunity to be discovered by a new set of listeners again"

You can listen to Han's podcast here: Growing Your Business Through Digital Marketing

9. Frank Mandolini

Frank Mandolini of Last Minute Wrestling Podcast also believes in the power of social media for promoting a podcast

He believes that his podcasting journey wouldn't have come so far if he had ignored social media.

He shares:

"I understood that word of mouth is still the strongest tool we have to increase our downloads. That means creating contact with people and not treating your followers just as numbers. Generally speaking, being empathetic is the key in every interaction we have"

The second thing Frank did that worked was to:

"Another route I tried and found to be very functional is writing a good old press release. Whatever your podcast is about, it can have an audience, and the same audience can read specialised magazines or website. A mention on those magazines can amplify your reach in a way that your circle of friends simply can't"

You can listen to the podcast here: Last Minute Wrestling Podcast

10. Phil Magcalas

Here is what Phil thinks will help you grow your show:

"We've just started, but are in the process of reaching out to specific niche groups. Our podcast is specifically about parenting and planning from a doctor and parent, so the information is actually even being put up on flyers at prenatal/ birthing classes. I know, this is very analogue, but it's probably the one thing we're doing that is different"

You can listen to Phil's podcast here: Who Needs Sleep?

11. Wrong Term Memory

The correspondent from the Wrong Term Memory team shares that Twitter can be massive for getting more downloads...

It allows them to connect directly with their audience, getting feedback that helps them improve their show.

You can check out their podcast here: Wrong Term Memory

12. Heather Edwards

Heather shares three approaches to getting more downloads:

Networking on Instagram to grow an audience there, posting clips from each episode
Generating email subscribers on her site and emailing them with each episode
Running paid ads on Pinterest

So there are three more for you to test ;)

You can listen to the podcast here: Hey, Heather!

13. Sarah Hanna

Sarah's advice is simple but very powerful... she states that their best episodes have been spread through word of mouth:

"We’re pretty new at this, but our episodes with the most downloads have been spread via word of mouth and our personal social media. I think because we’re so new, it’s been friends and family that have been most willing to take a chance on us initially. But luckily, those people have been willing to spread the word to other friends of theirs"

If you make great audio that connects with listeners... you will grow your show through word of mouth.

You can listen to the podcast here: Ruining Your Childhood

14. Søren Vasø

Søren leverages Linkedin.

He cuts small parts from his podcast episodes and posts those natively to LinkedIn. These cuts are thoughtful and deliver important points in a very short period of time. He also adds subtitles to these for people without sound on.

And, he then links back to the full episode in the comments.

In his own words:

"This should allow you to pick up a couple of new followers every week to the show, but also give you massive awareness because of the organic reach on LinkedIn. If you also have a video on, it works even better. I get 4-7 cuts from each episode, so I have a bunch of content that's fresh all the time for my LinkedIn profile"

Check out Soren' show here: Beyond Hours‍

15. Vaishali Badgujar

Vaishali Badgujar shares that a simple technical tweak can lead to more downloads: reducing audio file size.

In Vaishali’s own words:

"We noticed that episodes with small media size got more downloads than episodes with bigger media files. Although our podcast is audio-only, we had some files as big as 90MB. This might discourage listeners who prefer mobile phones. So we are making sure that people with low internet bandwidth can easily download our episodes"

Check out the show here: Running Remote Podcast

16. Luke Cannon

Luke of Loose Leaf Cannon likes to periodically email his complete email list with links to his best episodes.

If you're creating great content... it really is a simple as that...

You can listen to the podcast here: Loose Leaf Cannon

17. Don Grant

If you don’t have superpowers yet still want to succeed at anything, you just need to be consistent:

"Consistent action creates consistent results"

Don Grant swears by this. He has been consistently creating great content that his audience loves. This naturally leads to downloads.

And then of course he repurposes everything social ;)

You can listen to the podcast here: Three Interesting Things

18. Leah Marks

Leah Marks from The Voiceover Social shares her strategy: communicate and involve your audience as much as possible. Don’t miss any chance of getting feedback, comments, answering their questions and building a connection.

The results will be surprisingly great: again, word of mouth will build slowly over time.

Leah connects with her audience, and then the audience does the rest of the work ;)

Check out how Leah does this here: The Voiceover Social

Final Words

Alright...

We hope that we have convinced you of the need to invest time into promoting your show.

And we would like to finish on what we believe to be the most powerful method of promotion: creating audio that connects.

Regardless of the power of the strategies shared above, if your audio doesn't connect with your audience, you won't grow.

So before implementing ANY of these approaches, please go back to the drawing board and make sure your audio content is adding value to/connect with your audience.

Happy bCasting ;)

The bCast Blog