Jump to a Section:
- Upload to a Platform
- Using Social Media the Right Way
- Accept Donations
- Leverage Your Guests’ Audience
- Get Sponsored & Sell Ad Spaces
- Start an Affiliate Partnership
- Convert Audio to a YouTube Channel
- Create Paid Membership Tiers
- Featuring on Other Podcasts
- Leverage Word-of-Mouth Advertising
- Sell Merch
- Record Lots of Valuable Content
- Create a Cohesive Visual Brand
Podcasting is one of the most popular content delivery channels today. Much of its popularity is attributed to the convenience it offers its listeners and content creators. Podcasting platforms have seen a continuous rise in listenership, with approximately 155 million people listening to podcasts as of April 2020.
Although these numbers might not be a match to the billions of social media users, an important increase has been seen over the past couple of years, and there are no signs of going down. For instance, the number of podcast users has exponentially risen since 2015.
These statistics should be a reason enough for any business owner to join the platform. Besides, you can find a comprehensive step-by-step guide to starting a podcast, which will take you through all you need to have a piece of this market.
Once your podcast is ready, the main challenge is spreading the word about it. Unlike social media posts, marketing your podcast requires a different approach. Fortunately, succeeding in it is not a daunting task, and you, too, can easily advertise your podcast. We tell you all about how to advertise your podcast in the following steps:
1. Upload to a Platform
Even though you may have one of the best podcast hosting services elsewhere, having a strong presence on iTunes or other music platforms will help you reach out to a larger audience.
Let’s use iTunes as an example of how you can join these platforms. Getting started with iTunes is easy, and all that you need to do is to:
- Sign up using your Apple ID on the iTunes Podcast Connect or create one if you don’t have one yet.
- Look for a ‘+’ button and click to enter your podcast RSS feed.
- Click on the ‘validate’ button.
- A preview window appears, and you can check if everything is in order or make the necessary edits where needed.
- Click on ‘Submit,’ and you are done!
Do not fret if the feed doesn’t go live instantly. Podcasts submitted to iTunes usually go through a moderation process. It might take anywhere between a few hours and ten days for it to get approved.
2. Using Social Media the Right Way
Social media is currently the largest and most effective promotional tool in the world. With an estimated 3.6 billion users worldwide, there is no escaping it as a marketing platform for your podcast.
There are many ways you can use social media to attract more listeners to your podcast. You can share anything from videos, images, soundbites, teasers, and many others. Luckily, the most popular social media channels can support all these formats and still make it possible for your friends and followers to share your content.
While the use of social media might be a perfect tool, it won’t help you much if you don’t know how to use it wisely. Always keep in mind that you’re not promoting your social page but your podcast. Whenever you create a post, ensure to add a link that people can click on, and get redirected to your podcast page.
Mockup of an iPhone held by a man listening to a podcast
3. Accept Donations
You can encourage your listeners to support you. To achieve this, it is very important that you connect with your audience. You can drop in a quick call to action, add a link to your description, and more.
⭐ How to Set Up Donations on Twitch
4. Leverage Your Guests’ Audience
In some cases, you will have to feature guests in your podcast and interview them on various topics, especially their areas of expertise. If these guests are famous or professionals with many fans and followers, you should leverage them. Make their audience your own.
Once you feature an influencer on your podcast, other influencers might follow, and you’ll have the chance to leverage their followers, too. Most of these industry leaders have a vast following, and once you publish an episode that features them, they’ll most likely share it. This exposes your podcast to a larger crowd, bringing you more listeners.
5. Get Sponsored & Sell Ad Spaces
Sponsors pay to have you mention them on your podcast. As your audience grows, your sponsorship opportunities will grow too! Keep in mind to accept brands that align with your own values and audience interests.
🔥 Check out more ideas on how to make money on YouTube.
6. Start an Affiliate Partnership
As a podcaster, you can offer a unique link and mention for a specific product, and whenever someone buys that product, you get a commission. Affiliate marketing is a great win-win situation for both sides. It’s important here that you promote those products you actually believe in, like, and recommend so you keep loyal to your audience.
7. Convert Audio to a YouTube Channel
YouTube is the most widely used search engine for videos, having at least 2 billion monthly users. Once you create your podcast, it would be prudent to convert the audio file into video and upload it on YouTube.
Although the main essence of a podcast is to allow someone to listen without watching, there are many benefits of having your podcast on this platform. Some of them include:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits. Google values video 53 times more than text; hence, having a YouTube video becomes a great boost to your ranking.
- A video to share on social media.
- Automatic closed captioning, more so if you don’t have the time to transcribe the audio by yourself.
Mockup of a man using an iMac listening to a podcast
8. Create Paid Membership Tiers
Subscriptions can create monthly support for your podcast in exchange for regular content or even exclusive content. Now, there are a lot of benefits to implementing a subscription system. However, it is important that you do your research and make sure your podcast is the correct brand for it! Remember, there are tons of free podcasts out there.
Patreon is a popular platform podcasters use to offer their paid membership tiers for listeners.
9. Featuring on Other Podcasts
Apart from having guests to join your show, you should also feature on other podcasts. Being a guest in someone else’s podcast will expose you to their audience, whom you can leverage. Furthermore, promoting the episode on social media will enable the audience to crossover and allow for the wider sharing of your content.
10. Leverage Word-of-Mouth Advertising
If you have great podcast content, you may as well use the minimum approach for marketing your podcast. In other words, you stand to gain a lot if you publish content that your audience will find valuable.
The word-of-mouth has been an effective marketing strategy since the time it was the only method of promoting something. In fact, according to statistics, word-of-mouth marketing has an average quality lead of 4.28 out of 5.
However, for this strategy to work, you ought to record valuable content, with attractive topics discussed in an optimal voice. Ensure that you have professional microphones and recording devices before you begin. Moreover, using the best podcast hosting services will ensure that you secure your content and still edit it whenever.
11. Sell Merch
You can offer merch for your fan base! This increases your listener’s loyalty and helps your brand connect with its audience.
👕 How to Monetize with Awesome Podcast Merch!
12. Giveaways & Freebies
Everyone loves free stuff. Offering an opportunity to your listeners to win will ultimately create a wave as everyone else tries to follow your podcast for a chance to get the freebies. One of the most efficient ways of getting more followers is by conducting competitions in exchange for giveaways to the winners.
You can ask them to share your content, and the post with the most number of likes or comments wins. You’d be surprised at just how much people are willing to do for freebies.
13. Search Engine Optimization
Although it might be challenging to optimize your podcast for search engines, there are many ways to bypass this and have your podcast ranking, hence getting yourself more followers. One of the most popular ways is by creating a website where your audience can either stream or download the podcast.
The other method is by converting your audio to video and uploading it to YouTube. Ensure to use the right keywords and hashtags when posting new content to attract your target audience.
Mockup of a woman following a podcast social media
14. Record Lots of Valuable Content
Before you launch your podcast, it is prudent to have enough content to promote. Ideally, you should have at least three episodes on your podcast, as this will give your audience and potential followers a feel of your platform, helping them make a decision to stay. Remember that the first episodes ought to be interesting enough to keep them wanting more.
15. Create a Cohesive Visual Brand
Before you even start marketing your podcast, you need a visual representation of your brand. This means getting a custom image or logo to represent you on all platforms where your content will be published. Beware of the various dimension requirements for the podcast directories your show will be hosted.
Over to You
Sharing your podcast with the rest of the world is now easier than ever, and promoting your content is as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. If you’re eyeing to become one of the top podcasters in your niche, this comprehensive guide will help you market your podcast to gain more leads and sales.
Always remember that content comes first, meaning your main focus should always be targeted at producing high-quality and valuable episodes. Once you follow these tips, you’re guaranteed success.
