Launched Your Podcast? Check. Released your first Episode? Check. But, have you considered promoting your Podcast to scale it, get more downloads, get clients or business opportunities or build it as a side income source?
Without promotion, your Podcast will lack listeners and downloads, which can eventually lead you to give up on Podcasting. We don’t want that, do we?
Getting your Podcast listed on Podcast directories is an effective way to get more listeners. No doubt about that. But, is that the only way to promote your Podcast? Apparently, no.
There are social media channels, blogs, newsletters, videos and several other proven and effective ways to promote your Podcasts, and that’s exactly what you’ll learn today.
By the end of this blog post, you’ll learn about 7 organic ways to promote your Podcast that’ll help you get more listeners, downloads, and leads.
So without further ado, let’s get right into it.
#1 Social Media
Social Media is still one of the most popular media channels out there. With billions of people posting content, you are bound to find your listeners on either of the platforms.
[Note : I am going to refer to Audiograms several times below. Audiograms are quite the charm with regards to promoting your Podcast.]
Let’s cover each of the social media platforms one by one.
Facebook : This is the platform with the most number of users on it, across all other social sites. This site entertains both, images and video-based content.
You can easily promote your Podcast episodes in the form of Audiograms, that are easy to create and appealing enough to grab someone’s attention.
Start sharing it with your friends and in your Facebook groups. Additionally, don’t forget to talk about your Podcast if you decide to hop on Live Video.
In fact, a lot of podcast hosting services display sharing options once you publish an episode, such as Buzzsprout. Go ahead and make use of it, it’ll save you loads of time and effort.
Instagram : Best known for Reels these days, Instagram has surged in popularity over the past few years. Let’s take home a piece of its popularity for your Podcast.
Start with Instagram posts. You can upload a cover image of your episode or a video snip of the same. But, don’t leave your caption blank.
Tell your audience why they should tune in to your podcast episode and how they’ll benefit from it.
Use Instagram Stories for pre-promoting your episodes with your followers. Have your Podcast linked in your Instagram Bio and drive your audience there through your content.
Pinterest : An image-based platform, Pinterest is often referred to as a search engine. Audiograms, episode covers and catchy designs will do great on Pinterest.
However, don’t forget to add a call to action in everything you upload on Pinterest. Link your images to your podcast episode and watch listeners flow in.
You might have to get some research done when it comes to writing a headline for your Pin. Maintain consistency, and you shall be rewarded with listeners.
Twitter : Popularly termed as the micro-blogging platform, Twitter is great for text-based content.
Here’s how you can leverage Twitter for your Podcast promotion.
- Once you publish your episode, copy the link and paste it into a tweet.
- Don’t publish it yet. Write a few words on Why should people listen to it? how does it benefit them? try to fit every text within 80 characters.
Feel free to use Audiograms in tweets, instead of episode links. Everything else stays the same. Write a few words and then share the link to that episode in the first comment.
Twitter threads is another powerful way of getting engagement for your Podcast episodes. The Twitter algorithm boosts twitter threads to reach other interested users organically.
Break down your episode and come up with informative parts that your audience might love to read as Twitter threads.
Social media promotion for my Podcast gets easier with BuzzSprout’s Podcasting Hosting service. Apart from a user-friendly interface, BuzzSprouts helps me create “Visual Soundbites”, a.k.a Audiograms on its platform itself.
Now that we’ve covered the major social media sites to promote your Podcast, let’s look at the next channel that’ll drop your episodes right into your audience’s inbox.
#2 Newsletter
A Newsletter refers to a curated form of content that goes out to your audience’s inbox on selective days.
A newsletter usually consists of a cluster of content pieces. They might include blog article links, podcast episode embeds, video embeds, tweets, promotions, relevant media news and whatnot.
Creators usually send out their newsletters on a weekly basis. Some prefer it daily and others like to send it out bi-weekly. It is completely up to you.
If you’re someone who owns a blog or runs a Youtube channel, don’t hesitate to start your own newsletter for free.
Yes, you’ll need an email marketing service such as ConvertKit, to begin with, but once you get a hang of using the email service, you can add your video or blog content to your newsletter
Podcast hosting providers let you embed your episode player wherever you like it. You can copy the code and embed it in your newsletter in a similar way.
However, you don’t need to embed your Podcast episode. If you want your listeners to drop a review or a rating on either of the Podcast channels, such as Apple Podcast or Spotify, just write a brief of
You can drive your newsletter readers to your Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and get them to subscribe or leave a free review or a rating.
- Write a few lines on what that Podcast episode talks about along with your other content
- Provide a link to your Podcast on Apple Podcast or Spotify
- Send the newsletter to your email list and watch your Podcast grow organically
I’ve shown how you can leverage Newsletters to promote your Podcast, so let’s move on to the most searched media channel on Google.
#3 Blog
Blogs are still considered the most popular and valuable resource on Google. So why not leverage them to promote your Podcast and accelerate its growth.
In this section, I’ll cover only those ways to promote that are free, quick to set up and easy to track.
1. Pop Up Forms
As the name suggests, these forms are those that pop up on your screen when you’ve landed on a specific page of a website. There are several options when it comes to when one comes across a form.
Some pop up immediately after the viewer lands on the page. Then some pop up after the viewer spends some time on the page, and finally, those that pop up after the viewer is about to exit the page.
In this case, you’ll be the one to set up a pop up for your readers.
Write a short and catchy headline that hooks the viewer and compels that person to share their name and email with you, through the form.
2. Article embeds
In this method, you copy the embedded code of a particular episode from your podcast hosting service dashboard and embed it on your website.
This way your Podcast player will be visible on your blog post and people can listen to the episode, right there.
3. Transcript Repurposing
Transcripts are translated written versions of your audio or video files. Here’s a reverse trick that you can leverage for your blog.
What I’m suggesting here is to repurpose your transcripts for every episode into blog posts. This way, you’ll have an entire blog based on your Podcast episodes.
Drive traffic to your blogs organically by leveraging social media or your email list.
Now that we’re done with using blogs to promote your podcast, let’s dive into the most demanded form of content, that’ll bring you listeners instantly.
#4 Video
When it’s video, it’s all about YouTube, the largest video consumption platform. With billions of viewers consuming videos on YouTube, why not leverage it to promote your podcast.
In this section, I am going to show you 2 ways of promoting your Podcast on Youtube.
- Upload Audiograms on YouTube Shorts. Since Shorts has a limit of 60 seconds, you can easily insert a 30-second audiogram.
Don’t forget to make it relatable and appealing.
Use some hashtags and title optimizations to help you reach more people. - In case you do video podcasts, split your Podcast episodes into several parts. Make sure those parts carry valuable, insightful and actionable knowledge that your viewers can apply right away after getting off of your video.
I’d advise you to do some market research on YouTube for your Podcast’s niche. Find what’s working out for others. This can help you get content ideas for your future episodes.
Basic video optimization helps you get more visibility and exposure for your Podcast. TubeBuddy helps me select my YouTube titles and helps me optimize my videos with proper hashtags and keywords.
Now that we’ve covered videos, let’s move on to the next topic that talks about promoting your Podcasts through digital events and workshops.
#5 Digital Events and Workshops
Digital Events and Workshops are a great way to boost your brand and authority. And this only applies if you’re the one speaking on the platform.
There are so secret ways or hacks to promote your Podcast at Digital events. Every speaker ends their speech by referring to the various social profiles that their viewers can find them on.
A simple pitch to follow you on your podcast won’t harm you in any way. You might get business opportunities outside of your events and workshop.
Maybe, someone from the participants wants you on their podcast show. Be it clients, co-host, podcast guests — the sky is the limit when it comes to promoting your podcast at events and workshops.
Guess what happens when someone from your event loves your Podcast? They share it with their audience. This accelerates your Podcast’s growth and gets you more listeners and downloads.
#6 Guest Podcasting
Guest podcasting refers to the process of inviting or attending someone else’s Podcast as a guest.
This is another effective way of getting your Podcast, added visibility and growth by infiltrating someone else’s audience.
Let’s cover both scenarios. Inviting a guest and being invited as a guest.
- When you decide to invite someone over your Podcast, you can leverage their audience for your Podcast’s growth.
On releasing the interview episode, your guest will share it with their audience, that’ll bring your Podcast additional listeners and downloads. - When you’re invited as a guest on another Podcast, you can simply let the Podcaster know about your Podcast and they’ll make sure to refer to it on the episode or in the show notes.
Guest Podcasting is considered a powerful way to promote your personal brand, build authority and even get leads. The best part is that all of this is organic. You don’t need to pay a single penny to promote your Podcast.
#7 Digital Products
Ebooks, Checklists, Cheatsheets, Workbooks, and other products fall under the umbrella term of “Digital Products”.
Softwares such as Gumroad and Etsy let you list your digital products and sell them at your set prices.
Here’s the best thing about Digital products : the entire content and rights belong to you and you’ll never come to have to face issues regarding promotions.
A lot of creators promote affiliate products in their digital products. You can do the same with your Podcast. What increases your conversion rate is the fact that you aren’t even promoting something that people have to pay for.
A simple mention of your Podcast in any of your digital products is more than enough to get you listeners and downloads for your Podcast. Effortless and Organic.
How to Craft an Effective Podcast Promotion Strategy ?
Running a Podcast in itself is a great ordeal for a lot of people. Some Podcasters give up after noticing undesired results, while others might get busy enough with some other work, to ignore their Podcast.
A successful Podcast show requires an effective podcast promotion strategy that brings in new listeners and more downloads every time an episode goes live.
And nothing’s better at saving time and effort, than looking at strategies that are already working. In other words, notice how your competitors gain more listeners and downloads for their Podcasts.
Go ahead and feel free to subscribe to their email list or follow them on their social handles. Nothing’s better than becoming a part of their tribe, their brand.
Get to know the process from the inside out. Once you realise your mistakes, remodel what works out for your competitors and try applying the same strategies and tactics for your Podcast show.
Promoting your podcast episodes on multiple channels can get overwhelming and time-consuming.
But, what if you could automate everything and save time at the same time? It’s completely doable with the help of automation tools, both for social media and emails.
Tools such as Buffer, Later and Hootsuite help with social media automation.
And tools such as MailerLite, ConvertKit and Mailchimp with automating the emails that get sent out to your list, automatically.
All of the tools come with both, Free and Paid plans. The choice is yours.
Go ahead and schedule everything beforehand and set it up for automation. You’ll literally get more listeners and downloads without you losing a sweat.
To summarize, here’s you craft an effective podcast promotion strategy to earn more listeners and get more downloads.
- Track everything your competitors do to promote their podcasts. Get an insider’s perspective by following them on social media or becoming a part of their email list.
- Schedule and Automate your Podcast promotion content for both your email list and social media profiles.
3 Smart Podcast Promotion Tips to Scale Growth
Promoting your Podcast can feel overwhelming. But here are a few tips you can follow to take your Podcast to the next level to nurture its growth.
- Use Social Media automation tools to save time. Schedule all your content in advance and you won’t need to worry about promotion for the rest of the week.
- Outsource your Podcast production. Leave the technical part to the professionals. And you can focus only on promoting your Podcast content to your audience.
- Repurpose your Podcast content at all costs. Convert audio into transcripts, blogs, YouTube videos and ebooks. The more the merrier. Reason? Different people like consuming different kinds of content. Repurposing will keep you on the safe side.
Conclusion
Promotion plays a major role in your Podcast’s growth, even more than coming up with Podcast episodes every week.
Waiting for someone to search for your podcast on directories such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify is less effective compared to going out there, building your brand and letting people know that you run a Podcast that solves their problems and make their lives better.
Are you someone who’s already promoting their podcast using one of the channels I’ve discussed above? If so, what’s your favourite way of promoting the Podcast? Comment below with your answer.