Ways to market your podcast
You’re here because you’re wondering how to market your podcast. Maybe you’re new to podcasting, or you may have a podcast already and you’re wondering how to attract new listeners.
Before you launch your podcast, it’s important that you truly understand your audience. Is your podcast valuable and unique? If it’s not either of these, you may struggle to grow your podcast audience, no matter how much marketing you do.
Also, bear in mind that it can take 5-6 months for your listenership to start increasing. It’s normal to have little engagement at the beginning, so try not to feel too discouraged.
Here are a few ideas you could try to market your podcast. You could try and test a few and see how you go.
Create accounts on and submit RSS feed on all podcast directories
By signing up to hosting sites such as Libsyn, you can submit your RSS feed on all the major platforms, such as Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify etc. That way your episodes will automatically be published to each platform.
Launch your podcast with 3 episodes
When you launch your podcast, you should launch with 3 episodes.
First impressions are important. If you only have 1 episode and a listener doesn’t resonate with that 1 topic, you’ve lost them!
If they have 3 to choose from, they’re more likely to find at least one episode they like. With 3 episodes on different topics, you’ll reach a wider audience.
Yes, it will take longer to launch, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.
Always have a call to action (CTA) in your episodes
At the beginning and/or end of each episode you should have a CTA. For example, you could ask your listeners to rate and review your podcast, follow you on social media, visit your website etc. It’s such a wasted marketing opportunity if you don’t have a CTA.
Invite guests and be a guest on shows with a complimentary audience
By sharing an audience with a complimentary podcaster you’ll broaden your listenership. There are Facebook groups that bring podcasters together such as Podcast Guest Collaboration Community and Podcast Guest Connection.
Ask guests to promote
If you have an episode where you interviewed a guest. Once the episode goes live, send the link to your guest asking them to share it with their audience.
Record tagline of guest
If you’re interviewing a guest for your show, you could ask them to record something about the episode to excite people to listen to that episode before it goes live. For example. they could record themselves s something like “This is Tracy Smith with John Johnson. Don’t miss episode #6 where we talk about [insert topic].”
You could create social media posts with this audio/video to get your audience excited about the up and coming episode.
Customize your social media
Make sure to promote each episode on your social media channels, customizing your audience for each channel as you see fit.
Audiograms
An audiogram is an image that’s converted into a video with a waveform and/or transcript over the top. You can use these in your social media posts. A good tool for creating audiograms is Headliner.
Don’t just promote your episodes on social media
If you only promote your episodes on social media, this will become boring for your audience. You need to add some value. Answer their questions. Ask them questions, find out what they want to listen to. They could come up with some great topic ideas that you may have never thought of!
Publish at strategic times
Look at similar podcasts and see when they publish. If there’s a trend, follow the trend. You could try different times to see what works best. After you’ve published a few episodes yourself you’ll be able to see what times work best for your listeners and you can then use the time that works well consistently.
Refer back to previous episodes
On your current episode you could refer back to an episode that relates to your current topic. For example, you could say “listen to episode #14 where we spoke about…”
Network with other podcasters
By networking with other podcasters, you’re more likely to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in the podcasting industry. They may also have new ideas and be able to give you advice.
Network at events related to your niche
These could be online or in-person events. Get out there and speak to others in your industry so that they know about you and the benefits of listening to your podcast.
Mention products/services you like, and share that episode with the business owners
Do you love a product or service and mention it in one of your episodes? Then share that episode with the owners/marketing department of that business. You can ask them to share it with their audience.
Join online communities and add to the conversation
People are always asking questions in online communities such as Quora and Reddit. You could join and answer questions that relate to a particular podcast episode you may have. Answer by inserting a link to that particular episode.
Convert your podcast to a YouTube video
You’ll need to convert your MP3 audio file to an MP4 file. Add an image to be seen on the video for the duration of the episode and upload to YouTube. Make sure to add show notes, social media links, website etc.
Create YouTube Shorts
If you filmed your episode on Zoom or something similar, you can cut the most exciting and interesting parts out (up to 60 seconds each) and create YouTube Shorts videos.
Run promotions
You could run promotions such as “rate this podcast, screen shot and add to your Instagram stories, tag me in it and you’ll go into a prize draw to win a free coaching call with me.”
Get a website for your podcast or create a web page specifically for your podcast on your website
If you have an optimized website for your podcast you’re more likely to show up in search engines. You could add detailed descriptions of each episode with links to where you want your audience to go.
Conclusion
There are many ways to get more listeners on your podcast and to grow your audience. Try a few and see what works and doesn’t work.
If you’re struggling to market your podcast and need some extra support. Book in a free Discovery Call and we’ll see how I can help.