There are no shortcuts to get more listeners for your podcast. It’s not just a case of making a great show and hoping it goes viral – you have to put the work in marketing your podcast too. We’ve put together a few ways to entice listeners to give your show a try (and then hopefully subscribe and recommend it to all their friends).
Promoting on Social Media
First, the most obvious way to garner listeners is to promote your podcast tirelessly. You should be posting on social media channels to let people know about new releases. You can post about your podcast in several ways to make it interesting to your potential audience and get more listeners for your podcast. This is also great because you’re repurposing the podcast content and getting a great ROI for yourself. You’re already making the podcast anyway, might as well generate some social media content! You can:
- Produce audio snippets. This is a great way to tease an episode and allows potential listeners to actually hear what you have to say. You could use an audiogram to attract attention with the moving waveform.
- Create eye-catching videos, gifs, or images to post on your social channels. Give people something that looks a little more exciting than your podcast artwork on repeat.
- Add guest quotes when promoting an episode. Particularly if the guest is a big name in your niche.
- Use social proof to draw new listeners in. Showcase what people already love about your show.
Network
Don’t forget that you can pull bite-size chunks of content from your podcast and repurpose them for use elsewhere. You don’t need to be spammy and pop up in every podcast group going, but you should definitely be posting about your new episodes on your own page and networking on social media.
If you are helpful and authentic in your niche’s groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, you’ll find you start to build a trustworthy reputation. Clearly, this is a long-term strategy – but you’re in this for the long haul, right?
Leverage Your Email List
If you already have an email list of engaged listeners, don’t neglect them. Send out an email newsletter reminding your audience that the next episode of your show is about to drop and add a CTA asking them to review and rate it. If you don’t have an email list yet, that’s fine; just ask your friends and family to listen to help you get your initial ratings and reviews going!
Having some great reviews on the big podcast platforms ensures that if someone stumbles across your show, they are assured that others enjoyed what you have to say. Social proof at its finest!
Your Guests’ Audience
If you can achieve an interview with a few of the more prominent names in your niche, you can ask them to promote their appearance to their audience. If they have a large following, you may well snag a few listeners who enjoy your content too. Make it easy for your guest to do this by notifying them when the episode drops and provide them with the material to publish such as the episode link, your social links, an image, etc.
As you can see, the name of the game is patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was an engaged podcast audience. However, if you combine these strategies and are consistent, you should see your listener numbers start to rise!
At East Coast Studio, we can streamline your entire podcast workflow. Simply upload your recorded audio to us, and receive back quality show notes, audiograms, transcriptions, and more. We can even upload and publish your podcast episodes, making your podcasting life easy! Book a call with us today.