5 Easy Ways to Promote your Podcast and Expand your Audience

Whether you are a radio station or an independent podcaster, there is no point in having a podcast if no one listens to it. Check out these five easy ways to get more podcast listeners.

 

Enticing artwork and description

Similar to album artwork, your podcast artwork is very important to success. It is the first thing people see before listening to your podcast and can be the difference between whether someone decides to listen to your podcast or not.

The title and description need to be equally as enticing because these act like the headline to a newspaper and are what draws people in.

 

Social Mediapromote your podcast on social media

A social media presence is a way to tell your audience when you will next release a podcast as well as a way to expand your audience. Listeners who engage with your social media posts will have their engagements come up in their friends’/followers’ news feeds; hopefully making them curious enough to listen. As soon as an episode first goes live, tell your followers about this, including a link to the podcast URL. To give people a snippet of what your podcast is like, a great idea would be to embed SoundCloud audio into a tweet. Another idea could be to share exclusive behind-the-scenes footage which you can share of Instagram or Snapchat.

 

Promote your podcast on appsPodcast Apps

There are dozens of apps that play podcasts and assist with podcast discovery. Around 70 percent of podcast listening happens through iTunes or the iOS podcast app so ensuring your podcast is available on iOS is essential. Try to get your podcast on as many host apps and sites as possible to increase your podcast listenership figures.

 

Word of Mouth

What a lot of people seem to forget to do is to focus on the people who have already discovered your podcast. You already have their attention, and if you keep podcasting consistently and engaging with them on social media, they are bound to tell others about your podcast.

 

Encourage Listeners to Leave Ratings and Reviews

Apple give new podcasts 8 weeks to takeoff where they make it easy to gain an audience. If your podcasts fit their standards, you could get featured in the iTunes New and Noteworthy charts. Once your podcast is in this section it is not too difficult to remain, as long as you publish new episodes consistently.

Apple’s podcast ranking algorithm uses the speed at which ratings and reviews are submitted as a factor. Encourage your listeners to leave a review when you record your podcasts. One way to ensure listeners leave a review is by running a contest. Ask for a review on iTunes as part of the entry requirement for your giveaway. This does not have to be expensive, the winners could just get a shout-out during your podcast or be a guest speaker.

 

Did these methods work for you? Leave a comment below.