With at least half of Americans between the ages of 12 and 34 having listened to a podcast within the past month, podcasting offers a modern opportunity for companies to connect with customers and promote their business. And with at least 2.5 million podcasts available in Apple’s directory alone, there are plenty of choices for listeners. For companies thinking about launching their own podcast, there is a clear opportunity to showcase their brand to a new audience segment.
That being said…with over two and a half million podcasts already out there, does anyone really need another? They might! If you can find something new and compelling to say, you can showcase and grow your brand, potentially offering a new strategy to compete within your market. And once you’ve made your podcast dream a reality, through the right podcast promotion techniques you can attract and engage an ideal audience.
Whether you came to this blog because you’re interested in a podcast marketing platform or you’re just wondering about the best social media to promote podcast episodes, keep reading for some compelling ideas for how to get started.
What Are Some Creative Ways to Promote a Podcast?
There are countless ways to promote a podcast, so we’ll organize them into three categories:
- Planning and launching your podcast
- Promoting your podcast to increase listeners
- Cultivating loyalty among listeners
Planning and Launching Your Podcast
To get your new podcast out there and noticed, you’ll need to start by developing a podcast launch plan. This includes pre-launch steps as well as the podcast launch announcement. Next, we’ll cover a few tips around how to launch a successful podcast.
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- Before your podcast launches, you should ensure there will be a market for it. Before you start recording, you should answer questions such as:
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- What will the podcast be about, and how broad or narrow will its focus be?
- What kind of general tone or perspective will fit the content best? For example, will it be conversational or more thought leadership-driven?
- Who will host the podcast, and will there be guests?
- How long will each podcast episode be, and how often will you release new episodes?
- How will you promote the podcast and inspire listeners to discuss or otherwise engage with it?
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- When you’re ready to launch your podcast’s initial episode, your podcast launch plan will center around the logistics of getting your episode out there and noticed by your target audience. Let audience research help guide your planning by considering:
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- How much — or how little — your target audience knows about your podcasts’ topics and themes.
- How familiar your listeners might be with your company, its mission, and its product/service offerings.
- The main priorities that drive your target audience’s buying decisions, including the key decision makers you’ll need to influence.
- The best social media channels to promote your podcast on, based on where your listeners are.
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Promoting Your Podcast to Increase Listeners
If there’s one question most beginning podcasters will inevitably ask, it’s “How do I attract more listeners to my podcast?” When it comes to how to get more podcast listeners, there is no one perfect answer — but the question is still absolutely valid.
Some general tips for growing your audience include:
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- Attract listeners by:
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- Producing and promoting episodes centered around attention-catching topics.
- Scheduling compelling guest speakers for occasional episodes.
- Making sure your podcast is well-produced from a technical/audio quality standpoint.
- Hitting social media channels with your launch announcement, as well as when new episodes are published.
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- Engage listeners by:
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- Promoting each episode on various social media platforms.
- Providing opportunities for listeners to interact with your brand on social media. (For example, you might prompt them to comment in response to an opinion poll before listening to a related podcast episode.)
- Encouraging listeners to share their favorite episodes or excerpts with colleagues and/or to their larger social or professional network.
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What Are 5 Ways to Promote a Podcast on Social Media?
The best way to promote a podcast on social media is to be mindful of not only which channels you choose for promotion, but how you tailor your message to each platforms’ key audience.
Here are the top five examples of where — and how — to promote your podcast on social media:
- Facebook’s nearly 3 billion monthly users span a wide range of interests. To best promote your podcast on Facebook, first study how your potential customers use the platform and then tailor your messages accordingly. Know that Facebook users are increasingly wary of misinformation, so be careful about making any claims that sound too good to be true. Rather than making this type of claim, demonstrate an understanding of your audience and their pain points when crafting your messages.
- Attract the 2.5 billion monthly users on YouTube’s platform by producing short, attention-grabbing videos. When viewers can see someone speaking on behalf of the company, it puts a face to the organization, which makes it easier for the audience to relate with and trust you. If you’re doing a video podcast, you could post short clips of key moments from the latest episode, like a teaser.
- Instagram’s 2 billion monthly users are drawn to the platform for its dynamic, visual content. You can post quick clips or infographics to generate interest, prompt conversation, and bring new listeners to your podcast.
- The newest of the top five social media platforms for podcast promotion, TikTok, has just over 1 billion monthly users. TikTok videos are generally quite brief, so it’s the best platform for short, punchy introductions to (or key moments from) recent episodes.
- As the LinkedIn user base steadily grows closer to 1 billion monthly users, the platform continues to be among the most trusted digital spaces for business professionals. When promoting a podcast on LinkedIn, you’ll want to appeal to the business-savvy by connecting episodes’ themes and topics to real, quantifiable business challenges or pain points.
Cultivating Loyalty Among Your Listeners
Gaining new listeners — and getting them to listen to your first podcast episode — is an excellent milestone, but cultivating loyalty among your listeners is the best strategy for promoting your podcast and growing its audience.
The top strategy for cultivating — and growing — your audience is to create consistently fresh, valuable content. Great content not only influences your listeners to become potential buyers, but it positions your organization as a reputable authority within its industry. Over time, as listeners engage with your podcast and discuss it on your social media sites, you can expect to gain new listeners.
Measuring and Improving Podcast Promotion with Casted
By this point, your head might be swimming a little bit. We’ve tried to answer some common questions about podcast promotion but probably raised some new ones as well. At the end of the day, what you really want to know is:
Are people listening — and do they care?
That’s where a podcast marketing platform like Casted can make all the difference in the world. It provides the insights you need to gauge your podcast and related marketing efforts’ ROI so you can use your resources wisely. Our platform makes it easy to better understand your audience, including their preferences, listening habits, and more — so you can develop the best podcast marketing strategy possible.
In addition to top-level metrics like overall listener numbers, episode downloads, and time spent listening to your podcasts, you can also drill down into more specific information like:
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- What portion of your listenership is new listeners vs. repeat listeners.
- How many likes or downloads your podcast episodes receive.
- How frequently your listeners share or discuss your podcast on social media.
Knowledge is power! By providing these insights and more within an intuitive, user-friendly interface, Casted empowers organizations to understand and connect with their audience like never before. Learn more about our one-of-a-kind amplified marketing platform, download our guide to getting to know your audience today, or reach out to schedule a demo to see the platform in action!
