As this blog grows, I’ve been getting a few questions about growing a podcast, since revealing that I’ve gotten my show to its first 7.5k downloads.
One of the most frequent questions has been “How do I get listeners?”
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how you can get listeners. I can only tell you how I’ve gotten listeners. Hopefully, some of my actionable tips will help you as you grow and monetize your podcast.
Your topic effects your marketing.
You might not like to hear this, but a lot of the products, shows, or internet personalities that seem like they were super good at marketing actually had a marketing mechanism built into their end product.
What do I mean by that?
Let’s take Andrew Warner, Tim Ferriss or even Howard Stern as examples. While it’s true that they do have some marketing clout on their own, they’ve been able to successfully leverage the influence of their guests to fuel the growth of their podcast or audio show.
When an episode went live, they wouldn’t solely have to rely on their own marketing platform. Their guests would also share it with their followers, potentially doubling the listenership.
This might seem like a trivial distinction, but the niche that you’re going after and the type of content that you intend to produce as a podcast (entertaining, informational, news) will impact how it will be shared on the web and the best way to go about marketing it.
Let’s take blog articles for example. It’s highly unlikely that you, no matter how much you like this content, are going to share it with all of your friends on Facebook. Why? Most of them aren’t into podcasts!
You are far more likely to subscribe to this blog to continue learning about podcasting and email an article to a friend than you are to spread the word through Facebook to all of your friends.
But, if you were reading an article on Buzzfeed like “25 adorable puppies,” or “23 things that happen when you date someone in IT,” you are more inclined to share this with your friends.
Take a second to think about who cares about this type of content that you’ll be producing and how people discover that content already.
Go through this checklist when narrowing down a topic that you are going to start a show around.
- Who cares about this topic and where do they share their opinion?
- How to people discover existing content on this topic?
- Are you actually passionate about it? Can you talk about it consistently for a year?
- Why are people listening? To be educated, entertained, amused, or informed?
- How can you spice up the show with multiple guests?
I chose the crowdfunding education niche, because I already have a blog based around that topic. I understand the audience, am passionate about the topic, and have lots of contacts.
The goal is not to build up the show’s downloads to where it can attract serious advertising. It’s to develop a deeper relationship with my existing readers.
P.S. I highly recommend listening to this podcast on building an audience from scratch.
Choose your marketing platform
I think that people always try to make this step overly complex. The question you need to answer is: Where does your target audience hang out?
Do they already listen to podcasts?
Are they always on twitter, sharing updates and following interesting people?
Do they interact and share a lot on Facebook?
Are they Instagram lovers? Maybe they spend a lot of time on Snapchat?
They might spend a lot of time just googling new and interesting comedians?
Unfortunately, you can’t expect your target listeners to come to you. You have to go to them and the platforms they use.
I’ve put together a list of some of the podcast-centric audiences out there. You need to put together one that details the websites, platforms, and groups that your audience frequents!
My marketing platform is my blog’s email list, social media accounts, and blog posts.
Nail down your call to action
In the last article, we talked about some ideas for marketing your podcast. If you keep at it, measure your efforts, and are willing to embrace a little trial and error, you’re going to eventually begin to see more listeners discovering your show online or through word of mouth.
Now, the question becomes how do you retain them?
It’s true, you could leave it up to them to subscribe to the show via iTunes, but you never want to rely on an external marketplace or device in the long run.
Depending on which network your audience uses most, I’d recommend asking them to connect with you there and to visit your website (your central hub), where they can subscribe to your email list for free goodies.
No matter how much your listeners might like you or your show, always give them an incentive to take the time out of their day and perform that action (Example: exclusive content, free ebook, etc).
Mastering the podcasting marketplace.
For you, this could mean iTunes, Stitcher, or another marketplace of listeners and podcasters. I’m just going to cover iTunes.
There are five holy grails that you need to be aware of when it comes to iTunes.
1. The new and noteworthy section
The first eight weeks of your show’s launch are crucial! This is when you can rank in the new and noteworthy section and get access to existing iTunes podcast listeners.
I found this blog post to be helpful when learning about how to rank well the moment that you launch your show. Your best chance for success is to get as many downloads and ratings as possible in a short duration (not over a long duration).
2. Ratings, subscribers, and downloads.
Ratings, subscribers, and downloads are metrics that the iTunes marketplace uses to calculate how you will rank in the algorithm that determines search result placement in your category and for given keywords.
I would switch up your call to actions each episode and divide them between mentioning your website/social media profile and encouraging your listeners to rate or subscribe to your podcast.
3. Show keywords.
Although iTunes is a marketplace, it also functions as a search engine. Unless you have specific keywords in your show’s title and episode title or description, it’s highly unlikely that visitors are going to find your podcast when they type in the keyword. You can customize these items to optimize your keyword search results:
- Podcast Show Title
- Publisher or Podcaster’s Name
- Show Description
- Episode Title
- Episode Description
4. Good cover art.
I don’t care what anyone says. People do just a book by its cover.
Your cover image is a chance to convey what your podcast is about and who you are. Don’t waste the opportunity with a mediocre image!
Take a few minutes to browse some of the shows in your category. Are your eyes gravitating to their titles or their cover images? What do you notice first when you look at their cover image?
If every cover image in your category looks the same, you can use that as an opportunity to stand out! BuzzSprout has put together a few ways that you can stand out with your cover art.
5. Quality Content
Finally, quality content is the only way that you’re going to master any marketplace longterm. It’s simple. You need to have great content, or your podcast isn’t going to be sticky. People aren’t going to hang around.
This doesn’t just mean that you need to have a good microphone. It also means that you need to get interesting, entertaining, and informative insights out of the guests on your show!
Don’t be worried if your content isn’t all that great at first. It takes time to get good at a skill. I’ve gotten feedback that the quality of my episodes have improved over time. I’ve certainly learned a lot since my very first episode.
Be willing to go through a trial and error period.
You must be willing to conduct trial and error learning.
You may learn that the majority of your target audience doesn’t know what a podcast is and you need to capture their attention first, with a blog or Facebook ads which get them on an email list.
You might figure out that Twitter is your best marketing platform, not any of the others that I’ve mentioned.
Eventually, you’ll find your groove. You may have to change up the show’s format, change the category, or the ultimate goal, but if you keep at it consistently, you are far more likely to succeed.
