How to Promote a Podcast: Our Top 10 Tips
If it seems like everyone has a podcast these days, you aren’t entirely wrong for thinking that. In 2024, there are about three million podcasts out there. There’s a reason for that: podcasts are an excellent way to reach audiences and build real connections with potential customers. It’s a great way to build a true thought leadership platform.
However, your podcast might get lost in the weeds if you’re not actively promoting it. The trick is knowing how to promote your podcast. Read on to learn the best strategies for promoting your podcast and building a real audience.
Importance of Podcast Promotion
Podcasting is a huge industry. In fact, the global market is expected to grow to $130.63 billion by 2030. It’s also estimated that 464.7 million people listen to podcasts of some kind. Basically, all those numbers mean that podcasts are poised to keep expanding and reach millions of listeners around the world. On top of that, if you’re looking to expand your thought leadership efforts, a podcast is a great way to do so. It is a platform for discussing groundbreaking ideas and new insights.
That’s why podcasts are so valuable for B2B companies. You’re able to showcase your unique expertise and build an interested audience. Plus people generally love podcasts and get really invested quickly.
However, people won’t listen to podcasts that they don’t know about. In order to get listeners and build connections, you need to get your podcast to the people who want it. That requires active promotion. Don’t know what to do to make that happen? Then you’re in the right place.
Best Strategies on How to Promote a Podcast
Let’s dive into some of the best ways to amplify your podcast and get it to the people who are going to love listening.
Choose a Niche Topic to Target Your Audience
With over three million podcasts in the world, there’s probably something covering most topics. Instead of trying to compete with seven other podcasts on a topic, come up with a niche topic that your audience will love. Basically, create something unique that people can’t find anywhere else.
For example, consider a finance company that’s considering making a new podcast. They could obviously talk about their business or general finance tips. But people could get that kind of content elsewhere. Instead, they might create a podcast specifically about monthly budgets. That more niche topic would help draw people to the podcast and provide them with specific guidance they can’t get from another podcast.
One tip is also to choose a topic you love. Being passionate about the topic you choose will make the entire podcast feel genuine and exciting. Plus you’ll be excited to record episodes and work with the content repeatedly!
Record Podcast Videos
Podcasts aren’t limited to audio only, in fact introducing podcast video offers some effective promotional opportunities. And no, your recording doesn’t need to be anything fancy. Even simple video allows you to promote your content on different platforms.
You’ll be able to put the videos up on YouTube or repurpose footage in small clips across all socials. That increases the places where your content can show up in people’s feeds. YouTube videos, however, are only the beginning of additional content pieces you can create.
Create Multiple Pieces of Content From Your Podcast
Transforming your podcast into different formats and multiple content pieces is a great way to promote your podcast. That expands your reach and lets you promote your content on a variety of platforms. Promoting all of these other pieces of content will amplify your efforts everywhere.
Let’s look at three more ideas for creating multiple pieces of content:
Create Blogs From Your Transcripts
Keeping your blog updated and putting out regular content is important. Why not use your podcast to create website content too? It helps you reach new audiences and reach people who either can’t or aren’t interested in listening to your podcast. Here are a few tips to make blogs from your podcasts:
- Transcribe your podcasts first. Transcriptions help people access your content in general, which is always a good thing. In addition, it’ll make turning podcasts into blogs so much easier. You’ve already got all the content written down, and now you can shape it into interesting blog posts people might want to read.
- Target each blog for one keyword. Each blog post should be oriented toward one SEO keyword you want to rank for. That helps keep each one narrow and increases the chance you’ll rank.
- Promote the blog too. Active promotion of the blog also amplifies your efforts for promoting the podcast. You’re likely to get more traction.
Micro-videos
A micro-video is a video between six seconds to 30 seconds. It can be put up on social media or used as an advertisement of some kind. They’re a great way to make a YouTube short or a quick Instagram reel. They’re easily shareable and digestible. The trick is to pick just one insight from the podcast per micro-video. Try to pick a quick segment that will pique people’s interest in listening to the entire episode.
Send Out Newsletters
A regular email newsletter is a great way to build your audience in general. But it’s also a way you can get the world out about your podcast. Let your loyal subscribers know that you have an additional way for them to get content. They’ll probably dive right into the episodes.
You can also use your newsletters as a way to get people interested in your podcast by teasing some insights. Give them a really interesting tidbit and then invite them to learn more about the topic and get more information from the full podcast episode. If you got them hooked in the newsletter, there’s a good chance they’ll give your podcast a shot.
Release Three Episodes on Launch Day
You want to get people instantly invested in your new podcast. One way to do that is to prep before you launch and create three full episodes. This tactic gives you more content to work with (which you can turn into blogs, videos, and newsletter insights). And it gives your brand new audience a few episodes to get hooked.
Here’s how that might work. Someone listens to your first episode and enjoys it enough, so they listen to another. After the third episode, they are going to be interested in the series as a whole and wait for you to release more content.
The three videos also show these new listeners that you’re serious about your podcast. It’s not just a one-off event. You’ve already put a lot of time and effort into creating a new show, so you’re likely to follow through and keep delivering.
Optimize Keywords and Podcast Lengths
Podcasts can be found through Google like any other type of content. Really. Someone can look something up and get your podcast page. If your podcast targets a keyword and ranks, you’ll show up on the first page of Google. That can bring new people to your series and build your audience.
Just like you optimize your SEO techniques for written content, you can apply the same tactics to your podcasts. Here are few tips:
- Find keywords related to your topic. Think of related topics and determine if they’re something people look up. You might use Google Trends to help you find some insights.
- Include the keyword in the title tag. Then put the keyword into the title tag and meta description to help it be searchable on Google.
On top of the keywords, think about the length of your podcast. That can help you rank too. Pew Research has reported that 54% of podcasts are about 20 to 50 minutes long. That’s a good rule of thumb to help you begin optimizing length, but you’ll also want to consider the genre of your podcast and adjust the length if needed. For example, news companies might only need 15 minutes while a multi-guest interview series would need a full hour.
Think about what length would best meet your listeners’ needs.
Here we break down average podcast length by episode type.
Promote Feedback and Reviews
One of the most powerful promotion tools is listener reviews. Getting that feedback has the potential to skyrocket your promotion efforts in a short period of time. For example, if you get a high number of positive reviews in the first eight weeks, you’ll get featured in Apple Podcasts’ New & Noteworthy section. That’s fantastic publicity! Other platforms have similar promotion tactics for podcasts that get good reviews.
Google also considers your reviews with rankings, so getting positive feedback from your audience can help you rank higher. Basically, the more great reviews you have, the more likely you’ll show up when someone searches for the keyword.
A great way to get these reviews is to end each podcast episode with a CTA to encourage people to leave a review if they enjoyed the podcast. Most podcasts do this, and they do it because it can be highly effective. Some people don’t know that a quick review has that much power. Letting them know it’s the best way to support you can encourage them to leave you a good review.
Work With Other Podcasters to Cross Promote
Podcasters are often happy to tell their listeners about your podcast. If you’re a regular podcast listener, you’ve likely heard someone do this. They’ll take a second before the episode to mention a new podcast they’ve heard that the audience might love. That can encourage the loyal listeners of that podcast to try yours.
The key is to build relationships with other podcasters, so they’re interested in helping you promote your content. You can offer to do the same for other podcasters and create a network of cross-promotion.
Host a Giveaway or Contest For Your Listeners
A quick way to get people involved in your podcast community is to create a sense of excitement with a contest. You might give away a product or service or give them access to something exciting. You could collaborate with other companies for a prize. A giveaway is something that you can also post on social media and your website—which could bring people to your podcast to learn more.
Consider Paid Advertising
Although podcasts qualify as owned media, paying to promote them is a good way to get in front of more listeners. Consider investing a little cash into your advertising budget to promote your show. Platforms to consider advertising your show on include:
- Meta (Facebook & Instagram)
- Podcast app
Go On a Podcast Tour
Once you’ve built some type of audience, it might be time to promote your podcast by taking it on the road. A podcast tour involves going around and holding a live version of your podcast. Your listeners will gather in the venue to listen to you discuss topics live, and you have a chance to interact with them. You might even save exclusive material for the live shows to encourage your listeners to attend.
You don’t have to have a huge audience to start a podcast tour. Small venues can be affordable to rent for a night, and it’s a way to generate some buzz about your content.
The B2B Podcasting Experts
If you are looking to promote (or launch) a B2B podcast, you’re in the right place. At Sweet Fish, we pride ourselves on helping B2B brands turn their podcasts into demand-gen machines.
How? Beyond our white-glove podcast production services, we repurpose and distribute your content with an omnichannel approach for maximized reach and promotion- this strategy is also referred to as a media brand.
Interested in learning about how to get your B2B podcast off the ground and experience success? Learn more about the top services your podcasting agency should offer you for the best results.