5 Game-Changing Podcast Marketing Strategies

April 7, 2021

Your podcast is your baby and baby deserves nice things.

Like five of the most useful podcast marketing strategies ever. But first, I know what you're wondering...

What is Podcast Marketing?

Podcast marketing refers to the strategies and tactics used to promote and advertise a podcast to attract more listeners and engage the existing audience. Anything you do to bring awareness to your podcast, attract new listeners, and keep those people listening from episode to episode.

The goal of podcast marketing is to effectively communicate the value of the podcast, build a loyal listener base, and ultimately grow the podcast’s influence and success.

Now what are the best podcast marketing strategies? The five most effective podcast marketing strategies are:

Content-Based Networking
Content Splintering
Paid Media
PR (Earned Media)
SEO

Learn what each of the five podcast marketing strategies is, why they work, and how to use them below.

1. Content-Based Networking Podcast Marketing Strategy

First up, content-based networking as a podcast marketing strategy.

Maybe you've heard us talk about it before, but basically, it can be boiled down to starting a podcast to support your ABM campaign.

What is Content-Based Networking?

There's a reason why we all put ourselves through those loathsome networking events -- to meet people.

When you build relationships with influential people in your industry, you're actually filling up your resource tank. That isn't to say that people should be used just for what they can give you.

Content-based networking is actually the exact opposite of that. With CBN, you're offering up the value first. You're not doing another lame sales pitch. You're not asking for their business. You're not begging them to introduce you to their boss.

You're asking them if they'd be interested in being on your podcast. Because, well, they're an expert in what they do.

Simply put, CBN happens when you collaborate with an ideal customer to create valuable content for other practitioners. The content -- in this case, a podcast interview -- is the launchpad for your relationship.

Why it Works

When's the last time you responded to a cold email? A cold call? Exactly.

People hate being sold to, especially when they aren't familiar with the brand. Like I mentioned before, a podcast feeds into your ABM strategy. ABM is all about specifically targeting one account -- warming them up, building a relationship, establishing trust.

[READ: Understand these 3 things before you start a business podcast. Seriously.]

Podcasting is a super effective vehicle for building a trusting relationship with your ideal customers. It's like the Tesla of ABM.

Cold sales pitches are like the Gremlins of ABM -- ugly and relatively inefficient.

How to Use Content-Based Networking

There are three simple steps for leveraging content-based networking.

1. Get clarity around your goal.

What's your goal? Maybe it's to be self-employed, earning $80,000/yr within 18 months. Or maybe you want to land three acting jobs in the next 12 months.

Whatever your goal is, make it SMART -- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. This way, you gain clarity around the actions you take, how to measure your success, whether or not the goal is actually doable, how the goal aligns with bigger life goals, and the time frame.

2. Identify who can help you achieve your goal.

You can proactively and intentionally build the relationships that launch you toward the future you want. But remember: It's up to you to offer something valuable to the other person. And expect nothing in return.

Say your goal is to be self-employed in 18 months, earning $80,000/yr. Who are the people who could help you get there?

Other entrepreneurs in your space
Investors
Potential customers

All of these people have insights and connections that could help you achieve your goal.

3. Create content w/ those people.

Time to ask your ideal relationships to collaborate on content that benefits both of you.

When we ask VPs of Marketing (our ideal customers) to be interviewed on B2B Growth (our podcast), they benefit from...

Exposure to our audience, including potential customers.
Gaining a well-produced piece of content that they can share with their audience, their boss, or the hiring manager of a future job opportunity.
The opportunity to sharpen and hone their thinking around a particular idea.
Being seen as an industry genius.
Exposure to an even wider audience since we repurpose the interview into lots of other content pieces.

We benefit from...

Insightful content that our audience learns from.
The wisdom and experience from our guests.
Building genuine friendships with decision0makers at companies that could possibly buy from us.

Plus, we always end up having fun talking with like-minded people.

It's way better than making awkward small talk with someone who's had too much of the free wine at your local networking event. (Or being the person chugging the free wine as to not seem so awkward.)

2. Content Splintering Podcast Marketing Strategy

Content splintering is one of the most efficient podcast marketing strategies out there with few to no disadvantages.

What is Content Splintering?

Essentially, content splintering happens when one piece of pillar content -- such as a podcast episode -- is repurposed into multiple content assets for a variety of channels.

One interview can generate a raging content waterfall, consisting of...

No matter which channel your brand dominates, there's an opportunity to use content splintering.

Why it Works

Different people consume content in different ways. Some like video, some like reading, some like listening.

By splintering a podcast interview into multiple content pieces, you're covering more bases. You're reaching more people on their preferred turf with the medium they love. Therefore, your brand, services, and industry authority are getting in front of more eyes.

Content splintering has literally zero drawbacks for your podcast marketing strategy.

How to Use Content Splintering

When considering your content splintering strategy, think about your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). What channels do they hang out on? How do they like to take in content?

Answering these questions should help you decide which assets to focus on.

[READ: Make it easier on yourself. Learn how to outline a podcast episode to make content splintering simple.]

Then, batch your content creation. Based on the information from the podcast interview...

Write a blog post
Create several LinkedIn status updates
Make quote graphics with a free service like Canva
Trim the audio to make audiograms
Outline the main points in an email to your contacts

Depending on what your ICP prefers, your content splintering options are endless.

3. Paid Media Podcast Marketing Strategy

Using a paid media strategy is a great way to amplify your podcast's message. Many ad platforms make it easy to target specific audiences.

What is Paid Media?

For the most part, there are three kinds of media:

Paid media
Earned media
Owned media

Paid media is exactly what it sounds like -- you pay for brand exposure.

Podcasters have several good options when it comes to paying for exposure.

Podcast Advertising: What better way to get your show into ears than advertising on another podcast. Advertising on a show that covers similar topics to yours is extremely effective, especially when it's a host-read ad. You might want to team up with a podcast advertising agency in this case.
PPC Retargeting: Facebook and Google (for now) have ad platforms that make it easy to retarget people who have already interacted with your brand in some way. These two media behemoths make it particularly easy to retarget very niche segments.
YouTube Advertising: YouTube -- the second largest search engine -- offers multiple ad formats. Choose from skippable and non-skippable, video discovery ads, overlays, and banners. (Keep in mind that Google, ergo YouTube, is canceling its third-party cookies. This will make it more difficult for advertisers to target audiences.)

Why it Works

Despite the looming cancelation of Google's tracking cookies, paid media is still a sustainable option for podcasters.

As opposed to earned and owned media, paid media are easy to test and optimize. There isn't a ton of work that goes into changing the copy or graphics of an ad.

You can also efficiently test different channels with paid media and act in accordance with the results. Plus, ad platforms allow you to narrow in on your desired audience -- something that's quite difficult with earned and owned media.

[READ/LISTEN: Here's pretty much everything you need to know about PPC advertising as a SaaS company.]

You're essentially paying for the convenience and efficiency when it comes to paid media.

How to Use Paid Media

Creating a paid advertisement for your podcast isn't all that different from writing an article optimized for search engines. It's all about the searcher's intent.

Consider these questions to get into the mindset of your ideal listener/customer:

What is my ideal customer searching for?
Why now?
What are their top goals?
What problems do they need solutions to?
What responsibilities do they have?

The answers to these questions can then be turned into ad copy.

For example, B2B Growth's ideal listener is searching for new ways to market to their target audience. So, one of our ads could read:

Stop annoying your leads.
Learn what they really want.
Listen now.

We'd probably write a few different versions of copy that targets this need and test them against each other. Additionally, you could A/B test various graphics to see what works best for your audience.

Writing for a spoken ad should take the same technique. Get into the buyer's mindset, find the pain points, target a particular problem, and offer a solution. Most podcast advertising agencies will help with the strategy and execution of your ad.

4. PR Podcast Marketing Strategy

Public relations -- also known as earned media -- is valuable to your podcast marketing strategy. But you should know, it takes a little more work than paid media.

What is PR for Podcast Marketing?

PR or earning coverage for your podcast is neither paid for nor owned by your brand. Essentially, earned media is the result of other people plugging your show.

This type of exposure isn't owned by your brand, so it's a little harder to control. There are ways, however, to influence the PR surrounding your show.

Why it Works

PR for podcast marketing works the same as it would for any other product. Earned coverage -- good or bad -- is almost always trusted more by people than owned or paid.

It's the great amount of trust people have in earned media that makes it worth it to include in your podcast marketing strategy.

How to Use PR for Your Podcast

There are a few specific ways you can leverage earned media for your show.

Guesting on other podcasts: Otherwise known as a podcast tour. Getting booked on other shows with similar audiences to yours is a powerful way to earn coverage. This is how you can demonstrate your industry prowess and give a quick plug for your show at the end.

Ask for ratings: Encourage your team, family, and friends to rate your show on Apple Podcasts.

5. SEO Podcast Marketing Strategy

Any good podcast marketing strategy is going to leverage SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The great news is that SEO can help you come up with relevant topics for your show.

What is SEO for Podcast Marketing?

Remember that content waterfall we talked about earlier? Well, planning your episodes -- and, therefore, the following content -- around target keywords is the best way to optimize all of your content for search engines.

Simply put, you can use your target keyword list as a topic idea list for your show.

Why it Works

Including SEO in your podcast marketing plan works for four reasons:

You discuss topics that your audience cares about.
Coming up with topics is easy.
The content based on your interviews is inherently optimized.
You create a rabbit hole of optimized content for your fans to get lost in.

Results are obviously not going to show up as fast as they do with paid media. However, SEO-friendly content outlasts paid media by far.

How to Use SEO for Podcast Marketing

First, you want to do some research to develop a list of keywords related to your show.

B2B Growth covers topics like...

B2B marketing
ABM
Content-based networking
How to podcast
Demand generation
Social media marketing
Marketing and sales alignment

So, we generate episode topics based on those recurring themes. We also find guests who specialize in each particular topic. They offer relevant insights and unique points of view around the topic.

Optimizing for Google

In order to find long-tail keywords that can serve as headlines for our episodes, we use a process called Google Alphabet Soup.

Here's how it works:

This simple yet powerful process produces a 💩 ton of topic ideas.

Setting a topic for each of your interviews puts bumpers on your conversation -- just like the ones you still might use when you're bowling alone.

A focused interview makes for focused content. And, because you prioritized SEO, it's content that your ideal customers care about.

Optimizing for YouTube

Under Google's media umbrella is the second largest search engine in the world: YouTube.

The reason we bring up YouTube is that there's a huge opportunity for your podcast to rank on the video platform. Yes... you'll have to record your interviews. We recommend using Riverside.fm for recording your video calls.

Leveraging SEO at the beginning of your content creation process will also help your YouTube rankings. Keep the headline for each video the same as its corresponding podcast episode.

It also helps to include keywords in the video description and tags. YouTube's (Google's) crawlers will pick up on them.

Other Podcast Marketing Tips and Tricks

Is it just us or do podcast marketing tactics feel like they’re constantly evolving? We’ve covered the foundation, but there are always ways you can go above and beyond to draw in (and keep) more listeners.

Research, flexibility, consistency, along with a number of other factors will give your podcast an extra leg up. Here are a few extra podcast marketing tips and tricks to help give your content the recognition it deserves.

Know Your Audience Inside and Out

Take the time to get to know your audience. This tip may seem elementary but without it you won’t be able to find the golden nugget of what makes your audience tick.

Figure out where your listeners hang out online, what their preferences, behaviors, and habits are. Understand what really resonates with your audience and tailor your podcast marketing efforts accordingly.

Tools like Sparktoro are a great resource for audience research. It helps you understand the demographics of your audience, what platforms they spend the most time on, their interests, and the media they consume– all of which will give you a deeper look into who your audience is and how to turn them into loyal listeners.

Be Flexible

Podcast marketing is a dynamic process, and flexibility is key. Be willing to listen to your audience and learn and adapt as you go along. Paying attention to listener feedback will allow you to fine tune your marketing approach and really hone in on those things that will keep your audience coming back for more.

Create a Long-term Marketing Strategy

While adaptability is vital, having a long-term podcast marketing strategy provides a roadmap for sustained success. Yes, your plans will change and evolve as time goes on, but having clear, established, overhead goals and milestones to work towards will guide you as you build and grow your podcast. Some podcast marketing initiatives require time to yield results, so building a strategy that allows for those long-term ideas to grow will benefit you greatly.

Use Consistent Branding

Consistency is key. Consistency in branding across all platforms is essential for building brand recognition. Your podcast’s visual identity – cover art, website design, and social media accounts – should convey a cohesive message. Consistency fosters familiarity, making it easier for your audience to recognize and associate your content with your podcast

Cover Art: ensure your podcast’s cover art reflects your brand and attracts the attention of potential listeners
Website: maintain a well-designed and user-friendly website that serves as a central hub for your podcast. Provide information, episodes, and opportunities for engagement.
Personal and Podcast Social Media Accounts: use a consistent tone and visual identity across your personal and podcast social media accounts to promote brand recognition.

Post Episodes on a Regular Schedule

Maintaining a consistent and timely posting schedule will help you to become a regular part of your listeners’ routines. Establish a reliable posting schedule and stick to it. It’s all about making your podcast a dependable presence in your listeners’ weekly consumption.

Promote Upcoming Episodes

Generate anticipation and excitement for upcoming episodes by teasing them 24 hours in advance. Give the listeners something to look forward to. Utilize engaging clips and highlight key features – things like special guests or segments – to entice your audience and make them want to hear more. Podcast marketing is all about creating buzz and bringing people to your podcast, so give them a reason to want to listen.

Publish Your Podcast to Every Listening Platform

Make listening to your podcast as easy as you can. Strive to maximize accessibility by publishing your podcast on every major listening platform. Reducing the barriers of entry will ensure that your audience can easily access your content, regardless of their preferred platform. Don’t let something small be the reason someone doesn’t listen to your podcast – convenience is everything.

Podcast Marketing Strategies: The Gist

We covered a lot in this short amount of time. If nothing else, remember these main points:

Stop the cold sales pitches. Ask your ideal buyers to be on your podcast.
Repurpose your interviews into other valuable content assets.
Don't sleep on paid media. Keep testing and keep optimizing.
Get on other shows to increase your podcast's exposure.
Prioritize SEO for podcasting.

Level Up your B2B Podcast Marketing

Have (or want) a B2B podcast? Ready to elevate it? Learn why your company needs a media brand and how Sweet Fish will take your podcast and B2B marketing to the next level.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How can I promote a podcast?

Utilizing a mix of content-based networking, content splintering, paid media, PR (earned media), and SEO will help you promote your podcast.

Are podcasts good marketing tools?

Podcasts are great marketing tools, especially in the B2B world. They’ll position you to build brand affinity through thought leadership instead of being a thinly veiled sales pitch.

How can I promote my podcast for free?

You can promote your podcast for free on social media, by doing podcast swaps, and through earned media.

Where is the best place to promote my podcast?

The best place to promote your podcast depends on where your audience spends their time. Take the time to learn about the platforms popular with your audience and what kind of messaging resonates with them the most.