20 Podcast Marketing Best Practices You Can't Ignore

April 27, 2021

There are fluffy podcast marketing practices that you can live without. And then there are podcast marketing best practices that are so fundamental to your show's success they can't be ignored.

In this article, you will find 20 of the latter (with examples).

What are the best practices for podcast marketing? Podcast marketing best practices include...

Podcast Marketing Best Practices

The following 20 podcast marketing best practices are the exact ones we use to drive revenue with B2B Growth. They're tried, true, and unignorable as long as you want people to hear your podcast.

1. Make a Podcast Marketing Plan

The first and maybe most important podcast marketing best practice is to create a plan. It should be a playbook consisting of everything you use to promote your show.

Essentially, your podcast marketing plan outlines the processes, people, and platforms that are necessary for expanding your show's reach.

2. Be Strategic w/ the Name of Your Podcast

Your podcast's name can literally make or break your show. It's one of the most influential components for marketing your podcast.

Naming your podcast after yourself or your company isn't going to attract your ideal listener. Think about it: If a veterinary office named its podcast after itself -- The City Vet Show -- it may attract other vets but not the ideal customer.

On the other hand, if the vet's office named their show The Happy Healthy Pet, pet owners -- aka, ideal customers -- will want to listen.

That's why we named our flagship podcast B2B Growth and not The Sweet Fish Show. We want B2B marketing and sales pros to listen to our podcast because that's who we sell our services to.

Plus, when you focus your podcast around your customers' interests and expertise, you can invite them to be on the show. Now, you're building close relationships with your ideal customers via content creation.

3. Identify Your Target Audience

You'd be surprised at how many podcasters fail to accurately identify their target audience. (It's another reason why a lot of shows have dumb names.)

To identify your target audience, consider...

Demographics (gender, age, geographic location, education, profession)
Psychographics (personality, lifestyle, interests, opinions, values)
Firmographics (an organization's location, number of customers, industry, revenue, etc.)

Once you know the type of individual and organization you're targeting, mold the information into an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) or buyer persona. This fictitious entity should be the culmination of all of your ideal customer traits.

In most cases, your podcast's target audience doesn't differ much -- if at all -- from your organization's target audience. See the podcast as another pillar supporting your overall marketing strategy.

4. Design Eye-Catching Cover Art

The fourth podcast marketing best practice is to create scroll-stopping cover art.

Your podcast's cover art -- sometimes referred to as its logo -- is the user's first impression of your show. Forget everything your mother told you about not judging a book by its cover. To successfully market your podcast, the cover art's gotta be on point.

Cover art sets the whole mood of the show. Here are some examples:

Mood: fun, informative, non-corporate, energizing

Mood: analytical, straight-forward, technology-driven, professional

Mood: whimsical, inspiring, informative, exploratory

Cover art is the face of your podcast. Be sure it's making a good impression.

5. Use a Modern Hosting Service

As in a website that hosts your podcast -- not the human host of the show.

A modern podcast hosting service should offer the following:

A sleek, embeddable podcast player
Your podcast's own page on the host's site
Web pages for each of your episodes
Analytics

Our team has fallen in love with Sounder.fm for its intuitive UX and smart design.

Other podcast hosting sites include Castos, Anchor, and Blubrry.

6. Create a Dedicated Podcast Page

In order for your podcast to be easily found, it should have one of three things:

A dedicated page on your company's existing website.
A dedicated page on your existing content website.
A website dedicated to your podcast.

Having a page or website devoted to your podcast powers your SEO efforts and makes your show easier for listeners to find.

Whichever option you choose, make sure to create separate pages for each of your episodes, too.

7. Release Episodes Regularly

One thing that's bound to turn your listeners away is an irregular publishing cadence. Your fans want to know that they can depend on a new episode every month, every week, or every day.

For example, B2B Growth releases a new episode every day. Our listeners have come to expect it and if we miss a day, there could be a small mutiny on our hands.

[READ: Unsure of how successful your podcast is? Here are 4 frameworks to find ROI.]

8. Splinter Your Content

The next podcast marketing best practice involves repurposing your interviews into insightful, shareable pieces -- aka, content splintering.

One podcast interview can be turned into...

By splintering your podcast content, you're creating opportunities to reach more people in their preferred channel.

9. Make Guest-Sharing Easy

No, we're not suggesting you pass your guests around like a seven-layer bean dip at a family reunion.

We're suggesting that you make content super easy for guests to share on their social feeds. As crazy as it sounds, some guests aren't motivated to share their finished episode with their followers. They just need a lil' push.

That's where you come in with a micro-video or carousel that makes the guest look super smart. Or, you create a snappy episode graphic, highlighting the guest, maybe featuring a good quote from them.

The possibilities are endless. One simple scan of their social feed and you can whip up something tailored to what the guest likes to post -- videos, GIFs, graphics, text-only posts, etc.

10. Promote Within Your Best Channels

Already a blogging behemoth? A webinar wizard? A tweeting titan? Best practices say to promote your podcast within your strongest existing channels.

Keep in mind, you don't want to be too pitchy. Offer some actual value that people can expect to glean from your show. Give out a few actionable tips -- make them come back for more.

11. Tie It Into Your ABM Campaign

Your podcast and ABM campaign strategy don't have to be exclusive. In fact, we suggest using your podcast to support your ABM campaign.

ABM is inherently a 1:1 approach. Getting just one target account to engage with your content is a big win. If you were to ask a handful of decision-makers from your target accounts to be on your show, you're bound to get a few confirmations.

That's the beginning of your relationship with an ideal buyer -- your podcast. Making content together is perhaps the most effective way of kicking off a trusting relationship.

Psst. Need more proof that podcasting for ABM works? Sweet Fish has driven $3m in revenue with our ABM + podcasting strategy. Carry on.

12. Leverage LinkedIn

We've been doing podcast marketing for a long time now and the #1 social platform for promoting a business podcast is LinkedIn. Without a doubt.

Even if you haven't been active on LinkedIn since that one obscure college course, there's still plenty of opportunities to get back into it. The best way is to start posting consistently (at least 3x per week).

When you're promoting your podcast on LinkedIn, you don't want to be too... promotional. Instead, use insights or advice from your guest. Make the focus of your post the value, not your show.

In this 👆 post, Ethan...

Leads with a hook
Gives value from the guest in the form of a 4-step process
Directs the reader to the micro-video and podcast link below

Be like Ethan.

13. Use Email

Email shouldn't be ignored in any kind of marketing campaign. Especially when your podcast makes it super easy to repurpose expert insights in the form of electronic mail.

Just like with LinkedIn posts, your emails shouldn't be salesy or pitchy. They should offer actionable advice along with links for people to learn more.

14. Customize Your Team's Email Signatures

Yes, podcast marketing can be as simple as including a link to your show in everyone's email signatures.

A small lift for big impact.

15. Cross-Promote w/ Other Hosts

Podcast hosts love interviewing other hosts. You're able to articulate your message, you know how the process works, you're more comfortable on the mic, and your recording gear is normally top-shelf.

Reach out to hosts of podcasts similar to yours to see if they'd be up for swapping interviews. This way, you load up your guest queue with subject matter experts and you get exposure to more of your ideal listeners.

16. Get Ratings on Apple Podcasts

Our next podcast marketing best practice is to encourage those Apple Podcast ratings.

Receiving good ratings for your show on Apple Podcasts increases your chances of being found on the platform. Plus, the more ratings you get, the more credible your podcast looks.

So, encourage your team, friends, and family to leave a rating for your show.

17. Prioritize Syndication

There are a ton of podcast-playing platforms out there. Luckily, you really only need to focus on syndicating to the big four right now.

Apple Podcasts: The word “podcast” was coined by Apple when iPods were still around. They still hold the largest audience base of podcast subscribers.

Google Podcasts: Google’s the new kid on the block. For the longest time, you needed a third-party app to subscribe to podcasts on Android devices. Since Google controls search, their podcast platform should be on your list.

Spotify: Spotify has been spending a lot of time and money breaking into the podcast arena lately and is gaining traction with younger audiences.

Stitcher: This app used to be the best way to subscribe to podcasts on Android devices. For this reason, it still has a considerable audience.

18. Write Blog Posts

Like we covered earlier, splintering your podcast interviews into other forms of content is too opportunistic to pass up.

When you hone one long-tail keyword per interview, it sets you up for a smash-up blog post that Google and readers alike drool over. Not to mention that all of those unique insights from the guest are just dying to be written down.

19. Interview Practitioners

Yeah, everybody and their grandmother wants GaryVee on their B2B podcast.

News flash: Anybody can find GaryVee content anywhere. It's the episodes with exclusive perspectives from real-life practitioners that get the most downloads.

No joke. People want to hear insights and advice from people like them.

What's more? Practitioners are more likely to share their episodes than the GaryVees of the world. Why would GaryVee feel motivated to share your content? He's already made it to the top.

Interviewing real-life practitioners equals more relatable content being shared with more audiences like yours. Can't get much better marketing than that!

20. Track Your Progress

What's all this for if you're not measuring the effects?

Our last podcast marketing best practice is to track your show's progress. There are four frameworks you can use to do this:

How many guests have become customers? How many guests are now in your sales pipeline? If the time and money you're spending on production are less than the revenue you're generating from guests-turned-customers, you're on the right track.
Are your show's downloads on an up-and-right trend? Look at them over time. If they're not increasing over time, you might consider adjusting your approach.
How does podcasting measure up to your other marketing channels? Compare your show's benchmarks to those of your other top channels like email and social media.
How do your podcast's benchmarks measure up to other shows'? This framework is the least reliable of the four, but still notable. Try using a podcast analytics report like Chartable's. They collect data on billions of downloads.

These four frameworks should help you determine whether your podcast marketing efforts are paying off or if they need some adjustments.

The Gist About Podcast Marketing

While executing podcast marketing tactics is absolutely necessary for your show's success, don't get caught up in the stuff that doesn't serve you.

Our team has found that these 20 podcast marketing best practices work really well for our shows. You might have different goals, though.

We suggest trying out these best practices, but in the end, fill up your podcast marketing plan with what works for you.

Get even more podcast marketing tips by subscribing to B2B Growth on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts