In the last couple of years, there has been an increase in podcast viewers as well as the people who make them. As of 2022, there are over 2 million podcasts in the world, which is an increase of over 2000% in the past ten years. To put it simply, an increase in podcasters means an even higher increase in podcast watchers.
Even though these numbers might sound attractive to someone interested in starting a podcast, you will need as many tools at your disposal to beat your competitors. No matter if you are someone new to podcasting, or if you have been some time in the industry, the tips mentioned below will have a positive impact on increasing your podcast audience.
1. Social media promotion
Just like in every industry there is, creating social media accounts or pages is the first step to promoting yourself online. With more than half of the world being on social media, you will have a significant disadvantage if you don’t promote your podcast through social media.
However, before creating your social media accounts, you will need to research your audience. For example, there is a significant difference between people using TikTok and people using Facebook, the most important difference being the age group.
So if your podcast is something that would interest younger audiences, you wouldn’t make a mistake by investing in a TikTok marketing campaign. On the other hand, if your podcast is talking about a specific hobby or a field, it would be best to promote it on related groups on Reddit and Facebook.
After choosing your social media platform, or platforms for your podcast, it’s best to plan your posts. Start by announcing your future guests as soon as you confirm them. By mentioning your newest podcast episode through a text or a snippet of the video, you are sparking an interest in your followers and reminding your audience to take a look at your podcast.
YouTube and Instagram made it easier for content creators to market themselves by using Youtube’s Shorts and Instagram’s Reels. These features allow you to publish short videos of your podcast on these platforms, and the algorithm will deliver them to people potentially interested in them.
2. Transcribe audio to text
Many podcasters have been using partial transcriptions of their podcasts to promote themselves through social media, and it is becoming a trend. There are a variety of advantages to transcribing audio to text, and they will all potentially lead to an increase in your audience.
There are mainly two ways to transcribe audio to text, the one being by hiring someone to write the transcription manually, while the other one is by using software to do it. Although many people are worried about whether transcription software is as precise as someone manually doing it, you will be amazed by how this technology has advanced.
Depending on the platform that you are using for your podcast, you can leave a partial or complete transcription in the description of your video, or publish it as a separate article. Transcriptions allow people to find your podcast through search engines, making them a perfect way to build backlinks to your website.
A transcription will also make your podcast seem a bit more professional if you are talking about serious subjects. People will be able to cite your podcast on the internet, or even in academic papers. Through people quoting your podcast, you will also get promoted and receive new followers.
As mentioned in the headline above, social media is an important medium for promoting your podcast. By having a transcription you can easily pick out the most interesting parts of the podcast and create posts for social media by using them as the description.
Transcriptions are also a great way to increase the accessibility of your podcast, there is a worrying number of people that have trouble hearing. So by allowing groups of people that otherwise couldn’t listen to your podcast, whether that is a hearing disability, attention disorder, or if they are non-native speakers to enjoy your content, you are increasing their satisfaction.
Even though English is the most common language online, many of those using it aren’t native speakers. Transcription will allow you to translate your podcast much faster, in the form of captions, or by simply translating the transcription, and help you reach a wider audience.
3. Use email marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest ways of doing marketing on the internet, and it has one of the biggest returns on investment. Just like with social media, email marketing will help you remind your followers that they should take a look at your content.
By implementing some kind of newsletter, your audience will be noticed every time when there is a new episode of your podcast. Although people that are truly interested in your content won’t be bothered over the quality of your email, it’s nonetheless important to optimize your email marketing campaign in a way that will maximize the chances of your followers opening the email and taking action.
Building an email list won’t be easy, but it’s one of the best ways to notify your followers about your content. It’s also important to include an unsubscribe button in your emails so that those uninterested can simply stop receiving the email. This might decrease the number of your followers, but annoying people with content that doesn’t interest them isn’t the best way to promote yourself.
Emails are a great place to insert your social media links and whatever you might consider useful for your followers. Social media buttons will help them share your content much faster and easier. Not only that emails are a more personal way of communicating with your audience, but they will also help you increase your followers on other platforms.
4. Be a guest on other podcasts
Guests are a great way to build your reputation and your brand. Each podcast will lead to an exchange of followers between the host and the guest. Depending on the type of audience and the content that you are creating, there is a possibility that your following will skyrocket.
By being a guest on other podcasts, you are going to be heard by people that didn’t have an opportunity to learn about you before. You probably won’t be able to be a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience at first, but by strategically guesting on podcasts that are related to your own, you will slowly start to attract new followers and grow.
To plan out this marketing strategy, you will first need to do research on the shows that might be interested in having you as a guest. Finding podcasts in your category is made easier by filters on podcast platforms such as iTunes, but there are also a ton of people that compile lists of podcasts for specific niches.
Building a list of podcasts to contact might take some time, but it’s one of the best ways to attract new fans. You should rank the podcast on your list by their quality and find the ones that are in your “follower range” or slightly above.
After building a list, it’s important to write a guest pitch that will spark an interest in the host that you reached out to. You should do research on the host, and watch at least a couple of episodes before you consider reaching out to him so that you will understand the format of the show and the fanbase.
Through guesting on other podcasts, there is a great chance that your popularity will snowball and that you will be called on more and more podcasts, as someone who is sought-after.
5. Run giveaways
Running giveaways are a common way for influencers and streamers to attract new audiences. You can use platforms such as Gleam to guarantee that the participants did the steps that you want them to, or you can do this process manually.
Common tasks for giveaways are asking your followers to share the giveaway post on their Facebook or Twitter, join your community, or perform other specific tasks. In the field of podcasting, it’s useful to ask your fans to rate your podcast. Higher ratings will help the algorithm promote your podcast better.
You can give away something that’s specific to the niche of your podcast, a product or a discount, for example. Even though the majority of giveaways will require an investment, you can also give out shout outs or guest spots on your podcast. In any case, the better the reward, the higher the chances of people following your podcast.
Conclusion
In a field that has as many competitors as podcasting, you must find ways to improve the chances of people discovering you. If you don’t have a social media profile with a high following, you will have to look for other ways of acquiring a following for your podcast.
The techniques mentioned in the article won’t do a miracle for you and make up for bad content, but they will most certainly allow people to discover you.
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