How to Promote a Podcast: Top 7 Ideas and Tips

What is a podcast? It’s a series of digital audio files made available for downloading or listening. Audio recordings are known as podcasts. Podcasts are hosted by individuals who lead a conversation and share stories.

Knowing how to go about paid podcasting is the best strategy for staying ahead of the podcasting competition. Podcast monetization seems to be having its moment in the sun, especially in the world of social media. If you’re a podcaster, you’ve probably spent some time getting the sound and feel right. And now you are ready to upload the audio.

But remember that you also need to come up with a plan to promote that project. It might take you some time to see the direction that your audience is going to take. Some of them might prefer listening to it on their way to work, while some on their way back from work. Others may combine fitness activities with learning something from what you have to say.

But one thing that’s common among these cases is podcast promotion. So, how do your fans find your podcast? Is there a specific platform they prefer accessing it on? Answering this and many other questions will help you know how to promote it.

Tips on How to Promote Paid Podcasting

After recording and editing your podcast, the difficult task of promoting it begins. The promotion is important if you’re to gain a new listenership. So, how do you go about the promotion? We get you informed below. 

1. Social Media Promotions in Podcast Monetization

Social media comes with different techniques for sharing and promoting podcast episodes. You can use images, videos, and quotes from interviews to promote your podcast.

Instagram, for instance, has powerful tools for increasing an audience. The platform has Instagram stories that come in two dimensions size and aspect ratio. If you don’t want your content to get cropped to oblivion, you’ll have to stick to the recommended specifications. You can also promote your content via live videos and posts.

The platform you choose should be based on where your audience spends most of their time. An instance would be a B2B marketing podcast that will do well on LinkedIn. A podcast on political commentary will gain more traction if promoted on Twitter.

Below are ideas on how to share your podcasts across social media platforms:

• Create an Instagram story for the behind-the-scenes of your podcast studio.
• Create a graphic using Canva. Then pin it to an applicable Pinterest board.
• Come up with a short audio teaser with your podcast logo. You can then post it on Instagram
• Become active in relevant Facebook groups. Mention in the groups whenever a new episode goes live.

1. Launch Paid Subscriptions

One concern podcasters always have is how introducing paid podcasting can affect their listener base. Looking at the top subscriptions with listeners on Apple podcasts, the results are pleasing. On average, the listenership got a boost in the four weeks after the launch.

The reason is that launching a subscription serves as a marketing campaign for the show. With paid subscriptions, podcasters have a wider reach other than just Apple podcast subscribers. You can also post your content on other podcast platforms aside from Apple podcast subscriptions, including Spotify podcasts.

Thousands of subscriptions from audio creators are available with more launching every week. Getting revenue from subscriptions as they happen enables a podcaster to manage cash flow effectively. It also means that you don’t have to rely on middlemen for your money. 

This strategy enables listeners to discover thousands of subscriptions and podcasts featuring new shows. It provides consumers with premium experiences to stay informed, entertained, and connected.

1. Converting Audio into YouTube Videos

The promotion of podcasts is about repurposing the audio content. And YouTube is one of the great mediums for that. 

YouTube is the second-largest search engine. So, by converting audio to YouTube videos, you’ll be picking up additional views. You will also gain new fans for paid podcasting. Some of your audience might even prefer YouTube as their podcast channel. And as such, you’ll be picking up these people as fans.

Below are some advantages of adding your podcast to YouTube:

• Your video will rank high on YouTube.
• Closed captioning and transcripts begin applying to your audio.
• By having a YouTube video, it becomes easy to share it on social media.

With YouTube videos, a podcaster has two ways of boosting traffic. There’s YouTube SEO, then there’s by ranking in Google. Be sure to optimize your video title and description for keywords. 

1. Mention Brands and Businesses in Your Episodes

This promotion strategy touches on the law of reciprocity. Boiling down to when a person does something nice for you, you get the psychological urge to return the favor. This also works for podcast monetization.

You may have some brands or podcasters whose work you fully endorse. How about giving them a shout-out in the next episode? Mentioning brands in your podcast gives you the chance to contact them. This is to let them know that you’ve featured them on your podcast episodes.

If there’s a connection between your podcast and the brand you endorsed, a simple email will work. You can also reach out to them through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Just tag the brand to let them know about your endorsement. 

1.  Check Out Your Competitors for New Opportunities

There are times when you’ll run out of ideas for a new episode. Sometimes it could be that your current content is not performing well. The solution here will be to find new content ideas.

One simple but powerful tactic is to look at your competitors’ published content. This will enable you to discover ideas for your episodes. Check the top-performing episodes from other podcasters and write down the points.

Then, get rid of the seasonal content on the list. You’ll then be left with the best ideas that worked for your competitor and may work for you. 

While considering new ideas for paid podcasting, keep in mind that there’s a possibility the topics that performed well in the past may not bring similar numbers. 

1. Invite a Guest

Guests are always welcomed on podcasts. That’s because they bring a unique perspective on the topic of the day.

Listeners can get several expert opinions in one session. This enables them to see all the sides of the debate. If they get impressed by an opinion, they’ll certainly seek out more content created by that guest.

Choosing to invite a popular name in the industry increases the chances of their followers listening to your show. These two strategies will boost traffic to your episode. In the same way, it’s also likely to increase your podcast subscribers.

1. Create a Podcast Website and Take Advantage of Email Marketing

Creating a podcast website helps to increase your podcast’s search engine optimization. SEO will make it easy for consumers to discover your content online. So, create a website for your podcast and come up with relevant content. Increase the use of relevant keywords that your fans search for online.

You can also give your fans a chance to join an email list through a sign-up link on your website. Emails will allow you to give your listeners easy access to new episodes. Through emails, you can announce upcoming podcasts and promote giveaways. 

Conclusion

So much goes into creating a successful podcast. And the most important part of it is the quality of your episodes. Audience building is just as important. 

Getting the right promotion technique is a trial and error process. What works for another podcaster may not work for you. Finally, you must keep an eye on what’s working when implementing social media promotion and podcast monetization. The same way you monitor your podcast analytics to know what listeners want, what platform they are listening on, and their demographic.