Your podcast channel is a business. The product it sells to your “customers” (listeners) are your audio episodes.
And just like any business out there, to survive, grow, and prosper, you will need to do some marketing. If you don’t promote your podcast, not many people will know about your channel and its treasure trove of content!
At ZenCast, we understand the importance of podcast promotion better than anyone else.
So, in this article, we’ll show you the basics of podcast marketing! We’ll also give you a few hints and tricks on how to effectively launch a promotion campaign for your podcast.
Ready to begin? Let’s get to it!
What Is Podcast Promotion?
In 2021, there were over 2 million podcast channels and 48 million episodes between them.
That’s a huge pool of content for podcast listeners to choose from. And that’s the crux of the problem. Here’s the question you need to ask yourself:
How do you make it easier for people to discover your channel out of 2 million podcast channels floating around?
Running promotion campaigns for your podcast, of course.
Podcast promotion means making your podcast channel more visible to your audience, allowing them to discover you more easily. One of the easiest ways to distribute your podcast to podcast across different podcasting platforms is through ZenCast!
Why You Must Promote Your Podcast
The benefit of running promotion campaigns for your podcast extends far beyond making it easier for people to discover your channel.
Cultivate Your Audience
A good podcast promotion campaign will be highly targeted. It needs to appeal to people who will be interested in the topic or theme of your podcast. That way, you can cultivate a high-quality audience who regularly listens to new episodes, interacts with you, and shares your podcast with others.
Cultivating a high-quality audience is the best way to grow your channel sustainably.
A Launch Pad for Further Growth of Your Channel
Newly-created podcast channels aren’t the only ones that can benefit from a promotion campaign. Veteran channels with many followers and listeners regularly run promotions, too!
Consistently putting out good content is the premier way to gain new listeners. But you can further augment that by pumping out podcast promotions from time to time. This will maximize the discovery rate and the number of listeners you gain.
Build Your Relationship with the Audience
Podcasting can be a pretty one-sided affair. You talk to people, but they won’t talk back or interact with you most of the time.
Because of this, it can be hard to build a relationship with your listeners.
By posting on social media, blogs, podcasting platforms and websites, you will have the opportunity to engage directly with your listeners. They can leave comments or reply to your messages. Take the time to respond to them!
By building a relationship with your audience, you can create a loyal listener-base who will stick with you to the last episode or any other project you may have in the future.
Network with Other Creators
Networking with other podcast creators can be hugely advantageous. It opens up opportunities for collaborations, which allow you to show your podcast and brand to their audience (and them to yours.)
You may also ask other creators to give you a shout-out on their channels!
How to Grow Your Podcast Through Promotion
You can promote your podcast channel using various methods.
Use Social Media
Social media is a powerful marketing tool, so take full advantage of it. Create social media accounts for your podcast, then post regularly.
You can write podcast social media posts about relevant topics, post pictures, upload video clips.
Remember to also tie your social media accounts with your podcast channel’s activity.
For example, before the next episode is aired, you can post sneak-peeks on your social media. That’s how to share a podcast effectively among your followers! Your listeners will actually have an incentive to follow your accounts. And new listeners can discover your podcast through these short sneak-peeks, as well.
And if your social media game is good enough, you may be able to get your podcast viral, which is one of the things that ZenCast can help you do!
Write Guest Posts on Relevant Websites
Find websites and forums relevant to the theme of your podcast, then write guest articles and blog posts.
You must put a lot of effort into these posts.
They are a way to show people the breadth of your knowledge about the topic. These posts will also give your audience an idea of what to expect when they click on your podcast channel’s link and listen to the first few episodes.
At the end of the article, stick a link to your podcast. If people are intrigued by your post and want to hear from you more, they will click on your link, and voilà, a new listener!
Appear as a Guest on Other People’s Podcasts
If you have contacts with some popular podcast creators, ask them if they’re up for a collaborative episode!
By having you as a guest, the host will have a new source of content for their episode and entertain their audience. In return, you get the opportunity to promote your own podcast channel and appeal to their audience.
It’s a win-win!
Turn Your Audio into a YouTube Video
A survey showed that 24.2% of respondents said that YouTube is their go-to source for podcasts. YouTube is ahead of both Spotify (23.8%) and Apple Podcast (16%) by a decent margin!
Use this knowledge to your advantage by converting your audio episode into a video clip. Then, create a channel for your podcast and upload the videos there!
This podcast strategy is especially useful if your podcast is geared toward interviews. You can post live images of yourself and your guest talking on the show, similar to a live stream. This will diversify your podcast’s content!
Promotion Strategies for Your Podcast Channel
There are many different strategies that you can use to give your podcast channel a popularity boost. Here are a few.
Focus on Your Target Audience
You can’t create a podcast that everyone is interested in listening to. So, a common advice that we usually give new podcasters is to focus on your target audience rather than trying to please everyone.
The same thing goes for promoting your podcast. Build your promotion campaigns to appeal the most to your target audience.
Your target audience is the people most interested in hearing what you have to say and benefit most from your content. They represent the ideal listeners of your podcast, so you should always make the content you think they would like.
To determine your target audience, ask yourself the following questions.
How old are your ideal listeners?
Are they men or women?
What do they study, and what do they do for a living?
Single, dating, or married?
What are their hobbies?
How are they faring financially?
These are just some basic questions that you can ask. You can build an entire questionnaire if you want to get into the details about who your audience is.
Let’s say your podcast launched and it’s about space and astrophysics.
Then, your target audience will be scientists, amateur astronomers, and people interested in space. They will be well-educated and possibly do jobs related to technology and science.
Tailor your content and your promotional materials to these people. You will find success quicker that way!
Create High Quality, Relevant Content
Think of the episodes in your podcast as products you’re trying to sell. For people to buy, your products must be high quality and relevant to their interests and needs.
That’s why creating good content is also a promotion tactic. When someone listens to an episode, if they like your voice, presentation, and content, they will stick around for longer.
These long-term listeners are the key to success for a podcast!
Use Podcast Aggregators
Podcast aggregators (or podcast promotion services) are how a lot of people discover new podcast channels. Also called “podcatchers”, these apps distribute and recommend relevant podcast channels to their users.
Submit your channel to one of these apps! They will deliver your content right to the ears of people who may be interested in your content.
Apple Podcast is a popular example of a podcatcher. It’s very popular among iOS (iPhone) users. Spotify, Google Podcast, Pandora, Deezer, and iHeartRadio are other podcast marketing services you should consider.
Follow a Regular Publishing Schedule
Even publishing your episodes regularly and at the right time can be a promotional trick.
You should always strive to meet a publication schedule. Listeners appreciate regularity. If you post weekly on Thursday, then try to post at the exact day of the week and time.
Additionally, there are certain hours and days that will net you the most listeners.
According to this chart, Wednesday is the most popular day for podcasts to release their new episodes.
And in this chart, most channels choose to publish new episodes at 11PM, 12PM, 2AM, and 5AM.
Certain podcast distribution apps can help you automatically publish your episodes at the right time and day, such as ZenCast.
Ready to Begin Your Podcasting Journey?
Podcasting takes a lot of work and time, but it’s ultimately worth it.
But if you’re a new podcaster, beginning a new channel can seem intimidating.
ZenCast can help take the edge off. Using our distribution and hosting tools, you can quickly publish your podcast episodes across a variety of platforms with just a button push. Then, you can leverage our analytic tools to track the performance of your podcast!
Start your podcasting journey with us today, with a free 14-day trial!