There are more social apps than ever before and major shifts in the social landscape all the time. Below is a list of platforms that are currently major players in the podcast sphere:
You don’t need to be on every platform, but the more places you can promote your podcast the better. And knowing your audience can save you time in choosing what platforms are actually worth the time on.
While I definitely recommend posting your content on as many channels as possible, I’m also a realist. You can’t be everywhere and you can’t do everything.
More than that, your target audience probably spends more of its time on one or two of these platforms listed below. Most business professionals are on LinkedIn, but quite a bit of them do not bother with TikTok.
After preliminary research and figuring out where podcast listeners hang out, start implementing the strategies below.
Audiograms: Podcast Previews
Audiograms are short video clips (usually with a waveform or transcription) from the podcast that are easily publishable across social-media platforms and YouTube.
These preview a podcast episode’s content to gain interest from potential listeners. Really, they are like the podcast equivalent of movie trailers.
Ideally, these drive listeners to a full episode and subscribe to the podcast from there.
Shareability of these podcast previews is another perk. Tag guests and ask them to re-share the content on their social pages or send it directly for them to publish on their own feeds.
Social Cards: Podcast Posters
Similar to audiograms, social cards display a quote from a podcast episode to show potential listeners what they can expect.
These are shareable and can be engaging. If audiograms are the podcast version of movie trailers, social cards are the movie posters.
Engage Potential and Current Listeners on Social Media
A large part of effective marketing on social media is interaction with other users. That can be in the comments section or by giving personalized shout-outs.
Take part in the conversations happening on posts. This strategy is useful on every single social platform.
However, not all platforms are created equal in this regard. Conversation-focused X is far more comment-and-reply and than Tik-Tok, where videos are the primary spectacle.
Listen to the audience before creating content. Spend time researching hashtags, geo-tags, and podcast peers. Post positive not-spammy comments.
In other words, get your hands dirty in some busywork.
Share Relevant Content with the Audience
Take strategy for social media up a notch by sharing more than your own content.
Don’t just post when you release a new episode of the podcast. Invest in an audience by reposting other content that is relevant within the podcast’s niche. Most podcasters are trusted sources of information to their specific audiences, so sharing relevant information to the audience helps strengthen the media-forged bond.
Podcast Websites: The One-Stop Shop for All Things Podcast
These bring together a podcast brand’s different marketing efforts to one location.
Such sites typically feature embedded episodes, show notes, transcripts, bonus content, links to all social media, and a way to sign up for an email newsletter.
If it is the kind of podcast that has tie-in merch, then merch will also be on the website.
Check out our blog: How to Create a Stunning Podcast Website
Email Newsletter: Reaching Out
Email marketing is a great way to build a brand because email isn’t going away any time soon.
Building an email newsletter depends on the quality of content. If it feels like a spam email campaigns, then it does not add value for the readers.
Apply the golden rule to email-marketing campaigns: only send emails that you would like to read yourself.
Serve audiences with high-quality content and don’t spam with wasteful emails.
At Resonate we use Mailchimp to manage our newsletter. This reliable platform is easy to learn and use and offers an in-depth knowledge base for troubleshooting issues.
Newsletters don’t have to be published only when an episode releases.
For example, Tim Ferris has a series he calls “5-Bullet Friday” where he shares strange and interesting things he is reading, watching, or experimenting with.
Add variety to an email campaign to keep the audience engaged. Just make sure to always add true value.
Online Communities: Finding an Audience
Facebook and Reddit groups related to a podcast’s topic can be excellent places to get a podcast in front of the right audience.
Be wary about how you go about promoting your podcast, because some groups prohibit posting about one’s own podcast or brand. Other groups allow self-promotion, so just read the rules.
Joining as many of these communities as possible can lead to important insights about the podcast’s potential listeners.
To find fellow podcasters, a simple search for “Podcast” on Facebook groups brings up dozens and dozens of niche groups within the larger podcasting community.
The other benefit for joining these groups is that it keeps podcasters up to date with what is relevant to listeners. Take note of the concerns, questions, and topics that people are discussing.
That can be a great way to think up future content for the podcast.
Guest Appearances and Interviews: Market Yourself and Others
Showing up as a guest on someone else’s podcast is one of the most powerful ways to promote one’s own brand. It can help establish oneself as an expert in a field and broadens one’s reach by putting one’s voice in front of a whole new audience of listeners.
Also, being seen as guest-worthy imbues the guest with some special aura.
Trading interviews or being a one-time guest on another podcast is a great mutually beneficial way to promote one’s own podcast and connections.
Try interviewing other podcasters with greater followership and influence than you. They can bring some of their followers to your podcast for that episode, and if it is a good episode then the followers may stick around.
Look at where others are, where you want to be, and see how you can bridge that gap with their help. There’s no shame in being honest and asking for some assistance, especially in the early era of your podcast.
Most podcasters have been in the same position and are readily available to lend a helping hand.
Interviews are good, but smaller-scale methods like cross-promotion and marketing through ads can also help.
Quid Promo Quo: A Helpful Exchange
Ask podcasters you like if they’d be willing to do a little promo for you in exchange for promoting them. This can be difficult depending on how known you are within the podcasting community—some established podcasters may not be willing to promote an unfamiliar podcast.
Free tools on Podchaser help with researching other shows in a niche by finding lists of podcast recommendations and cold-emailing hosts.
Find podcast placements in a particular niche or industry with Podchaser Connect.
Appearing as a guest on other shows is a strong way to organically promote one’s own podcast, gain experience as a host, and expand one’s reach. But the same is true for hosting other guests on your own podcast.
Hosting engaging conversations with experts in the field can increase credibility, boost engagement, and better serve listeners.
We recommend building relationships that allow you to appear on other relevant podcasts.
Grassroots Podcast Marketing: Build an Audience from the Ground Up
What’s more powerful than hearing a personal recommendation from someone that you trust? Word-of-mouth advertising is still a powerful way to gain traction as a podcaster, as people tend to trust recommendations from friends and family.
Never underestimate the power of sharing content with an existing network of friends and family and the local community.
Several ways to promote your podcast locally include finding local podcast meetups or conferences in your niche, sharing your podcast directly with your friends (text, email, in conversation, etc), adding a link to your email signature, etc.
Paid Podcast Promotion
When first getting started, paying for podcast advertising can be a worthwhile investment so long as you have enough momentum in recording and booking guests to retain interest.
Research keywords to use in descriptions and show notes along with paid advertising on Google Adwords, Reddit Ads, and Facebook Ads.
Ads can be just a temporary measure. The first listeners are the most difficult to get, so if you can afford to spend money to net early listeners then you may see payoff down the line.
Using PPC in a marketing strategy centers around your budget, which determines your reach. If your target audience is more receptive to paid ads and yields a much more affordable PPC rate, then it may be worth the investment.
Best Free Marketing Tools
Canva (Graphic Design)
Canva is a free online graphic-design program. The basic free version of the software has plenty of features, although a monthly subscription is available for people who want a comprehensive suite.
Incidentally, you can hear the story of how Melanie Perkins created Canva, on the How I Built This podcast with Guy Raz.
Notable features:
- Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
- Easily customizable templates
- Simple and clean user interface
- Design folders for organization
Headliner (Video Editor)
This free video-editing software can help with creating content for social-media platforms.
There are four key tools that Headliner provides:
- Audiograms
- Article-to-video conversion
- Transcriptions
- General Video Editor
The audiogram feature generates a WAV file that matches uploaded audio.
The transcription tool is excellent for transcribing short audio clips. Embedding transcriptions in a video is more than convenient, as it can increase the podcast’s accessibility.
If you are looking for customized audiogram designs, check out Resonate Recording’s podcast-marketing services.
Google Alerts (Keyword Monitor)
Every marketer and content planner must keep up with the times. But not everyone has the time to sift through multiple media channels’ streams to find out about trends. That is where Google Alerts and Google Trends can come in as shortcuts.
Google Keywords allows users to track specific keywords relevant to industries and interests. A daily or weekly email alert summarizes the tracked keywords. Users can even add the RSS feed of that keyword to a channel in Slack for monitoring blogs.
Feedly is another content-curation tool for tracking keywords and topics.
Pocket (Cloud-Based Swipe File)
Beyond the content-curation tool Google Alerts, check out the Google Chrome plugin Pocket, which stores digital content for later.
Every creative needs a swipe file, and Pocket is a wonderful tool to use as a swipe file on Google Chrome (or any browser compatible with Chrome Web Store plugins). It also has an app for Apple and Android and automatically syncs across all platforms.
See an article or video you like? Install the Pocket plugin then just click the arrow at the top right of your browser to save it for later. It’s that easy.
Studying a podcast audience is crucial for continued success. Chartable Smartlinks offers two important features:
- A Linktree for users to subscribe to the podcast on the favorite app (Apple, Spotify, Google, etc)
- Tracking where listeners came from to download the show (e.g. Instagram or Facebook)
Using a Smartlink for a podcast can build subscriptions across multiple apps. These simultaneously let users track what social-media platforms are converting the most listeners for a podcast.
Tracking Growth
Everyone is generating data when they go online, and this data can be of use to podcasters looking to attract listeners.
Tracking a podcast’s growth requires pulling data from several different platforms, including the podcast-hosting dashboard, Apple Podcasts Connect, Spotify for Podcasters, and Google Podcasts manager.
Pay attention to social-media analytics on Instagram (make a business account for your podcast), Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
Podcast websites can link the site to Google Analytics to pull in-depth analytics about users and their activity. Chartable Smartlinks (listed above) tracks where listeners are coming from.
Boost Your Listenership with Help from Resonate Recordings
Market and track podcasts like a long-term game. Few, if any, podcasts become instant hits overnight.
Work hard, serve the audience well, and the audience will grow in time.
Have further questions, suggestions, or ideas? Reach out to Resonate Recordings to help your podcast succeed!
