You've launched a new podcast. Now let's make it shine. Use my podcast promo 101 worksheet to build your audience and get your show charting!
So, you’ve created a brilliant new show concept, recording is underway and you’re approaching the release date. But how do you get people to listen to it, and get it up the charts to boost discoverability?
Your whole approach should bake in a release schedule and marketing plan – this timeline really will be the cornerstone of your plan - not just an afterthought.
If you're short on time, and you're not sure which methods are best for podcast marketing, think about three things – your niche, your community, and your tactics.
#1 Niche
Defining your podcast's niche is not only going to make for a more interesting show, but it will also make marketing it a lot easier.
This is also what will get people hitting subscribe, even if they've never heard of you before. Apple podcasts and Spotify have category listing choices. This includes core categories, and lots of sub-categories. For example, if your show is about interviews with business leaders, entrepreneurship is going to be a lot more competitive than personal journals. Or if your show is about wellness, listing under nutrition instead of health and fitness is going to massively help. Your listing category is really important as to the level of competition you’ll be up against – and you’ll need to research, monitor and test how you chart in different areas. Don't be afraid to switch this up.
The least competitive and more niche, the better.
Once you're up and running with at least four episodes published, I'd recommend testing out a couple of different sectors and seeing how and where you chart. This is a huge hack to getting discovered via charts.
#2 Community
Trying to cater to everyone and make it a huge smash hit from the off is a mistake - you need to focus on finding your people and growing listener loyalty. Community is becoming really important to podcast success - for example, Peter Crouch’s #passthepod initiative has really encouraged people the share his podcast. Simple, but so effective.
Besides this, a strong social strategy and actually interacting with your followers and asking them what they want to hear about is going to steer you along the right path. Also, data.
#3 Tactics
After you've defined your niche (what makes you stand out) and found your community (who's gonna love you), it's time to define your tactics (how you get noticed).
Here are a few I'm tracking right now:
Meme culture is also here to stay. This is the best-performing content I produce for the brands I work with.
Youtube is the 3rd best channel for people to discover new podcasts. You want to be making showreel and blooper content on here to acquire new listeners.
Create a home for your podcast on your site and publishing an article for each new episode - ensuring you link back to this in all of your promo to drive site traffic and boost SEO.
Live events and conferences where your community will be - this is a great way to record e.g. 3 guests in 1 day.
Twitter – I love the paid ads function on Twitter as you can accurately retarget followers of specific accounts. Think about it – if you're launching a music podcast, retargeting @SongExploder with it's 47.5k followers is going to be pretty cost-effective at recruiting new listeners, who you know already love music shows.
What next?
Apply the Niche, Community, Tactics formula using this worksheet I've created containing the top 10 easiest ways to get your podcast charting – this is by no means exhaustive, but it can help you get that initial promo brainstorming off the ground. Work through it at your own pace.
Let me know how you get on with the worksheet exercise. I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback, and what podcast ideas you're working on. Drop me a note at josephinecolter@gmail.com