117 Podcast Marketing Tips From Podcasters Just Like You
Tags: Podcasting Tips, Podcasting, Media, Marketing, Podcast

117 Podcast Marketing Tips From Podcasters Just Like You

Want to know what other podcasters are doing to promote their podcasts? Check out the massive list below for inspiration. OliverW Follow Oct 24, 2019 · 18 min read

Podcasting is easy, right?

Creating a podcast takes a ton of time. It’s so much more than just

“Get a mic and hit record!”. In the amount of time it takes to create a single podcast, you could probably make enough tacos feed all of Brooklyn. That’s literally millions of tacos…I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. (By the way, if you’re hungry for tacos and have 5.5 hours to spare, check out the totally daunting taco recipe at the bottom of this post.)

Making a podcast is a big endeavor. But, if you only spend your time creating your podcast, there is a good chance that nobody will listen to it, and that would be sad. You’ll have to promote your podcast, but where to begin? Where should you invest the time necessary to get your podcast the listeners it deserves?

We put out a call to the thousands of podcasters using Headliner, and they answered! We got over 400 tips but we chose 117 Podcast Marketing Tips to share with you.

Like the advice below? Go check out the podcast! Find them on social media and make those connections happen. Podcasting can be played solo, but it’s much more fun as a team sport. Get out there and help each other!

The Most Important Piece of Advice On This Entire List:

Don’t get overwhelmed by marketing tips. Every tip you read has worked for that particular person. Do what’s comfortable, do what you will do consistently. -Brett Johnson — Note To Future Me

Very true, Brett. (117 tips, I mean come on, really!?). Will all of these tips work for you? No! Will you be able to increase your listeners 10x by following the advice below? Maybe, but not without some trial and error and hard work! Use the tips below as inspiration and to learn about what other podcasters are doing.

General Advice

Collaborate

“Brand partnerships” with an organization that has a similar audience. Cross-promote by mentioning them in your podcast intro and ask them to spotlight you in their newsletter. — Kara Mayer Robinson, Really Famous Don’t try to recreate the wheel or build an audience from scratch… people already have audiences, so tap into them by having them on your show and encouraging them to share the episode with their audience! This is an immediate way to get in front of thousands of new people… without spending a dollar in ads! — Brian Lofrumento, The Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Podcast Network with other Podcasts. Partnering with other Podcasts is valuable. Don’t look at everyone as competition. You have an opportunity to capture their audience and vice versa. There is enough space for everyone! — Jamilah & Erica, Good Moms Bad Choices Show your fandom. We’ve had great success in amplifying the shows we love and having that favor returned. Nate DuFort, Unspookable Start a traditional street team — arm superfans with stickers and flyers, digital postcards, audiograms, to help spread the word. — Jesse, Castworks Industries Podcast Network Partner with established businesses and have them link to your podcast. This is a win-win as your get access to their audience while you provide them with valuable content to share with their audience. — Heneka Watkis-Porter, The Entrepreneurial You

All About Guests

Be Consistent!

Be consistent! Release on the same day, same time, etc. Fans rely on consistency. — Amanda and Shannon, Pier 54 Podcast Be consistent if possible. We have a weekly segment and it comes out like clockwork on Saturday mornings and listeners are now looking for it weekly. — Dan Gougherty, Elk Grove News Podcast, Elk Grove News Minute Post consistently. You can batch your work so you are editing multiple episodes back to back, but release them over time so you have new content coming out each week. — Greg Jameson, 20 Minutes of Influence Post content about your podcast consistently. Even if it’s not everyday. Make sure you are posting the same day(s) of the week and time. That way, your audience will come to know your schedule and look for your content. — Heather Osgood, Marketing Success With Podcast Advertising

Mind Your Design

Be consistent with your visual branding. People my find you on various social platforms. Make it easy for them by being consistent with how each platform looks and ties into your podcast artwork. — Mark Des Cotes, Podcast Branding Make a good looking thumbnail that catches people’s attention while they browse through podcasts — Aron Veraart, Sugafly The title on your podcast’s graphic should be easy to read, given it will often be viewed at small res (e.g. iTunes) — Scot McKay, The Mountain Top Podcast I always try to create a cover art where the sound wave comes out of the central element of that art. A fish, for the sound wave to come out of your mouth, a flower for the sound wave to come out of the petals, etc. This not only increases engagement but also creates a piece of content that can be used at other times in the program or even at lectures and events. — Mauro Amaral, mauroamaral.com

Email Still Rulz

Don’t be afraid to cold sell your show. Some of our biggest success has come from putting a brief email of introduction together. — Abigail Trabue, RV Miles Email still rules. It’s easy to scroll past a social media post, but email required action, either deleting or reading. With the right subject line and preview text, people open emails. With the right email copy, people take action. — Tony Loyd, Social Entrepreneur I link to my podcast in my email signature (I use Drift.com’s team signature to add a banner). It’s got about an 8% conversion rate so far, but it’s just an easy win — and tends to go directly to people who would be most interested in the podcast anyway — Susan Boles, Break the Ceiling Link your Podcast RSS Feed to your mailing list, this can be done via mailchimp, everytime you upload a new podcast, your audience will be notified! — Mel Bridger, The Mummy Trainer

General Social Media Advice

Platform-Specific Social Media

Create a FB fan-page just for your podcast where you share teaser-videos, podcast links, articles and resources related to your podcast. Share posts from that page to your private FB timeline, FB biz-page and inside your FB-group (if you have one). Don’t forget to ask fans to share the episode posts on their timeline too! — Sylvia Becker-Hill, Women’s Empowerment School Run a facebook live to promote your podcast each time you release a new episode to get people excited and remind them to listen — Jonathan Green, Serve No Master Share your podcast in Facebook fan groups. I interview celebs and I share teasers in fan groups for the TV shows or movies they’re in. — Kara Mayer Robinson, Really Famous Join an already existing FB community that is your target audience and serve that community. Become a trusted voice. Then, when you promote your podcast, there will already be an established connection. — Christina Im, The IMbetween Podcast Post a clip of your podcast in your IG stories. You’d be surprised at how many people view your stories. — Aycee Brown, Is My Aura On Straight? Use Stories to direct people to your podcast — Create an Audiogram and share it on IG and FB stories — Mel Bridger, The Mummy Trainer Be sure you’re actively connecting and building powerful relationships on LinkedIn with people who can elevate your podcast. Guests? Sponsors? People who can interview YOU? Start building real relationships with them now. — Karen Yankovich, Good Girls Get Rich Short videos with excerpts of your podcast — seems to work especially well on Instagram — Rich Ferraro, Rich Ferraro’s Forest Ramble For podcasts that are job or career-related, make yourself a subject-matter expert on LinkedIn. Post frequently on your topic. Then, after you’ve established credibility, share your podcast. Since you’re a trusted source, people will be drawn to the podcast. — Beth Davies, Career Curves Don’t underestimate the power of Pinterest. It’s the second largest search engine. At least have an account and post regularly. It’s crucial to post your own things about 30% of the time (your podcast, make images about your podcast, etc) and repost others in related fields about 70% of the time. Pin and re-pin daily. — Kelly Wilson, FitFizz Browse Quora for popular community questions and incorporate a response into your show. After publishing the episode, take the time to answer the question and include a CTA back to the full episode of your show. — Lachlan Kirkwood, Digital Deep Dive Sure Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook are obvious places to share your podcast, but try to think outside the normal channels and experiment with other avenues, for example: Reddit, HackerNews, etc. — Keith Cline,The VentureFizz Podcast Twitter has a thriving podcast community. Get active there if you aren’t. Cross promote and use hashtags like #podernfamily — Aicila, BiCurean Record video of your podcast and post the entire episode and/or clips to YouTube. You can also upload video to Facebook, IGTV, Vimeo and other platforms for further exposure. — Whitney Lauritsen, This Might Get Uncomfortable Create YouTube versions of your podcast and use their closed captioning tool. For the uninitiated podcast listener they will know how to play a YouTube video and you can use the closed captioning to create a transcript. You can also then download the video from YouTube and upload it to Facebook to increase visibility and diversify your social media content. — Garrett Tiedemann. Connecting ALS

Things to Do IRL (Eye Contact Required)

Attend farmer’s markets and other local vendor events. Find collaborative opportunities. You promote their wares while they introduce their customer to your show. i.e. cards on table, promoting you on their mailing list, etc. — Rachel Wilkinson, Lifemancy Community Events — every neighborhood has a celebration. Go. Record live if you can. (I often just use the voice memo app on my smartphone.) Hand out postcards. Wear your podcast’s tee shirt. It’s hand to hand marketing! — Kitty Felde, Book Club for Kids Go to networking events! Actually talk to people and make eye contact. Scary, but it works! — Meryl Klemow, Campfire Sht Show Host live listening shows and invite your fans, sponsors, and podcast lovers. — Ever Gonzalez, Outlier On Air Leverage events. Whether you’re attending a conference or hosting an event, use the opportunity to record podcasts onsite with interesting attendees or event speakers. — Jen Fisher (host) and Amy Fields (comms), WorkWell podcast My word of wisdom? It’s “word of mouth!” It’s one of the best ways to encourage podcast listenership. Encourage your listeners to recommend the podcast to their friends and family. — Joni Deutsch, Amplifier (from WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR News Source) Rep your brand. It can be as easy as wearing your own merch or including your social handles in your correspondence, but the more pride you show in putting your podcast out there, the more that simple conversation starter can convert to actual listens. — Nate DuFort, Unspookable

Love Your Audience

Directly interact with your audience as much as possible through email/social. — Katy Oliveira, Collegehood Advice Keep your community involved. People like to feel like they are apart of something. — Luke Atkins, Insert Name Here Know your audience. Like any hunter, know where they drink & feed, know their habits, what are they attracted to? What do they worry about? Age? Location? Gender? — Mike Thomas, Innopsis Reach them where they are. People are not checking your website on a regular basis. Reach them where they are spending their time, from social media to their inbox. — Tony Loyd, Social Entrepreneur Spend time really researching what your audience is drawn to, across mediums. What are the types of visuals and audio they’re already listening to? It will give you clues to engage them in your show. — Mel Tsuei, Who Taught You How To Drive Write back to your listeners. Whether there are 3 or 3,000 of them, they matter and stay more loyal the more they know you actually care. — Meryl Klemow, Campfire Sht Show Read reviews of your podcast at the top, bottom — BHodges, Maxwell Institute Podcast When it comes to marketing your podcast, you should focus on two targets: your current listeners and potential listeners (those that may know little or nothing about your podcast). — Yann Illunga, The Podcaster Lab

Things To Do, Make, or Try

Offer a digital product in exchange for a screen shot of a review of your podcast. I offer my digital video course as a thank you doe anyone that leaves a review and sends me the screen shot. — Heather Monahan, Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan Enter podcast awards — even if you’re not nominated, the judges will now be aware of your work and have listened to some — and they tend to be influential people. — Suchandrika Chakrabarti, Freelance Pod Do more video. I find the bulk of my new listeners/subscribers find me via my solo and interview videos. — Shaun Tabatt, The Shaun Tabatt Show Have a website for your podcast. It’s true that not many people will listen to your show on your website.However, it’s a must for discoverability via search engines, as well as being a centralized hub to direct your listeners. Every link or resource you mention on your show, including how to subscribe, should direct people back to your website. Make it your home and invite people in. — Mark Des Cotes, Podcast Branding Host a giveaway during the first 2 months of your podcast launch to entice people to submit reviews. Create a form where they can submit their reviews and be entered to win. Make the prize(s) valuable. — Whitney Lauritsen, This Might Get Uncomfortable Audiograms. We get lots of social media traction with audiograms, especially using the karaoke feature of the words. — robin hopkins, If These Ovaries Could Talk Visualize your podcast! Either use Headliner to make videos or turn them into Vodcasts (record video while you’re recording podcast audio). — Ariel Hyatt, The Cyber PR Music Podcast It’s incredibly beneficial to include a picture of the guest in our audiograms and other social post. We’ve found that people seem more inclined to interact with the post if they can put a face to the voice! — Elijah Longwell, Tuesday Knight Podcast Try to add one more place that you’re listed each week. You never know where you will find your listeners, but being out there helps. — Jamais Jochim, Webcomics Reviews And Interviews Collect video reviews/testimonials from listeners & guests. Use them on social media stories & feeds to drive traffic to your page. — Sheila Shynski, The Detour Podcast Use an audiogram or short video trailer to give your current listeners a compelling reason why they should tune in — share a quick strategy, a quote, a question or a snippet to trigger their curiosity in wanting to learn more about the topic and listen to the episode. — Yann Ilunga, The Podcaster Lab

Public Relations

Feature a press kit on your website, showcasing best of clips, audience, FAQs, contact info, guest list, etc. — Jesse, Castworks Industries Podcast Network Pitch podcast reviewers and journalists. Some people review podcasts monthly or even weekly. Others have an annual review. Create a list of these bloggers and journalists and pitch them at the appropriate times. Maybe you have an education theme that would be great for back to school. Keep in mind that magazine journalists often work months in advance. Make sure that when you pitch, you’ve just put out a killer episode (if they’re interested in you, they’ll check out your show) and that your email has a hook. People don’t care that you have a podcast, they care about the story behind it. — Sarah Mikutel, Podcasting Step by Step

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Contribute to blogs in your niche who can then link back to your podcast. This also gives you more credibility when people Google your name — they will come across these blog posts. — Trina Leckie, breakup BOOST Relationship Advice Title your podcast posts as if they were articles or videos that need to to rank inside Google search results. Avoid journalistic and ironic titles in favour of those that synthesize in a few words the specific topic you are covering in your episode.

Benefit: Just like SEO. Be increasingly found inside Google search engine page results as Google itself has upped its antennas for scouting new podcasts, suggesting them in the results and offering even a playback platform. — Robin Good, “da Brand a Friend” If you cannot transcribe your episodes due to cost make sure you have a clear summary of your episode. This does 2 things. It allows for better SEO and makes your content searchable across Google and other search engines., When the content is consistent with your podcast topic it increase page rank relevance and distributed through all social media channels increases traffic sources and content relevance.

Summaries can contain links to your website and social media channels. You can also earn affiliate income from links to products like books etc on Amazon. When interviewing guests check if they have affiliate programs. This is a passive way of increasing income. — Lance Wantenaar, Thinking Like A Genius Make sure your podcast is on Google Podcast (formerly Google Play) as they transcribe the podcast do you get additional SEO from the text version. — Frank King, The Suicide Prevention Punchline Publish a blog post for each episode and add a transcript for better Google ranking. — Dagmar Recklies, Die Strategieexperten-Podcast SEO matters. Even if you hire someone to optimize your SEO, everyone who puts out content should understand the basics. SEO matters for websites, podcasts and social media — it matters for overall success. — Kelly Wilson, FitFizz YouTube (although it is not a podcast platform, it can be very helpful for your SEO) use the “Full episode” option and publish the episode on your YouTube channel. Do not forget to include direct links to the platform where you publish that podcast. — Gerardo Cuellar, Podcast Diseño

Want more?

We tried to include tips from everyone who submitted, but since many were similar, we edited down. If you have advice that you didn’t see here, leave a response. Maybe you’ll be cited in the next version of this list. 😉

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Special Shout Out to To Yann Ilunga — he gave me the idea for this post while we were having a chat a month ago. Thanks Yann!

Use Headliner Automation. Increase Free Time. Make Tacos 🌮