How to Promote Podcast in 2021 ( FREE + PAID ways )

Podcasting has shown a quite raising phase in the past few years. With the number of podcast listeners increasing sharply there are numerous podcasters out there with something new and interesting to share with their listener.

There are a number of podcasting platforms and so it becomes difficult for you as a podcaster to decide about where and how would you release your podcasts, how would you let people know about your podcast, where would you promote it, and the list goes on.

So, how as a podcaster do you think you can stand out from the competition and attract more listeners for your podcast?

Read : Best Podcasting Microphones

There are numerous ways to promote your podcasts, but the main question you should be aware of is why do you need to promote your podcasts?

The answer to the same is below:

To attract listeners.
To reach more people.
To share amazing stories.
To be an inspiration source.
To get more audience for your work.
To gain an advantage over your competitor.
To personally communicate about your brand.
To collaborate with the well-known podcaster’s.

As long as you’re committed to producing high-quality content, with listeners’ best interests at heart, you have every chance of becoming successful.

So, here we are with some amazing tips you could consider promoting your podcasts in 2021:

Tips which requires no cost i.e. are free of any cost:

Keyword-optimize your podcast listings:

You should optimize your podcasts for search, both for a search engine and also for the search engines of respective podcast directory. You should include target keywords in your podcast name and description, as well as each individual episode’s name and description.

Make sure your podcast is interesting:

Before you post and publish your podcasts, make sure to listen to it once. We all know that people get attracted to interesting and fun stuff only, so why not create a podcast which is unique, offers value to listeners, is a bit entertaining, has humor, emotional support, guidance, news, analysis, stories, etc. No amount of marketing tactics will work if your podcast is boring.

Launch your podcast on social media:

When you launch your podcast initially or you start a new podcast, take time to blog and post about it on social media, which would help you to reach more audience, as we all know that social media marketing is quite important and connects people globally.

Experiment with multiple formats.

There are multiple ways to pull audio for your podcast, experiment with a variety of formats to keep things interesting. Common tactics are talking into a mic, playing old recordings, or making phone calls.

Try connecting to the emotions of your listener.

The best way to attract people to your podcast is by connecting to their emotions. How would you do that? Simply make sure that your podcasts contain has a strong emotional title, impressive background and most importantly a script which is easily connectable with your audiences. The more invested your audience is, the more likely they’ll be to share your material, as well.

Publish your podcast everywhere:

It’s best to list your podcast in as many places as you can and in as many podcast directories as you can. Make sure that you take full advantages of podcasting platforms that are free to use.

Use eye-catching background arts and logo:

Podcast hosting platforms normally displays background arts associated with the show or the brand. You can take this as an added advantage and attract prospective new listeners, create unique podcast logo and background with dominating colors and animation and designs which are well defined.

Ask for recommendation and shares:

If words are spread through people, things grow faster, right? So why not get benefited by it. Ask for recommendations and shares by your listeners; you can do that either by adding some share and recommendation sentences in your podcast’s script or by adding the same in your podcast’s description.

Claim social media profiles for your podcast’s brand:

With this tremendous usage of social media, with increase in technology; the best way one can promote podcasts is by having their own social media profiles like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google +, etc. and continuously updating it from time to time. Make sure to fully flesh out your profile on each of those platforms to make your podcast successful.

Build your social media followings:

Just having a social media profile isn’t enough, you need to have enough followers so that they can spread your contains. So how do you retain your profile visitors? Build your social media likes and followers using interest-based targeting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google + and wherever else is relevant for your podcast.

Attend conferences and social events:

Attending conferences, meetups, seminars and industry events in your niche can be a powerful way to spread the word about your podcasting show. Maybe print up business cards and distribute it to the people you meet at such conferences, seminars, events, etc.; you can even print flyers and if the event has a community information pegboard or table you can stick it there. Some of the best networking and promotion happens between sessions or after hours at such events.

Use relevant hashtags:

We all know how important role hashtags play nowadays. There are so many hashtags that you can use on social media that will get your page viewers, which may lead to your podcast getting listeners. List other podcasts and use the hashtag. It will get shared and you will find yourself on tons of lists linked to the hashtag.

Ask your listeners to subscribe:

The best and easiest way to promote your podcasts is to get your listeners to subscribe to your podcast channel, so they can automatically download or listen to your latest episodes. Accordingly, it’s on you to request that your listeners subscribe either at the beginning of your episode or at the end.

Ask your social media audiences to subscribe you on podcasts hosting platforms:

Periodically ask your social media audiences to subscribe on podcasts hosting apps or website so that they can know about your new episodes well in advance.

Be consistent in creating, publishing and promoting your podcasts:

Choose a strategic time and day to publish and promote your podcasts. Consistency is the best way to make sure your current listeners keep coming back for more. If you run 15 minutes episodes, keep your podcasts of 15 minutes only; if you post a single weekday say every Saturday, keep posting every Saturday. Listeners will make your show a part of their routine, and missing even one episode could break those habits and cause you to lose listeners, or have them doubt your consistency.

Create suspense:

Creating suspense is popular on both television and radio shows, but they’ll work to make your podcast more popular too. Before leaving listeners at the end of a podcast, drop a piece of new information, or leave one of your investigative threads untouched; invested listeners won’t have a choice but to tune in next week to get the answers for the suspense created.

Publish sneak previews:

Leading up to especially powerful or anticipated podcast episodes, consider dropping sneak previews; especially on your websites and social media channels. You might post an image that hints at the upcoming subject matter, a short video clip of a particularly interesting part of the podcast, or a clip of audio you created in the production process. In any case, it will get your listeners excited to tune in.

Make it easy to share your website posts:

Your website posts, including transcripts, summaries, and complementary content will function just like blog posts and so you desire those posts to be easily shareable. Include share buttons for all major social platforms to encourage more sharing, visibility, and discussion of your work.

Tips which are paid:

Create a website for your podcast:

Create a domain that you can use to host your podcast’s brand. Podcasting platforms just host your podcast, but having your own website would let you promote your own podcast with adding a detailed description, including new blog posts, including news, and also you can add links of your previous podcasts.

Choose a good podcast hosting platform:

Choosing a good podcasting platform is a must for promoting your podcasts. Listeners prefer using and listening on podcasting platforms which are well known, is optimized for different devices, has the latest and newest podcasts.

Further, a podcast hosting platform allows you to access analytics that is crucial to know about your podcasts, such as total downloads, downloads by day, and downloads by episode, technology being used by your listeners, and traffic sources for your listeners. Hence, make sure that you use the right podcast hosting platform.

Connect with other podcasts:

Make a short promo for your show and send it to other podcasters to promote. Podcast producers, in general, like promoting other good shows for money. Be sure to offer to promote other podcasters’ shows too. Also, being a guest on someone’s show and having guests on your show who also produce a podcast are good ways to get your name out there. This will bring you in front of their audience if the podcaster you connect with is popular in the niche.

Pay for initial advertising:

Consider paying for paid advertising on Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Snapchat Ads, Reddit Ads, and other advertising service providers to promote your podcasts. Your first listeners are going to be the hardest to get, so it’s worth the money you’ll spend to net early listeners.

Email your promotion:

You can purchase an email list of potential listeners from already well-known podcaster having similar brand and ideas as you. Emailing the launch of your brand and each podcast season or episode to your potential listeners or already subscribed listeners would help you promote your podcasts.

Syndicate your podcasts on social media and search engines:

Whenever you release a new episode of your podcast, announce it and syndicate it across your social media channels and search engines both on your main brand’s social channels and on the personal accounts of your podcast’s hosts. Consider scheduling announcements even a day or two after its launch to gain an audience.

Get personalized themes:

You could simply hire an animator to design your personalized theme, logo, background for your podcasts. You can even hire professional music composer to string a few unique notes that can serve as your introduction to music.

Invite guest hosts:

If you want a fresh injection of audience members, consider recruiting a host from another podcast to be a guest for one episode. They will be determined to participate as they will get money for it and even would be able to pitch their own podcast to a new audience, and they’ll probably attract a significant share of their own followers to listen to yours. It’s a great win-win situation for both you and your guest hosts.

Hire influencer to promote your brand’s podcasts:

Influencers have huge audiences, and if you can get their attention, you’ll earn at least a portion of that audience for yourself. Get an influencer’s to promote your brand’s podcasts or gain their attention by mentioning them on social media, highlighting a topic they are related or interested in, or talking about something they did or said on your own podcast, then inviting them to contribute on a future episode.

Co-advertise podcasts:

Work with other podcasters similar to you to share information and their listeners, followers or subscribers. At the end or beginning of your podcast, mention the other podcast and refer your listeners to it. In exchange, the other podcast would charge you some amount or ask them to do the same for your podcasting episodes or brand.

Conclusion –

Some of the above-mentioned tricks are simple and effective. Others will take time, efforts and a significant amount of money of work. No matter what your goals are or what resources you have available, you can use some combination of these tactics to market and promote your podcasts in 2019.

If you have any questions, or can think of any other promotion idea which is perfect for any and all types of podcasts, feel free to post them in the comments below.

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Erwin Cooper

a sound and video production expert who blogs about gadgets & accessories to help you select perfect equipment. The site is supported by commissions I receive from Amazon, please purchase items via my affiliate links to support me and this blog.