39:5 How to start a podcast – Promoting

How to start a podcast – Promoting

Introduction

Welcome to the Agency Trailblazer Podcast, this is your host Lee, and in today’s show we will look at launching and promoting your podcast.

Before we continue, I’d like to thank Cloudways for sponsoring this episode. Cloudways are the Managed Cloud Hosting service we trust with our mission critical projects. You can find out more on trailblazer.fm/cloudways.

Over the last four weeks we’ve unpacked how to plan and create your show. With all that hard work, you will be ready to launch.

In today’s episode we will look at:

• Pre-launch
• Launch day
• Ongoing episodic promotion
• Community building
• Marketing evolution

If you are joining part way through this series, head on over to trailblazer.fm/podcasting for all the episodes from start to finish. Remember you can download all these episodes as printable guidebooks if you’d like to follow step by step and make notes. Nothing like a pen and paper when you are planning your new project!

Pre-launch

TLDR; Get listed in the relevant directories. Promote via your existing marketing channels and also set a multi-day countdown on your social media. Finally leverage guests and other partnerships to promote.

In the days leading up to your podcast launch date you have a great opportunity to build momentum. Consider starting a countdown via social media building up to launch day itself. This builds traction and also holds you accountable for getting everything ready.

For the Agency Trailblazer Podcast we did a 30 day countdown campaign via Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. This allowed us to promote the podcast name, brand, website and the RSS feed URL that contained our “what to expect” episode.

We encouraged people to subscribe so as not to miss the first few episodes, and of course we asked our community to share and support us in any way they could.

As a pre-launch campaign this was very successful due to how generous and supportive people tend to be when you are launching a new project. It’s so much harder 6 years in to get people excited by a new episode of ours vs when we launched the original podcast. Use this time wisely!

If you have interviewed some guests, or have them lined up for an interview, ask them to get involved in the countdown too. They can re-share your posts or share thoughts of their own as you near launch day.

One regret I have is not building our email list during this time also, therefore if you can, ask people to join your mailing list to be notified as to when the first few episodes are live. Be sure of course not to flood them with email but to use it on launch day to ask for their support.

Remember: Make sure your podcast is listed with the key categories you wish to reach at least a week in advance of launch day itself to ensure you show up in the directories.

Launch day

TLDR; Get your content live, promote without going too crazy and remind yourself this will take some time to build traction. Ask for reviews to help build momentum with the directory algorithms.

On the day itself, show up! Get your first 2 or three episodes uploaded and make it available. Post on social media, host a live stream promoting it, email your list, get your friends colleagues and partners to share it.

Don’t be shy to ask for an honest review on Apple Podcasts from the folks that are following you and checking out your show. The more the merrier as I believe this helps you show up in the “New and noteworthy” sections of the podcast directory.

The first 2-3 weeks are a great opportunity to continue to promote and encourage reviews where possible. Of course, read the room and don’t harass folks, that can backfire, but where there are those in your community that love to support what you do, don’t be shy.

After the third week max you probably want to reign it back a little and head on into an ongoing promotion strategy. Again, read the room, I don’t know your audience.

Ongoing promotion

TLDR; Create a repeatable workflow for sharing your content via your selected marketing channels and stick to it. Monitor it over time. Make guest promotion a part of strategy if relevant. Don’t take on too much.

The podcasting industry is growing rapidly, with new podcasts popping up every day. The saturation of the market makes it more difficult for listeners to find your show, but there are some steps you can take to promote your new podcast that will help increase your exposure and attract a larger audience.

Having enjoyed the honeymoon period of launching the podcast itself you will want to look at developing a repeatable “episodic” promotion strategy. This means you promote each new episode each week.

Our workflow is:

1. Create episode
2. Get transcription done
3. Write show notes
4. Create a blog post
5. Create 3 visuals for social media
6. Create a 3 – 5 messages for social media
7. Schedule posts on social to promote
8. Email our mailing list of the latest version

Optionally we also:

1. Provide copies of images to guest for promotion
2. Create a content upgrade such as for this exact episode
3. Do paid social for the content upgrade in order to build audience

It is important to establish a regular promotion strategy that is manageable and measurable and then to stick to it. That means manageable within the resources you have available to you.

For example during a colleges maternity leave, I’ve been unable to do much of our promotion strategy and you can see it in the numbers. Our growth curve (a metric we are not too concerned about) has looked a lot flatter over the last 6 weeks.

I’ve had to do a much paired back approach for this short time in order to continue with basic promotion whilst not overwhelming myself. This is an important message. Whilst you don’t want to stunt the growth of your show, you also don’t want to overwhelm yourself. It begins to show in your output if you are no longer enjoying what you do due to the pressure.

Community building

TLDR; Build an online community of your listeners on the platform they show up on. For example a Facebook group. These will become your tribe.

To complement our listening community, we created a Facebook group in 2015. This was essential to our growth. Now boasting nearly 4000 members, we’ve a space we can ask questions and learn from our audience direct.

Whilst the group was very quiet in the early days, it built up over time through ensuring we included a call to action in our podcast for listeners to come and connect.

Podcasting can feel like one-way communication. You show up to a world of invisible listeners. Your group allows you to put names and faces to those listeners, understand your demographics better and build a better show.

Our Facebook group has become our core tribe driving the content we create, investing in our ideas and supporting our show through sharing and so much more.

Marketing evolution

TLDR; Ensure you maintain and evolve your marketing channels. Don’t do them all, select the ones you know you can do well. Test and monitor your results. Do more of what works.

This series is focused on allowing you to build and test your minimum viable product. We’ve focused on the essentials in order to validate your idea. If after a few months you believe there is an appetite for your type of show, consider pulling in other marketing channels.

Remember, downloads are a vanity metric. Your marketing should be focused on attracting quality listeners that engage with your content. After all it is these listeners that are more likely to become clients or invest in new products or services you release to help them.

Over the last 6 years our marketing channels have seen the addition of

• Repurposing
• Paid social media

To our overall marketing channels. We know we have the skill and capacity to do these to the best of our ability within the resources we have available. We can scale them accordingly too based on our own availability or the nature of the content we want to promote.

This means the only marketing we engage with is:

• Email marketing – to our existing list
• Social media – to gain new ears
• Guest promotion – when guests of the show promote their episode
• Community building – showing up in the group and offering value
• Repurposing – some podcasts into blogs or videos for cross linking
• Paid social media – for promoting some of our ebook content upgrades

This is still a lot of work and it’s so important to understand your why and the results you are looking for from what you do. Podcasting is not for everyone and if it’s not working out, test, iterate and if you still don’t get traction explore other avenues.

In closing

I’ve no reason to sell you on podcasting or dish up a course that will “guarantee success” or will “triple your income”. I am however interested in sharing in a practical way what I’ve learned as an agency owner with others in our industry.

A total of 5 hours a week are currently dedicated to all of the above, and the return on investment for us makes it so worth while.

Over the last few weeks we’ve shared how you can quickly get your show online and begin to build your audience. Next week we will be looking at monetisation options as your podcast begins to gain traction!

Say thanks

If you got value from this document, be sure to come and tell us in the comments on Episode 314.

If you REALLY feel like it, do us a solid and drop us a review on Apple Podcasts.