Dramatically Increase Your Podcast Listeners

Podcasting has become the trendy new medium for entertainment and has never been easier to create. But the competition has also never been higher. How can you excel in such a crowded field? In this article, we will talk about its historic rise in popularity and explain how to promote a podcast, as well as increase podcast listeners!

Promoting a Podcast

The Rise of the Podcast

Chances are that you know someone who started a podcast or have had friends recommend their favorite podcasts to you. If so, you are not alone! Although podcasts were invented in 2004, they have never been as popular as they are now. The humble podcast’s meteoric rise is due to people being at home and looking for a more convenient way to consume content; and given those reasons, it’s a wonder that the trend has not taken off sooner. However, if you’re interested in getting in on podcasting but are worried that it’s too late, have no fear. There’s still plenty of time for you to get started, so continue reading if you don’t want to miss out! 

How Can I Join?

Starting a podcast may sound intimidating, but that may just be the easiest part. The whole process can be broken down into a few simple steps.

Deciding on the Podcast’s Theme and Name

This goes without being said, but you should choose to podcast about a topic you enjoy. Perhaps it will be about education, finance, or sports; but whatever it is that you choose, make sure that you are producing something of value, which can range from providing insightful information or comedic relief.

The name should also be original, reflect your personality, and be relevant to the topic at hand. This may seem hard at first, but just be patient and it will come to you! 

Anchor Podcast

Deciding on the Podcast’s Platform

Next you will want to decide on the platform. There are a variety of choices out there including Podbean, Blubrry, and Libsyn; but our pick for the best podcast platform is Anchor. Hosting an anchor podcast is very intuitive and virtually effortless. They provide you with cover art; background music tracks; voluntary monetization; straightforward analytics tools among other amazing features; and an easy way to distribute your podcast across multiple platforms like Spotify, Apply Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more. Best of all, you can host unlimited episodes for free!

Of course, you should do additional research because your needs may be more specific. You may not find it necessary to have all those features or maybe you value a certain brand over another because of personal reasons. Whatever the case may be, we just find that Anchor is the best for beginners. 

Did we mention that it’s free?

Deciding on the Equipment

If you only want to create a podcast for fun, then you most likely won’t need any fancy equipment like an expensive microphone or headset. In most cases, a quality laptop and a quiet room will do. However, if you want to take it more seriously, then you should consider purchasing higher-quality equipment. There are a number of microphones and other tools for all price ranges, so don’t worry too much about breaking the bank!

How to Promote a Podcast

How Do I Increase My Podcast Listeners?

Let’s say you picked the perfect name and topic, you bought all the right equipment, recorded an Anchor podcast with a stellar guest, and had a riveting conversation. Everything went swimmingly, but you aren’t getting the traction you thought you would. What now?

How to Promote a Podcast

Here are five different ways to increase your podcast listeners and engage your audience.

Network and Interact With Your Community

An easy and inexpensive way to promote a podcast organically is through interacting with your peers and relevant communities. You can have your friends and family listen to your podcast and support it by leaving reviews or sharing it with people they know. Once you have pursued this route, you can spread the word in groups, clubs, or communities you are a part of. For instance, maybe you are a part of a reading club and your podcast has to do with books. In this case, it would make sense to go to your reading group and tell them about your amazing podcast. Another way you can promote your podcast is through podcast communities. There are many out there on Reddit or Facebook groups that are for podcasters to support one another.

Implement Social Media Marketing

Another inexpensive way to share your podcast is through various social media channels. Social media marketing is a great way to promote any business. There are so many platforms nowadays, it would be a waste not to experiment with them all. Some of the most popular ones include Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Reddit, among others. It’s a great way to get organic reach as you can have your connections like and share it to their own.

As you go further, you may find that more of your audience is coming from say Facebook. Using analytical tools, you can better hone in on your demographic and focus more of your efforts on the platform they predominantly use. Or you can apply this method in reverse. If you already know who your target demographic is, then you can better pinpoint the platforms they may be using. For instance, if you’re targeting gen-z, you may want to focus your efforts on TikTok and Instagram. If your target demographic are millennials and older, you may want to focus primarily on Facebook and LinkedIn. Knowing your key audience is essential in knowing how to promote a podcast.

Increase Podcast Listeners

Utilize Best SEO Practices

Something that can be easily overlooked is the wording in regard to your podcast’s page. Do the headlines contain keywords? Are your podcast descriptions search engine optimized? Does your site have the proper SEO tags? These are all important questions to answer because they determine how easily someone can find your site. A website page that is optimized with the best SEO practices will rank well in search engines will rank well in search engines like Google or Bing. After all, the top listings on the first results page will get more views than the top ones on page five or six! 

Your page can be further specialized to an area using local SEO techniques, as well. For instance, if your podcast is about all things in New York City, you can search engine optimize your content to rank well in local searches in New York City. This way, you can further target your niche and increase podcast listeners.

All these techniques can be learned on your own, however if you want more immediate results, it may be best to consult a professional.

Start a Blog

Yet another cost-effective way to promote a podcast is by starting a blog, either on your podcast’s page or an external website. This would provide another channel for more traffic to flow to your podcast and further search engine optimize your site through link building. Creating valuable, long-form content is a great way to further target your niche audience, too. And after creating these articles, you can repurpose the content as shorter posts on various social media platforms. For instance, if your anchor podcast is about indie music, you can start a music blog that features your favorite indie artists and songs, as well as talk about upcoming concerts and events. Then you can take snippets from these articles and post it on your Facebook or Instagram page. This is a great way to further engage your audience and keep them involved between podcast episodes.

Blogs that also contain the right features such as sufficient article length, the right keywords, and link building can rank higher on search engines, which can serve to increase podcast listeners.

Purchase Digital Advertisements

The last and more costly way for you to generate a following is by purchasing digital advertisements. This is a very effective tactic if you know where your niche is. As referenced before in the social media marketing section, if you know who your target audience is, you can target these ads to reach them. Using Facebook’s Ad Manager or other analytics tools will serve you well, since you can see which ads are getting the most clicks or are generating the most traffic and which aren’t. While it can be costly up front, it has massive potential to pay off in the long run. Again, this is something you should be more strategic with so you don’t waste financial resources in areas that aren’t getting you much return.

How to Increase Podcast Listeners

Still Need Podcast Help?

If you have implemented all of the above tactics and you still aren’t gaining traction, don’t give up! It may mean you have to rethink your content strategy. If so, ask your listeners for their honest feedback and then adjust accordingly.

If your podcast episodes are perfect, but just aren’t getting views despite your best efforts, it may be time to call in some digital marketing experts. It’s possible your advertisements aren’t reaching the right audiences or your website and blog aren’t search engine optimized well enough. This option may sound expensive, but many firms will be flexible enough to work with your budget and their experience will make them well worth the initial price. 

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