June 29, 2020 Podcast Marketing: 50 podcasters share the tactics they used to grow their shows

Launching a podcast is both terrifying and exhilarating! You aren't sure what to expect and probably feel insecure about your first few episodes. But after a few weeks, you start to become more confident that starting your podcast was a good idea after all. Once you've got a few episodes under your belt, it's common to experience a sort of "sophomore slump." This slump happens when you continue to publish high-quality episodes, but your audience isn't growing at the same rate that it was when you first started. And while there are many opinions about the best way to grow your podcast audience, you're interested in what's working right now for independent podcasters just like you. "How are everyday podcasters building their audience and finding success?" To answer this question, we spoke to over 200 Buzzsprout podcasters on the tactics they have used to achieve success. Here are 50 of their best marketing tactics on how to grow your podcast. Pro Tip: Make sure your show is available in all the major podcast apps such as Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes), Google Podcasts, and Spotify to name a few.



This will ensure that any potential podcast listeners can easily find your show whether they listen on an iPhone, Android device, or desktop computer. Produce a Great Podcast This may seem obvious, but you are not going to grow your podcast unless it is, well, good. Here are some tips to help you create high-quality episodes that will resonate with your listeners: 1. Love Your Topic “Ultimately I believe your ambition and passion for any project is what truly sets apart from other shows that just “upload episodes” every week. People recognize when you truly care about something and that is what raises growth. If you care, they care.”

- Kirk, Kicking it With Kirk 2. Do Your Research “You have to make great content from day one. One way to do this is to follow your own taste in podcasts, and then investigate how those podcasts are made. Reach out to them. Email the hosts and the producers. Ask about gear, interviewing, and all the nuts and bolts. Figure out how you can get as close to their level of production as you can on your own level of resources, and then try and do that every single episode.”

- David, You Are Not So Smart 3. Go Deep “There are a million podcasters out there (and more each day). To stand out you must either have a deeper knowledge base than your competition in your niche or a far deeper (and genuine) curiosity—but preferably both.”

- Dov, Leadership and Loyalty 4. Focus on Quality “Create consistent high-quality content and focus on making it good instead of worrying about growing it first. Unless you have a professional sound engineer helping you, your quality is going to need work and the only way to improve it is through practice and a lot of trial and error.”

- Tun, Art Grind Podcast Learn More: We recommend using Auphonic to polish your episodes for better audio quality. Learn how to use Auphonic by reading our step-by-step guide. 5. Be Timely “Look for hooks or pegs to hang each episode on, preferably in advance—but if a suitable hook becomes apparent later, that's fine too. A good question to ask is, ‘why should anyone listen to this episode now?’ Of course, it doesn't have to be for each episode, but the more the better. The more timely and relevant an episode or guest is, the more likely someone is to listen and share it."

-James, Archipalago 6. Hook Them in First 60 Seconds “Some people, including me, will click off a podcast if I'm not sucked in within the first 60 seconds. This is hard to accomplish but over time as your audience grows, having conversations with your audience will allow you to narrow in on what keywords, format, and style your audience is most attracted to."

- Erma, Elevatd Life

24. Cross-Promote With Guests “When we have guests on, the guest generally promotes their appearance to their social circle as well. Episodes where we've had guests generally have double the plays, and we see increased plays continue slowly over time after guest appearances.”

- Chris, Detroit Arcade Club 25. Implement Email Marketing “Every time I publish a new podcast, I send an email to everyone in my email database to announce the podcast. I include information about the podcast in my quarterly newsletter as well as my weekly email to my database.”

- Allison, Middle Aging 26. Add Calls To Action (CTAs) “Include one specific call to action on each podcast episode to create interaction with your listeners.”

- Juliette, The Unwritable Rant 27. Hand Out Business Cards “I have designed and ordered some business cards with a QR code on them to hand out to businesses and people locally. The QR code takes them to our podcast website.”

- Aaron, Pilgrim’s Digress Learn More: Check out this this article to learn how to make professional business cards for your podcast. 28. Send Press Releases “Every time I publish a new podcast I send out press releases to local media outlets explaining what the episode is about to see if I can get some media coverage.”

- Allison, Middle Aging 29. Collaborate With Other Brands “My podcast is very focused on its audience—Atlanta based creative professionals looking to grow their career and craft. I’ve tapped into partnerships with other focused brands, like CreativeMornings/Atlanta, design agencies, and other networking associations. I’ve also tried to book well-known guests, knowing they will likely share the episode with their audience.”

- Blake, The Creative Rising Podcast 30. Create a Media Kit “We created a media kit with information about us and our podcast. Next, we developed a database of organizations that represent the targeted demographic we wanted to reach. We sent the media kit with links to our episodes and asked people to share the podcast.”

- Justin, Category Is… 31. Create a Website for Your Podcast “We set up a website and are asking listeners to subscribe so we can send them notifications when we release a new episode.”

- Rene, The Rough and Real Podcast Learn More: Did you know you get a free podcast website when you host with Buzzsprout? See what sets Buzzsprout podcast websites apart.

32. Leverage Blogging to Maximize Your Reach “We publish a linked article to our podcast in a blog post each week. We try to leverage our established Wordpress blog to drive traffic to the podcasts. We always link to relevant articles on the blog from the podcast so that interested listeners can see the medieval churches that we discuss.”

- Dennis, Light & Stone 33. Do Live Recordings “I do live podcasts so that I can repurpose them. I record live, and then edit and upload for rebroadcast. It has been very successful and our live podcasts have been the most listened to episodes.”

- Tanya, Mom Your Business 34. Sell Merchandise “Creating a really catchy merch item like a hat, tote bag, or shirt with the name of our podcast begs passersby to ask about our podcast and start the conversation.”

- Cate, Gift of Gab with Cate and Kenya Pro Tip: Do a podcast merch giveaway to reward listeners that promote or tweet your podcast to their followers. Use Social Media One of the fastest ways to connect with your audience and introduce your podcast to new people is through social media. That being said, it's not something that happens automatically. You can spend hours of time posting, commenting, and tagging with nothing to show for it. Here's how to do social media the right way: 35. Post on a Multiple Channels “There’s no such thing as social media overload. We make sure to post on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as often as possible. We are a fantasy football podcast, so news is released regularly from around the league. By acting as a reliable source of up-to-the-minute information, our followers get access to content outside of the podcast. It also helps bring attention from people on Instagram who may not have come across our podcast.”

- Rob, Fantasy Suits Podcast Learn: Still working on your social media strategy? Check out our guide on how to promote your podcast on social media. 36. Post Regularly “Aim to post on social media two times per day on all the channels you are using: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. You can also post stories or post in groups. Whatever it takes to interact with your audience.”

- Rodilson, GuiaKast 37. Share Teasers “We have started releasing a teaser each week with our episode. We take a 30-60 second cut of our favorite moment of the episode. We then chose a corresponding photo and post the audio and photo on Facebook and Instagram.”

- Max, Producing Innovation 38. Find Online Communities “Find social media communities where your podcast is hyper-relevant, and talk about the podcast there, regularly. Reddit communities; Facebook groups; LinkedIn groups: There are communities aligned with virtually every niche you can imagine. And if you're talking about that niche—especially if you're interviewing known stars in that niche—that community will be delighted to hear about your podcast when you tell them about it.”

- Simon, Exam Study Expert Learn More: Join the Buzzsprout podcast community on Facebook to get an idea of how you could start your own online community. 39. Interact With Listeners “Social media is a great place to gather reviews. Have a genuine appreciation for listener reviews and read them on the show or share them on social. This makes that reviewer feel appreciated and inspires a listener who loves a pat on the back to go ahead and take that time to write their own review.”

- Rob, Major League Eventing Podcast