PODCAST

How To Promote Your Podcasts
If you really want to succeed with podcasting then you need to spend the majority of your time on promotion. Yes you need to spend time creating high value podcasts that your listeners will love. But if you don’t promote your podcasts then you will only ever have a small listener base.
We recommend that you spend around 30% of your time on podcast creation and the other 70% on promotion. You can never have enough listeners so this is something that you need to work at all of the time. In this article we will provide you with some great ways to promote your podcasts.
Upload to the Podcast Directories
There are many podcast directories where potential listeners hang out looking for new content. The most popular by far is iTunes which accounts for around 70% of podcast listeners according to a major survey. So you must upload your podcasts on iTunes.
There are other popular podcast directories such as Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and SoundCloud. Upload your podcasts to all of these. Spend time finding other podcast directories by searching on Google.
Invite Guests and Leverage their Following
Identify guests that can add value to your podcasts and invite them for interviews. Some of these people have large followings and you can ask your guests to promote the joint podcast show you have created.
If you create a good podcast with your guest then some of their followers will want to listen to more of your podcasts. Influencer marketing can really work well for podcast promotion. Find influencers on social media and ask them to make a guest appearance in exchange for recommending your podcasts.
Use Social Media for Podcast Promotion
Whatever you think of social media it is a great way to get the word out about your podcasts. If you have your own social media accounts then make a post about each of your podcasts and encourage your family and friends to listen to them and leave you good reviews.
If your social media following is fairly small then you can run a Facebook contest for example to gain more followers and promote your podcast. People love getting things for nothing and the chance to win something valuable.
Identify the social media channels that best match your target audience. Instagram and Snapchat are for younger audiences whereas Facebook and Twitter tend to appeal to older audiences. If you are in a B2B niche and want to get the attention of businesses then you must use LinkedIn to promote your podcast.
Create Professional Cover Art for your Brand
We recommend that you create some stunning and appealing cover art for your podcast. You can use this on the podcasting directories and also on your other channels such as your website or blog and social media.
If you are not an expert with Photoshop then head over to Fiverr.com and pay someone with the talent a few bucks to create the cover art for you. With high quality cover art you will create a good impression for your podcast.
Get a lot of Positive Reviews
These days reviews guide people to take action or not. If you have no reviews for your podcast then this will put off a lot of potential listeners. When you first start out ask your family and friends to leave you a positive review on the different podcast directories. Ask your listeners to leave you a review in all of your podcasts.
How To Plan And Organize Your Podcasting

If you want to be successful with your podcasting then you need to be consistent. Your listeners will expect you to publish new podcasts on a regular basis and you will disappoint them if you don’t do this.
Not only that but you need to provide your listeners with the very best content that will help them to achieve their goals. The best podcasts are always planned and this is relatively easy for you to do.
You may hear some people tell you that the very best podcasts are created through “winging it”. This means that you create your podcasts on the fly without any planning or scripting. We believe that this will not produce the best podcasts as you are likely to forget some important points that you want to make due to the pressure of the recording situation.
Not only that, but podcasts created without a script tend to be full of mumbling with lots of “ums” and “ahs”. Your audience does not want to hear this kind of podcast. When you are just starting out it is especially important to plan your podcasts.

Using a Script for your Podcasts

It is really worth taking the time to write a script for your podcasts. When you are just starting out we recommend that you produce a full script which includes everything that you are going to say. When you use a full script like this you will not miss anything important and there should be a lot less mumbling.

The only downside with a full script is it can kill spontaneity. After a while of practicing with a full script you will soon get used to adding spontaneous elements to your podcasts and let your personality shine through.

The alternative to a full script is a “prompt” script. This is a script that just contains a series of pointers or prompts about what you need to talk about in your podcast. Once you have recorded a few podcasts using a full script you can try a prompt script to see how well you do with it.

Plan your Podcast Content

You need a plan of what you are going to cover in your podcasts. It should always be your aim to provide solutions to the problems that people are experiencing in your niche. If you need to conduct some research to answer these questions correctly then make sure that you do this.
The best podcasts always provide value to the listeners. If you stop doing that then you will lose your listener base so it is essential that you determine what subject you will discuss for each podcast and add value by providing useful tips and advice to your listeners.

Use a Calendar App to Plan and Organize

There is a reason why companies have used editorial calendars for many years – they work! So we recommend that you use a calendar to organize the content and recording of your podcasts. There are many calendar apps available but one of the best ones to use is Google Calendar.
Google Calendar is free and you can use it to specify when you need to research and create the content for your podcast. You can add descriptions and notes to calendar events and you can even attach files. Remember that you need to adhere to a regular publishing schedule so using a calendar app will help you to do this.