How to Get Listeners: The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Podcast
10 minutes to read
Over the past few years, podcasts have become one of the most prominent forms of media consumption, whether listeners tune in on their morning jog, afternoon commute, or while they cook dinner.
In fact, according to Podcast Insights:
- 50% of all US homes are podcast fans (Nielsen Q3 2017).
- Podcasts reach over 100 million Americans each month (Infinite Dial 2020).
- 16 million people in the US are “avid podcast fans” (Nielsen Q1 2018).
Podcasts come in all shapes and sizes, from indie to network-produced, and they cover virtually every possible subject — including popular genres such as self-help, comedy, true crime, and (you guessed it) the legal industry.
They allow for subject matter experts to not only share their own insights and experiences, but also gives them an opportunity to invite other great minds for electrifying, thought-provoking conversations that can inspire, promote change, and sometimes make you say, “ah-ha!”
Since launching The Game Changing Attorney Podcast back in March, we’ve made it our mission to bring new perspectives from industry leaders to our audience while having a little fun too.
We found that our audience and beyond could benefit from the insights, stories, and guidance of market-leading trailblazers who have proven track records of success and a wealth of knowledge to share with hungry individuals on the road to prosperity.
While rewarding, it has also been quite the challenge as this is our first podcast and a brand new avenue for us to expand to. We’ve learned an exponential amount about producing content that is relevant and impactful for our audience.
But what’s a good podcast without a solid promotional strategy?
Luckily, since Crisp’s roots are based in digital media and marketing, we had a bit of a leg up on what that should look like. However, the fact of the matter is that so many other fantastic podcasts go unnoticed due to a lack of a roadmap that will equip them to reach listeners and get the word out.
If you’re brand new to the medium and have no idea where to start, we’ve got your back.
In this post, we’ve compiled a bevy of different tips you can follow to help with promoting your podcast and building your loyal following:
- Promote Your Podcast on Social Media
- Promote Your Podcast with Guest Networking
- Promote Your Podcast with Email
- Transcribe Your Podcast Audio and Create Show Notes
- Get Podcast Ratings and Reviews
- Appear on Other Industry Podcasts
1. Promote Your Podcast on Social Media
It’s pretty obvious in this day and age that social media is the number one medium to easily share content with those who share similar interests with you or those who are simply within your network.
We leverage social media in a variety of ways for podcast promotion, honing in on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube in particular.
Sure, a standalone post about a new episode is great, but your audience is much more likely to listen if they’re given a taste of what’s in store — that’s where posting supplemental podcast content comes in handy.
We do this for The Game Changing Attorney Podcast by sharing impactful quotes pulled from the episode, as well as audio or video “bits” that provide a micro-experience of what the full episode has in store. We’ll get into detail on how you can do that below.
Promote Your Podcast with Graphics
A simple, surefire way to get the word out about your podcast is to deck your social media pages out with graphics promoting the upcoming featured guests.
For our podcast, we update our company Facebook page banner to reflect what’s coming up in the current month, including the guests and release dates for each episode. Check out our promo graphic for August below:
Promote Your Podcast with Audio Sneak Peeks
Utilizing audio “bits” is a fantastic way to promote your podcast by giving potential listeners a bite-sized tidbit of what’s to come in each episode. In order to do this, pull relevant clips from your podcast that are under a minute, then release them as individual social media posts.
For each episode, we usually pull four to six soundbites and publish them on a consistent basis the following week to ensure our audience has multiple opportunities to interact with and listen to each clip.
The best way to keep organized when pumping out large amounts of content of this sort is to utilize a publishing calendar that keeps track of when to publish, which platforms to use, as well as any other details that are important to note.
Taking things a step further, you can up your social media content game by turning to a scheduling platform that can optimize the process and make things a bit easier than just using a spreadsheet.
Consider looking into social scheduling tools such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Falcon.
To get a sense of what these “bits” look like, check out this example used for Glen Lerner’s recent episode (now available to stream!):
Promote Your Podcast with Quote Cards
Another great and simple way to pull supplemental content from a podcast episode to use as a promotional strategy on social media is creating graphics from stand-out quotes uttered by a guest or host.
The reason behind this is that visuals tend to grab the attention of the average user as they scroll through their feed. A strong image using eye-catching graphic design elements paired with discussion-prompting social copy is ideal for generating buzz and elevating engagement on your podcast’s page.
The trick to this strategy is to make sure each quote card is short, easy to digest, and memorable. Seriously, no more than a few words! Format each quote card using an eye-catching template, and you’ve got enough content to last you for the week.
Above we’ve included a great example from trucking attorney Joe Fried’s featured episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast to give you an idea of what this looks like.
Promote Your Podcast with Trailers
What better way to get your audience PUMPED for the newest episode than a hyped-up cinematic trailer?
Each week, we share a short video with our audience to get them acquainted with the featured guest. It adds a little extra “oomph” to the build-up surrounding the release and gives an inside look at what is to come.
Here’s a great example from a recent podcast episode with Scribe CEO JT McCormick:
2. Promote Your Podcast with Guest Networking
Since The Game Changing Attorney Podcast launched, Crisp Founder & CEO Michael Mogill has had the opportunity to pick the brains of some of the nation’s most prominent industry leaders, including John Morgan, Cy Wakeman, Josh Linkner, and many more.
Guest networking isn’t just vital to ensuring you have engaging content featuring guests who align with your brand — fully leveraging this strategy can exponentially increase the reach of your podcast. For example, when you break down the numbers, you’ll see that each of the guests we mentioned above has amassed 500K+ followers on social media and beyond.
Imagine the reach a podcast episode could have if each of them shared their episode with their followers.
Now, that’s what we call having an impact.
You can even take it a step further by creating a structured media kit for your featured guest. When we send one out, it usually includes pre-written social media copy and relevant links to all streaming platforms and websites.
This way, it makes sharing a no-brainer and allows your guest to take the guesswork out of what to say.
Here’s an example of what this looks like via recent guest Josh Linkner’s official Facebook page:
3. Promote Your Podcast with Email
One of the great things about having a strong email list is the ability to share relevant resources with your audience of subscribers — like your newest podcast episode, for example.
The best way to leverage this strategy is by working a few different approaches into your overall email marketing strategy. When we drop a new episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, we don’t just send out a one-off email alert.
Instead, we send a release day email out, include links in our digital newsletters, and even use our favorite episodes as a long-term nurturing tactic to turn prospects into leads, and eventually clients.
The trick to this is to use a variety of different language and wording to pull your audience in and keep the content fresh and relevant. We’ve found it helpful to take an anecdotal approach to tell the story of our featured guest, or sometimes it’s best to use some compelling copy that provokes action to get them engaged.
Here’s an example of a new episode announcement email, followed by a snippet of an email newsletter that features a podcast episode to give you a better idea of what this looks like:
4. Transcribe Your Audio and Create Show Notes
Every episode we release is first transcribed in full. You can easily do this through a service such as Otter or Rev.
Once we have the full transcript, we’ll listen along and pull out the most important highlights from the episode. Each blurb includes a title and timestamp of where in the audio it takes place so that a listener can easily find it for themself.
Fondly referred to as “show notes,” they can be found at the bottom of each episode page. It’s an easy way to get a potential listener hooked and interested by providing a readable sneak peek of what the episode is all about.
PLUS, publishing show notes or transcripts absolutely helps your SEO ranking, which in turn will allow your podcast to gain listeners through organic search.
We’ve gone ahead and pulled an example of what these look like from America’s Lawyer Mike Papantonio’s episode:
5. Get Podcast Ratings and Reviews
Do NOT underestimate the power of the people.
Think about it this way: if you were looking to buy a set of mixing bowls on Amazon, you’d want to make sure they are exactly what you need before taking the jump and hitting the “purchase” button. You’d most likely go for the option with the five-star rating — the one with a variety of honest feedback to help you make the best choice.
It’s the same thing with promoting a podcast. Ratings and reviews provide powerful social proof that you not only know what you’re talking about, but you also have the ability to deliver it in a way that’s better than any of your competitors.
While this sounds good in execution, it’s easier said than done. It is important to realize that a lot of times, an incentive strategy is needed for those reviews to start rolling in.
Fear not! A super-easy way to make this happen is by doing a giveaway or contest of some sort on your social media pages. For example, if listeners leave a review for the podcast, they can be entered to win a swag bag of merch from your brand.
This part is pretty fun — get creative with it!
Here’s an example of our most recent giveaway contest:
6. Appear on Other Industry Podcasts
When a celebrity has a new movie out, they’ll usually make an appearance or two on Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, walk the red carpet at the premiere, or even date their co-star for a little extra publicity.
As a podcast host, you don’t have to do quite that much. However, there is a benefit to making your rounds as a guest on other podcasts.
Not only are you making incredible connections with professionals who have similar interests and goals as you, but you are also introducing yourself and your brand to their audience while also promoting your podcast.
This give you the opportunity to share your expertise and artfully plug your show to potential listeners — it’s a win-win for everyone!
See what we’re getting at here? The more appearances you make, the more potential your podcast has of expanding its audience.
Host of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast Michael Mogill has used this approach and forged invaluable professional relationships as well as acquired many new listeners from his appearances on The Law Entrepreneur with Neil Tyra and The Jim Paisley Podcast with Jim Paisley — among many others.
Final Thoughts
As you can probably see, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for promoting a podcast to Joe Rogan-level superstardom. While one approach may work for someone, it completely flops for another.
It takes grit, trial and error, and one hell of a unique selling point to be seen and successful in the digital sphere.
We hope that you’ll take some of these strategies to heart and that they empower you to bring your podcast to new heights.
And hey, while you’re at it — check out The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, now available to stream anytime on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and the official podcast website.
