How to get more people listening to your podcast
Bringing more listeners to your podcast is the mountain we all have to climb and unfortunately, there’s no single path to the summit (so please be wary of anyone who tells you there is).
There are plenty of things you can do to set your podcast up for success BUT even if you’re doing all of them well, it’s still no guarantee listeners will flood into your show.
So what can you do to increase your chances of getting more ears on your podcast?
Pay attention to the quality of your show
Podcasting is no longer the domain of bootstrapping novices recording a show in their echoey kitchen.
It’s a professional industry and if you want your podcast to attract and retain an audience you have to put serious time and effort into making it sound as good as it can.
That means planning your content, thinking about your audio quality and editing your podcast so you’re serving up the best possible version of your show.
Release episodes regularly
One of the biggest factors influencing podcast growth is consistency and most of the gains you’ll see in your downloads will happen slowly over time.
This isn’t what most people what to hear but if you want people to commit to your show long-term you have to commit to them.
That means if you’ve said you’re going to drop episodes every Tuesday morning you need to be there every Tuesday morning so your listeners know they can rely on you.
When an audience knows when to expect your content they’ll start to anticipate it and when they start to anticipate it, that’s when they’ll start moving from listeners to fans.
Once they’re fans they’ll start telling other people about your show and that’s still one of the most powerful ways to grow your podcast audience (even if it’s a slow burn).
So it’s worth putting in the work to get people to that point.
Be creative with how you promote your podcast
No one is going to know about your show unless you tell them about it so you have to get in the habit of promoting each episode multiple times.
Sometimes it’ll take posting about your show 20 times before someone sees it, or before they finally decide to give it a try.
So sending a single tweet when your episode drops isn’t going to cut it.
Being creative with how you promote your show and trying to come up with different angles for each episode means you’ll increase the chances of someone being interested enough to press play.
To do that you need to come up with as many different ways to share your content as possible…
Create audio promos
Cutting up audio snippets and sharing them on social media gives people a way to hear what they’re going to get rather than you just telling them “Trust me! It’s great!”
For example, here’s one of the promos I used for my interview podcast, You’ve Gotta Start Somewhere….
I’d create as many of these as I could and share them across social media the week the episode was released and in the weeks and months that followed.
That way there were heaps of opportunities for people to hear something in the episode that might pique their interest.
Create interesting social media images and videos
There are so many websites where you can create images, videos and audio cards that are way more interesting than just sharing your show logo with a link.
Audiograms are a great way to feature a small snippet of each episode and the moving waveform makes these posts stand out when people are scrolling through their feed…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjhZirLAcm5/
Quote tiles are also a great way to feature a guest by highlighting something interesting they’ve said in the episode.
These are especially good if you’ve got someone on your show people will recognise…
And when you’re making content don’t forget about your reviews too because they’re great social proof for new listeners…
Here are a few of my favourite sites for making content…
Wavve & Headliner – Tools that turn audio highlights of your show into shareable social media videos.
Canva – An easy-to-use site that helps you create images for all your social media platforms.
Hypetype – An app that creates moving text photos.
Submit your show to the features section of podcast apps
A lot of people find new podcasts through the features section of podcast apps.
Some apps have submission portals where you can submit your podcast for consideration.
But don’t be fooled by people telling you there is a way to ‘trick’ yourself into getting featured because they’re curated by people, not algorithms.
To get featured you need to have a show that looks and sounds great and then let the apps know about it.
Get to know your audience in Facebook groups and forums
Be warned this is a long-term strategy and these groups are often better for content ideas than for sharing your show BUT that doesn’t mean they can’t help with promotion.
Jumping into a group or a forum for the first time and pumping out links to your podcast, or anything else for that matter, is frowned upon because cultivating a relationship with people in these groups takes time.
Members need to see you offering advice, sharing content or making comments without the expectation of anything in return before they’ll trust you.
Having said that, a lot of Facebook groups have specific days you’re allowed to share things you’re working on so that can be a great opportunity for promotion. Especially if the people in your group are your potential audience.
People often expect these groups to be the answer to all their audience problems but I find a better way to use them is as a source of content.
People often post questions or talk about things they’re struggling with and this can be a great place to get ideas for your show.
Don’t forget hashtags
Using hashtags when you share your podcast can help get it in front of people who might not know you personally but are searching for content in your niche.
Make sure you research which hashtags suit your podcast best, so you can expand your reach outside your own social feed.
Get everyone you know to listen, review and rate it
When you release your first episode, make sure you send a blanket email to everyone you know asking them to rate and review it.
And continue to do this once you’ve launched the show by encouraging your audience to rate and review it as well.
These ratings make sure when people stumble across your podcast, there are plenty of positive comments to reassure them it’ll be worth their time.
Don’t forget about SEO
It’s important to do everything you can to increase your podcast’s chances of turning up in search.
That means you need to think about including keywords in your show title, description and show notes pages.
An easy way to do this is by transcribing your episodes and including the transcript in your show notes.
When you do this all the important keywords that are usually hidden in the MP3 file are there on your website ready to be found by Google.
If you’re thinking “I’m not going to sit down and type out my episodes!” Fear not!
There are plenty of services on the internet that do the hard work for you…
Be warned, these platforms aren’t foolproof and you still need to go through and edit the copy so it doesn’t sound like a robot wrote it.
You also want to make sure your show notes pages and episode descriptions are more than just a copy and paste of your show transcript.
This could be how people find your show if they’re coming via Google so you want to make sure the copy is compelling enough to convince them to give it a try.
Bring on high-profile guests
Getting high-profile guests on your show with a large social following can be a good way to grow your audience but the truth is you can’t rely on that to bring in the crowds alone.
Getting new listeners through another person’s social account depends on how engaged and interested their audience is and just because someone wants to see someone’s posts on Instagram doesn’t mean they want to listen to them on a podcast.
I’ve had people with huge followings on my show and it’s barely moved the needle. But then sometimes you’ll have someone with a smaller following of really engaged people and it will make a difference.
It’s a great thing to have in the mix but it’s not a silver bullet.
Be patient
The most important thing to remember when trying to grow your podcast audience is that it’s a long-term goal and you have to keep chipping away at it.
You will get there evenutally but as with everything, it takes hard work and dedication.
Got a burning podcasting question you’d like answered? Send me an email.
Want to start your own podcast but need a little help? Download my “How To Start A Podcast” guide or sign up for my online podcasting course, PodSchool.
Lots of gold nuggets here. Really love your articles and your honest perspective. Thanks
Thanks so much for these articles – have just spent an hour on here reading to prep myself for the release of the new series of my podcast. Very useful.