Podcasting has taken the internet by storm and in many ways is becoming just as relevant, if not more so, than traditional media sources like print, radio and television. Yet, if you’ve ever tried to start your own podcast, you know getting the word out about what you’re doing and building an audience can be a challenge.
Red Shoes Inc. has spent the last year building its own podcast, Sole Source. It’s a roughly 30-minute weekly show that discusses current events and pulls in experts to take a deeper dive into issues facing the world today. In under a year, Sole Source has brought in nearly 2,500 downloads from all across the globe.
The show has been promoted via word-of-mouth, shared by its guests and their audiences and of course on social media, but now as Sole Source prepares to launch into its second year, we’re looking at a whole new set of ways to promote the show. Here are a few methods we’re looking at and how they could work for you too:
- Running a giveaway contest on a podcast, similar to what you hear on TV and radio stations is a great way to draw in listeners. Who doesn’t like free stuff? Offering free items or a discount for a certain number of listens, downloads or reviews can be a powerful tool to build an audience and grow a podcast.
- Paid ads and sponsors continue to be one of the primary ways podcasts bring in income. Many times, podcast ads are much cheaper than traditional radio or TV ads, so they can have an allure to the right customer. Make sure the company or product you are promoting aligns with your show and you can have quite a bit of success with ads.
- Another way to promote a company is with discount codes. Having a company that you are promoting a product for that has a discount code offers a great way to track your show’s individual results on their business, service or product you are working to promote. This is because that promo code is directly linked to your show, so when people use that specific code, it’s obvious where it came from.
- Search engines are powerful tools, and you want your podcast to be at the top of the page when people are searching for topics related to what you talk about. This means SEO optimization is critical. Use targeted keywords and phrases in each episode, in the titles and in the descriptions to maximize SEO and reach more potential listeners with your episodes.
- Leverage blog content to promote your podcast. This tactic is similar to what we’re doing here with Red Shoes’ blog. By writing a blog about how to promote a podcast we are not only creating educational content for our blog and its readers, we are also able to promote our podcast within the blog.
- Podcast swag is one more way to bring in extra cash. You can sell merchandise with your podcast logo on it and host an online store where people can buy products to promote your show. This not only brings in revenue, it can also raise awareness of your show as people will be walking around sporting your logo.
These are just a few ways to continue to grow your audience on a podcast. It’s important to know there is no number or metric that constitutes a great podcast. You cannot compare a podcast started by a smaller company with a podcast started by a celebrity because those two shows will not have the same following right off the bat. With enough consistency, interesting guests and quality episodes, it’s possible to get there.
To hear Red Shoes Inc.’s podcast, Sole Source, visit https://solesourcepodcast.buzzsprout.com/.
