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Podcasts are getting popular these days and marketers are leveraging them as a hot marketing tool. Podcasts are an excellent way to build a follower base so you can convey your message easily and ultimately convert your followers to customers. Pretty simple marketing funnel right? Creating quality content is the very first and foremost rule for podcasting. “How to make your podcast go viral” is a big question, given that virality is key to gaining a foothold.
Social media platforms are designed for visual and textual content so promoting your audio content on these platforms do require extra effort. If you want to make your podcast go viral and want it to reach out to a newer and broader audience, you’ll need a surefire strategy. Let’s start with the basics.
1 What Is a Podcast?
A podcast is a series of audio episodes a person can listen to or download to their personal device and listen to them any time anywhere. Be it a talk show, interviews, lectures, stories or something else; you name it and one or another podcast is there for you.
All your favourite shows, topics and blogs are available in the form of a podcast for you to download. So you can listen to it when you’re doing housework, or on the move. You are likely to get suggestions for what to listen to next. This way, you might also find and like some shows you’d never considered before.
Podcasters usually release their episodes on a weekly basis, but many creators publish daily podcasts. Listeners can subscribe to their channels to get a notification when a new episode comes out. All podcasters follow a very similar and easy format. Compared to other visual content, podcasts are easy to produce and don’t require much technical knowledge. The market is full of podcast editing software that can make the process of preparing podcasts a lot easier.
2 What Makes a Podcast Special?
You must be wondering, what’s so special about podcasts?
It sounds just like any other radio show. Right? But they're not the same. The major difference between a radio show and a podcast is that radio shows are usually live and pre-scheduled. Listeners have to remember the radio station and also the timing for their favourite shows. This is not the case with the podcasts. Subscribers can turn on the notification to get an alert about new episode releases, and they can download their favourite shows or episodes and listen to them at their convenience.
Convenience is the key here. Here are the major advantages of podcasts;
- Podcasts allow their listeners to multitask which usually is not possible with blogs and videos.
- Listeners can drive, exercise, do house chores or do any other work while listening to their favourite shows.
- Listeners have playback controls. So, they can choose their own pace and can control the timeline.
All these features make podcasts more enjoyable and audience-friendly
Now you know the basics and are ready to work harder to make your podcast go viral. Here, in this article, we have prepared a list of 10 proven strategies to promote your podcast. So let’s get started on how to make your podcast popular!
3 How to Make Your Podcast Go Viral?
3.1 Focus On Your Niche and Release Frequent Content
What are you good at? Do you like Jazz and want to share your knowledge about it with others? Or is reviewing the latest Netflix shows and movies more your speed?
Select your niche and do your research about it before starting your podcast. Share your knowledge with your listeners and create engaging and interesting audio content to keep them hooked.
Before launching your podcast channel, prepare a rough plan for your first 3-4 episodes. Write a script for them and start recording. Release at least 3 episodes on your launch day and keep them coming. Release fresh content regularly to keep your channel alive. It would be great if you can release new episodes daily. This will not only give your audience more content to interact with but also increases your chance to feature on iTunes’ “New & Noteworthy” section.
3.2 Invite Guests to Reach Out to Their Audience
Collaboration is the best strategy to reach out to a broader audience. Arranging an interview with a famous personality in your niche is the best way to cause a swirl. This could be anyone who has a strong following on social media or any other public platform. Or you can also invite a similar channel’s host for a special guest episode so you both can benefit from each other’s audience.
Don’t forget to share the link to these episodes with your guests. Ask them to share the episodes with their subscribers and followers. They would also love to let everyone know about their guest appearance. This will give your content more exposure and bring fresh listeners to your podcast.
3.3 Hype It up on YouTube and Other Social Media Platforms
Social media platforms are the perfect place to talk about your content. Here are some easy to follow ideas for your to promote your podcast on youtube and other social media platforms;
- Create a stand-alone image post featuring a quote from your guest and post that on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
- Prepare small snippets of your episodes or behind the scene videos on your youtube channel.
- Create dedicated posts for your guest episodes and publish them on all your social media platforms and don’t forget to tag your guest in those posts.
- You can also prepare a 15-second audio clip for your episodes and upload them on sound cloud.
- And do pin your latest episode on your Facebook and Twitter page.
With the correct use of social media platforms, you can definitely make your podcast go viral.
3.4 Create a Website
A website is important to market your podcast. It not only legitimizes your brand is also a means for your followers to connect with you directly.
You can repurpose your podcast content to convert them into blog posts or even ebooks and post them on your website. Also, use your website to promote your upcoming episode, to talk about your guests and their experience, or to update your listeners about the special updates. Many people search on Google instead of going to iTunes to listen to new podcasts. With some SEO efforts, you can rank your website high on Google Search Result Page and it will ultimately attract more traffic to your podcast.
Offer real and valuable content to your website visitors. You can use your website to build your email list. Email newsletters are the best way to connect directly with your subscribers and to update them about your new podcast episodes. A well-designed website can serve many purposes to make your podcast channel more successful.
3.5 Transcribe the Audio to Get the SEO Boost
Transcription not only makes your audio content more accessible to a broader audience but also helps you to get that extra SEO boost. You can also use the transcript as a blog post on your website or just use a small section of your episode and publish it. You can add links to your show in the content or can also include a lead capture form.
Content in blog post form is much easier to share than sharing a podcast. A blog post derived from your show transcript has a higher chance to go viral than your audio episode. Investing time into improving your SEO gives you the best chance of promoting your podcast and getting it noticed by new listeners.
3.6 Be a Guest on Other Podcast Channels
Is someone inviting you to their podcast as a guest? Don’t miss this chance to hint at your podcast channel and what you do! You can also arrange to interview them or promote a giveaway in a reciprocal gesture.
Becoming a guest on other channels gets you noticed and introduces you to a completely fresh target audience. The big plus here is that you do not need to create new content (unless the host specifically asks you to beforehand).
Many podcasters actively invite guests on their channels to talk about their niche. You can also reach out to other podcast channels to be a guest. This is the best strategy to establish yourself as a subject matter expert in your niche. As the host podcaster would already have active listeners in your target niche, there are great chances that they’ll also subscribe to your podcast if they like you. Pull off your best show to impress the new listeners!
3.7 Submit the Podcast to Podcatcher and Podcast Hosting Sites
Not everyone uses iTunes or Apple Podcast. If you are only focusing on these platforms, you are missing out on a huge number of listeners. To make your podcast go viral, you have to find every possible way to reach out to your potential listeners. There is no doubt that iTunes is the platform when it comes to podcasts. But there are several other platforms where you can share your podcast. These platforms are called Podcathers and Aggregators.
All you have to do is create a profile on these platforms and submit the RSS feed of your podcast. These platforms distribute your podcast and help listeners to discover new content. Here is the list of the top 10 most popular platforms where you can submit your podcast;
3.8 Partner With Other Podcasters to Get a Mention on Their Channel
The best way to get a mention on other podcast channels is by mentioning them on yours. The basic idea after this is if you are giving exposure to someone they’ll do the same for you. This is the most commonly used content marketing tactic. If you see any connection between you and other podcasters, you can just shoot an email and it will do the work.
Let’s say you have a dedicated show on “Business Start-up Growth” and someone is featuring top podcast channels on the same topic in their upcoming episode, you can reach out to them to introduce your podcast for the feature. And if you are mentioning some other podcaster on your channel, then don’t forget to let them know about their feature. So in future, they can also do the same and give you a shout out on their channel.
3.9 Run Giveaways
Who doesn’t like complimentary stuff and free gifts? Use giveaways to get more listeners and reviews for your podcast. Let everyone know about your giveaway on your website, social media or at the end of your podcast episode. Promote in all the possible platforms to get a good number of participation.
You can ask your listeners for a review or tell them to share about your podcast on their social media profiles to enter the giveaway contest. And at the end of the giveaway, you can choose a winner from the participants and gift them either one of your merchandise if you have any other offer and an e-gift card. Your podcast will definitely gain momentum by creating a positive image from the reviews. And social shares from all these participants helps you to build a stronger social presence.
3.10 Make It Big on Well-Known Podcast Platforms
If you want to stand out from the over two million podcasts out there, you must be more deliberate in how you diversify.
In order to receive a feature on a podcast platform's feature section, you need to publish frequently. This will increase your chances of being featured there and keep you there for a long time. The "New and Noteworthy" section on iTunes is the best example of this.
Are you wondering how do I increase my podcast viewership? Here is the answer. There are also big platforms that allow you to advertise your podcasts. For instance, Spotify Ad studio allows you to create and manage audio promotions. You can customize the ads based on your budget and run them on the platform to get more attention.
4 FAQs
4.1 How do I get my podcast noticed?
Post some engaging and useful content for your listeners is a great way on how to make your podcast popular. Offer them some valuable content and they will surely notice your podcast.
4.2 How do I know if my podcast is doing well?
If you are in the podcast charts, getting featured by iTunes or getting a good number of sponsor opportunities you can say you are doing good with your podcast. But if you are using podcasts to grow your business, the number of leads you are getting from this platform surely indicates if you are doing well or not.
4.3 How do podcasts go viral?
You can share your podcast on your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter profiles. Start sending newsletters to your mailing list with the link to your show and also include information about your new episode.
