One of the most common items of advice given to those just starting a podcast is to have a few episodes ready before you even start broadcasting. And this particular advice reveals how important podcast promotion is – and how much energy needs to be devoted to it right from the start.
The reason it is wise to film, edit, and have ready several episodes before you even broadcast the first one is very simple – it gives you time to promote your podcast after the first episode has been uploaded.
This is important because, at the beginning, you’ll likely have a listenership of zero, but you’ll have material ready to go. The material is where the value of your podcast lies, the promotion you do in this early stage is how you get noticed.
And once you have actual listeners, you have everything you need to tailor the content to your audience, to spread word about the podcast, and to reinforce your brand as you go along.
There is one type of podcast where the approach is a bit different. This is a podcast hosted on an already live and popular site, one which already has visitors for other reasons. In these cases, you are not starting from zero.
Plurawl are a company specializing in clothing and prints for the Latino community – that was something already drawing a specific market base to their website. The Latino podcast they started later therefore had a head start, with a group of site visitors predisposed to listen to it already being present.
Nevertheless, promotion is still vital in such cases, and it is always more vital at the start. If this is a new thing you’re starting, nobody can judge it on previous form and therefore there follows the real work of convincing people to listen.
Is the Podcast Itself Worth Listening To?
When you have some episodes ready to go when you launch the podcast, you have material which people can check out. Nevertheless, all your promotion will be for nothing if it leads people to check out a podcast that doesn’t work. This can end up having a negative effect, with word spreading that the podcast is, well, not very good.
Accordingly, you need to think about your audience when you’re actually recording the episodes. Ensure that it is a niche not so large to be no niche at all but not too small to only attract a few dedicated listeners. This is something you will refine as you go along.
How to Promote a Podcast
Here follows then some strategies for promoting your podcast at the outset:
Look to Digital Marketing
The ecommerce revolution has completely changed marketing. It is now all about inexpensive marketing material which is shared virally around the web. That’s the jackpot. Targeted ads are one thing, but a shareable video with an entertaining excerpt from episode one of your podcast is the gold standard.
Feature Excerpts
And this can be an excerpt of the podcast itself, text which describes the podcast, and even video footage if you film it. If your marketing takes the form of actual podcast material and is shared about, that is a real win.
Reinforce Your Brand
Brands are typically visual, but when accompanied by a podcast theme or jingle, they can become audio too. Nonetheless, you should have an eye-catching logo and lots of good visuals for your podcast, such as a cover and an attractive hosting page.
For many podcasts, it is this early stage which is the real make or break moment. Once things get going, it is easier to keep them going.