Growing Your Listener Base

Every podcast producer has the goal of obtaining growth in the form of quality and quantity.  One of the main determinates of your podcast’s success is its listenership.  Achieving a large audience can be difficult and success is not always guaranteed.  Laying the groundwork may be required so utilizing any or all of the methods below will assist you in growing your podcast’s listener base.  

•  Network!  Network!  Network!  

  • One very easy way to grow your podcast is to network.  Reach out to others in the podcasting community, maybe even some in your local community.  Don’t think of it as if you’re helping the competition but gaining access to their listener base and learning new tricks of the trade.  Tap into those contacts and interview one of them for your show.  It brings quality content and allows for cross targeting of audiences.  Who knows, a partnership may ensue in the future.  

• Maximize That SEO

  • Having your show easily accessible is crucial in an ever-crowded internet space.  One way to up your SEO game is to use the right keywords, titles, descriptions and content.  Having your podcast featured first one Google means it will most likely be seen first.  This could attract more first-timer listeners growing your audience.  The key here it to optimize your podcast for both typical Google searches and for the search engine for each respective podcast directory it’s listed on.  This means including target keywords in your podcast name and description, as well as each individual episode’s name and description. 

• Interact with the Internet!

  • Having a successful podcast is certainly something that’s not easy to do alone.  Lucky for you, there is an abundance of amazing community platforms available online that can be used to network, converse, and discuss.  You can also use these platforms to interact with your listeners, gain potential new listeners, and even meet future possible guests.  Don’t just spam people like crazy but try to build real connections.

• Effectively Use Social Media

  • One of the most important ways you can gain exposure for your podcast is to let people know about it on social media.  Don’t get lost in the production side of the podcast and not spend any time on the promotion.  Social media can be used effectively to grow your listeners.  Most of them are already on social media and it’s easy to share your show with other people.  Post about things other than just new episodes like giving sneak peak of future episodes using Facebook or Instagram Live or condense your episode and turn it into a summary video on YouTube.  The point is having your podcast out in as many formats and platforms as possible is a great may to discover new listeners and draw them in by new things.

• Encourage Listener Interaction

  • Podcasting is such a great medium because it allows your audience to listen regularly.  It’s a personal connection where they feel like they’re your friend because they know you.  One way to foster this interaction is to encourage your listeners to ask questions through social media and answer them during a podcast episode.  This not only strengthens the bond and trust your audience has with you but gives you insight into what they want.  If your show doesn’t cater to what your listeners want, they will eventually leave.  Also, you can encourage listener interaction through setting up a forum online (Facebook group, Subreddit, etc.).  This allows them to participate in discussion on a much deeper level about the podcast’s topics and gives them a stronger connection with you as the host.

• Market Your Podcast

  • When it comes down to it, the most important thing you can do for your show to gain listeners is to market it.  This is simply letting people know that you have a show and what it’s all about.  Some ways to help with your marketing would be to set up supplemental blog posts.  They can either be as an example a short summary of the episodes or an even deeper discussion on each one.  Also, aligning yourself with other brands can be very useful.  You have the possible opportunity to interview someone of influence on your podcast and tap into their valuable customer base (potential listeners).  Promote new episodes through your own social media channels while having the person(s) of influence do it through theirs as well.    

Podcasting is such a valuable medium to share information with the world. Growing your reach is no easy task but with the steps discussed above, I hope to make it easier and more effective.    You obviously have something to say so why not allow people to hear it.