how to grow a podcast

^{How to Grow Your Podcast}

• Publish early, publish often. Give your audience what they want — more episodes of your podcast. ...
• Share your hard work. Tap into your existing network by sharing your new episodes on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. ...
• Be our guest. Appearing as a guest on a friend’s podcast is another way to introduce a whole new audience to your show.
• Put your audience to work. Don’t be shy about asking your listeners to leave you a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. ...

How to create a podcast [plus how to grow and monetize]?

With that in mind, there are steps you should take to make it a successful one, including: Identifying your goals for each episode Creating an outline Keeping it simple Building a story

How to go about starting a podcast?

• Choose a topic you’re passionate about and you’ll stick to
• Research your target audience to come up with a plan for your show
• Decide on your podcast title, description, and artwork
• Buy and setup your equipment
• Prepare for recording your first episode
• Record your first episode
• Edit and publish the episode
• Launch and promote your podcast to the world!

How to boost your podcast?

• Whitney Johnson is a former Wall Street equity analyst and the CEO of Disruption Advisors.
• In her new book, she explains why individual growth is the key to company growth.
• The "S curve of learning" is a key tool for tracking and sustaining smart growth, Johnson says.

How to grow your online audience with a podcast?

How to grow your podcast audience

• Get to know your audience. Before you commit to any particular growth strategy, try to narrow down your intended audience. ...
• Connect with your listeners. Once you’ve identified your audience, it’s time to bridge the gap and reach out to them. ...
• Create additional content. ...
• Welcome a guest. ...
• Put yourself out there. ...
• Create a Trailer. ...
• Track your stats. ...

What makes a podcast grow?

While you may be thinking, “My podcast is for everyone!” keep in mind the key to growing your listeners is to find your niche. Rather than casting a wide net, pinpoint the unique value your podcast brings to the world and consider the audience who is most likely to listen to (and benefit from) your show.

How do I get my podcast popular?

On this pageLeverage your guest's audience.Promote on social media … in a dozen different ways.Release at least 3 episodes on launch day.Convert the audio to a YouTube video.Submit your podcast to podcatchers and aggregators.Transcribe the audio.Throw a two-week ratings party.Run a giveaway contest.More items...

How do I grow a podcast from nothing?

14 Ways to Grow a Podcast AudienceBe strategic with your show's name.Plan out your content.Prepare a launch promotion plan.Set up cross-promotions with other podcasts in your space.Pay to promote your show on popular podcasts in your space.Set up a podcast tour for the host of your show.Don't sleep on SEO.More items...

How long does it take to grow a podcast?

How long does it take a podcast to grow? You should start to see podcast growth within the first 30 days of your launch, and your podcast growth should continue indefinitely month over month, even if it's a small amount. Slow and steady growth is a good thing in the podcasting space.

How do podcasts go viral?

A controversial or newsworthy interview can go viral if it's posted on a website … not on iTunes. There are just so many pros to having a fully functional website for your podcast. The website will help collect listener emails, but it will also be great for search engine optimization (SEO).

How do podcasts get listeners?

6 Tips to Increase Podcast ListenersCreate a Podcast trailer.Use Call to Actions.Promote your Podcast on social media.Repurpose your Podcast content.Podcast SEO.Invite guests and star as a guest.

Is my podcast successful?

Download numbers are one of the most obvious metrics for measuring the success of your podcast. Download stats are immediately accessible to you, from the minute you launch your first episode. Watching the numbers climb can be rewarding. Some might even say addictive.

What do podcast listeners want to hear?

74% of podcast listeners tune in to learn new things, while others listen regularly for entertainment, to keep up to date, to relax, and for inspiration.

Do podcasts make money?

Sponsorships are the most common way podcasters make money. This is when the podcast promotes the sponsor during the show. You probably hear your favorite shows plug their advertisers a few times in every episode. How much you earn from a sponsor depends on the number of downloads your episodes earn.

Is 10 minutes long enough for a podcast?

But the general theory of podcast episode lengths is simple. If you have 40 minutes of good, on-topic content, and your episode lasts 1 hour, then it's too long. If If you have 40 minutes of good, on-topic content, and your episode lasts 20 minutes, then it's too short.

How many words is a 30 minute podcast?

3000 words for 20 minutes episode. 4500 words for 30 minutes episode.

How often should you publish a podcast?

Weekly. A weekly podcast publishing frequency is great if you're covering trending news or have an interview-style or storytelling-type podcast. Publishing on a weekly basis is perfect for episodes over 30 minutes because it allows your fans time to actually listen to your episode and get excited about the next one.

Know who your listeners are

If you don’t have a clear vision of your listeners in your mind, then you’re doing something wrong. You have to know your audience before you can grow it! According to podcasting market reports, during 2021, the number of monthly US podcast listeners will increase by 10.1% to 117.8 million.

Make a website for your show

You’re going to need a place to link to other than podcast directories. So create a website to promote your episodes, provide information about you and who you are, link to your social media, and add a contact form. You want listeners to be able to dive deeper into who you are and be able to connect with you more.

Analyze the data and use it to strategize

Sometimes in order to figure out how to grow, you need to look at what is already working. So if you want to kick your podcast growth into overdrive, start looking at your data. Look at what episodes got the most downloads. Consider which episodes gained your show the most subscribers. Take all the data into account and do more of what is working.

Make the most out of SEO

Every podcast directory, like Apple podcasts, uses search engines to show listeners the best matches for their podcast interests.

Include a call to action at the end of every piece of content

If you don’t offer your listeners the opportunity to take action, then you won’t build a community with your audience. And there are a million reasons why building a community is key for growth, as explained in THIS episode of Pretty Smart.

Utilize social media

Promoting your podcast on social media is a super efficient way to notify your audience of the content you’re putting out. Plus it gives your audience a chance to share your content and do your marketing for you! So get creative. You can use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, TikTok, the list goes on and on.

Be consistent

Consistency is key to growth. Your audience needs to know when they can expect new content from you, and know that you’re serious about podcasting. If you don’t put out new episodes on some sort of schedule or consistent basis, listeners aren’t going to plan to tune in or have your show top of mind.

1. Dedicate 10-15 minutes every day engaging with your audience

This may sound very obvious but sometimes the solutions ARE obvious! Taking 10-15 minutes to engage with your audience on social media every day can make a big difference in whether or not that audience stays loyal to you.

2. Listen to your audience

Your audience will give you feedback, whether or not you listen to them. That feedback might be tough to hear but it’s necessary for growth. You want your audience happy so listen to their concerns and be open to them. Many podcasters simply don’t do this but the ones that do can make fans for life.

3. Network with other podcasters

The podcasting community is a friendly one and if you want to get noticed, you’ve got to play nice. Don’t think of other podcasts as your competition. Think of them as your peers! Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 different shows per week so there’s plenty of room for your podcast too!

4. Pitch yourself as a guest

Once you start making those connections, you can pitch yourself as a guest on other relevant podcasts. You can even do a mutual trade where you are a guest on their show and they are a guest on your show.

5. Make it easy for your guests to share

When you have guests on your show, make it really easy for them to share the episode with their audience. Tag them on your own social so they can repost and encourage them to share on their own as well. It’s helpful to create images for each social platform and swipe files so your guests can easily promote their episode.

6. List your show in multiple podcast directories

This is something else that is low hanging fruit but lots of people skip this step! You should make it easy for people to find your podcast. You’re probably on Apple Podcasts but there’s also Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio and PodChaser.

7. Transcribe your episodes

Want to show up in searches? You’ve got to master SEO! Ok, maybe not master it but you can do a few things that will improve your search results and one of those is transcribing your episodes and including the transcript in your show notes.

How to grow a podcast?

To effectively grow a podcast, simply: record in a quiet, soundproofed home studio, remove all distractions and background noises, invest in some good podcasting equipment. Good sounding audio is easy to achieve, but actually, not many people chose to do it. Most people are looking for a cheap set up that will just work.

What are the best channels to hang out with your audience?

Analyze and see where your audience is most likely to hang out, where do they look for answers to their problems. Google, YouTube, and Pinterest are 3 channels that can be good for most because people look directly for the topic that interests them.

Do you make mistakes in podcasting?

Here’s the thing: you’ll make mistakes in podcasting. All beginners do in any field! So accept that and be ready to learn from them and move on. Analyze what seems to work and what doesn’t.

Can you stop hosting podcasts if you exceed your limit?

Now, some of the media hostings are more tolerant and won’t stop serving your clients if you exceed your limit, but not all do this. To be safe and sure, just have a higher tier plan with a premium media host. Here are best podcast host on the market right now, they have great offers, and proven quality of service.

How to grow your podcast audience?

Another excellent way to grow your podcast audience is by creating additional content. For example, create engaging videos and upload them on YouTube. You can also create a blog and populate it with content daily or weekly. Besides, you can use show notes, episode descriptions, or transcripts.

How to grow your listeners?

To grow your listeners, you need to first understand them. Research your audience to find out more about them, such as preferences, why they exist online, demographics, interests, places to find them, and so on. Once you have finer details, it will be easier to create engaging and enticing podcasts for your audience. 4.

How to make yourself discoverable?

You can submit your podcasts to many directories, optimize your content for SEO, leverage social media, create a website, or create an app. Just make sure to utilize all alternatives that will boost your podcast discoverability. 8. Create additional content.

What to do if you don't work on podcasts?

If you don’t work on producing quality podcasts, your other efforts, no matter how good they are, they will not pay off. Setting up a fully equipped podcast studio and partnering with great podcast hosting services are excellent ways that will help you improve the quality of your podcasts.

Is it good to market yourself through the year?

While there are prime moments to market, promoting yourself through the year is a good idea. Even those moments that don’t seem the best, they may turn out to be very rewarding. Besides, continuously marketing yourself helps keep your current audience.

What is the point of a podcast?

The whole point of a podcast is that people listen to it, so give them a reason to click on one of your episodes. Make it clear to people what they will get from listening to your show. If you look on any podcast directory you will see shows with titles like “How To…”, “Five Tips For…” etc.

What is a podcast host?

Media or Podcast hosts are services that store your audio and allow your listeners to listen, download, and subscribe to your podcast. One common misconception when learning how to start a podcast is that you upload your podcast to places like iTunes. This actually isn’t the case.

How many episodes of a season of podcast?

When you start a seasonal podcast, each season will usually have a theme. You might create episodes based on that theme or topic for 6-12 episodes, then have a break. After a month or two, you’ll launch a new season (with another theme/topic) and repeat the process.

How to make a podcast?

1. Publish new episodes frequently and regularly. 2. Grow a podcast through calls to action (CTAs) 3. Cross-promote episodes for more downloads. 4. Publish your show in all possible podcasting directories. 5.

How to improve podcast reach?

Some ways to improve your reach include: Create transcripts for each episode and publish them on your website. If applicable, allow people to comment on these transcripts as they would on a normal blog post.

How to get more visibility on podcasts?

Just like Google, that favors blogs that publish content frequently and regularly, major podcast directories like Apple and Spotify do the same. Publishing new episodes frequently will not only give you more visibility, but it will also keep your listeners engaged.

What is ImprovePodcast?

I'm the owner and creator of ImprovePodcast.com, the site dedicated to providing actionable solutions for podcast creators. My goal is helping people to develop their podcasts into effective marketing and sales tools.

Can you cover a broad topic in one podcast?

broad topics usually don’t get covered in one podcast episode, there are natural topic an engaged listener can explore to advance his knowledge, a guest on your show can have either a similar or conflicting opinion with some past guests, and your audience may be interested in exploring the topic further.

What is the best way to start a podcast?

Ideally, the person has three things: A successful show with a decent size audience. An audience that shares a common interest with your listeners. A willingness to accept guests and do guest spots. Now make a list of every podcast in your niche (and those that are about one step outside your niche).

How to increase listeners on podcast?

Here’s a list of the best ones: 1. Create valuable partnerships. In the beginning your podcast is an inert object. Your goal is to turn it into a rolling stone.

How many people listen to podcasts in 2019?

Edison Research reports the podcast industry commands an audience of roughly 90 million Americans in 2019. That’s 32% of everyone 12 or older in the U.S. That number was 57 million in 2018. Obviously, more and more people are listening to podcasts. On the other hand, big numbers mean lots of competition.

What does it mean to subscribe to a podcast?

Subscribing obviously means someone will see your podcast in their feed whenever you post a new episode. Ratings and reviews convince anyone who’s considering your show to give it a try.

Can you build an audience if you keep getting ghosted?

You can’t build an audience if you keep getting ghosted. To sustainably grow your audience, you need people to do three things: Whenever someone does one of these three things, it provides a boost for your growth. Subscribing obviously means someone will see your podcast in their feed whenever you post a new episode.