Producing a podcast is not enough. If your content sucks, no one is going to subscribe. If you put in the time to plan episodes that are genuinely informative and entertaining, it will pay off. Your podcast shouldn’t just be a stage for you to sell products. People want real insights and advice they can use in their daily lives. Here are some tips that will make your audience love your podcasts.
Get to know your audience
If you want to make an audience love your podcasts, the first step is to get to know them on a deeper level. The more specific the topic you choose for your podcast, the more chance you have of appealing to a specific group of people. However, you don’t want your topic to be so specific that you battle to create more than a few episodes and don’t have room to expand.
Once you’ve decided on a topic, you need to do some research to find out more about the audience you expect to listen to your podcasts. Where do they live on social media? What other podcasts do they listen to? What hashtags do they follow? Read Melon’s complete guide on how to start a podcast that includes getting to know your target audience.
Connect with your audience
Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to start reaching out. Create dedicated social media channels for your podcast on the channels your audience uses and maintain a presence there. You can post about every new episode you create using relevant hashtags, reply to comments and encourage listeners to share.
Make sure you have more than one episode to launch with as your ideal listeners are unlikely to subscribe to your podcast channel if you have only one episode. Create opportunities for listeners to engage with you and other listeners, as this will help to foster community. When you have a community of loyal listeners, more listeners will be drawn in.
Create inspiring content
Get creative using a variety of different ways to promote your podcast – images, videos, teasers and soundbites. Think about converting audio into YouTube videos. The more content you create in different formats using the right keywords in titles and descriptions, the more this will boost your rankings in search engines and the more people will find your podcasts.
An audience loves behind-the-scenes videos and you can create videos that give them a glimpse into your production process to post on social media. Episode transcripts give you another form of content to share.
Welcome guests
A guest may be anyone from a colleague to an industry expert. Encourage your guests to promote a podcast episode and you will get new listeners. They will find this easy if you provide them with assets they can post easily, such as cover art, an interesting quote or a special photo from the recording session.
Tweet about your guests and tag them as they will probably retweet and share with their followers. Remember to stay in touch with past guests and you can re-share an episode and congratulate them publicly if they have any big successes.
Collect positive reviews
A significant factor in driving a podcast up the charts is the positive reviews you receive in the first couple of weeks. The allure of receiving free stuff can be a powerful motivator to encourage more listens and reviews.
You can ask for a review as part of the requirement entry for a giveaway. Hopefully, this earns you more reviews which can boost the social proof of your podcast. When people read about how much others love your podcast, they feel they’re missing out unless they listen too.
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