How to Get More Podcast Listeners
You’ve done it! You’ve spent all that time researching, planning and recording your podcast, and you’ve launched your podcast! Now you need to find listeners. What’s the best way to grow a podcast?
Podcasts have really grown in popularity over the last few years, but the number of podcasts has also dramatically increased. It can be hard to make your podcast stand out in the crowd, so how can you get more podcast listeners? Here are a few actionable tips to help you.
Submit Your Podcast to Podcast Directories
Once you’ve created a few episodes, you need to submit your podcast RSS feed to as many podcast directories as you can find to increase your reach. Start with the most popular podcast directories, such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google.
Guest Speakers
Collaborate with other podcasters and increase your audience further. Inviting guests on your podcast, or being a guest speaker on other podcasts, will help you grow your audience and bag you some more listeners. Inviting guests onto your podcast will also help you take advantage of their audience as they’ll more than likely share the episode.
Get Your Fans to Share the Love
Make it easy for your fans to share your podcast. Adding a call to action, asking them to share, is a great way to encourage this. Use your social media to promote your podcast to your listeners and ask them to share posts from there.
Create a Website for Your Podcast
A really easy way to grow your podcast is to start a website or blog for your podcast. Creating show notes which are SEO optimised will help your podcast be discovered in Google search, which will help your podcast grow. Embed each episode in a blog post and your listeners will be able to listen to the podcast direct from your blog.
How to Embed a Podcast in a WordPress Blog.
It’s easier than you think to add your podcast to your WordPress blog using the Classic Editor.
- Open the podcast episode you want to share.
- Click on Share, then Embed </>. You’ll have the embed code copied to your clipboard.
- In WordPress, decide where you want the podcast be within the blog post and click on the Text editor.
- Paste the embed code in and then head back to the Visual editor to make sure you’re happy with the placement.
You can create a blog post with show notes or a transcript of the podcast for each episode, using relevant keywords as your URL (don’t use things like episode10 or ep-10 as this is a wasted opportunity – make your posts discoverable!). This is a great idea, because you’ll be able to use Google SEO to grow your podcast, as well as the podcast directories. Google loves written content and will be able to show your content to people searching for information in your niche, resulting in new listeners. Also, with more website views comes the prospect of affiliate marketing and ad revenue, so it’s a win-win!
Use Pinterest to Help Your Podcast Go Viral
Pinterest is a great way to grow your podcast website and get more podcast listeners. If you have created a website for your podcast, you’ll be able to create pins that link to each episode and tap into those 400+ million monthly users who are on Pinterest.
- Create a Pinterest business account.
- Claim your domain so Pinterest knows where the content is coming from. Pinterest pins will perform much better if you link them to your own domain, rather than Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
- Fill out your Pinterest bio, making sure pinners know what your podcast is about and how it will help them.
- Create boards that you can pin your pins to. I like to have multiple relevant boards for the pins to end up on so you can maximise your chances of being seen. Use relevant keywords to help your boards be discoverable.
- Create your pins. Use a 3:2 ratio, with the optimum size being 1500 px x 1000 px. Use clear fonts (no script) and be mindful that 85% of pinners use Pinterest on their mobile devices so make sure your pin is clear and easy to read.
- Create multiple pin images per URL – I like to make between 5-7.
- Add in keywords to your pin descriptions and pin titles, making sure not to keyword stuff. Write for people first, Pinterest second.
- Schedule your pins – be sure not to pin an image linking to the same URL within 24 hours.
Be consistent, and patient! Pinterest can take 3-6 months to really get moving but it can really help to grow your podcast.
It might be a slow starter, but with consistency and a clear strategy involving good Pinterest SEO and scroll stopping Pinterest pins, you’ll be able to gain more podcast listeners on autopilot.
If you’d like to grow your podcast with Pinterest but want to spend more time making podcast episodes than dealing with Pinterest strategy, get in touch!
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