Tips for Marketing Your Podcast.

There is no simple template labelled “How to Podcast.” Some people podcast as a hobby, others as a career, most people are somewhere in between. There are thousands of aspiring podcasters trying to break through to the public. Here are some tips on how to market your podcast series.

Think Entrepreneurially

Whether you run a small independent podcast as a hobby or host a nationally known series, operate like a business. Understand your limitations as an operation. What sets your podcast apart from others? If the point of your podcast is not to earn capital, then what is it? Some creators are just looking to expand their audience, a podcast can work as a functional marketing tool for your brand.

Much like an entrepreneur, a podcaster has to manage their product, release dates, assign value, and market their product. Websites, design, booking guests, hosting platforms, and schedule are all a part of the process. The podcast landscape requires much more than talking into a microphone. 

Be Visible 

There are limitations for an audio medium. If you don’t have an immediately recognizable brand or personality, there is leg work to be done introducing yourself to the public. Aside from creating content that resonates with people, there needs to be a way to connect with your listenership. The logo for your podcast is the face of your podcast, make it interesting. 

Joe Rogan’s hit podcast the Joe Rogan Experience does a great job utilizing Joe Rogan’s face and brand into one logo. The imagery resembles the tone of the show and attaches Joe to his show. In the event that you are not a nationally known celebrity, scroll through the iTunes Top 100 and see what sticks out! Use colors that stand out and make sure you are getting your point across! 

In the same vain, literally be visible within your community. Sign up to be in festivals, fairs, and summits. Interact with potential listeners. There is merit to the brick and mortar approach to marketing. Although your product is completely virtual, real life connections will benefit any production. 

Diversify Content

There are limitations within the audio medium. A podcast can only be found in a handful of places, whereas video content can spread through the most popular arteries of the internet. Developing video content, or creating a video podcast can help listeners and viewers get to know the production in a different light.

In this video, I’m speaking about the value that video content brought when marketing my own podcast series 2100

Videos, pictures, and graphics can help to build out what your audio product looks like. Diversifying content can help bring your podcast to life.

Book Interesting Guests

Guests are a major ticket to notoriety. Booking notable guests with large followings can launch your podcast series to new heights. There is no faster way to access thousands of people than having a celebrity with thousands of followers post about your show. A single retweet can take your podcast to new heights.

E-Commerce Explosion A Dream Come True for Podcast Advertising

Digital advertising has long held significant advantages over traditional advertising mediums because of its ability to geo-target by location, age, demo, etc. Conversely, podcast advertising wasn’t built on the back of targeting, despite the fact that ads can be auto-inserted into podcasts.

Targeting is Evolving, Especially with Long-Tail Podcasts

Yes, scaling campaigns on a very targeted level has been embraced slowly due to staggered delivery methods across thousands of shows in all geo’s around the country. But, with all the evergreen content available with long-tail podcasts, we’re starting to see a pivot and AdsWizz is all over this technology.

But today, let’s look at how e-commerce and podcasting advertising work together. The explosive rise of e-commerce & retail technology is playing right into podcast advertising’s hands. A small business with a one-storefront shop should find podcast advertising highly valuable, especially if they have built out a powerful e-commerce platform to deliver their products to a targeted online audience.

e-Commerce Plays Into Podcasting’s Hands

Simply look inside the e-commerce numbers and you will see an ‘oil well’ of opportunity for any podcast publisher to drive revenues. Cyber Monday sales this year set a record, delivering $3.5 billion in sales. That’s a 12% increase over last year, with smartphones accounting for more than one out of every five sales. Better yet, from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Digital Insights, consumers spent $12.8 billion online. That’s right, $12.8 billion with a b. Many online merchants advertised and offered substantial discounts several days leading up to Black Friday.

These marketing strategies, via e-commerce, sync up perfectly to the podcasting advertising industry, and we need to make noise within the digital buying community to better educate them!

As e-commerce continues to increase its share of total retail, the podcasting industry must penetrate this market with fervor. We must educate the buying community on the power of podcast advertising in order to increase our share of any digital budget. The rapid migration to e-commerce provides unprecedented sales opportunities for the entire podcasting industry. Have we done anything, in a unified voice, to untangle the web of choices for small to mid-size businesses to place podcasting buys? Not so much. We need to amplify our strengths, demonstrating together just how fervent and loyal our audiences are. Bottom line, podcast listeners are an e-commerce advertisers dream.

e-Commerce is a dream for the podcasting industry.

No longer do people fear entering their payment details to virtual merchants. Omni-channel marketing has become a major part of any brand strategy. And the speedy delivery of online retailers, logistically, has evolved into infinite choices for consumers. Through advocacy & education, controlling the narrative, and untangling the vast choices businesses have, the podcasting industry should take major strides forward in 2017 and beyond, driving ad revenue. I truly believe, once we finally control the narrative within the digital buying community, we can surpass $1 Billion in ad sales by 2021.

But we must integrate podcasting into the daily digital conversation of e-commerce prospects, as well as the digital buying community…first, by educating ourselves on the complex integrated e-commerce strategies businesses are using. And then, by telling our story on how podcasting advertising syncs up perfectly to any e-commerce marketing strategy. The rise of e-commerce is an oil-well of opportunity for the entire podcasting community.

It’s time to tell our story, in a unified voice, gaining the digital market share we deserve.