Getting more podcast listeners can seem like an impossible challenge.
With over 700,000 podcasts producing shows every week, you’ve got to work to stand out from the crowd.
Luckily, with eight years of digital marketing experience and having grown my niche Scottish history podcast to 16,000 monthly downloads, I’ve learned a thing or two about getting more podcast listeners.
A lot of it is simpler than you think. Here are 21 tips for getting more podcast listeners.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: Pexels
Set Up Your Foundation
Your podcast will only gain more listeners once you’ve set it up to grow. So, before any promotion, let’s set your podcast up for success.
1. Get Clear on Who Your Listeners Are
All your marketing becomes easier if you know precisely who your listeners are and what your podcast offers them. To do this, you need to answer these two questions:
- Who am I making this for?
- Why should they listen?
The clearer your answers to those questions, the easier it will be to find potential listeners who you know will love your show and offer them a compelling reason to listen.
2. Make Sure You Can Be Found (Submit To Podcast Directories)
You, of course, need to make your podcast discoverable on all the available podcast players by submitting to all the podcast directories (Podnews has the complete list).
But it would be best to make sure people can find you when they search.
For instance, there are over twenty podcasts called Work in Progress. If that’s the name of your podcast, it’s a tough one for you as a podcaster.
You need to make sure that your name is unique or that your podcast name has a unique modifier. An easy win is adding your name” ‘podcast name’ with ‘your name’’ Then, people can search for your name to find your podcast.
3. Nail Your Episode Titles
The journey of a new listener:
- Finds show
- Reads ep. titles
- Reads ep. descriptions
- Listens to podcast intro
- Gets hooked and becomes a fan
- Tells friends and sends new listener back to step 1
That’s how a podcast grows.
A core part of that journey is the episode title. It should be clear to a newcomer what the episode is about while offering a hook as to why the potential listener should hit play.
Your ideal listener should look through your titles and be excited to hit play on every single one.
4. Ask Listeners To Leave Reviews
Imagine you find two similar shows. One has 5000 reviews and a rating of 4.9, and the other has five reviews and a rating of 4.9. Which are you going to listen to? The one with more reviews, of course. People are social, and social proof goes a long way in growing your show.
There is a strange psychological principle that means that if your show is already popular, then more people will be inclined to listen. This means you need to make your show look popular.
Ask your listeners to leave reviews, which will build your authority and trust with potential listeners.
5. Ask Listeners To Share the Show
Never underestimate the power of word of mouth. If you have ten listeners, that can double just from one person raving about your show on a night out with their friends.
How do you get word of mouth? First, make a show so it’s worth talking about. Next, include a call to action in your episode, asking your listeners to tell a friend.
6. Use a Website for Your Podcast
Finally, you want to have a podcast website. When people tell their friends they’ll want to look you up, some will go to podcast players, and some will Google you. Make sure you have a website so they can find you when they do. Podpage is a great place to do it if don’t have a lot of time or experience.
Active Tips for Getting More Podcast Listeners
Next we have active ways you can promote your podcast to increase your listeners and reach your target audience.
7. Promote on Social Media
Social media can be a powerful tool for getting more podcast downloads, but it can also be an endlessly frustrating void where you shout into the wind.
The balance is promoting on social media correctly. All social media platforms have their nuance, but what is common to them all is that you can’t just hop on and broadcast that you have a new episode. You have to participate, leave comments, engage with other accounts, and talk to your followers, however many or few that may be.
I detail my alternative social media strategy in this post for those interested.
8. Advertise
If you can swing the money, advertising can be a huge advantage to growing your podcast. Here are three places you can start:
Overcast—You can advertise on Overcast and get the best dollar-to-download ratio. If you want to pay for meaningful downloads and followers, this is the place to do it.
Boost social media posts—If you have a post that performs well you’re building your audience within a social media channel (like Instagram, Twitter/X, or Facebook), you can spend money to boost posts and get more eyes on your podcast. This is for brand awareness rather than direct dollars to downloads.
Niche advertising—If your podcast has a very specific audience, advertising on websites, newsletters, and other related podcasts can provide a great ROI.
9. Cross Promote With Other Podcasts (Trailer Swaps)
Collaboration is king. Your ideal listener is out there listening to podcasts, and don’t yet know you exist. By collaborating, you can join forces with other podcasters and grow your podcasts together .
My favorite method is trailer swapping, in which you play their podcast trailer in your show, and they play your trailer in their show.
You can also do full-episode swaps and publish an episode of the other person’s show on your feed.
10. Create Short-Form Content
Podcast episodes you create can become:
• A tweet
• A blog post
• A newsletter
• A LinkedIn post
• An Instagram post
• A story you can tell on another podcast
You already have the content ready; it just needs to be reworked, which can be much easier than constantly creating new content.
11. Invite Guests and Be a Guest
Big names on your podcast give you credibility. But they are unlikely to share your show.
Up-and-coming names still building their podcast audience are much more likely to share that they were on your podcast.
But always keep your listeners in mind, and don’t book guests just to try grow your show. Only book them if your audience will love them.
Similarly, becoming a prolific podcast guest can be a fantastic strategy for building your audience.
12. Hang Out in Communities & Subreddits Related to Your Show
If there is a dedicated subreddit to your niche, go be present there. Create a username for your podcast and start contributiDon’ton’t just slam in links to your show; work hard to become known as a contributor and slowly start feeding in your show.
The same goes for forums. Niche forums are still thriving with people who will love your show, it’s just a case of building trust, so they want to hear more from you.
13. Analyse Top Shows in Your Niche
Rephonic have a cool tool that lets you see how many followers a podcast has across the non-major platforms. This can be a great way to see the big players in your field, and then you can start reverse engineering.
Look at which social media platforms they used, figure out how they grew their show, and try to replicate it. This takes some work, but the insights you can gain are invaluable.
14. Leverage Existing Networks
“If you’ve already got an audience, tell them about your podcast!” This was some advice I saw for getting more listeners. Talk about stating the obvious…
But most people have a platform where they talk to friends. Use it to promote your podcast.
My first hundred listeners came from posting on my wife and I posting on our personal Facebook pages.
15. Contact Local Media
Local papers are always looking for stories to share, the same goes for local Facebook pages. Launched your podcast? Let them know! Started a new season? Let them know! Crossed 100 podcast episodes? They’d love to hear it!
You can do this when you cover topics in other areas, too. I once published an episode on Burke and Hare, who were body snatchers in Edinburgh in the 1800s. We reached out to a local Edinburgh paper, and they ran a story on it.
How To Get More Podcast Listeners Passively
16. Podcast SEO
People are searching podcast players for shows like yours. Can they find you?
That’s SEO, Search Engine Optimisation. For instance, you might add the niche of the podcast to the end of your podcast name:
- All For One – a running podcast
- Swords Ahoy – a DnD podcast
- Skellingtons – a true crime podcast
That way, yours will likely show up when people search for running podcasts.
All podcast players except Spotify only look at your podcast episode titles (Spotify also looks at the description), so it’s a good idea to have a clear name for your podcast episode.
Some people target one keyword per podcast episode, but that can easily lead you astray from an audience-first approach to your content.
17. Make a Page for Each Episode (Website SEO)
There are billions of people out there using search engines like Google. You can try to capture a sliver of that and direct people to your podcast.
One place podcast creators forget to promot their show is on a dedicated website, as I said earlier Podpage is a great place to help you do this. A dedicated page per episode is a superb way to drip new listeners to your show and grow your podcast audience.
I wrote a more detailed guide on website SEO, but for now, the short and sweet version is to do these four things:
- Have a clear title, including the subject your podcast is about
- Aim for at least 300 words
- Mention your subject two or three times
- Include a web player for your podcast episode (I like Spotify)
18. Focus on Editing and Production
There’s no point in getting more listeners if you don’t know how to retain them. Don’t fill a leaky bucket.
Retaining listeners is a matter of quality. The number one reason people tune out of a podcast is that the production quality isn’t high enough, whether the sound isn’t good, the editing is off, or the interview questions aren’t hitting right.
Keep high standards for your editing and production no matter what type of podcast you operate.
Lastly
19. Be Patient and Persistent
Podcadon’ton’t grow quickly. They are slow burners that build momentum over time, creating loyal audiences and supporting businesses. Keep on going. For the first year of its existence, Eric Siu’s podcast Levelling Up only received nine daily downloads. After seven years, it was getting 80,000 downloads per month.
These things take time. Keep going.
20. Make a Great Show
Lastly, I want you to make a promise.
“I will focus relentlessly on quality above all else.”
That is what it takes to grow an incredible podcast and attract more listeners. If you make excellent podcast content and use a few tips on this list, your podcast will become an unstoppable growth machine.
21. Make Sure You Are on All Podcast Players
As part of my podcast audits I check all major podcast platforms to make sure you are properly appearing. Nothing is harder than trying to attract listeners when your podcast doesn’t even show up in their apps. Use your RSS feed and be a responsible podcast host making sure you appear everywhere. You won’t create a successful podcast if you can’t be found.
How I Can Help You
1)The Template Vault – Learn how to grow your podcast on autopilot. Get fill-in-the-blank templates to set up your podcast’s foundation for growth, success, and making money.
2) Podcast Marketing Coaching– I am an experienced podcast coach, and I want to help you master your podcast marketing. Check out my full list of services and discover how we can work together.
3) Recommended Tools– These are the tools I use to grow my podcast. I focus on tools that improve quality and save time.
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