When it comes to your podcast audience, size does matter. Yes, you may be producing amazing and catchy podcast content into which you poured your time and effort. However, if no one downloads or listens to it, is it making a sound? Unfortunately, not. Regardless of how impressive your podcast is, if you have no listeners, it only signifies that you’re not reaching any audience.
The quantity and quality of your podcast audience greatly determine the success of your podcast. You must know how to put your podcast out there and make sure you’re attracting more and more listeners every time you release new content. Growing your podcast audience isn’t an easy task. In fact, some podcasts end up canceling their productions due to little audience. But it isn’t impossible.
Attaining the ideal audience size for your podcast may take a lot of time and patience. You might feel like giving up along the way. But if you have the determination along with sufficient efforts, you’ll surely reach more listeners. When your podcast is starting to increase its number of downloads and listeners, you’ll then know that your platform is growing and you’re getting the most out of your content.
How can you broaden your podcast audience and achieve your desired number of listeners? You can try these six ways below:
1. Start With A Catchy Title
It all starts with a good title. Before a listener plays a podcast, the first thing they see is the title. If they don’t find the title intriguing or interesting enough, they won’t listen to it—not even a second. That said, you must create a title that describes exactly what your podcast is about. It must be brief but descriptive enough to get listeners to play it.
Another reason a strategic title is essential in broadening your podcast audience is it makes it easier for listeners to find you and hopefully listen to you. When thinking of a podcast name or title, make sure you consider the type of listeners you want to attract. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment and think about how they would search your content. Once you’ve figured out what your listeners would want to find and hear, you may be inspired to come up with an ideal and catchy title.
2. Make Your Podcast Discoverable
There are various ways to make your podcast easily discoverable. Promote your podcast on your social media accounts or create a website for your brand where you can produce content optimized for SEO. You can even start making your own line of merch featuring your podcast brand and popular content which you think would hook more listeners.
You may check here for a guide on creating your own podcast merch. Once you have your line of podcast merch prepared, don’t forget to also promote them on your website and social media accounts.
3. Expand Your Network
Networking is very important when it comes to promoting your podcast. It enables you to start new relationships which can potentially broaden your audience and listeners. You can network by attending podcast conferences and events that’ll allow you to introduce yourself and the type of content you love to create.
The good thing about networking in the podcast community is you can easily and quickly spread the word about your podcasts. Once you’ve made connections with other podcasters, make sure you return the favor by helping them promote their podcasts, too. Instead of viewing this as helping your competitors, think of this as a way of broadening your audience base. However, be conscious during your networking venture as you might get too much caught up with it and unintentionally sell out your potential listeners.
4. Connect With Your Existing Listeners
In your journey of broadening your podcast audience, make sure you don’t neglect your existing listeners. After all, they’re the reason you still keep going. Your existing audience can also help expand your listener base. Start by using your social media platforms or your website to reach out to them. Maintain a regular presence on social media. Not only will it keep your followers updated about you and your content, but they can also use this to promote your podcast.
Here are some suggestions that may help you connect with your existing audience while also promoting your podcasts:
- Put up a website for your listeners to subscribe to.
- Grow your email list and send newsletters to your subscribers.
- Start creating relevant hashtags and use them whenever you update or post on any social media platform.
- Actively respond to comments from your audience.
- Post relevant content on Facebook groups relating to your podcast content.
Maintaining a consistent connection with your audience will result in a loyal following. They’ll then gather together through hashtags or community groups on Facebook and other social media platforms. In simple terms, your listeners can significantly help spread the word out about your podcast.
5. Welcome A Guest
Another way to expand your podcast listeners is by welcoming a guest every once in a while. You can invite a guest from your circle of friends, expert and famous podcasters, or someone you’ve always wanted to interview. Afterward, encourage them to promote the episode where they were featured on their own social media platforms. Their followers can then easily tap into your account and see your podcasts.
Aside from that, you can also post or tweet about your guests and the interview you’ve had with them. Don’t forget to tag them in your tweets, along with the link to that particular episode. There’s a great chance they’ll retweet and share it with their followers. After they’ve guested in your podcast, make sure you keep tabs on them. So that by the time something relevant happens with their career in the future, you can congratulate them by reposting or resharing that episode you had with them.
6. Host Contests And Giveaways
Finally, you can conduct some contests or free giveaways during one of your episodes! After all, who doesn’t love receiving free stuff or win prizes? You can do a raffle or host contests by giving away stuff like your merch in exchange for their reviews on your podcasts. While this may be your tactic to hopefully expand your audience, don’t forget to have fun and ensure your listeners are having fun with your contests, too. Their excitement and active engagement will surely create enough buzz that’ll attract more listeners to your podcasts.
Wrap Up
Now that you’ve figured out how to grow your podcast audience, it’s time to get to work. If you think some of these tips are too overwhelming, remember that audience growth will require enough time, effort, and patience. It might even take a while before your podcast finally takes off, and it’s normal. Always be proud of your podcast despite having only one, a hundred, or a million listeners.
