Bonjour.
I am tweeting one podcast marketing tip a day as part of the #Tweet100 campaign. ICYMI, here are a few things I highlighted:
✨ Nick Hilton talked about the many ways people fail at promoting podcasts on Twitter. CHEF’S KISS.
✨ Stephanie Fuccio wrote about how to turn your negative reviews into more listens.
✨ I wrote about how to get your podcast featured by Apple Podcasts (or other platforms.)
ok.
Last week we talked about how to find your podcast friends. Now we’re going to get into the next step if you’d like to start a relationship with them. Here are a list of things you can do with your new podcast friends.
When you reach out to your friends, remember to keep an “open door” mentality. Ask them what they have going on, maybe there is a way to work with you that you couldn’t even imagine. (I have booked my clients on panels that I wouldn’t have known about if I hadn’t asked.) So you can choose one or a few of these ideas to get started with. Your goal in the first letter is to get some sort of response, to open the door. Once you have their attention you can get into the nitty gritty.
✨Promo Swap: You read a 30 or 60-second promo on your show (pre, mid, or post roll) for your friend show, and vice versa. We’ll get into this soon. (Promo swaps are my favorite and I could write a book about them.)
✨Feed Swap: You drop an entire episode of your show onto their feed, and you drop an entire episode of their show into yours. These can work really well when done correctly, or if you can secure one with a show bigger than yours. (In that case, maybe you can offer other things, like some of the ideas below.) Make sure to do a unique introduction to the special episode. It can be audio of you explaining what the show is and why you think your listeners will like it.
✨Newsletter Swap: Social media doesn’t generally drive podcast downloads, but newsletters are much better at that. If you both have newsletters, think about how you can swap content. Could you interview each other? Or just add a little recommendation and link to the other show? If your shows are super aligned, you could even go for an ongoing segment in each newsletter. (If your show is You’re Wrong About and you were partnering with American Hysteria, Chelsey Weber-Smith could offer a “conspiracy theory” update in your newsletter each week.)
✨Social Media Swap: This is a low-level ask, so try to secure as many as you can. Each show puts the other show’s graphic and a little write-up driving followers to the other show.
✨Guest Swap: Ask to be a guest on your friend show, but offer something in return. Offer to promote your guest-interview on your end and if you have guests on your show, ask the other person if they’d like to appear on your show.
✨Collab Episode: Create a special episode featuring both of your voices and each drop the finished product onto your feeds. The heart of each episode is the exact same, but each of you can introduce the episode in your own unique way. (“I had a great conversation with Chelsey Weber-Smith of American Hysteria, and I wanted to share it with you…"“)
✨Patreon Opportunities: Podcasters are always looking for content to use in their Patreon. If you can’t secure a promo swap (or even if you can,) offer them something special for their Patreon audience, a live Q&A or a presentation on your field of expertise.
✨Mix & Match: Create a package (do 1 newsletter and social media promo in exchange for a guest spot, for example.) Think about what value you have, and what you want form the other show. Now you’re a negotiator and creative thinker.
Thanks for reading. Email me your tips and tricks, comments, or just tell me about a show I should know about.
lp
LET’S SWAP
I am currently looking to swap for the podcasts How to Do the Pot, Me Becoming Mom, Our Body Politic, and PEOPLE Every Day. Fill out the form if you want to talk with me about a promo, newsletter, or social media swap.
Here are just a few other shows seeking to swap. Sign up now to be considered—I’m getting a good library of shows who want to work together, and the more of you who sign up, the better the matches will be.
✨ Material Feels: Material Feels is a podcast that explores the intimate relationships between people, their creative practices and the materials they have fallen in love with. Each episode focuses on a maker and their material of choice. Producer and host Catherine Monahon spends quality time with each guest, explores the history and cultural context of the particular material and shares personal asides here and there. A former theater kid, art educator and fan of therapy, Monahon crafts a show that is educational, inquisitive and expressive.
✨ Midnight Burger: When Gloria took a waitressing job in a diner outside of Phoenix, she didn't realize she was now an employee of Midnight Burger, a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner. Every day Midnight Burger appears somewhere new in the cosmos along with it's staff: a galactic drifter, a rogue theoretical physicist, a sentient old-timey radio, and some guy named Caspar. No one knows who built Midnight Burger or how it works, but when it appears there's always someone around who could really use a cup of coffee.
✨ World Gone Good: Need a little inspiration? Host Steve Silverman turns the light on in the darkness and spreads the good. Listen to unique stories from incredible everyday people making the world a little bit better each and every day.
✨Songs in the Key of Death: A look at the very real history of murder ballads with songs by Will Oldham and Sadie Dupuis
✨Bite Me, a Show About Edibles: Create your own tasty, healthy cannabis edibles and take control of your high life! Bite Me is a weekly show that helps home cooks make great share worthy cannabis edibles. Listen as host Marge shares her own adventures in making edibles at home.