🦚How marketable is your show?🦚
It's more than just being trendy or having an attention grabbing topic.
Howdy.🤠
We spend every waking moment thinking about how to market podcasts. Oftentimes, we are doing this for shows that have already been created and are about to launch or have been publishing for a while. But the more we work with shows and incorporate marketing into their workflow, the more we think about what it would be like if you developed a show with marketing in mind right from the start. If this sounds like selling out, bear with us. It’s strategic, but also highly creative and will be unique to every show. We’re not compromising a show’s mission or final output, we’re making it more collaborative.
So, whether you’re creating a new show or just working on your next season, let’s talk about what you could do during production to start optimizing your podcast marketing opportunities.
🟡 If you only have time for ONE thing
When you’re crafting each episode, think: How can I bring podcast listeners and makers into the content?
🦄 52 Weeks of Podcast Growth
Put a link to your podcast in your email signature—but point to a favorite episode or specific moment.
Your email signature is prime real estate for a little self-promo! It’s an easy way to spread the word about your podcast and made even better when you choose a specific episode to link to. Then you know people will get a strong first impression!
For reference, here are the most recent 5 tips:
Find the contacts of 10 podcasts similar to yours.
Draft a pitch email for promo swaps.
Show your pitch to a friend or share it with your podcasting community.
Send your pitch for promo swaps to ONE podcaster.
Link to your podcast in your email signature.
New here? Start at the beginning.
So, what does it mean for a show to be marketable?
You might think it means being trendy or having an attention grabbing topic, which can definitely help, but those aren’t the only ways a show can be marketable. They’re often not even the best ways!
A marketable show considers:
🙋🏽♀️ How the audience can be involved so that as you grow it, you can include them and motivate them to share your show for you.
When there are opportunities for your audience to be included, they feel invested and get more engaged.
Call-in segments are a great option to consider for this!
👯♀️ How to include guests in unique and flexible ways that can be used for the show’s content, but also for marketing partnerships.
Having the host of your podcast appear on other podcasts can be a great way to reach new audiences, but sometimes partners want to do a guest swap.
Even though not all shows lend themselves to guest spots, it can help to think of creative special episodes or even segments that can feature other podcasters.
Especially when you’re first starting out and might not have a lot of downloads for promo swaps, this gives you something else to offer when setting up collaborations.
🎙️ How to build a relationship between the host and the audience. Even though the content drives the show, an engaging host will hook listeners.
Give the show a personal touch. We hear a lot about the intimacy of audio, but what it often means is how personally connected listeners can feel to podcasts they listen to.
Are you giving the audience opportunities to get to know you a little bit and connect with why you’re the person they want to hear from about the subject matter?
If you’re noticing a trend in these tips, it’s because when you think about marketing from the beginning, you’re thinking about two main things: how you’ll connect with your audience and how you’ll be able to collaborate with other podcasts. If you create your show in too much of a silo that doesn’t make room for these things, it can sometimes be harder to grow. Don’t get us wrong, there are definitely shows that still grow without these things, but we want to help give podcasters as many strategies as possible to improve their growth.
💡 To give you some more tangible takeaways, here are some ideas that integrate marketing into your content:
Start a newsletter that features stories and comments from your listeners.
Ask people to send in voice mails telling a story based on a theme. Those mini voice memos can be an entire episode.
Don’t wait to shout-out shows you have already partnered with, shout-out the shows that you want to partner with. Start the partnership without demanding something in return.
Make your podcast a podcaster’s podcast, featuring podcasters and people in the space, in every way you can.
Consider a segment that makes you an expert on a subject or theme, and pitch yourself to other shows to talk about what you’ve learned. (If you have a tech show, feature a TikTok section and blammo—you’re a TikTok expert.)
Consider a segment that recommends a new podcast to your audience.
Consider a segment that recommends niche newsletters to your audience. Make sure to forward the episodes to the newsletters you mentioned.
If you have a fiction show, make bonus episodes of your characters talking about their favorite podcasts, or have them listening to podcasts in the story.
Consider a segment that recalls your favorite tweets or threads. When you promote the episode, tag the person who said the tweet.
When you’re crafting each episode, think: How can I bring podcast listeners and makers into the content?
You’ll notice that all of these tips are about bringing in the podcast community, which makes it more alive, and will breathe life into your reach. And no fear, you don’t have to start these tips at the beginning. The beauty of your podcast is that it is yours and you can change format (adding a new segment) whenever you want. But we think that keeping growth in mind at the same time you think about story is a great way to make your show more engaging and more appealing to the people you should be working with.
📂From the desk of Tink
Welcome to The Art Career Podcast - a space breaking barriers by letting you sit in on candid, straightforward conversations with leading art professionals. Join New York based advisor, curator, and overall artist advocate, Emily McElwreath, for real, raw and inspirational conversations with icons of our generation. We dive deep into topics like self development, career trajectories, mental health, social justice and the artists that have changed our lives. With each episode our mission is to empower you, expanding your journey through the arts. Join us for new episodes every Thursday.
✨ More Magic
🪄Listen to BEEF on Feed the Queue
🪄Arielle on What it takes to succeed in the podcast industry
🪄Erik Jones’ The Podcast Discovery Problem Solved Once and For All
🪄Lauren on Mastering the art of Podcast PR
🪄3 ways to use Listen Time to measure your podcast audience’s attention via Bumper
🪄Don’t miss Lauren at the Grow My Podcast Summit, a completely free event bringing together 40+ industry experts in podcast discoverability and monetization.
🪄Sign up for Lauren’s June 5 Podcast Marketing Radio Bootcamp class.
🪄Subscribe to Shreya’s Audio Affairs
🪄Sign up for Devin’s Podstack
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