How to Grow a Podcast – 9 Tips to Grow Your Audience

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First of all, congratulations on launching your podcast. Now your next milestone must be how to grow your podcast. Right?

Imagine you have 5,000-10,000 listeners and advertisers are going crazy for your podcast. You’re making enough money from your podcast for a trip to Hawaii.

Things get really easy when you have a decent amount of audience.

Reality check – Things can be frustrating at the start. You must have invested in buying pieces of equipment for a podcast.

And, seeing that no-one is listening to it can be demotivating.

But hey! In this article, you’ll learn 9 tried and tested tips to grow your podcast audience.

9 Tips to Grow Your Podcast Audience

Before we start, you need to understand that growing your podcast is not as easy as swirling a magic wand. It takes time and effort.

If you follow these steps, you may expect your growth to be faster than normal. Let’s start.

1. Submit your Podcast on iTunes (Apple Podcasts)

With a lot of podcast directories available, Apple Podcasts still wins the game.

It is fairly easy to acquire new listeners through Apple Podcasts. So, submit your podcast on iTunes.

You need to understand that Apple Podcasts is just a directory. You would still need a podcast hosting. I personally love and recommend Buzzsprout for hosting your podcasts.

Adding your podcast on iTunes is like serving getting your audience in a silver platter.

With the help of Buzzsprout, you can submit your podcasts to 15 different directories. And when you sign up using this link, you will get a $25 Amazon Gift Card.

2. Share your Podcast Everywhere Possible

You may be doing this already. But, I want you to go and search all social media sites.

I know Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has a huge audience. But, there are more than 50 social media platforms with millions of users.

Like Reddit, Quora, Pinterest etc.

Also, other social media websites would give you lower competition.

3. Be a Guest

Now you must be thinking, NO BODY KNOWS ME!

Don’t worry, there are a lot of beginners just like you. Try to join Facebook Groups and Sub-Reddits related to podcast.

Try for an exchange interview. Invite someone to be your guest and ask them if they can feature you in their show.

Acquiring podcast listeners from other channels can be difficult and tedious.

But when you people find you through podcasts, there are higher chances that they will check you out. Why? Because they are already used to podcasts. They know that how the Podcasting world works.

Note: Always select guests in your niche. Dog lovers won’t be interested in Marketing stuff.

4. Start and Grow a Podcast Email List

A lot of podcasters ignore email marketing.

As per recent stats, For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42.

Though podcasting directories have a “Subscribe” button. But a lot of listeners ignore those notifications. With email marketing, they feel more connected to you.

Now you may ask, Hey Nikhil! How do I collect emails?

If you have a blog, you can always ask your listeners to visit your blog. For collecting emails, you can use tools like ConvertKit.

With ConvertKit, you can start collecting emails even if you don’t have a website. Try ConvertKit Today.

5. Ask Listeners for a Help

Don’t shy away while asking your listeners for help. Your loyal audience will always be ready to help you.

They are known as “super listeners”.

Ask them to hit the subscribe button or add a review. (You can ask for 5 stars, but that will be too much to ask)

When Podcasting Directories notice that your podcast is getting good reviews, they may put it in trending section or the recommended sections.

Also, ask them to share your podcast with their friends.

You don’t have to do this every time. Don’t beg but connect with your listeners. If you’re too shy to do this on your podcast, you can always email them and ask for it.

6. Start a Blog

Blogging is still a best way to bring a search traffic.

Discovering podcasts on Google search for desired keywords is still far away. That’s where blogs come to your rescue.

Also, as mentioned in 4th tip, blogging makes it easy to get email subscribers, remember?

You can start a blog with the help of this free blogging class.

But understanding a little SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is really important in the Blogging world, here’s the free class for Keyword Research.

You may also embed your podcast in your blogs which would definitely increase the visibility and hence, number of listeners.

7. Advertise

If your budget allows you, try advertising.

Facebook is a great way to target a specific audience and grow your podcast. You can learn about Facebook advertising on Skillshare.

Facebook gives a flexibility of targeting through location, age, gender, work, relationship status, interests and much more.

It’s better to learn some of the strategies completely rather than learning only a few steps. I’m telling this from an experience.

If you do it wrong, you will end up spending a lot of money without any results.

Likewise, you can try the same with Google Display Ads or Snapchat Ads.

These days, almost every platform has advertisement option.

8. Improve your Podcast Quality

A great quality always attracts users. In 2015, you could have gotten away by recording in a phone microphone.

But now, people are more inclined towards quality podcasts.

Even if Podcasting is a newer space, you will always have a couple of competitors in your category. You definitely don’t want to lose your audience to them.

If you have been using your phone microphone till now, I just saved you. You should consider investing some money in the basic things needed for a podcast.

Also add an intro music or a background music in your show.

Have a better Cover Art because that’s the first thing that new listeners see. If you have a bad cover art, you’re probably missing a lot.

You can hire someone from Fiverr to do it for you.

9. Be Consistent

Last but not Least, always be consistent.

I had a large number of subscribers and I used to be consistent. However, I took a break of 2 months and guess what?

As soon as I posted and sent emails to my subscribers – Saying my new blog is up!

50% of them unsubscribed!

They had forgotten me in those 2 months. Or they jumped to one of my competitors.

So you can understand the value of being consistent. Initially you may feel low a lot of times. But don’t stop creating content.

Consistency is the key to grow your podcast.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Conclusion

Growing your podcast is not a rocket-science. It is easy if you are passionate and consistent enough. Podcasting is a new space and the audience size is growing every day. Now is the best time to start a podcast. So what are you waiting for?

What’s your Podcast? Let me know in comments I’ll love to listen.