Podcast Tips and Tricks

Whether you’re waiting to start recording or after you’ve launched your podcast, it can be hard to know how you can grow your audience. So here are some tips and tricks to help you do just that! 

It’s not enough to simply publish a podcast episode and hope for the best, you’ll need to put in extra work to achieve your desired results. 💪 

In this article you will find 15 tips and tricks that can help you grow your podcast audience.

Determine your “why” 

It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the podcasting world, or if you’ve been in it for some time now, you need to determine your “why”. ❓ 

When you really know why you want to produce your podcast, it will help you create and release more high-quality episodes. 

And I’m not saying that the ones you have now are low-quality… 

What I mean is that when you have a real meaning behind why you’re making your podcast it can add value to your content and make it relate to more potential listeners. 📣 

Define your listener persona and target audience 🎯 

Now maybe you’re thinking that these are the same thing. 

And you’re not necessarily wrong, they are very similar. 

But, your listener persona is who makes up your target audience. 

When you determine your listener persona, it’s very precise and can require lots of detail. 

While your target audience can be a bit more general overall and usually consists of your listener persona. 🎧 

Know what makes your podcast unique and sets it apart from the others

When your podcast is unique and can easily be set apart from others (with a similar subject or not), it can give you a competitive edge. 

You’ll want your listeners to remember your podcast and not have it blend in with all the rest. 

You can make yours stand out with custom and catchy intro and outro music, eye (and ear) catching episode titles, and a podcast cover that will attract people to your show. 🤩 

By having a unique show that will get the attention of those that come across it, it will increase your podcast audience and help you grow your show. 

Find the right format and release schedule for your show and stick to it. 🗓️ 

What I mean is, if you normally have 10 minute episodes, try to keep up with that. 

You can of course have outlying episodes that may be a different length, but when you change the length around too much it could confuse your audience. 😵‍💫 

This is because if they are used to your show being 10 minutes, and that is the amount of time they allow to listen to your show, it can affect whether they will listen to your whole new episode or not. 

Now when it comes to your release schedule, you really need to be strong and keep it the same. 

So if you normally release your episodes every two weeks, make sure that you’re actually doing that. 

HOWEVER, if you come to find out that your release schedule isn’t working for you, you can change it but be sure to tell your listeners so that they know when to expect the new episodes. 👍 

By being regular with your podcast episodes, it shows that you are a professional and take your show seriously, which can help you grow your audience. 

Those that enjoy your show can leave positive comments and ratings on listening platforms and social media. ⭐ 

They can also tell their friends about your show, because after all, word-of-mouth is the best way to grow your podcast. 🗣️ 

Monetize your podcast 💰 

When you monetize your podcast you start earning money from doing what you love… podcasting! 

So find podcast sponsors that are willing to pay you for mentioning their product or service in your show. 

It can be a pre-recorded advertisement that you edit in at the beginning, middle, or end of your episodes, or you can do a host-read where you, as the host, read out an advertisement during your show. 🎙️ 

Companies will pay you different amounts based on the amount of downloads that you have. 

This is a great way to earn money so that you can maintain your show and equipment. 

Create high-quality episodes 

Make sure that you use equipment that will help you create high-quality episodes. 

You don’t need to buy the most expensive equipment, but just make sure that you use the equipment that you have in a way that creates quality episodes when you record.

For example, set up a well-insulated studio space so that you can avoid noises and echos in your microphone when you are recording. 

When you create high-quality episodes, you can grow your audience because more people will enjoy listening to your show. 

The last thing you want is for someone to turn off your show because of the poor audio quality. 😟 

So make sure that you have a nice studio setup. If you aren’t sure how to get rid of echos and background noise, create a space that has lots of furniture and carpet, basically things that can absorb sound. 🛋️ 

And don’t forget that you can easily find a great and free editing software to help create high quality episodes! For example, Audacity or GarageBand.

Find the right guests for your show 🧐 

Make sure that the guests that you find for your show add value to it. 

And that they have something to do with the content of your show. 

For example, you don’t want someone that doesn’t relate to the topic of your show, because they won’t be able to contribute anything interesting to your show. 👎 

Also find guests that you can get a rapport with and have a nice flowing conversation with. 

The last thing you want is to get behind the mic and there be lots of awkward silences that you need to edit out. 😬 

Having interactive and interesting conversations with your guests can make or break your show. 

And when you have the right guests for your show, who say things that add value to your episodes, it can grow your audience because your guests can also share the episode with those in their community too! 🏘️ 

Make your podcast into a brand 

When you’re able to turn your podcast into a brand, it can increase your audience because it will be easier to promote your show.

For example, when you have your podcast colors, font, logo, and theme it can help your podcast be seen as a brand. 

Having all of these things coordinated can make your website cohesive and more professional looking. 💻 

But when you have your podcast presented as a brand, your website, blog, podcast cover, etc., can all match and be promoted better cause they will be easy to recognize.

For example, you can post your logo and podcast name on social media and on your website, and people will know which show it is because you’ve turned it into a brand. 

Market your podcast 📣 

We know you’ve already spent hours/days working on your podcast episode, but you need to spend at least as much time promoting it…

And there can be so many different ways to market your podcast these days. 

Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, your podcast website, your newsletter, etc. 

A recent study carried out by CSA (Consumer Science and Analytics) and Havas Paris found out that 35% of listeners discovered a new podcast through social media and their favorite social networks in 2021.

And you already guessed it, you need to have a strong presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter if you want to attract new listeners. 🕰

Think about all the content that you see on social media everyday… that could be content relating to your podcast! 

That gives others the opportunity to share your content with their followers, thus growing your audience. 

You will find a strategy for each platform in our article Podcasts and social networks: communication and marketing effectively.

And since we think it’s the most important social media to help you grow your podcast audience, we also prepared for you 10 tips for promoting your podcast on Instagram.

You can also market your podcast through cross-promotion, which brings me to my next tip. 

Implement a cross-promotional strategy 🔀 

It doesn’t matter if you just started your podcast or if you’ve been in the podcasting game for a while now : you need to create and use your own podcast network.

Even if your network is small, you can implement cross-promotion strategies : you can invite a guest on your podcast or ask another podcaster to invite you. 🤝

What this means is that you can reach out to other podcasters to see if they would want to be a guest on your show, and then you could be a guest on their show. 

Podcast cross-promotion is a visibility exchange between two podcasts that’s generally free. It’s a very common practice among podcasters, since it allows them to tap into an audience that already listens to podcasts in order to acquire new listeners.

A simple interview with guests working in your industry might serve as valuable content while also reaching out to a whole new audience. You will be introduced to new listeners by one of their favorite podcasters and they might end-up listening to your podcast.

It also works the other way around, the audience of a podcaster you invite on your show will listen to your episode and you might gain new loyal listeners.

This is great for promoting both of your shows because you can market the episode to your audience, and they can market the show to their audience, thus making both of your audience’s grow. 🤜 🤛

Cross-promotion is good when you find a podcast that has a similar subject to your show, because then your audiences won’t be too different. 

An effective cross-promotional strategy can grow your audience a lot and make sure that your podcast is increasing its visibility. 👀 

If you want to learn more about cross-promotion strategies, check out our article : How to develop a cross-promotional strategy to grow your podcast’s audience. 

Optimize the SEO for your podcast

As I’m sure you know by now, SEO is Search Engine Optimization, and if you optimize it your podcast will appear higher in Google’s search results. 🔍 

Then whenever you are writing content relating to that episode, such as the description, title, or blog post, use those keywords as much as possible. 

That way the Google robots can scan your content and find those keywords and put your podcast show at the top of the results if someone searches for something that relates to your show’s subject. 🤖 

You can optimize the SEO for your podcast by having keywords throughout all of your podcast metadata and content that can increase traffic to your show. 

When you increase traffic to your show, your audience will inevitably grow. 🚦 

• The title and the permalink should include at least one keyword to make it easier for the user and the engine to understand the content. 🗝
• The cover should make you stand out from the crowd. 🌠
• The episode description allows you to summarize the audio content of your episode : you have 4000 characters, be sure to use them. 📜
• The tags allow you to add a taxonomy specific to each episode and will help your content to be better referenced. #cooltags
• The proper naming of your audio file is an important consideration for your podcast’s SEO. 📼
• The transcription of the audio content of each episode into text will be key to help google and dividing your podcast into successive chapters enhances the transcription process. 📝

Our article Podcasts and SEO: How to make your podcast visible on search engines, will give you all the information you need.

Create snackable content 🍿 

Creating snackable content is when you create micro-content from your main content. 

Your episodes are truly a gold mine for creating additional content to promote your podcast and get more podcast listeners.

When you’re first starting your podcast you won’t have as many episodes to create snackable (or micro) content from, so give it time and as you record more episodes you can create more snackable content.

This includes blog posts, a short video for social media, infographics and posts on your social networks.

It’s often more effective to reuse existing content than to create new content from scratch.

Writing a blog post from scratch can be hard, you can trust me on that.

The easiest way for you is to take the notes from the script of your episodes or the complete transcripts of your recordings to edit it and transform them into great blog posts. 

Snackable content should be easy to consume for its viewers and normally shouldn’t take up a lot of their time to consume it. 

Some examples of snackable content are memes, gifs, or short video clips that you can easily post on social media. 

They can be based on your main content, AKA your podcast episode. 

Snackable content is used so that you still have something to post in between the release of your episodes, allowing you to keep your presence known to your audience. 

Basically, when you come across a piece of snackable content on social media, you should be able to consume it quickly and enjoy it. 👌 

You shouldn’t want to skip over it because you don’t have the time or energy to consume it. 

Snackable content can grow your audience because it should be really easy to share on social media, meaning that if one of your followers shares what you posted, then that creates the opportunity for someone new to find it and then check out your show.

Repurposing your content will definitely save you some time, have a look at our article 6 ways to reuse the content of your podcast. 

Use Calls-to-Action 📢 

Calls-to-Action are what you ask your audience to do during your episode. 

Meaning, you could tell them to follow you on social media, subscribe to your newsletter, or to buy your new book… anything that is important to you at that time. 

So if for example, you’ve just launched your podcast, you may want to grow your number of newsletter subscribers… 💌 

Your call-to-action should be to ask your listeners to subscribe to your newsletter on your website, and then provide them with the website name so that they can do it. 

But if you have a lot of subscribers and now have just released a new Youtube channel based on your podcast, your call-to-action can be to ask your audience to watch your new Youtube episodes. 🖥️ 

Calls-to-action can be very efficient and will help you grow your audience and your podcast brand in general because you’re asking your audience directly to help you increase the visibility of your show. 

All you have to do is figure out which call-to-action you want to say in your podcast episodes. 

This is because you should try and limit yourself to three calls-to-action per episode, otherwise your audience may feel that you’re being a bit solicitous. 

Your website is also a great place to use CTAs : just add a “Listen here” button at the end of your articles and you will notice a great number of new listeners on your podcast.

Choose your podcast host site wisely 🎙️ 

Your podcast host site will be your greatest ally to get listed on the most important podcast directories and can do so much more to get your voice out there!

Okay, we might be a little bit biased here but I think you should definitely check out what we do here at Ausha !

You might be surprised by the efficiency of our unique marketing tools such as the clip generator, the social media manager, the newsletter, etc. Plus, our in-depth podcast statistics will help keep you on the right track! 💜

Create detailed and informative metadata 

The metadata that you create for your show needs to be precise and effective. 

It should be detailed and give important information about your podcast. 📝 

Your metadata also needs to include the keywords that you have chosen for each episode. 

The keywords are what helps people find your podcast, and the metadata is the perfect place to put them! 

Your metadata includes, your episode titles and descriptions, your podcast cover, tags, podcast category, and the host’s name. 🖼️ 

By having detailed and informative metadata, it will be easier for people to find your show, thus growing your podcast audience! 

To conclude

These 15 tips and tricks that I’ve given you today should all help you grow your podcast audience! 📈 

And it doesn’t matter if you’ve already launched your podcast or not, you can still use these tips and tricks! 

Go through each one carefully to ensure that you are doing everything you can to grow your podcast audience. 

And that’s all it takes! 15 tips and tricks for you to grow your podcast audience! Seems simple enough! 😎 

We can’t wait to discover your podcast 👊

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