A Podcast Marketing Guide For Newbies To Podcasting
Podcast marketing is nothing but the act of promoting yourself, your brand or your goods through the production and distribution of audio content, typically via the Internet. You share freely available audio content to hopefully influence others in such a manner that will encourage them to ideally respond to the value that you create… which will ultimately result in them realising the importance you create for yourself and the goods or services that you offer. Podcast marketing therefore requires a significant amount of time, energy and commitment on the part of the podcast host.
One way in which this can be done effectively is by getting involved with a number of other podcasts on the market that relate to your niche, industry or products. By giving the host some promotional advice, you give your audience something that they can relate to and this is one of the best ways to market yourself. Additionally, a great way to get your brand out there is by producing and distributing your own podcast. Podcast marketing has grown massively over the past few years and with good reason, as it is now one of the best platforms available to reach an ever-increasing audience.
This is also known as Social Media Marketing (SMM) – essentially marketing your podcast through various social media channels. The idea behind SMM is that you help to promote your content to an already interested audience, but do so in a way that is more natural and honest than using the aforementioned ‘pitch’. The most popular way to do this is by producing and distributing your own podcast – this allows you to have control over the distribution process, helping to ensure that your content is distributed to those who are likely to be interested. Another effective way in which to distribute your own content is by creating a profile on social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ that links directly back to your site. While these may seem like unimportant steps, they have the potential to help boost your visibility within your chosen social media network.
Posting episodes of your podcast online is the next important step in podcast marketing. Search for relevant websites such as iTunes and listen to the audio that you have created – this will give you an idea of what your target audience is looking for. If you want to improve your visibility, then podcasts are one of the best places to promote yourself. As people search for podcast topics, you should be able to appear towards the top of the list; if not, then you will need to work on your pitch.
After you have listened to an episode of your podcast and found it to be of interest to you, it might be a good idea to write and submit articles that you have produced. This is essentially a form of advertisement – you are marketing yourself to your audience by providing them with information that is worthwhile to them. However, this tactic can take time and effort, so if you are pressed for time, you might want to consider using a combination of the two in one go. If you have several successful episodes, then it might be worth submitting your work to a directory of content, which will increase your audience size. Once you are confident in your writing, then you can move onto a podcast marketing strategy that involves advertising your work within social media.
The most popular podcasts are those that are submitted to the iTunes podcast directories. However, if you are unsure about whether or not you will be discovered, then you will probably benefit more from submitting your audio to other directories. The main ones at the moment are Podcastopia and Rssbuffet. You will also find that the larger social media networks have a high volume of followers who are keen on listening to new and unique content. If you have a website or a blog that you update regularly, then it could be worth considering adding podcast playback buttons to each of your pages. A podcast marketing guide will show you how to make these buttons visible, so that you will attract more visitors.
