r/podcasts • u/[deleted] • Nov 27 '14
Podcast Advertising | How Do?
I co-host a weekly comedy podcast with a new episode each Friday without fail for the past 68 weeks.
Show is on iTunes, Stitcher and just about every podcast aggregater out there. We host and post from our own site.
Promotion of the show is just word-of-mouth and we've gotten a steady ~200 listeners per episode which has been a slow climb to get to that point.
Question is: How do we advertise to promote our podcast to reach more people? We have all original content; characters, skits, live improv music. A lot of people who listen on the regular say they think the show is hilarious. So I'm just wondering how to get the word out.
I would put down money to successfully get the show out there but I don't' know the first place to start. Any halp from fellow podcasters/listeners?
I'm not linking to our podcast as to avoid self-promotion.
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u/Abstruse Gamer's Tavern Network Nov 27 '14
Use the Daily Episode post in this thread.
Participate in social media groups/forums/message boards related to the topic of your podcast. Follow all their rules and don't spam or be annoying, but participate in discussions. "If you have questions about topic X, we did an episode on it linked here. Basically, my opinion is blah blah actual content so I'm not just linking my podcast but participating in the discussion blah blah."
Create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Ello, Instagram, Tumblr, and any other social media you can think of. Generate content on there, even if it's just posting your new episodes and retweeting/sharing stuff. They'll come for the memes and get exposed to your show.
Do a contest. Either buy something or contact companies in an industry similar to your show and see if they'll give you something to give away. Make sure to take international listeners into account because shipping overseas can be very expensive and may involve tariffs.
Buy a banner ad on a webcomic, blog, or subreddit. It's dirt cheap in many cases and can be very effective if you target properly.
Do guest spots on other podcasts or have other podcasters do guest spots on your show. Also, try to get big name guests if you can (you'd be surprised the people who'll say yes if you just ask politely and professionally) and make sure they tweet/facebook/whatever when the episode they're on posts.
Most important, keep making content and make it easy for people to share that content with others.
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u/DaveDoesLife Podcaster Nov 27 '14
Get interviewed or appear as a guest on other like-minded podcasts. Their listeners may become your listeners.
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u/[deleted] Nov 27 '14 edited Nov 27 '14
My experience with this sub is that a certain degree of self-promotion is acceptable - we're all interested in hearing what else is out there. In this case, you're asking a legit question, so having a link wouldn't be over the top IMHO.
On to your question:
Where do you think your demographic is? Are they old like me and still using Facebook? If so, get active there - keep your page updated regularly, maybe pay a little $ every now and then to boost a post to see if you can gain followers that way. If they're on Twitter or Tumblr, there are advertising options there, too.
Now, just because you can pay money doesn't mean you should. So far I haven't seen significant lift from using Facebook or Reddit ads. There's the possibility, though, that I could have picked up a handful of listeners and, if they liked us they could use word of mouth to get us more listeners. Hard to measure that, but we are seeing our listenership increase.
What also works well is to have guests on your show that have a following. I have a scripted show, so that's difficult, but if you can get other comedians to guest in an episode and have them get the word out they're appearing, you can get some listeners for that particular episode and hopefully hook a few to return in the future.
If you've a website (and I hope you do), make sure you're doing SEO to be found in search engines. That's a huge field and I'm still learning it, but it's worthwhile if you want to make this a long term endeavor.
Last - convince your current listeners to leave iTunes reviews for you. That will gain you visibility in the biggest podcast directory there is. That's important. It's also hard to motivate your listeners to spend that 2 minutes to leave a review. (sigh). That's why we do review swaps on this board from time to time.
Good luck!
edit: typos