Are you a podcast host looking to grow your audience? You’ve come to the right post! Welcome!
First up, let’s start with the reasons you may be looking to grow your podcast audience. Here are some of the most common reasons podcast hosts want to see their audience grow:
1. To reach more people with their message
2. To grow their business or brand
3. To make a bigger impact in the world
4. To create a community around their podcast
5. To generate more leads or convert more sales for their business or brand
6. To create more monetization opportunities
Are you looking to monetize your podcast? Check out these ideas from Podcasting Insights.
Whether your reason falls within the above list or not, today, we’re sharing actionable tips for growing your podcast audience that will work for any podcast. No matter your reason for wanting to grow, your podcast niche, or even the current size of your audience, these tips will work for you!
We’ve found that one of the biggest challenges podcasters face when trying to grow their audience is knowing how to get started. And it’s true! It can be super difficult to know where to begin, especially if you’re new to podcasting, or just feel that audience growth is beyond your realm of expertise.
But never fear! Our 5 Actionable Audience Growth Tips are here!
Check them out, put them to work, and watch your audience grow!
1. Consistently create valuable content
When it comes to growing your podcast audience, one of the most important things you can do is consistently create valuable content. Why is this so important? Well, think about it this way: if you’re not providing your listeners with valuable content, why would they stick around?
Your listeners are constantly bombarded with choices when it comes to podcasts to listen to. So before you consider growing your audience, make sure you’re keeping your current audience by always dishing up the most valuable content.
Any growth strategy has to be built upon the foundation of solid, valuable content that an audience wants to stick around for! Because in all honesty, if your episodes are not value-packed, the rest of these tips are just not going to work.
There is simply no growth hack that actually works if the product, or in this case, the podcast, does not give the consumer something that consistently meets their wants and needs.
That’s a little dose of tough love, perhaps, but it had to be said.
Now, if your episodes are passing the quality control test, (and I’m sure they are! But if you do need a little help, here’s How to Consistently Create Valuable Content for Your Podcast) we can move on to Tip Number 2 for growing your podcast audience.
2. Connect with your audience
One of the most important things you can do to grow your podcast audience is to connect with them. Why is this so important? Let’s look at the art of tending to a garden as a way of an explanation.
All green fingers will tell you (I am certainly not in possession of said green fingers – however, I have been told this consistently by my grandmother whose fingers are, indeed, very green!) that a flourishing garden requires attention. You need to fertilize the soil, pull out the weeds, water, and tend to your plants. You then create a place where all your plants – your current ones as well as all those you’ll add to your garden – can flourish…and multiply!
The same is true for your podcast audience. You need to connect with your audience – tend to them, if you will – if you want to experience audience growth.
It’s therefore essential that you make an effort to connect with your listeners on a consistent basis. This means taking the time to get to know them, finding ways to connect with them (we’ll cover this fully in the next tip), and responding to their comments, reviews where applicable, as well as to their emails. Do this, and you’ll have fertile figurative soil for your audience to grow and thrive in.
3. Use social media to form connections
Social media is a powerful tool that can be used to great effect when it comes to growing your podcast audience. Why is this? Well, think about it this way: social media gives you the ability to connect with people on a global scale.
And what’s more, social media allows you to connect with people in a way that is personal and informal. You can be yourself, show your personality, and let people into your world in a way that wasn’t possible before social media.
So how does this relate to growing your podcast audience? Well, by using social media to connect with your target audience, you can turn them into followers. And as you connect your followers and build relationships with them through your social media content, you can then easily convert them into podcast subscribers, and so bring them into that community too.
And the great thing about all the different social media platforms is that they are already reaching your target audience in some way. You just need to zero in on the platform, or platforms in some cases, where your target audience is most active, and find creative ways to connect your content with them.
For more ways of using social media to promote your podcast, check out this post: Social Media Marketing Options for Podcasts.
4. Reach out to other podcasters for cross-promotion
If you want to grow your podcast audience, one of the best things you can do is reach out to other podcasters for cross-promotion. When two podcasters promote each other’s podcasts, they’re each gaining access to a whole new audience. And because you’re reaching out to an audience of podcast listeners, the only conversion required is turning them into listeners of your show.
Even just cross-promoting, or sharing your advertisement or trailer to a couple of podcasts should see a substantial jump in your audience numbers.
But there is a secret to making this tip really work for you. And that is making sure that the podcasts you reach out to for cross-promotion, or those you reach out to share your trailer are ones who have the same target audience as you. If you’ve got an awesome trailer or really showcase your podcast well in your promo spot, you then should see almost instant audience growth!
5. Invite guests onto your podcast
Lastly, and in the same vein as the above, another actionable strategy you can use to grow your audience is to invite guests onto your show. Why? Because when you have a guest on your show, you’re tapping into their audience! And as your guest promotes your episode to their audience, you’re reaching an even larger potential audience.
It’s another win-win!
Again, reach out to guests that will appeal to your audience, as their audience will then likely be very similar to your target audience. And then make sure you do all you can to promote your upcoming episode, and this strategy should also yield great results.
Closing Thoughts
So there you have it: five actionable tips for growing your podcast audience. By consistently creating great content, and authentically connecting with your existing audience, you lay the foundation for some serious podcast audience growth!
And then by wielding the power of social media to promote your podcast, reaching out to other podcasters for cross-promotion, and inviting guests onto your show, you can increase your chances of growing your podcast audience substantially. Make sure that you’re appealing to similar or aligned target audiences or niches, and you should experience substantial audience growth!
So give these tips a try! And let us know the results in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!
