“Over 700,000 have been launched, but only few reach its full potential. If you’re putting effort into your podcast, getting noticed and growing your audience need to be major objectives for you and your team.” 

When it comes to how to make your B2B podcast stand out amongst the crowd, Speakerbox Media has gathered together 5 simple steps that make a huge difference for podcasts at any stage of production. 

Step 1: Put the audience first from the beginning

Just like with every other piece of media, podcasts rely on the attention (and size) of a target audience. The audience should be defined and considered from the first day of your podcast production to the final day of podcast marketing. 

To start defining your audience, ask yourself: 

What topics interest them? Although plenty of podcasts cover more than one topic, the most successful podcasts engage their audience with content that focuses on the quality of information over the quantity. If too many things are getting discussed at once, your real message gets lost in the shuffle. 

 Where do they go to get the information they need? If you can’t find where your target audience is, they won’t be able to find you. Putting your audience first means engaging them from the first episode AND the first piece of marketing. Building a community takes time, but putting down roots starts from day one. 

 How can you help them? 

Your audience has a problem. If you don’t know it yet, you need to find out. Whether they need advice for their business or tips on gardening, each episode should provide them with another insight into how to solve their issues. 

 Why would they listen to you and not someone else?

This is where you can flex your knowledge and expertise. Your audience wants someone they can trust. Someone genuinely trying to be helpful and who knows what they’re talking about. This expertise should be called upon often, with real research and experiences to back up everything you say. 

Still need help? The Houston Pod offers one-on-one consulting services to podcasters looking for a leg up on determining and defining their potential audience. 

Step 2: Market where your target listeners congregate

Whether you’re marketing a product or marketing a podcast, the approach to good marketing revolves around communicating in the right way. You need to communicate the right message to the right people, at the right time and in the right place. Just like with defining your audience, if you can’t find where your target audience spends their time, they won’t be able to find you. It’s up to you to delve deep and discover where your listeners hang out, what sites they frequent, what social media they use, and what online publications they read. 

Unfortunately, no two audiences will be alike. What someone else does to market their podcast about traveling won’t work for your podcast about parenting. Fortunately, the right audience for your podcast is out there and once you find them, marketing becomes a streamlined process of content creation. Marketing is not a one-stop shop, but instead a variety of options to choose from and content to customize. 

As more people take an interest in podcasts and the potential they hold as entertainment and education, consider reaching out in ways that encourage listeners to transfer from one media space to another. This can include videocasting on Youtube or advertising on Spotify, where the content doesn’t have to stray far from what you’re already creating in order to get attention. And, the best part: you don’t have to create your effective marketing strategy on your own. Our marketing experts at The Houston Pod are more than willing to teach your team how to market your podcast, or we’ll even do it for you! 

Step 3: Create microcontent with eye-catching visuals

Pop quiz! Does every piece of marketing content need to be a full-fledged commercial? Absolutely not! Some of the best podcast marketing techniques rely on a strong social media strategy with consistent, bite-sized content. Audiences online have a notoriously short attention span, wanting something that will grab their gaze fast and leave them wanting more. 

If you’re interested in how to make your podcast popular, think about the visuals that could tie in with the podcasts you’re creating. Video clips, motion graphics, and animations do incredibly well on social media, compelling the most successful podcasters to take to apps like Instagram to spread teasers and highlights of episodes. Just because your content is centered on audio doesn’t mean that your marketing always should be! Like we discussed in step 2, encouraging listeners to transfer from one media space to another is proven to grow audiences. 

What really matters in determining your podcast marketing plan and social media strategy is the results that you receive. How many people shared the episode? Which hashtags keep getting used? Are people commenting? As with any marketing in any creative field, experimentation in podcast marketing is important. Don’t be afraid to create something never-before-seen as long as it reaches the audience you’re looking for. Searching for ideas? 

Our social media team creates tons of videos and trailers for Houston Pod clients and would love to help you innovate your marketing strategy. Check out our portfolio for examples of content we’ve created for shows like B2B Growth Hacks and True Vs. Truth. 

Step 4: Network with other podcasters 

Like the song says, you get by with a little help from your friends. In this case, the “friends” we’re talking about are other podcasters! Don’t be afraid to reach out to the podcasters that fill the same niches and cover the same topics that you do. Through the mutual relationships that you form with these other content creators, you can leverage each others’ audiences and increase your visibility as well as better confirm your expertise to your target audience. 

A popular idea to get the ball rolling with forming these relationships is inviting other podcasters to be on your show or accepting invitations from them to be on theirs. This spreads the word that your passion for these topics extends beyond your own show and that you’re willing to share your knowledge with more than one audience. 

Creating sponsored advertisements is another solid way to extend your reach. These short ads can also be a great source of revenue if you’d like to accept offers from other podcasters to put advertisements within your episodesl. Struggling to book guests on your own podcast? The Houston Pod can help you and your team prepare a compelling pitch and get the most out of your collaborations. 

Step 5: Reviews! 

When you last bought something online, did you read the reviews first? Studies show that consumers are more likely to trust other consumers before they trust the company marketing to them. This works the same way for podcasts too! Once you start posting your podcast somewhere, the platform you use will start collecting reviews from listeners and will rank your podcast based on those reviews.

 And, just like a product, your audience will read those reviews and pay attention to that ranking. Encouraging listeners to leave reviews is something that not enough podcasters take advantage of. Word of mouth feels like a more authentic way of marketing to the majority of consumers, who would rather pay attention to a podcast that they saw had lots of positive reviews from frequent audience members than a few subpar reviews from a couple of random listeners. Additionally, reviews give you the feedback you might be looking for and the wake up call that you might need to improve the quality of your podcast. If listeners are leaving negative reviews, it’s important to view that feedback as an opportunity to learn and grow. Getting noticed and growing your audience for your podcast is not a simple task, but it shouldn’t be a hard one either. Through thoroughly researching your audience and crafting the content you create around their needs, your podcast is guaranteed to get some buzz and gain some new ears. Keep your marketing strategy innovative and your advertisements bite-sized, and always keep in mind that word of mouth (through fans and fellow podcasters) still reigns supreme when it comes to how to make your podcast popular. When in doubt, don’t be afraid to reach out! At The Houston Pod, we’re here to help your podcast reach new heights and fulfill exactly what your brand needs to succeed. Schedule a call with us to get started on your next game plan.