How to channel people to your podcast
Podcasts, like any media, shouldn’t sit in isolation.
Take books for example. If you write a book, you have a variety of ways for people to consume your words. (I say “consume”, because not everyone may care to “read” it. With the increased popularity of audiobooks, some audiences may want to listen to your book.)
To get the greatest exposure, a book publisher can help distribute it in bookshops, like Dymocks or Collins Booksellers. You would also hope to offer the physical book online at Amazon or Booktopia.
The digital copy of your book can be offered on an e-reader like Kindle.
You could create an audiobook version for Audible, Bolinda or Spotify platforms.
What about a podcast?
Overwhelmingly, most people listen to podcasts on apps like Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Other smaller apps include iHeart, Audacy and Gaana, which you have to submit your podcast separately.
There are many dozens of other smaller apps, like Castro and Pocket Casts, which take their feed (it’s called an RSS feed) directly from Apple Podcasts; as long as your podcast is on Apple Podcasts, it’s on those other smaller apps too.
Use a ‘podcast hosting platform’ to ensure your podcast is available on the most popular apps
If you publish a book through a publisher, they’ll handle the distribution of your book. They’ll ensure it is in bookstores, on Kindle, and as an audiobook.
A podcast hosting platform (let’s say ‘podcast host’ for short) is like your podcast’s publishing house – it’s a one-stop-shop to distribute your podcast on all major podcast apps. It makes life so much easier.
A podcast hosting platform, allows you to submit to all the major podcast apps in one place.
A good podcast host should also be able to gather all the analytics from all the apps in one place, so that you can identify how many people are listening for each episode and from which app.
Podcast hosts
Chris Ashmore Media uses Omny Studio for its suite of podcasts. It’s based in Melbourne, it’s IAB certified (which means its analytics are legit), it has a slick embedded audio player, and you can easily submit the podcast to the major podcast apps, including Apple and Spotify.
There are many dozens of other podcast hosts, including:
Set up a dedicated web page for your podcast
When you launch a podcast, you should set up a dedicated web page for your podcast, which you update each time a new episode is released.
Market each new episode via your current digital marketing channels – newsletter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. – and funnel people back to your podcast’s web page.
Ensure they can listen to your podcast directly from your web page by embedding the podcast audio player. (Either embed the player for each individual episode, or as a playlist for the entire podcast.)
Copy and paste the iFrame code from the podcast episode to embed the audio player to your dedicated web page.
By funnelling people to your website, they will likely listen to your podcast there for the first time. If they like it, experienced podcast consumers will then subscribe to your podcast via their podcast app.
If they’re not experienced podcast listeners, then they will at least know where to go (i.e., your website) if they wish to listen to further episodes.
Here are two great examples of podcasts which have dedicated web pages:
FINALLY…Market your podcast regularly
The best way to get people to listen to your podcast is through constant promotion. Always promote each episode through your social media network. Encourage listeners to rate and review your podcast in Apple Podcasts. Write blog articles based on your podcast.
But all those things will be less effective if you don’t have a dedicated place (website or web page) to bring your first-time listeners to.
Any questions about launching your podcast, please contact us.