So you’ve successfully launched a podcast, you’ve been doing it for few months but your podcast growth isn’t exactly what you imagined and now you are searching for sustainable strategies to grow your established podcast.

If you are yet to launch your new podcast and need to generate buzz before your release, we recommend this article instead to learn all the amazing tricks to create hype around your show right before it LAUNCHES.

Growing a podcast isn’t a piece of cake, it takes a lot of patience and dedication. think of it like planting a seed and nurturing its growth, the seed is going to come off the ground after a few weeks but all the effort and time is spent taking care of the plant until one day you’ll have grown, ready to be harvested fruits.

Same thing with podcasts, it’s naive to expect your audience to grow without efforts and promotion from your side, but with consistency and hard work, even a hard rocky land can become a heaven.

There’s no one fertilizer that’s going to boost the growth of your podcast, but you can employ some techniques and marketing strategies to build your audience from the ground up. Let’s get straight to the seven working strategies for growing a podcast.

 

#1 Engage Your Listeners On Social Networks:

Your relationship with your listeners doesn’t end after you post the episode, Make yourself available online whenever you have the chance, spare a few minutes of your time everyday to respond to their questions, listen to the feedback, and give thoughtful advice.

make it your mission to help members of your community grow together with you as part of giving back.

Create valuable content frequently and share relevant posts from other places with your listeners, find ways to spark a conversation and build a solid listener base that is going to be rooting for you and supporting you.

Remember to build your community on a platform that is frequently used by your target audience. 

 

#2 Listen to Your Audience

Feedback from your audience is of high value to your podcast as they are in a better position to judge the performance of your show. 

You have to be receptive to your audience’s concerns if you must keep them happy because without them you aren’t worth much and having them as long time listeners is a luxury most people are striving for.

Do surveys from time to time and get their take on things, they will know where you fall short and if they’ve been listening for a long time they might have a clear idea on the next steps you need to take.

 

#3 Find podcast growth partners

Instead of competing with other podcasters, work with them to build success together.

The podcasting community is very welcoming and engaging, find your tribe on social media and exchange with hosts related to your niche, have a collaboration in mind at all times and see where things could go.

Collaborating with other podcasters exposes your show to new audiences offering your audience something different from what they are used to.

You don’t necessarily have to be in the same niche to network with other podcasters. As long as you serve similar audiences, many things can be implemented.

 

#4 Make Guest Appearances on other podcasts

Guest appearances are the best way to grow your podcast, they help give you more authority and notoriety in the field which in retrospect can be rewarding to you and your show, attracting more audiences and gaining a certain respect from your listeners which makes your words hit harder.

It might be tricky in the beginning as not many people know who you are and what you have to offer, but with time and consistency you are going to find places that welcome you as there are many podcasts now that are in constant search for new guests to fill their schedule.

Once you start appearing on other shows, don’t just focus on yourself and your benefits, bring as much value and tell all your secret hacks, this way you are going to attract the attention of the listeners, and if they like what they are hearing, they will automatically search for ways to learn more from you and get your attention.

 

#5 Time the Release of Your Episodes

Strategically timing your release can increase the number of listeners that tune into your show. Find a time window that works with your target audience by studying when the top podcasts in your niche drop their episodes.

You can also use the podcast analytics tools to accurately trace when most people listen to your show. 

 

#6 Set up an Easy Means for Your Guests to Share:

You’d be doing yourself a favor by creating a simple means for guests on your show to share your episode with their followers online.

Tag them on social media on your social media account, so they can be aware of your post and help you by reposting on their timeline.

 

#7 Distribute Your Show to All Podcast Listening platforms

Here is an easy podcast audience growth strategy that most people miss. Make sure your podcast is listed on as many podcast directories as possible. Some of the popular podcast directories are Spotify, Apple Podcasts, PodBean, Google Podcasts, CastBox, Pocket Cast, and so on.

Listeners like to pick a particular directory for streaming podcasts according to their preferences and the features they offer, If your show isn’t available on their favorite directory, they’ll be very reluctant to try it.

There’s no downside to having your podcast on every podcast streaming service. It just makes your podcast more accessible and easy to find.

Another thing that can help people find your podcast is your landing page, where you can list all the directories, if you don’t have one, you can check this article for a comprehensive guide on what to include and which options you have.

 

#8 Transcribe Your podcast for better SEO growth:

It is another podcast growth strategy for expanding the exposure of your podcast. Understanding the fundamentals of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is key to implementing this strategy.

Attaching transcripts of your episodes to your show notes improves the searchability of your content as it’s now text based and google can crawl that easily.

You can get cheap and accurate transcription here

 

#9 Have a Strong Call to Action:

Keep in mind that building a podcast isn’t only about bringing in new listeners but also keeping the old ones as long as possible, and one way to maximize the longevity of a podcast listener is to be able to reach them on more than one place, and that’s where call to action come into play.

A call to action is a powerful tool that can influence the behaviour of your listeners long after the show closes, if implemented right it can do miracles for you, implemented badly and you are on your way to boring your listener.

Here are a couple of things to consider with call to actions:

• Ask one action at a time: saying too many CTAs will leave your audience confused on what to do.

 

• Strategically place it: Find the best placement for each call to action, your beginning of the episode CTA shouldn’t be the same as your end of the episode CTA

 

• Give, give then give and then ask: Focus on giving value to your audience, and whenever you feel they’ve got great value, do your ask.

 

• Provoke emotions: Don’t just keep your CTA a simple ask, do it in a way that feels like a great deal for the other party, you can do that by adding a promise such as a guarantee about your programs that you are promoting, or adding FOMO for example this is a Limited time offer.

 

• Use strong action words: Saying strong CTAs is not only more persuasive but also it inspires action which is the goal, some words podcasters like to use are Subscribe, Join, Sign Up, Get Started, Claim, Take advantage of.

 

To learn more about calls to action check this article.