It is a famous saying that whoever fails to plan, plans to fail. We have taken the time to compile a comprehensive article to help you implement a successful strategy for launching your podcast.

The podcasting audience has increased exponentially over the years. Studies by Edison Research reveal a steep rise in podcast listeners  that you might find interesting:

” The 2021 Reports finds seventy-five percent of those in the U.S 13+ (212 million people) are monthly spoken word audio listeners, and 45% (127 million people) are daily spoken word audio listeners. Spoken word audio listening is up 40% in the past seven years, and up 8% year over year, with the share of time, spent listening to spoken word audio reaching 28% of time spent with all audio. ” Edison Research 2021 Spoken Word Report

This article will give you the ultimate guide to effective launch strategies for pulling listenership to your new podcast and catching up with the long-lasting audio trend. if you have an established show, here’s another article instead: Growth Strategies for an Established Podcast

After figuring out the startup and production aspect of a podcast, the next bridge to cross is the launch and promotion, which will require a solid podcast strategy to boost its growth from the start.

 

Step1: Prepare for the launch

Generating buzz during the launch week of your podcast prepares the ground and builds a solid base for your show, offering it the best chance to reach its first listeners.

Make sure that everything is in place before the launch week, because there will be so many things to do that working on the production side of the content wouldn’t be possible.

Here is a list of things you’ll need:

1. Requirements: The Cover Art + The Description for the Show + Music Bed
2. Episodes: prepare 3 episodes in advance  (Audio and Video if possible) + Show Notes
3. Social Media Posts: those could be in any format (image, video, or text) in the form of stories, tweets, or short clips depending on the social media channels you wish to promote on:
   – One to announce and present the show that you are creating.
   – Another one to help them understand why you are creating this podcast
   – And one to talk about who can get the best value out of this show
4. Guests material: prepare some materials for your guests to share with their audiences

 

 

Step 2: A Winning Social Media Strategy

Social media platforms are your best chance to get the word going for your podcast. and usually, where people want to talk so by cleverly implementing your strategy and selecting the right social media channel, you give yourself the best chances of winning.

Craft your strategy for your target audience: 

Listener Persona: Do your research about your Listener persona and gather as much information on them: their age, gender, behaviors, interests maybe sexual orientations, and their favorite social media network.

Social platforms: Now that you know which social platform your potential listeners use, take the time to study and work on it to understand how things work in order to be able to create content that is native to this particular platform.

Combination: Finally, after gathering all that info about your audience and the social network they are frequently in, use your imagination by putting yourself in the perspective of your listeners and looking for ways to pick their interest. 

If you think that you need to go deeper into your social media strategy, I’ve got you covered: check out this article where ae talk about 9 Strategies to Grow your Podcast Audience with Social Media

 

#3 Collect Ratings & Reviews

People are psychologically drawn to interacting with things that their friends and family recommend, and positive ratings and reviews are doing the same thing by reinforcing the social proof of your content. 

Therefore, try to get reviews as early as the launch of your show, not only because this might help your podcast be featured on the charts but also because this is the best time to ask your network to help and support you.

here are some ways you can get ratings and reviews:

• Your Community: If you have a nurtured Community and you’re constantly providing value to a group of people (whether on Facebook, Twitter, Email…)lookup for the ones that are mostly interacting with you and your content (either by replying, commenting, or participating) and ask for their opinion about your show, once they tell you their opinion, guide them on how to put this into the rating and reviews section.
  A call to action in your social media bio can be a good idea but preferably look for ways to make your audience interact with you before asking them for the review. 

 

• Ask for the support of your network:Ask your friends, colleges, and family to support you by sharing the word about your show and maybe post a snippet of the show to their network if they relate to it.

 

• Podcast Show Notes: If your listeners are reading your show notes, this means that they are so interested in the content that they can’t get enough, and that’s an opportunity for you to let them know how to support you. 

 

• Reminding listeners at the end of your show: Closing the podcast with a friendly reminder to your audience to leave a review is also a good idea since people need time to take action.

 

• Shoutout: Do a social media shoutout or one during your podcast to lucky people who rate and review your show will push other people to do it, just to hear their names and their support being recognised.

 

• Conducting a giveaway: Making a giveaway to gather Ratings and Reviews or making it a condition for entering the giveaway is also a brilliant idea, more about how to conduct you launch giveaway towards the end of this article.

 

That said, you must show some restrain in your quest for reviews. Nagging or spamming random users online will only create a negative perception of your podcast to the world. 

Be engaged and supportive whenever you can, and you shall receive back.

 

#4 Invite Community Influencers.

The voice of a major influencer on your show attracts attention and especially if this famous person has a large presence in the audio and podcasting space where people are already used to listening to them.

The advantage is that people with established audiences can bring new listeners to experience your show, and if you have a quality show they will stick around for you afterward. 

Search for influential people that usually show up in podcasts in your niche and reach out to them online. Interact with their social media accounts and try to be genuinely interested in helping them and their audiences. The moment you are sure they noticed your presence and acknowledge your value, ask for Cross-promotion* by giving them an invitation to be on your show.

"Cross-promotion means both parties get exposure on each other's platform. It is a great deal many guests will be more than happy to accept."

They might as well invite you to their own show if you give them a good experience and treat them properly, and those collaborations are the main path to growing an audience anywhere online.   

After an appearance on your show, don’t just keep it at that, give them the opportunity to help you promote the episode by sending them materials such as audios and videos of the best parts of the interview, pictures with them, and what they talked about or the blog post that has all of the written info they provided in your show.

Over time, as your podcast grows, guests will then show interest in your show and request an appearance and that’s your way of giving back by promoting rising talent and members of your community.

 

#5 Finesse your Calls to Actions:

If you’re guilty of promoting your podcast with a dull download link that reads: ‘New podcast show available now. Click here to listen.’ You’ve been doing it all wrong!

Listeners are tiered and have long been avoiding these calls to action. that doesn’t offer any real value for them. 

A more captivating call to action draws the attention of your audience and tells them exactly what they need to hear. In brief words, your content should be of great value and relevant to your community and when telling them about it, just describe the content of the episode and why they should be interested. Let’s look at a good example:

“New Episode: Rank N˚1 on apple podcasts with this one strategy [Link follows]”

Extract key points from a recorded podcast and use them to summarize the essence of the entire show. Ask yourself, how you would sell an episode if given only 30 seconds with a potential listener.

If you want to learn more about calls to action check this article.

 

Tips:

Conduct a contest:

conducting a pre-launch contest where entrants receive giveaways for rating and reviewing your show will get the word moving about your podcast and an opportunity for your best people to shine and get excited.

But this doesn’t always work unless it’s done the right way.

1. Prize: Carefully select the prize to be of great value to your potential listeners, so giving away a gift card or something cliché, won’t get anyone excited about the show, so pick something relevant to your industry.
2. Easy entrance: Make sure the way to enter the giveaway is clear and easy, putting a lot of barriers for the contestant generally will bore them away from participating.
3. Time-limited: there has to be a time limit to your contest and generally a 2week period is enough to give everyone a chance to participate.
4. Clear Communication: clearly communicate about it on social media and make sure people are aware of it, if it’s possible do some social media ads to make sure your reach is multiplied.
5. Fair pick: track your giveaway success and randomly choose winners so that your contest is fair to everyone, some of the tools to do that are: KingSumo, RaffleCopter, ShortStack, and Contest Domination.

 

Conclusion:

And that about it; five strategies to launch a new podcast. The good use of steps outlined in this article is sure to result in a successful podcast launch, giving it a greater chance of ranking higher in the charts and therefore gathering your first followers and introducing your show to new audiences. 

Podcasting is a long-term game, don’t get discouraged by the numbers as they aren’t similar to social media stats what you should focus on is the relationships you’re building with your audience as they have you whispering into their ears with no distractions, so make good use of this power.