How to Develop a Reliable Podcast Marketing Strategy
A successful podcast marketing strategy goes hand in hand with a successful podcast. A well-thought-out strategy can help a podcast's development, distribution, and growth. These strategies have become crucial in the audio world.
It will be difficult to watch your show rise through the ranks without a well-thought-out podcast marketing strategy (unless you're a celebrity, which is sadly not the case for many of us).
Without a clear strategy or measurement plan in place, throwing tactics at the wall and seeing what sticks can be a waste of time. Creating a podcast marketing strategy for your team, especially for brands, can help to alleviate a lot of questions about the podcast's audience growth tactics.
We've laid out a six-step process for developing a podcast marketing strategy that you and your team will enjoy.
1. Determine the purpose of your podcast
First and foremost, determine the purpose of your podcast series.
This should be limited to one or two sentences. If you go over two sentences, you're probably trying to accomplish too much with your podcast, and your message may become muddled among all the different objectives you're attempting to meet.
There is a slew of objectives that your podcast could pursue, but here are a few that might work for you:
1. Consciousness
2. Thought leadership/credibility
3. Establishing relationships
4. Collaborations
5. Obtaining leads
When you write down your objective, it might look like this:
"In the fitness and wellness industry, to raise awareness and establish credibility."
Alternatively, consider:
"To develop industry relationships with a variety of fitness influencers with over 10,000 followers on all social media platforms."
This is an example of a goal that is both broad and specific. The path you take will ultimately be determined by your show and the goals you want to achieve with it.
2. Define your podcast's KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
What criteria will you use to evaluate the success of your podcast? KPIs (key performance indicators) are useful in this situation.
If you don't set any KPIs for yourself, you won't be able to effectively measure your podcast's performance over time and see if it's achieving the goals you set out to achieve at the start.
We'll be the first to admit that deciding on a goal for your podcast series isn't always the most straightforward task. Podcasts have a long way to go in terms of metrics when compared to video, blogs, and other marketing mediums.
However, the following are the main metrics you can use in your podcast marketing strategy right now:
- Number of downloads - Number of unique listeners - Percentage of time spent listening
- Information on demographics (i.e., location, age, gender, musical interests)
- Participation in social media
- Website participation - Any type of sign-ups, such as webinars, events, and newsletters
- Downloads of any kind, such as whitepapers or reports
- Prospects
The majority of these metrics (1-4) can be found in your podcast's hosting platform or in the listening app where it lives (Apple, Spotify, Amazon, etc.). Other tools, such as Google Analytics and social media analytics, can be used to find the remaining KPIs.
Try to be as realistic as possible when setting your KPIs, but also set a healthy challenge for yourself. For example, achieving a 60% average consumption rate is a great place to start.
3. Make a comprehensive list of all of your marketing strategies
What strategies will you employ to achieve your objectives and KPIs?
Make a list of all the strategies and platforms you'll use to promote your podcast. Both paid and organic options are available.
The following are some examples of paid platforms:
- PlayerFM
- Spotify Advertising
- Castbox
- Podcast Addict
The following are some organic platforms:
- Podcast guests
- Podcast directories
- Social media
- Newsletters
4. Analyze each marketing strategy on your list
Break down each marketing tactic you choose to use in your podcast marketing strategy so that you and your team have something to refer to.
Consider things like:
- A description of the platform
- How you intend to use the tactic with your podcast
- The tactic's KPIs
This will help you and your team stay organized, as well as shed light on your strategy if you choose too many tactics and don't have the resources to not only execute on all of them but to do so well.
Try focusing on just two or three tactics from both paid and organic options for the first few months of your podcast to see how they perform. You can gradually add more or replace the ones that aren't working as you develop a routine around them and gain more knowledge.
5. Make a plan for implementing each of your marketing strategies
Make a separate plan for each tactic's execution. The steps you or your team will need to take to bring the tactic to life should be included in these execution plans.
Make a list of anything that could potentially become a roadblock in your podcast marketing strategy, such as budget, approvals, access to specific accounts, payment information, or anything else. Once you've done that, work on clearing any hurdles before you begin executing so that everything goes as smoothly as possible.
The following is an example of an execution plan:
1. Get approval for a $250 USD Spotify Ad budget; 2. Get payment information; 3. Set up a Spotify Advertising account; 4. Set Spotify Ad targeting;
5. Upload all audio and visual content to Spotify Ads;
6. Go over everything and get final approvals;
7. Begin a Spotify marketing campaign.
We can already see some potential friction points in steps 1, 2, and 6, so it's a good idea to think through these issues ahead of time.
6. Evaluate and adjust your podcast marketing strategy based on the results
Finally, evaluate the outcomes of your podcast marketing strategy.
Here are some questions to ponder:
1. Did you meet your key performance indicators (KPIs)?
2. Did you meet or exceed the KPIs you set?
3. Have you identified any additional KPIs that should be included in your strategy?
4. Which strategies yielded the best results?
5. Which strategies didn't work out?
6. Why would you like to include certain tactics in your strategy?
Create a report that addresses all of these concerns and makes a case for what should and should not be changed in your podcast marketing strategy.
Reviewing your strategy every 3-6 months, depending on the frequency of your podcast, will ensure that it's up to date and that you've given each tactic enough time to determine whether or not it's a good fit for your show.
Create a copy of your current strategy and start a new one in a separate document if you've decided to change your strategy. You'll always have documentation and a history of your podcast marketing strategies to look back on and learn from.
If you need more help, book some time to chat with us!