By Danielle Mellema

Entrepreneurs and small business owners are seeing the benefits of the still-growing podcasting trend. Podcast hosting is a (generally) low-cost way is to kill many birds with one stone—you can share your expertise, learn from others, deepen your network, position yourself as a thought-leader in your industry, and build a community with similar goals, interests, or ideals.

A common issue with launching a podcast is this: You have a compelling topic. You are producing quality content. You book interesting guests. You are launching episodes regularly. Yet, the number of downloads isn’t growing, making you wonder if it’s really worth the time and effort.

Here are some strategies—ranging in cost (some are free!) and time commitment—to get your podcast into the earbuds of the right listeners and grow your listenership (and your business).

Quick fixes

• Add a link to your email signature.

• If you use an email marketing platform, be sure to include clips and links to your podcast episodes, possibly with a dedicated section for the podcast.

• Send a thank-you email to guests on the podcast, sharing all the relevant links, promotional images, etc., and ask them to share the podcast with their social media networks.

• Every few episodes, ask listeners to rate and review your podcast on iTunes or whatever platform they’re listening on.  Ratings and reviews are essential for helping your podcast show up in searches on iTunes.

• Be sure to say the specific episode number if you refer to a past episode so people can easily find it.

• Be bold! Reach out to more noteworthy guests to see if they’d be interested in being a guest on your podcast.  Getting in front of your audience benefits them as well.

Time (and money) well-spent

• Make it easy for guests and listeners to share your podcast by creating snippets and quote images.

• Convert the audio of each episode to a YouTube video to diversify the type of content, boost accessibility through closed captioning options, and improve your SEO.

• If you mention a specific brand or company in your podcast (even if it’s not promotional, but as an example or case study), reach out to them via email or social media to let them know. They might mention you back!

• Be a guest on other people’s podcasts and be sure to share about your own podcast. Pitch a few topic ideas when you reach out to them.

• Create show notes with helpful links to products, businesses, articles, etc., that you mention in the episode.

• Run a giveaway contest among your listeners, with entries such as giving a review, sharing on social media, or following your social media accounts.

• Tease episodes with audiograms a few days before each episode. Though there are free options, higher quality audiogram creators have some cost involved.

A few helpful sources:

We Didn’t Know How to Promote a Podcast. So Here’s All We Learned, by Kevan Lee

11 Strategies to Market Your Podcast in 2020, by Kevin T. Payne

How To Promote A Podcast: The 2020 Ultimate Guide, by Castos