Don’t skip these 6 steps to grow your branded show.
Podcasts have become one of the most direct ways brands can reach their consumers. They are intimate, authentic and they hold our attention. But, they are also often quite niche and it can be a real challenge to find ways to grow an audience – so what can you do? We compiled a list of ideas for you to tick off that you can use to expand your reach:
1. Consistency in Content and Quality.
Yes, we know… you heard it before. But the key to growth for every show is excellent and addictive storytelling. You want to make sure you are going beyond what consumers expect from your brand and give them actual insight into a topic that they might be interested in. This way, you are educating them and also making sure your audience knows you as a leader in your industry. Does your show solve a problem for your listener, rather than one for you?
2. Light Branding.
Believe it or not, but branding your podcast as a branded podcast only works if you do it tactfully. Beware of plastering huge logos everywhere and keep the design light on corporate guidelines. You want to attract a listener whether or not they know about you already, and a huge logo that someone might not even recognise could easily drive a listener away from tuning in.
“Think about how you can be a good podcast citizen.”
3. Cross-Promotion with Others.
Being part of the podcasting space means also interacting with other shows. Find shows in a similar vein and swap trailers, ads and even whole episodes with them. Provide value to smaller experts in your field. Think about how you can be a good podcast citizen. You will expose yourself to new audiences and make new connections!
4. Repurposing Your Content.
Your podcast doesn’t have to live only on your feed. If direct ROI is a concern for you, you can use your podcast to guide your whole content strategy. Repurpose your interviews and episodes as blogs, social media posts and even internal emails about the company and then link the episodes for everyone to find them. You’d be surprised how much you can get out of a single audio file!
5. Use Your Assets.
“Make sure everyone in the company knows about the podcast.”
When building out a new podcast, make sure you are aware of everything that already exists for your brand. It could be social media pages, blogs, internal email newsletters, your website, live events… and all of those are integral to growing your show. Make sure everyone in the company knows about the podcast, and speak to every department to come up with a cohesive way to promote your show across all of your owned channels.
6. Pay for Promotion.
Finally, consider investing money into promotion. A branded show is notoriously hard to market through organic reach alone, so you want to make sure you are also putting some paid spend behind your pod to grow your audience. This could be through audio ads, live reads or by looking into banner ads as well. Diversifying how you market your show for new audiences is an impactful way to grow your downloads. For many branded shows, podcasts are about customer acquisition. Use the right performance marketing solutions to bring new listeners into your funnel that you can then convert into customers.