Targeted Podcast Promotion: Going Where Your Audience Already Hangs Out
Podcast promotion breaks down to this:
- Identify who your audience is
- Go to where they are (online and offline)
- Make friends with them
- Tell them about your show
Don't Overthink it
So a person on Reddit mentioned they wanted to grow their podcast about horror movies.
Let's see.... where could I find a bunch of people who like horror movies... if only there was a place where people who like horror MOVIES go. If only......
Go to Where They Are
So go to the movie cineplex, if you want to go all out have a t-shirt made for you with your logo and URL on the shirt (see Stickermule), and have some business cards made with your logo and website address, and a QR code (I use switchy for that. It not only makes QR code and a whole lot more but I can track how many times that QR code was used).
Then as people are entering the building ask them, "Are you hear to see (scary movie title)?" and if they say "Yes," then give them a card and say "I do a podcast for people just like you."
Expectations
Yes, some will throw the card away. Some will put it in their pocket. Other will be bored sitting through endless advertisements waiting for the movies to start and will point their phone at the QR code (which takes them to my follow page).
Keep in mind you build you audience one person at a time.
And often that one person hangs out with other people who also like what they like, and word of mouth starts to grow your show. Now, word of mouth is effective. We know it is. It ranks high in all the ways to promote your podcast, but we also know it is slow. If you are looking for a giant switch to give you 30,000 downloads an episode, that just doesn't happen.
The More You Do It The better You Get At it
I know for me, selling my book, Profit From Your Podcast, in person is always a little uncomfortable, but the more I did it, the better I got at it and the more books I sold
Do You Need Help Growing Your Podcast?
If you need help growing your show, come visit me at schoolofpodcasting.com. One of the features we have there are listener parties where a group of us will get together and you get to watch us listen to your show. This way you can see if we laugh when we're supposed to laugh and cry when we're supposed to cry. If it's not working, you'll know immediately and it's time to go back and do some basic editing. Check it out at schoolofpodcasting.com.
Mentioned In This Episode
Stickermule (T-shirts and more)
Canva (business Cards)
Design Crowd (crowd source your business card or t-shirt design)
Switchy (QR codes that are trackable)
Mentioned in this episode:
Start Podcasting in Six Week - Starts June 3rd
Have you been struggling trying to start a podcast? Did you drown in all the jargon? Did you feel overwhelmed? The School of Podcasting is offering a course, Podcasting in Six Weeks, that will walk you through the entire process. Learn from 20-year Hall of Fame veteran Dave Jackson as he walks you through the process of planning, launching, and growing your show. The best part is the class is only $1. For more information, go to schoolofpodcasting.com/sixweeks.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Is your podcast LAUNCHED but not growing as fast as you want? CLICK HERE to ignite your passion!
00:00 - Untitled
01:11 - Where Does Your Audience Hang Out?
02:25 - Expected Results
Dave Jackson
00:00:00.640 - 00:00:09.120
Someone asked me, how do I promote my movie podcast? Well, a lot of times we just overthink it. Today, I've got an easy solution.
Mike Russel - Announcer
00:00:11.040 - 00:00:35.340
Welcome to your podcast consultant. Small lessons with big value.
With more than a decade of experience and millions of downloads, this hall of fame podcaster is a featured speaker, author, and mentor to thousands. Now he wants to work with you, your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.
Dave Jackson
00:00:36.460 - 00:05:32.210
Yeah, sometimes we just want to make these big, huge splashes and we overthink everything when the obvious answer is right in front of us. So I saw this on Reddit. Somebody said, I do a horror podcast. I want to promote my show. I've done social, I've done this, I've done that.
So if you think about it, podcast promotion at its core is getting your content in front of people who should be listening to your show, but they're not. And so in this case, people that like horror movies. And then you ask yourself, well, where can I find people that like horror movies?
And I would say at the movies. So this is what you could do. And this is fairly cheap.
First of all, if you want to go the extra mile, you can go to Sticker Mule, upload your logo or your URL. I'll talk about that in a second. And make yourself one T shirt to wear.
And then you can go to Canva, or there are all sorts of other places where you can make a business card. And on that business card, you could have a QR code.
Now, I use a tool called Switchy that not only will make the QR code, but it will track how many times somebody goes to that, you know, basically points their phone at it. And then as your. Let's go with the horror movie. So you. You go down to the Cineplex. There's six movies showing.
You stand at the entrance, and as people walk by, you just go, excuse me, are you here to see whatever the name of the movie is? You know, Walking Dead 27 or, you know, Friday the 13th Part Infinity? And they go, yeah.
Then you simply go, hey, here's a podcast I do for people just like you. I'd love it if you would check it out. And you hand it to them. Now, granted, they're going to probably throw it in a trash can. Some of them.
Some of them will stick it in their front pocket, and some of them will take it with them.
You know, when they're sitting there watching a bunch of ads waiting for the movie to start, and they're gonna point their phone at your QR code and start checking out your show. Probably somewhere around 3%, but a business card is probably less than $0.05 each. This is really.
And the other thing I would say is don't buy, like 12,000 cards. Start off with, you know, 100 and see how long they last, because you might want to later change the card.
But podcast promotion at its core is understanding specifically, who am I trying to target? And notice this one isn't, like, men 27 to 32. No, it's who you could be, whatever age. Sometimes the demographic thing kind of throws this off.
No, I want people that like horror movies. Well, then go to where people that like horror movies go and make friends with them. It's really that simple.
Now you're like, but okay, what if I only hand out 28 cards because not that many people go to the movies anymore? Well, realize you build your podcast one person at a time. That's it.
And when that person finds it and they like it, they're likely to tell someone else about your show. And the last time I checked, many times, birds of a feather flock together.
So that one person likes your horror movie podcast hangs out with other people who like horror movie podcasts. And so you went from one business card, and now you've got maybe three listeners from that, and you're like, yeah, I'm looking for more like 30,000.
Yeah, if you do it enough that three turns into nine, turns into 12 turns into 36 turns into 52. It just takes time. Word of mouth works. It's just slow.
But so many times we're trying to figure out, where can I rent a plane to write my URL in the sky? No, no, no, let's go much simpler and just figure out, who am I trying to reach and where do they go?
And let's go there and make friends and then tell them about your show. If you need help with this, come out and Visit me at schoolofpodcasting.com Use the coupon code LISTNR.
And that will help you save on either a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription. I'm Dave Jackson. I help podcasters. It's what I do.
Been doing it for over 20 years, and I can't wait to see what we're going to do together, because I want to be your podcast consultant.
