How To Promote A Podcast: The 7 Best Podcast Promotion Ideas

No question confounds podcasters quite like how to promote a podcast. In fact, podcast promotion is the question we get most often from prospective clients here at Q’d Up Audio. Every podcaster wants more people listening but so many have no idea where to even start when it comes to podcast marketing.

It can be difficult to know where to spend your time and money. Every podcaster you ask will tell you something different and seemingly every company you talk to says they won’t take you on as a client unless you have a massive budget. But after doing enough podcast marketing for our clients, we here at Q’d Up Audio have learned how to promote a podcast effectively and affordably. While there’s no one size fits all solution and every podcaster should look closely at their goals and budget (both time and financial budget), there are a few tried-and-true podcast marketing ideas out there.

If you’ve listened to the Q’d Up Podcast on Podcasting or Podcast Industry Experts, you’ve likely heard me talk about sweat equity in podcasting. As with most things, podcast marketing requires either your time or your money to do right. If you don’t have a ton of time to spare or you want immediate results, you’re going to have to open up your wallet. But for those independent podcasters out there trying to make it on their own, don’t fret; you can still grow your audience without spending a single dime.

Let’s break down the ways to promote your podcast, starting with the paid opportunities.

Paid Podcast Marketing Ideas:

Podcast ads:

We always talk about how podcasts are great avenues for advertising and we’d be foolish to not include them on a list of ways to market your own podcast.

As the IAB points out, 55% of podcast listeners say they pay attention to the advertisements. With many listeners reporting they feel a direct connection to the hosts of podcasts they listen to, the impressive 1.24% average conversion rate we see from podcast advertising, according to Podsights, isn’t all that surprising.

Plugging your show in a pre-roll or mid-roll ad on a similarly-themed podcast just makes sense. And with ad rates hovering around $20-$25 per 1,000 impressions, it doesn’t have to be terribly expensive either. Even better, you get a chance to show off some of the style and personality people should expect to hear from your podcast, giving you a much better chance to not just convert, but actually keep those listeners for the long haul.

There are podcast ad companies like AdvertiseCast, AudioGo, and Mid Roll, which can book ads on some pretty famous podcasts. Services like PodCorn and Red Circle allow smaller podcasters to sell ads, which might be better for smaller budgets or those that need to diversify their advertising across a few different categories.

Spotify ads:

You may have heard Spotify allows users to create ad campaigns directly on their platform for as little as $250 ($500 for podcasts). Considering Spotify is one of the largest audio platforms in podcasting — if not the largest, depending on who you ask — you have access to a massive potential audience.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Spotify doesn’t yet allow podcast ads to be on other podcasts. That means you won’t get to go after the people most likely to listen to your podcast. However, with other demographic information, you can still narrow down your podcast marketing campaign to your target audience.

According to a Spotify spokesperson, there are plans to include podcast-specific targeting for other podcasts in the future, though there doesn’t seem to be a public timeline.

In-app features:

Spotify isn’t the only podcast player on the market, even if they are one of the largest ones. Podcast players like Castbox, PocketCasts, Podcast Addict, PlayerFM, and so many more offer in-app featured ads.

It’s important to note that rates are dramatically different depending on the platform — both for how much you’ll spend and what you get in return. Some platforms only promise that they’ll promote your podcast but can’t guarantee how many impressions or subscribers you’ll actually get. Others have you pay only for those that subscribe to your podcast.

However, with some podcast players offering category-specific placements, you’ll get a chance to put your podcast directly in front of people that already listen to podcasts and are interested in the niche you’re in.

Unfortunately, rates for these featured spots are often really pricey. You can expect to spend a few thousand dollars with very few guarantees, making them a huge gamble for those with smaller budgets. We recommend this podcast marketing option for those creators that want quick results and have a larger budget to match. If that sounds like you, contact us today for some exclusive opportunities and a custom strategy based on your goals and budget.

Free Podcast Marketing Ideas:

Not every podcaster has a huge budget to drop on marketing. In fact, most independent podcasters don’t have a dime to spend and because they do everything themselves, they don’t have a ton of time to market their podcast either. Though it will take far more work and time to see the same results as paid options, there are plenty of free podcast promotion opportunities available for those willing to put in the sweat equity.

Be everywhere:

While platforms like Spotify are trying their hardest to get podcasters to only publish with them, giving increasingly cool perks for exclusivity, it’s a potential trap.

At Q’d Up, we preach being platform agnostic in order to have access to the largest possible audience. Not only does skipping a platform mean missing out on a sizable chunk of potential listeners, it also means fewer instances of your podcast showing up in search results. That strategy might work for podcasts with multi-million dollar marketing budgets but for independent podcasters, it’s a recipe for irrelevance. Being on every platform means when you say “Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from,” you know people will actually be able to do it, no matter what player they use.

The caveat is that it takes time to be on any platform and you need to balance that within your schedule. You’ll have to set up the initial distribution, potentially needing to create an account in order to provide your RSS feed. But that’s just the first step. If you’re on a discovery platform like GoodPods, you need to spend time promoting your podcast within that specific community. Simply dropping your episode won’t often result in a ton of plays.

Cross-promotion:

Do you know how to promote a podcast to someone who has never listened to a podcast? Neither do I.

Just like you’re probably not going to be able to teach a fish how to walk on land, you’re probably not going to convince someone who never listens to podcasts to suddenly start with yours. So go to the places where you know podcast listeners are at — other podcasts.

Much like paid ads, cross-promotion is a great tool for getting in front of not just podcast listeners but people interested in what your podcast is about. Depending on what type of podcast you have and what you’re comfortable doing, there are different cross-promotion options available to podcasters.

Guest appearances:

As you might have noticed throughout this article, I’m a strong proponent of advertising your podcast on other podcasts. If you have a host-driven podcast, there are few better ways to showcase your talents, style, expertise, and podcast than appearing on other relevant podcasts. With millions of podcasts, there are sure to be quite a few interview podcasts within your niche that would love to have you on. And because everyone is constantly searching for new content to put out, it’s often a completely free endeavor as long as you don’t mind giving a bit of your time in exchange.

The key here is to ensure that the podcasts you pitch to actually interview people, otherwise you run the real risk of frustrating fellow podcasters and looking like a grifter. Also worth noting that just because a podcast interviews people, is in your niche, and needs fresh content; it doesn’t mean anyone owes you anything. So be patient and authentic in your pitches, offering something of value to the podcasts you want to appear on.

Promo swaps:

If you don’t have a host-driven podcast or you just don’t want to do interviews, you can still do cross-promotion. Promo swaps are exactly what they sound like — two podcasters work together to put an ad on each others’ podcasts.

We recently did a promo swap with Between 2 Mics, the Squadcast podcast. I recorded a quick ad telling the Between 2 Mics listeners about the Q’d Up Podcast on Podcasting and they placed it in the pre-roll spot. They then did the same thing and I placed it as a pre-roll on our podcasts. The goal is that we inform our listeners about their podcast and they inform their listeners about our podcast, spreading the wealth a little bit.

I’ve heard some podcasters say they fear they’ll push their own listeners elsewhere and see a drop in downloads by doing promo swaps. However, with a large percentage of listeners reporting they listen to multiple podcasts every month, there’s little risk of losing your audience through promo swaps as long as your content and production are solid.

Newsletters and reviews:

This might just be the most overlooked podcast promotion method out there but it’s an opportunity that doesn’t take much time to do properly and shouldn’t be passed up.

A lot of people are desperately looking for podcast recommendations from people they trust. If you don’t believe me, just do a quick search for “podcast recommendation” on Twitter and prepare to be shocked at the sheer number of people wanting more podcast content. Podcast discovery is just as tough for listeners as it is for podcasters themselves, leading to a bunch of influencers sharing what they’re listening to and reviewing podcasts as a way to help. This comes in the form of podcast recommendation newsletters and websites that offer reviews.

There are well-known organizations like Vulture and The New Yorker doing podcast reviews. There are also plenty of podcast influencers out there that have cultivated massive followings and only share independent podcasts. So don’t go thinking only big-budget productions can get a meaningful review or make it on a newsletter.

You’ll need to do some research here to not only find the reviewers taking submissions but to find out what type of podcast each prefers. You don’t want to waste everyone’s time submitting a history podcast to a website that only reviews horror podcasts. At best you’ll piss off the person reading your pitch and it’ll go in the trash pile. At the worst, you’re headed for a negative review of your hard work from someone who means well but just doesn’t get it.

Either way, you’ll need to submit a pitch. That can be as simple as an email where you give the details of your podcast and relevant links or it can be as complex as building a dedicated website for your podcast where reviewers can get access to artwork, the full cast, episode descriptions, contact details, social links, etc.

No matter what your pitch looks like, it should include an easy-to-read synopsis/description and links to the platforms it can be found on. It’s also incredibly important that every podcast promotion email you send out be tailored to the person you’re pitching to.

Be Cautious Of Social Media:

The astute among you will notice social media was never mentioned in the above sections. That’s not because you can’t acquire new listeners that way but because it’s far harder, more time and financially consuming, and inconsistent.

I do believe every podcast should have some type of social presence in order to engage with fans, and that’s how we recommend our clients use it when we meet with them. And I also believe it’s worth doing small tests to see what works for you and your audience. But you need to be decisive, set goals, and get out quickly if it doesn’t work for you. We’ve unfortunately seen far too many podcasters dump a lot of money and time into social media promotion only to get a terrible conversion rate and see those listeners that did convert vanish quickly. That leads to frustration and burnout, and next thing you know, you’re among the podfaded.

So, no matter if you’re an independent podcaster with no budget or someone with tens of thousands to spend on a marketing campaign, you’ll likely find a better bang for your buck elsewhere.

How To Promote A Podcast:

We understand it can be difficult to market your podcast but we hope these tried-and-true podcast promotion methods help you. However, if you’re still unsure about the path you should take or you want experts running your campaigns for the maximum effects, contact us today and we’ll create a podcast marketing strategy that hits all your goals.