Boost Your Podcast's Visibility: Unveiling the Secrets of Podcast Publicity

Want your podcast and videocast to be seen, heard, found and rewarded in this noisy digital world, you are not alone. Join the nonprofit community at Podcasters United and podcast industry experts Tom Hazard and Tracy Hazard as they debunk all that outdated and bad advice you've been getting from the podcast gurus and find out what actually works. Today, get ready to feed. Feed your brand with smart cut tactics proven to cast your original voice to the world.

Hey everyone. Welcome to Feed you'd brand. I'm Tom Hazard and it's my co host, Tracy Hazard. And today we are going to talk about a fantastic topic about boosting your podcast visibility. Unveiling the secrets of podcast publicity is really important. But I also feel, Tracy, like most podcasters don't really know a lot about how to do that. Would you agree?

Yeah, I really don't think they understand where the power lies. This is much more of a grassroots PR world. So I want you to think about this. We're talking about are a lot of grassroots things that you can do yourself. Hiring a big publicity firm, I have to say, as having been a member of the media for a long time and writing articles and other things, the last thing I want to hear from is a new podcaster launching. So I don't care about the press releases and most of the media doesn't. Why? Because so many podcasters quit and so it's risky for them to write an article about someone who won't even make it past 10 episodes unless it happens to be coming from a famous person or on a famous network. Like, those are how that works. If there's a lot of money behind it, then they'll write about it. So you, as a lowly independent podcaster, have trouble competing in that world against the amount of dollars that they can spend and the publicity you already have to have or celebrity you already have to have in order to make that PR work for you. So I'm not a big fan of and I have very rarely seen it work in a general publicity way. It tends to work best in grassroots or if you're going to pay a PR agent. And I'm all for it. Like, I think there's some really great publicists out there. Make it niche, niche it down and make it tight. And that's what we're going to talk about. That understanding the nuances of promoting a podcast is not the same as promoting a book. It's not the same as promoting a new business venture. It's different. And in order to get the right kind of publicity and get more listeners from it. It requires some different strategies.

All right, Tracy. Well, let's talk about those strategies because I'm sure everybody's very interested to hear about that. I sure am here interested to hear what you have to say because you have a lot of experience with this.

Well, we gotta think about if we're thinking about niche publicity, if we're really thinking about this. One of the easiest places to get publicity is actually localized. People want to write a great story about a cool podcaster in their neighborhood. They want to write about an event that's happening. So having a launch event like we just went to last week, that is a great way to get publicity. Because they're not writing about the podcast, which they're kind of worried about. They're writing about the. The fact that you're having an event and that event is occurring and the kinds of people that it's drawing are similar to the audience you want to draw. So there's a matching that goes on with that. So that's a really great way to do it, have a launch event, because then it gives you something to talk about locally. Local media is desperate for great content, great stories, great people to write about, and you make new connections. So the next time you have an amazing guest or some topic that goes viral, you have someone you can pick up the phone or send an email to and contact and let them know what happened. And now they'll write a. Because it's a followup to a story they wrote before and they love that.

Now a podcast launch event I think is still not as common as a lot of other events. And I think when people see, hey, a podcast launch event, that gets their attention. And while if you're having an in person podcast launch event that is local, like you said, Tracy, that needs to be local. I mean, your people probably aren't going to fly across the country for. In fact, in this podcast launch event, there are a couple different hosts of the show and one of them is in Chicago and did not travel to Los Angeles for the event. One of the hosts of the shows didn't even do that. So it's not that practical. But you can have a local event that's also live streamed or portions of it are livestreamed, which this event did.

Well, we're gonna really cover like all about launch events or events that you might wanna run from your podcast in a future coaching call topic. So we're really gonna cover that in more detail. Cause there's a lot to go onto it. But I wanna remind you that you just have to do this at launch. What if you reached a hundred episodes and had a gigantic celebration and invited the local guests that you've had on your show before? Now you're drawing an audience and there's more for the media to write about. There's more to publicize in that model as well. You can also do it in conjunction with have a party at an event that's already happening. Now you've got a built in audience already there and a reason to celebrate, reason to bring that in. It's good for the event and it's good for you. So there's all kinds of ways you can do that and get that more localized media, which is always good. Now it's still general media, but it's great media to have that gives you publicity and backup so that you can say, I've got these logos I was featured in. You know, in our case it might be the Orange County Register and the LA Times. Wow, that's a big deal. And now you could then use that to parlay itself into other media mentions in other types of media that are more important to you. And that's where we again niche down one of the most successful podcasters I've ever met who did like 250,000 downloads an episode.

An episode. Tracy.

He did Not Old Better Show. The Not Old Better show. He had 250,000 downloads per episode and he got it by being featured in a list. It was not even a long article about him. It was just a list of top podcasts to check out if you're over the age of 50. And in the AARP magazine, the printed magazine, 250,000 downloads an episode. Because the Not Old Better show was a perfect match to that audience. He made a list and he had already had. I mean he probably had 50 episodes easily before he got featured. It's not something that happened in the beginning of his show and that boosted his show so tremendously that he was able to take all kinds of sponsors he was able to take on. Now I don't believe he runs the show anymore. I don't think it's an actually, I think it stopped. Yeah, unfortunately. That was a fantastic show and someone could check it out. Let me know here on the live stream while we're doing this that whether or not it is. But the last time I checked he wasn't running the show. But that is a great way when you're in a niche publication. First off, they want things that are extremely relevant. So if you are extremely relevant and the focus of your show is all about that. Like when we did our 3D print podcast, it was part of the reason we were able to get a hundred thousand downloads a month. We were able to do that because we were able to be a part of the 3D print media. And so we were being featured and comment on and we were sharing stories back and forth, and media was passing us things. So the print publications were just as eager to have podcasting be a part of that. And so going back and forth between the media types is extremely important in your niche industry, remembering that all your audience are the same. So those publications have just as much trouble gathering readers as you do have gathering listeners. So matching the two things up is valuable because they know if they mention you and then you mention them, we're doing cross promotion. It's no different than a podcast swap, which is another great way to get publicity. So a podcast swap is where you go on someone else's show and they come on your show, so you're your swapping your guesting opportunities. But when there's a matched audience, it works a lot better. Well, media has the same model, and some people might not be readers that are listeners to my show, but there is an overlap between people who consume different types of media. So we definitely want to have that happen. And one of the best ways to do that is by niching down, picking your publications, featuring the editors of those publications, swapping stories with the other columnists. Those are other ways to really boost. Invite them on as guests on your show, and the next thing you know, you're featured in an article in their magazine.

You know, Tracy, one of the things I really like about the example of the not old better show, which by the way, is still active, last episode was published little less than a week ago.

So last time I talked to him, he was taking a break. So.

So it is out there. But what's wonderful about that is, number one, its audience is baby boomers. So people always wonder, are older generations listening to podcasts? The answer is yes. This show has proven that for a few years. And you're talking about aarp, one of the oldest magazines that's still in print. And it's in print because older people tend to like print media. I mean, even I like reading the print edition of Wired magazine rather than the online version. I'll admit that. But you're getting people off of traditional media and engaged in podcast media. So those are just a couple points of emphasis I think is important.

And don't underestimate alumni magazines. Newsletters, these are also other things, newsletter subscriptions, they don't stay subscribed. You really unsubscribe fiercely from newsletters when it's not valuable to you. So this is an area where you're going to get more visibility than you would in just a general email list. So keeping in mind that alumni magazines, local papers, newsletters, these niche publications, those are some of the best ways for you to bring exposure. I already mentioned podcast guesting, swapping, and then that I can say hands down is the number one thing I hear from every podcaster I've ever interviewed or ever discussed it with, is that some of the best listener boosts they've received, the growth to their show has happened from a guest swap. We've gotten clients from guest swaps many, many, many times. So we know that it has a higher return on investment because there's a matched audience very typically. But I like to be discriminate about it. I like to make sure that the show that I want to be on has the audience, that it's a good show, that I want to be up next to that host, that we see eye to eye or if we have differences, that we can have a great robust discussion about those differences because there may be a lot of his audience that disagrees with him too. And then they might be drawn to us as an exchange of that. So that's not a bad thing. So thinking about that, but being very like, I don't just agree to go on someone's show without checking it out. You should check it out and make sure there's a match for you. Now that goes to something new. We're not going to announce today.

Oh, we're going to tease to it because I'm thinking it already.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So promo ads on other podcasts is a great way to do it. However, and we do hear people put an advertisement on other people's podcasts. However, there are some nuances to how you do it, how it works, how you choose a show and all of those things. And because we have our Poditize scoring system and some other things, we are almost completed and ready to launch a system by which we can do this. So we'll be announcing that in an upcoming episode, an upcoming live stream, and we'll be announcing exactly how it works. But we're going to make this super easy for you to participate in this as a productize customer. So potatoes clients will all of course get to beta test it first. That is what we will be doing coming up. But promo ads on other podcasts are worth the value. In fact, I just interviewed a podcaster on the Binge Factor a couple of weeks ago, and he mentioned that he has doubled down and is willing to pay $5,000 a month because the growth in his audience has been so high that he has been able to. And he spreads that $5,000 around to a lot of different shows. Let me mind you, he does one show, $5,000, don't get confused by that. But he spreads that money around and that's his budget because he sees such a high return on the numbers, which then translates because his entire show is ad based. So all of his revenue is based on ad. So if he spends $5,000, he makes more than that in ad revenue by the boost. That's how he measures it.

He's already got that in place, the monetization in place, and he's just scaling it by advertising his show elsewhere.

But I warned him, and this is something to really be watching on. When you set a budget that high, you have to be careful about what you're choosing to promote on, because the shows that you went on and advertised on before could have diminishing returns. So whereas the first time you place that ad, it might be really valuable, but the second and third time, the percentage of people coming over will be much, much lower because you may only be capturing the interest of those that didn't listen the first time or new people to that show. So it may not be worth the value you pay the second and third time. So keep thinking about that as you're going forward. Measure it constantly. So the other two things I have are a lot more work, but some people have found great value in it. So our friends over at Pod Pros, Alex Sanfilippo and the Pod Prose community have something called Pod Lottery, which is a reviews. And Pod Lottery is you have to do work. So in other words, you have to review other people's shows, they have to review yours. You have to agree to it, you have to do it consistently, or you get dumped out of the system. So it is work on your end to do it. But if you've got more time than you have money, and this is a way you want to add reviews to it. Tom and I are still skeptical about whether or not we see shows with tons of reviews that have no listeners, and we see shows with no reviews and have tons of listeners, so we don't see a direct correlation to the two. However, the powers to be at Apple have said time and time again that reviews matter. So this might be something worth doing. I think it's really only worth doing in the very beginning. I think if you're going to spend your time doing it, do it in the first eight weeks of your show. After that, a review strategy. You'd have to have a real purpose to it that really was driving something else.

I agree there's not enough, I would say, quantifiable return for continuing to push for more reviews with a mature show. I think people who are finding your show new look to see do they have a decent amount of reviews and are they all rated like four, four and a half stars or higher? And if so, yes, it sort of checks the box that the show has some credibility and that's it. But it really doesn't figure in to the algorithms that are going to get you found in more searches or more listeners because of the number of reviews. Just doesn't work that way.

So the last one I have is that discoverability on listening apps just sucks. Like, I don't know, I don't know how to be nicer about it. It's like everybody knows it sucks. It's all driven by what Spotify wants and what Apple wants and not really what you want or what you're searching for, what you're thinking about. It's not easy to discover something new and even the searching doesn't really work really well. However, there are some podcast player apps or listening apps that I think do a fairly good job. And we know that Apple dominates on its own side for all iPhone users. However, the market is really up for grabs in the Android market. And from our positioning when we were doing our 3D print podcast, we had a ton of Android listeners because a lot of our listeners were outside side of the US So they were from other countries and there were a lot more Android users in those areas. And so we had, just because of our topic and because of the area had a large amount of Android listeners that goes to all these sub listening apps. Where can I create value in them? What's going on in them? And my favorite one because, I mean, look, Stitcher's gone. There's a bunch of the Android apps die left and right. Like it happens. They don't garner enough media and they don't garner enough listeners and then it doesn't happen for them, so they die very quickly. But one of the ones that's been around a while that I think does a fantastic job of discoverability and creating a listener, a better listener experience is GoodPods. And I'm really thrilled with GoodPods and love the experience. I love the team over there. They're so nice. They give shout outs to podcasters all the time. When you're new to their platform, they pay attention to you. So go on, claim your show over there. It's super easy to do, but here's something else. You can create a curated list of podcasts. You can do some fabulous things with your profile. You can create a more deeper connection for your listeners that come from this platform. You can add a tip jar, you can find friends, you can add a Q and A in there. So this is my profile within it. But all my shows are already claimed. And you can see all the shows I've listened to on the app are showing here because this is my profile. I don't know if everybody can see that, but I can definitely see it. And here's my shows down here. So it shows you all my shows. I have a lot of shows, so it shows you all of my shows and it has my list and everything. You can do a here's a podcast or Q and A so you can type in bit about you and have people get to know you. I actually didn't do this yet. I wanted to show you what it looks like. So I left it blank for the binge factor. But here's the binge factor. You can answer some questions. When did you start the show? What do you hope listeners gain from listening? Like, there's some really great things here that they utilize in how they present this and set this up to someone who's trying to discover shows. So there's really some great things here. So the best podcasters for a business binge factor curated by me. So you can curate your own list, you can put your own show in it, of course, but you don't need to because this is my show is listed at the top. What is my podcast about and how does it relate to the playlist I created? What is my podcast playlist about? So here I've given shout outs to some of the people who've been on my show. So if they've been on my show, they're here. And they were some of my favorite shows for various reasons. And I wrote why this podcast in Therapy Bites Art Lab. They talk about the psychology of everyday life and so I give a little bit about them. But you'll want to binge on it not just for topics that interest you because the show is too much fun to miss an episode. Now I've said something that that podcast host is going to want to share that's going to really help me. And then from here you can listen, you can play, you can explore the podcast. So this is of great service to other listeners who are out there exploring the show. And if they like your show, they want your advice. This is a great way for you to give shout outs to some of your guests and create a kind of authority position for yourself as being the curator of a list. So this is what I highly recommend doing it. It's a little bit of time consuming system because you got to create the list. If someone drops out and you want to edit the list and remove them, you can, it's no big deal. So you can keep this updated regularly as well. So this is one of those great ways for you to make sure that you're featured because you're the curator of the list, but you're also doing a service to the guests within your show, which is very helpful for you in getting them to promote your show, which, as you all know, your guests can be, if they do it right, the biggest draw for new listeners to your show. So those are some of my ideas, my tips, ways to bring and boost publicity for your show, whether it's new or whether you're a seasoned pro, an OG podcaster, looking at still trying to get it. Keep your growth on the same trajectory. A hundred episodes in, 500 episodes in.

That's great advice, Tracy. I'm very interested to talk with our podcast listeners and our customers about the new opportunities coming for promoting your podcast. Getting more exposure to other podcast listeners, I think that's a key thing, right? Promoting on social media. We have people that have huge social media followings and they promote their show there and maybe they may get a little bump of a dozen more listens per episode, or 50 if they're lucky. Doesn't really set the world on fire because you're promoting to people that aren't necessarily podcast listeners or they're not looking for it there. So sort of fishing where the fish are, promoting your podcast with other people who are already listening to podcasts probably makes a lot of sense. And that's why I'm excited to talk about that as we get there. So putting that tease out there a little more, stay tuned to an upcoming episode where we're going to talk more about that. But until then, you can always find any of the links or information to things Tracy talked about here today in our episode at the blog post on potitize.com and anything else, Tracy, before we wrap up?

No, that's it for me. I'M excited for all of you to get more visibility for your show. Go out there and give us some feedback. Tell us what's working for you.

Oh yeah, we'd definitely love to hear that. Reach out to us potatoes.com and you can submit a contact form or reach out to us anywhere on social media. Edyourbrand Right, Tracy for this show, Otities or Odatize okay, great. All right, thanks for listening everybody. We'll be back next time with another great episode. This has been Tom and Tracy Hazzard on feed.

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