My “You actually need to create your podcast first” DISCLAIMER…
This podcast launch formula works best if you have fully produced 4 – 6 episodes of your podcast (including artwork) and created a podcast page on your website FIRST.
A common problem among podcasters is that they get so excited about the show they want to create or have created that after spending a lot of time and money to create an interesting show and get the best gear to record it, they just throw it out into the world and hope it sticks. They take the “Field of Dreams” approach… if you build it, they will come…
Well, in most cases, if it isn’t an insanely original idea, that happens to tap into a huge need or a huge potential audience (like something about Disney) they find that their show just falls flat. They might get 100 – 500 downloads per episode without promotion but things plateau and stay there.
I have a couple clients who came to me having 60 or more episodes on Apple Podcasts yet they were seeing download numbers that were inconsistent with the strength of their topic or show. And in every single case, one of the techniques in my Podcast Launch Formula would have solved their problem.
So let’s dive in to what you need to do to launch or re-launch your podcast and grow its following.
- Choose a podcast title that is unique and uses keywords that will attract your desired listener. Also choose keywords that describe what you do and use them in the Author field with your name. Then use this information to set up hosting, list your podcast in the major directories, and publish your episodes.
Apple podcasts is still the number one place to find podcasts and most people (65%) listen through an Apple device. However, Apple’s search engine only allows you to search on the title and author. Until they change it, all those nice keywords in your show notes and description, do nothing to help the Apple search.
You have to do a little bit extra in SEO when it comes to Apple. And this is important. Take my client Anna Seewald as an example. She has a show about parenting but the title was “Authentic Moments” and she was averaging 285 downloads per episode. When she changed her title to “Authentic Parenting” her downloads went to an average of 831 downloads per episode in the span of 30 days. That’s more than 300% increase just because she optimized her show title.
- Build a launch team – Team members will share your podcast with their social networks and agree to rate and review your show in Apple Podcasts and any other place they listen to podcasts. This instantly harnesses the power of social networks and social proof to boost your initial numbers. And it will increase your visibility on Apple podcasts as well.
I urge you to also offer a reward or benefit to team members. A gift card, a strategy call… something meaningful.
- Go on other podcasts in your niche or related niches or industries as a guest and promote your podcast after delivering value. Most podcast hosts will allow this. They need content for their shows as well…
By going on other shows you will immediately get in front of warm audiences that trust the host of the show you are on and they will want to check you out as well. Remember that podcast listeners listen to a lot of shows.
- Create your own strategy to share to your own social media networks and email lists. I recommend Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula. If you aren’t familiar with it, you can get a good start by going to https://productlaunchformula.com/ to watch Jeff’s free launch workshop.
Essentially you will create a campaign that provides a lot of value and solves a lot of problems. If you can do this in videos it will be even better. And the final call to action will be to ask people to check out your podcast.
- Transcribe your episodes and place those transcriptions on your podcast episode pages to give your show an SEO boost. We’ve talked about how there are about 2500 words in a 20-minute podcast episode. I bet you spoke many keywords during that episode. If you transcribe it and put it on your site as a blog post or simply as a transcription (that also benefits the hearing impaired by the way), Google will reward you in search engine results.
You may not have a podcast yet, or you may just be starting out. Even if you have 100 episodes I bet there is some way this podcast launch formula can help you. And so you can have it with you when you need it, you can download it as a PDF below.
My Podcast Launch Formula – https://dannyozment.com/podcast-launch-formula
