Podcasts have been growing in popularity. Are we past peak podcasting yet? It seems every celebrity has a podcast these days. For celebrities, podcast marketing is easy, since they have an existing platform and audience. But how can ordinary solo and business podcasters succeed in marketing their shows? How do you market your podcast if you’re just getting started? There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for marketing podcasts, but many successful podcasters have shared their secrets — and we have written about everything from logo design to tips on growing an audience. Keep reading this podcast marketing guide to see 10 proven strategies for podcast promotion.
What is Podcast Marketing?
First of all, podcast marketing can mean different things to different people: In general, is a type of digital marketing intended to reach your target podcast audience. But marketing channels differ depending on the type of show.
For business podcasters, whose shows are serving a content marketing purpose, podcasts are an effective way to spread the word about their organization, product or services in an engaging and informative manner. In other words, the podcast itself is a marketing channel. And for a business, promoting their podcast will likely be done through their existing marketing methods.
If you are a hobby podcaster, then the question is how to promote your podcast in the first place. And more importantly, how to increase your podcast target audience. And for beginning podcasters, podcast marketing must be focused on gaining new followers on social media channels and converting them to new listeners.
Here then are our 10 tips, even if you are not a celebrity (yet):
1. Cover the Basic Podcast Marketing Strategies
Be sure you have submitted your show to as many podcast directories as possible. Doing so will help you reach a wider audience and increase your chances of being discovered by potential listeners. You can find several helpful guides online that provide step-by-step instructions for submitting to different podcast directories, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Google Play Music, and more. Additionally, if you are using a podcast hosting platform like Buzzsprout or Podbean, they often have their own functionality for easily submitting your show to various directories. Here is a podcast directories resource for this.
2. Own Your Podcast Website
Own your podcast's website instead of just using a free one from your podcast hosting company. A lot of people will host their podcast on the free website they received from their podcast platform and use that as the main source of promotion for their podcast. The downside to this is that you don't own your podcast's website, which means you don't have full control over its features. This might also mean that, if you switch podcast hosts in the future, you'll lose your website and have to start from scratch. It's better to create a website just for the purpose of marketing your podcast instead.
I would gladly trade 1,000 anonymous listeners with 100 email subscribers, with whom I can build a relationship more easily.
Consider that people who subscribe to your podcast on your website should also be offered the chance to leave their email in exchange for new episode notifications.
3. Reach Your Target Audience By Being a Guest on Other Podcasts
There's no better place to attract podcast listeners to your own show than by being a guest on other podcasts. Whether you're interviewing someone or just talking about your interests on a solo show, getting yourself onto other podcasts will expose your show to people who might not have come across it otherwise. The important consideration here is that this is laser targeting existing podcast listeners, something that is much harder to do on social media or using Facebook ads.
And as a bonus, this approach can massively grow the SEO for your website.
This is because inbound links to your website are valuable, and since each episode you appear on will link to your podcast.
4. Grow your Podcast With Episode Swaps
Team up with other podcasters in your niche for podcast episode swaps. Podcasts are all about collaboration and sharing your knowledge with others. For example, if you have a business podcast, partner up with other businesses who have a podcast in your niche. You can swap episodes with each other or showcase one another’s shows on your podcast feed. Sharing information and collaborating with others will help grow your audience at the same time.
5. Invest in Podcast SEO and Content Marketing
Podcast SEO optimized show notes and transcripts improve your discoverability on the web. You may feel that the most immediate way to promote your show is through organic word of mouth. And this is true, people you know and trust can recommend your show to their friends.
But in the long term, search engine optimization (SEO) plays a big role in reaching a new audience.
Your show notes and transcripts will be helpful in discovering your podcast and each new episode on the web. If you optimize your show notes and transcripts with keywords that relate to what you're talking about, people searching for those topics will find them more easily. And if they find them on or near the first page of search results, they'll be more likely to click on them.
6. Don't Over-Focus on Social Media
Of course you should promote your podcast on social media. Each new podcast episode deserves its own social media post. But, don't over-focus on Social Media platforms and don't expect to go viral if you have a small follower count there. It’s difficult to grow an audience without spending a lot of time on social media, but you shouldn’t expect to go viral if you have a small follower count. Never be discouraged by low number of followers–this is just one strategy you don’t need. Most of your success will come from creating great content and building your brand.
7. Get Your Guests To Recommend Your Podcast
Agree with your guests that they will help promote each episode before recording. During the onboarding and pre-recording phase, establish relationships with your guests. Then it is easier to ask them to help promote each episode before recording it.
Be insistent about this, and don’t under-estimate how hard it can be to get people to actually share your latest episodes.
Additionally, when promoting an episode, don’t be afraid to provide your guest with a call-to-action to promote for their audience. Sometimes you can offer limited time promotions that get people interacting with the show and sharing their thoughts.
8. Use Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Podcast Audience
Personally, I hate all the stereotypes around social media "influencers". But, paid influencer marketing as a way to promote your podcast since is a sure way to reach beyond your existing followers. It simply is an effective way to reach new potential podcast subscribers on social media.
In many ways this is a form of paid podcast advertising that is more effective than Facebook or Google Ads. This strategy works by paying people who have an established audience and many connections on social media (like celebrities). For example, if you’re running a business podcast, you could pay other business podcasts like yours or actively promote your show on their shows in exchange for a mention of your podcast. Paid influencer marketing is also effective because you will be able to reach a larger audience than just those that come from listening to your show.
If you are willing to spend money, this strategy can significantly increase the number of potential listeners for your show. There are several platforms out there offering services to team up with influencers.
9. Paid Podcast Ads
With all the work and time even hobby podcasters spend, it makes sense to set even a modest budget for paid podcast promotion on Facebook, Instagram and Podcast Advertising Apps. In my view, if you cannot afford $5 – $25 for each episode, then growing your show will be much harder. Some paid podcast marketing is crucial for growing your podcast and attracting new listeners.
If you're looking to start a podcast, it's important to plan a budget for paid promotion as part of your podcast marketing tactics. It's also important not to rely just on one method of paid promotion at the same time. For example, if you're focused on driving listeners through social media and are already spending money on Facebook ads, then you might want to focus on audio ads as well. Setting a budget for paid promotion is key; otherwise, it can be difficult to identify what works and what doesn't work financially.
10. Consider Using Audio Ads to Promote Your Show on Popular Podcasts in Your Niche
Audio ads are a great way to reach your potential audience. They’re cheaper than radio ads and can be highly targeted to listeners in your niche or even in your location. Spotify Ads and platforms like AudioGo make it easy to promote your podcast on other podcasts in your niche, or even on shows that cover topics similar to yours. An additional advantage is that these platforms include a clickable display ad as your promo audio plays. This can link to your website's sign up page.
Over to You
What are some of the tactics we may have missed in this article or on our podcast marketing blog? Let us know in the comments, we'd love to hear from you!
For the last episode of Season 1 of the “Podcasting Strategy” podcast I’m revisiting and updating an older episode of my first podcast, “The Podcast Growth Show”. Back in 2018 we talked about the benefits of widely distributing podcast show notes articles using the StoryChief platform. StoryChief excels in “content marketing”, for blogs as well as for podcast episode articles . And for our clients, we still follow this approach as one of the best ways to organically grow and promote a podcast to this day, while growing an email list and social following in the process. The StoryChief platform has evolved and grown since then, and yet much has stayed the same.
Recently it was brought to my attention that the original article from 2018 referred to out-dated features and pricing for the StoryChief platform, so I will correct and update this this here as of late 2021 early 2022. Also back in 2018 we were able to offer our followers an insane 50% discount off any StoryChief plan. If you missed out on the 50% off deal, we are still huge StoryChief evangelists and anyone signing up with our affiliate link can get a free trial and then save a very generous 20% off lifetime use of the platform, just contact me for details if you like.
Content Syndication is a subset of content marketing. First, let’s revisit what we have talked about several times during this season. Here is a definition from Search Engine Watch:
Content syndication is the process of pushing your blogpost, article, video or any piece of web-based content out to other third-parties who will then re-publish it on their own sites.
So this applies to podcast show notes articles as well. We want to grow readership, create brand-awareness for our podcasts by publishing our show notes stories on multiple websites, communities, social media and email channels.
What Are The Benefits?
Drip fed timing example for the distribution of show notes for rapid SEO results
Question: Why should podcasters care about content syndication?
Aren't we already doing a form of this when distributing our episode audio to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher?
Answer: Yes indeed we are.
However, we are only publishing audio content on Apple Podcasts.
And we ought to do the same with episode show notes.
Multi Channel Presence
Content syndication is to our podcast show notes what podcast directories are to our audio files. A way to distribute our content widely. And a way to establish presence on multiple content and social platforms.
Traffic and Discoverability
This results in greater traffic and discoverability. When your episodes go live, you probably already share your show notes post on Facebook, LinkedIn and perhaps on Twitter. But have you thought about publishing your episode show notes as articles on Medium? (I get a lot of traffic from doing this) Or on Blogger? Or on the Ghost platform?
The idea is to distribute your show notes to as many platforms as possible.
We elaborated on the platforms and the released drip timing concept in episodes 1-3 of the Podcasting Strategy show, so if you have not listened to those episodes I’d encourage you to go back and check them out:
My own backlinks from high domain authority sites have continued to increase. This is largely resulting from the podcast distribution and syndication method we have covered in this season. (I’m including a comparison graphic from 2018 vs 2021 in the show notes)
2018 Backlinks
At the end of 2018 I had roughly 2,500 backlinks for Polymash
2021 Backlinks
At the end of 2021 this has grown to roughly 5,000 backlinks
For those of you unfamiliar with SEO, increased backlinks mean increased rank in the Google search engines, and this means better placement in the search results.
Is there a manual alternative?
The StoryChief platform saves massive amounts of time. But it is targeted at content marketing driven businesses, and many of our business clients use podcasting as a major part of their brand storytelling. As such, the platform is not intended for zero budget indie podcasters, who typically save money by spending the time doing things manually of by themselves. So yes, you could distribute your show notes to different platforms manually. Generally this involves a schedule of re-posting your episode article via copy paste. And that's perfectly fine, but it is a lot of work, and there are many pitfalls:
The manual approach is super time consuming
There are so many steps involved, it is prone to errors
If you are not careful or SEO savvy, then your podcast episodes will rank on 3rd party sites instead of on your own.
Syndicating show notes manually is a no-go for us as a podcast production agency. We need an automated way of doing this.
And if I was an Indy podcaster, doing it manually would still be a no-go. We need an automated way of doing this. And there are some great content syndication platforms out there. But StoryChief is the one particular platform we feel is best for podcast distribution of show notes. And it addresses all the above concerns.
Why StoryChief Content Marketing?
There are tons of reasons why StoryChief presents a content marketing opportunity, not just for business podcasters. It helps automate your entire business content marketing strategy. The benefits reach far beyond podcasting. It is a collaborative writing environment for content creation and promotion. Their value proposition is this:
Get the most out of your content marketing campaigns. Create blog and social media campaigns with your all-in-one workspace for content creation and distribution.
For podcasters, key elements are
Central hub for content creation, scheduling and management
Podcasting Ready with embeds for most podcast players
Content Planning Calendar for episodes, blog posts and social media promos
Collaborative writing with partners and VAs
SEO Ready with canonical tags ensuring rank for your primary site
Lead capture integration
Suitable for beginners & advanced marketers
Provides a free ready-made blog
Built-In coaching for SEO and readability
Flexible open platform with lots of embeds, integrations
10 Platform Features For Distributing Your Show Notes
1. A single platform where everything comes together
Using a single platform saves time distributing your content to the right channels. Think of all the times you spent copy-pasting content to publish the same thing on multiple channels. Thanks to StoryChief, those days are over. All you have to do is select which platforms should feature your content and StoryChief takes it from there.
From ideation to publication, organize and plan the content you publish through your digital marketing channels, all in one content calendar. For podcast episodes and show notes this is great, but why stop there? Blogs, videos, Instagram and social media can all be planned in one single place.
My own use case is that for solo podcast episodes, I write the pre-recording outlines in StoryChief already, because this reduces the time it takes to create great show notes after the recording.
2. Powerful collaboration features
If you are a business podcaster, you are likely used to collaborating with others, even if it is just having a Virtual Assistant or VA. Approval flows, revisions, and comments to speed up your review & feedback processes. The platform brings your team together to organize, plan and produce content.
3. Editorial briefs
One such planning tool is the built in “editorial briefs”. These let you share concepts and makes sure your team's on the same page. If you have someone else writing your show notes, they can do so in this environment, exchange comments with you back and forth, and ask for approval when they are ready for you to review what they have created.
4. Built-in SEO Assistant for your content team
Not an SEO expert? No problem. StoryChief features an SEO assistant that ensures you publish content that will be found on search engines and engage your audience. Your writers don't have to know every aspect of SEO, StoryChief provides them actionable and easy to apply tips.
The SEO assistant helps attract more website visitors, and it monitors your SEO score and how well your story performs for a set keyword, based on 15+ metrics for search engine optimization. I’ve included some screenshots in the show notes that illustrate how the coaching feature works in a sidebar as you or your team creates your show notes.
Easy to follow SEO and readability assistants help you create discoverable and engaging contenting
5. Built-in Readability Assistant
StoryChief also ensures that you engage your readers easily by offering a readability score as you write. This tracks how well your readers will follow your train of thought, and is based on the Flesch Reading Ease test.
I find this especially helpful when working with transcripts, as my own train of thought is quite often pretty obtuse, and this tool helps me correct the show notes as I go.
6. Actionable analytics data
I’ve mentioned this earlier in the season, it is important to take analytics into account and adjust so that you fill your episode calendar with content that works. The reports StoryChief provide span both website stats, in terms of how many people have seen and read your content there, as well as measuring stats and engagement on social media channels.
Easy to implement analytics data
This lets you see the types of episode content that resonates with your audience the most. You can track their performance by generating reports from real-time data.
7. Social Media posting & calendar
The idea is to save time managing your social media in one place by publishing your podcast episode posts to all social media channels with a few clicks.
The social media features in StoryChief let you plan a month of social media posts about your podcast, blog, or business. And it lets you do this in hours, not days.
From daily posts to full-scale campaigns, the social media calendar helps you stay organized and productive. Plus, its collaborative features match those of the writing environment. You can easily invite your VAs or team members and have them manage your social media, while you stay in control through approval flows and feedback loops.
You can create social media campaigns on Facebook pages or groups, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn profile and business pages. Usually these image or video posts promote your podcast episode or story, with a link pointing to your primary website. StoryChief supports video and this your audiograms can be scheduled and distributed widely as well.
8. Included website & hosting
Don't have a separate blog or website for your podcast yet? One other feature I should mention is that you can use the free blog you get with StoryChief. Its auto generated when you start an account. There are lots of ways to customize this, and it looks great right out of the box. It makes for a great podcast website if you don’t have one already. Personally I don't use it to drive traffic to, but I still publish each show note article there because I get a high domain authority back link. We covered this back in episode 4 of the podcast.
9. The ambassador network effect
Sharing your content on social media seems obvious for most marketers but what if there was an even better way to share your content? Now, you can prompt your brand's ambassadors to share your content with their network in a click of the button.
So when a new episode launches, your ambassadors are notified first. And you can recruit more people into your tribe with built in ambassador sign-up forms that will appear on all publishing channels. I’ve included an example in the links section on the bottom of our show notes. This is an invitation to join our Podcasting Strategy Ambassador program, where we encourage our channel partners to share our new episodes on their social channels, and we then offer them promotions in return.
The ambassador effect has many possible creative business use cases, and here are just two:
For Podcast Marketing — Turn your podcast listeners into ambassadors and brand advocates.
For Channel Partners — Mobilize channel partners to help drive demand for your show.
10. Email Marketing & Multiple RSS Feeds
Email marketing is built in with MailChimp and Active Campaign and several others. But because StoryChief integrates with Zapier quite easily, it basically lets you gain access to almost any marketing automation platform that's out there for capturing leads.
This means that you can publish to multiple built-in RSS feeds that let you distribute content on a lot of RSS driven platforms. For example you could set up a premium content RSS feed for paid members.
StoryChief Current Pricing And Deals
As I mentioned in the beginning, StoryChief has actively been developing the platform, and as a result many more features and integrations are available now than there were in 2018 when I first covered this platform. Here is a link to the current plan summary and pricing information.
20% Off For Podcasting Strategy Show & Polymash Followers
Keep in mind that the value proposition for this platform is that of a comprehensive SEO content strategy and social media marketing platform. It may not be a great fit for hobby podcasters on a close to zero budget, but is worth it for anyone for whom podcasting and web growth is part of a business content strategy. There is a free trial, and our followers can contact me to receive 20% off.
Full disclosure, this is an affiliate link and if you ever upgrade to a paid plan I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
I'd encourage you to try this for your own business podcast. If you'd like to sign up for the free version, I’ve included the link in the show notes. Full disclosure, this is an affiliate link and if you ever upgrade I will earn a small commission at no cost to you. But I hope to have earned your trust with this site, blog and podcast – I have been putting significant work into this in order to provide next level thinking about podcast growth.
So if you sign up for StoryChief’s free trial with our link, email me and I will personally send you a special code. You can use this when upgrading for a paid account, and it will save you an additional 20% off the pro plan for this platform. This includes access for 4 team members, collaboration and content calendar features and the ability to publish unlimited stories on as many destinations and websites you can manage.
Links and Resources
Here are the links and resources I may have referred to in this episode.
If you are not yet subscribed or following us on any podcast audio apps, here is where to do this.
Invitation To Join Our Ambassador Network
One last thing I almost forgot is the ambassador network. If you'd like to join my ambassador network, I would hugely appreciate it. If we have complimentary topics and our content is in sync from an SEO, or Inbound Marketing or podcasting perspective, maybe there's a way that we could work together and support each other.
So here is a signup form where you could join my ambassador networks. I would love to have you be part of that, and I would love to be able to support you in any way that I can.
https://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/PSS10-BusinessContentMarketing_3617d87aa801c43210ee3d16c3871eff_2000.jpg7201280Juergen Berkesselhttps://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Polymash-Logo-2019-680px-Web2.pngJuergen Berkessel2021-11-03 07:00:372022-03-08 08:37:24How Business Podcasters Can Optimize Growth Through StoryChief Content Marketing
Creating better episode titles is one of the most important steps to ensure your podcast episodes are discoverable, will stand out and get listens as well as new subscribers for your podcast. But creating compelling episode titles can be hard. And in this episode we will highlight our favorite tool for crafting great podcast episode titles.
But first, a quick reminder about what we are doing in this series of episodes of the Podcasting Strategy Show: We are covering business podcasting from a strategic angle: Specifically, why show notes play such an outsized role for podcasting as a content strategy. And so episode titles should not only be compelling to your listeners, but also work towards a business ROI, meaning SEO presence and discoverability for your podcast.
And while we take on this subject from our perspective as a podcast marketing and production agency and what we do for our clients, the intent here is to be "open Kimono". This means we are sharing our agency methods here, in part to inspire Indie and DIY business podcasters to adopt some of what we cover. And for our clients, these methods account for 65% of their listener growth.
Last time we started to talk about the many tools in our agency workflow that save us a ton of time and allow us to scale podcast SEO show notes syndication. I'm progressing this series by talking through the various workflow phases involved in scalable show notes production from an agency point of view. In the last episode we talked about the crucial role that pre-season and pre-episode SEO research plays, and we also covered some logistics tools. And once you’ve decided on the keyword for optimizing your episode, it is then time to incorporate this into your podcast episode title. And that’s what we are covering today.
The Outsized Importance of Episode Titles
Photographer: Nick Fewings | Source: Unsplash
First I'd like to highlight the outsized importance of episode titles, and how they contribute to discoverability and growing a listener base.
Some of you might be skeptic about when I make a statement like "outsized importance of show notes" for business podcasting. OK. But don't just take it from me. A little later-on I have some case studies from industry thought leaders at PodNews.net and elsewhere to share, which that basically amplify, if not prove my point.
Why Are Podcast Episode Titles Important?
Three quick answers we as podcasters already know:
In App Search — How can your show be found by people who are already on a listening app, and looking for new podcasts?
Web Search — Many podcasters and brands under-estimate the importance of this, as we have pointed out before. Podcast Episode titles for show notes are an important part for web discoverability.
Click-Worthiness, not to be confused with click-baitiness. There are a lot of scenarios where people only listen or visit after a glance at the episode title.
In App Search vs Web Search — A Case Study
Photographer: Marvin Meyer | Source: Unsplash
A lot of us assume that a major way of having our podcast content found is on podcast listening apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify and so on. But in order for this to work, people have to search inside those apps.
Technically, this depends on how content is made searchable inside listening apps. In other words, which parts of a podcast are indexed for search.
So I came across a case study and cool, if dorky experiment: Mark Steadman teamed up with James Cridland, the editor of Podnews, to experiment with nonsense words in the name of science.
The idea was to pick a different nonsense word for each relevant podcast-related tag in our RSS feeds, and to see which apps picked up which words.
Here are some of their findings
So here are some of the findings from this experiment, I really want to give Kudos to Mark and James here, since doing this must have been quite labor intensive.
Now James and Mark did not limit their research to just Apple Podcasts, they also looked at Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, CastBox, GoodPods, Google Podcasts, IVoox, Listen Notes, Overcast, Player FM, Pocket Casts, The Podcast Index website, PodcastAddict, Spotify, Stitcher. This list then represents the most common listening apps, and from my perspective a large enough data set to draw some conclusions from.
#1 Apple Podcasts only searches your podcast name, episode titles, and author tags
So no matter how great a podcast description you have crafted for your show, or for each episode, in Apple Podcasts people cannot find your podcast or any episode based on that content.
#2 Apps heavily weight podcast-level data over episode-level data.
What this means is that search for your podcast title or words in your podcast description will likely show up in most apps. But your episodes are much less visible via in-app search, since ONLY the titles of the episodes are indexed for search.
This is precisely why at Polymash we focus on podcast web SEO, because on the web your episodes WILL show up, if optimized correctly.
#3 The in-app podcast search landscape is badly in need of attention.
Hopefully this will at some point get addressed. I am not quite sure why no-one has taken up the challenge of indexing episode descriptions yet. Is it that podcast app makers thing that in-app search is not important?
Imagine if in-app search reliably showed not only new podcasts to listen to (as is currently the case), but also had episode level suggestions to offer to app users. I would think this would be beneficial for listeners, app creators and podcast hosts alike.
#4 Podcast App SEO is not a viable podcast growth strategy.
Let me just comment here on the term "Podcast SEO", vs "Podcast App SEO". Most people don't consider that there is a difference. There is a common misconception that all Podcast SEO has to do with being found inside listening apps.
And what James and Mark mean here is about "Podcast App SEO": Trying to have optimize your podcast to be found inside apps is severely limited.
Of you've listened to any of our content before, you will know that we focus on Podcast Website SEO as a way of growing a show, especially for business podcasters.
Their Conclusion From This Case Study
To Mark and James these findings highlight the need for good podcast websites. Compelling titles, rich and meaningful show notes, useful links, host and guest bios; all of these are useful for placement within Google and other web search engines because they’re useful to humans.
If you have a guest, put their name in your episode title, especially if they’re the kind of name people will search podcast apps for.
That said, episode titles aren’t universally indexed.
Don’t rely on podcast app search for discoverability.
I think it’s unwise to put too many eggs in the podcast-app search basket. Search is just not evolved enough within these apps to be meaningful.
Formulas And Generators For Podcast Episode Titles
Let's consider the structure of how podcast titles are often set up. There are common patterns for episode titles any business podcasters will likely have seen on other podcasts they listen to. For example, listicles are a format, like “The Top 10 Tips to do XYZ”. Or Question-based titles, which often present provocative propositions. Or how-tos that offer tutorials and tips.
There are tons more formulas and formats, and if you'd like to see a fun and insane way to generate a ton of title ideas, here is a title generator to create tons of title suggestions based on a keyword you enter: https://www.title-generator.com/
I did this for this episode, and I’ve put an image of 12 out of 100s in the show notes:
These formulas only go so far, and skew on the "click-bait feel" side of things. So we recommend staying clear of them, other than to generate ideas if you're really stuck.
Questions To Ask When You Craft Episode Titles
Instead, here are some questions to ask as you are crafting podcast episode titles:
1. Does it match expectations? Does the content deliver on it? Is it a Clickbait?
Consider your own behavior when listening to podcasts, does the title of the episode matter? I would argue in many cases yes, depending on the nature of the show. If I'm listening to a news podcast, perhaps the title will not matter. But for most of my areas of interest, if the title is boring or irrelevant to me, I might choose to skip it. On the other hand, if a title promises something super interesting and then the content does not deliver, count me out.
2. Is it Clear? Or Clever?
Personally I prefer clear over something clever or mysterious, and I also think that this is easier to SEO optimize.
My personal preference: “clarity” beats “being cute” every time.
3. It really grabs your attention? Is it ordinary?
Why does something grab your attention in the first place?
4. Is it to the Point?
When I’m browsing through podcast episodes on my devices, I prefer short descriptive titles that make it clear what I’m about to listen to.
5. Does it highlight a Benefit?
A title that makes the benefit of listening obvious is very compelling. Thought personally I find this is pretty hard to fit into a few words.
6. Is it too short, long or just right?
The right episode title length is a subject for discussion. My advice is to err on the side of too long rather than too short. It is challenging though, I think factors like SEO title length, fitting on a mobile screen, covering all the other points on this list and still having enough room for your guest name make it so.
7. Can I create a good title and ALSO have my keyword present in it?
Personally I often find myself coming up with creative episode titles, but then realize my keyword is not present in the title, which from an SEO perspective is a “must have”
Some Dos and Don’ts In Crafting Episode Titles
I do not like to think of titles in terms of "dos and don’ts". But here are 3 considerations I would offer:
1. The Right Length
I would ensure the optimal length for SEO presence. Too short is bad, too long is bad as well. The tool we will review later offers guidance on this.
2. Including Your Guest Name
Including your guest's name in the episode title is a matter of preference.
Do include your guest name in the title if they are well known, famous, or at least well known in your industry.
Some businesses might even optimize the entire show notes article for Google search based on the guest name.
If your guest is a business relationship of some sort, then consider if there is a benefit: If the guest google themselves and your episode shows up in the search results, is that important to you, or to the guest?
We often do quick google search or use our keyword research tool we covered in the Podcasting Strategy Show Episode 6 called KWFinder. This way you can see if your guest name is searched for a lot.
3. Including Episode Numbers
Including episode numbers in the title is another matter of opinion with many business podcast experts.
The only "rule" I would suggest following here is to never place the episode number at the front. I recently saw an example of this where the beginning of each episode title started with "Episode 1, Part 2:" For podcast consumers, It wastes 18 characters of space on small screen, often obscuring what the actual title was like. I've included a picture of this in the show note.
But perhaps the more important aspects here is that this dilutes SEO: Google places the most importance on the beginning of your title, so starting this with "Episode 1, Part 2:" lowers SEO potential.
The Power Of Language In Podcast Episode Titles
So I hope that up to this point I’ve managed to convince you that episode titles are important, and also not that easy to create. Which brings us to the tool I want to review in this episode, called “Headline Studio” by a company called CoSchedule. This system delves into some of the science, psychology and language behind what makes titles compelling. It performs analysis of titles based on:
Emotional Words
Power Words
Ordinary Words
Length, structure and format
And it offers word banks, SEO analysis and a whole lot of additional features.
Introducing Headline Studio — What does it do?
Headline studio gives you data-backed suggestions and a roadmap for improving headlines or episode titles you initially think of. It offers suggestions for effective words your title should include, and provides a headline score based on CoSchedule’s criteria on what makes a good title.
What are elements of a compelling podcast episode title?
The right word and character length
Clarity about the episode content for the listener or reader
Click-worthiness through the use of uncommon, emotional or power words, which CoSchedule Headline Studio helps you find
Use of patterns where possible that have proven successful like listicles and how-tos
How do Headline Studio’s features help?
Headline studio also have the following features to make your experience in using the tool much more convenient.
Word Balance Analyzer
Headline Studio shows you exactly how many common, uncommon, emotional and power words your title contains and shows you the best possible way to balance out the words your title should contain. Their recommendations are based on word usage and title patterns proven to be successful on social media.
Word Bank
Headline Studio provides you with their built in thesaurus to find words for each of their categories. Browse through their word bank and discover fitting words and their synonyms to create the ideal word balance.
Headline Score Breakdown
The tool also provides short breakdowns of what your title contains which includes :
Word Count – The amount of words your title contains and a bar to show you how many words are recommended.
Character count – The amount of characters your title contains. Also has the same bar as the wordcount breakdown.
Type – Shows you what type of title you have, its description and ways you could improve it.
Reading grade level – The difficulty of the words you used in your headline/title.
Sentiment – What sort of sentiment your title conveys.
Clarity – Checks if your title gets right to the point.
Skimmability – Shows you how skimmable your headline/title is and displays where the topic of your headline/title and where to place it.
SEO Score Breakdown
Headl
Headline Studio also includes information on how your headline/title would fair SEO wise. It includes the following features :
Search Preview – Shows you exactly how your title would look like in search results.
Competition – A breakdown on where your headline/title stands among other headlines.
Your Top Competition in Search Results – Displays the top competitors in search results for your headline/title. This also might give you ideas on how to structure your own headline/title to give you a competitive edge.
Keyword Variations – Shows you keywords similar or related to your headline/title which you may include to rank higher in search results.
Related Questions – Displays related topics your audience also searches for which you may include to reach a wider audience and rank higher in search results.
How do you use it?
Headline Studio is simple and easy to use, go to their site, insert your headline/title and click analyze. It will then display the information which we listed above to help you craft a better title. We suggest trying at least 5-7 versions of an episode title you had in mind, it’s not just the tool, but the practice of creating these variations that makes you better at this.
Web App Version
To use the CoSchedule Headline Studio web app, just visit their website here.
Create a free account, and beyond the free version you will also get a trial for several premium features and headlines as well.
Personally we use this tool and its older counterpart, Headline Analyzer, to improve the title of each piece of content we create, get a clear understanding what our titles are missing and to learn how to craft amazing titles.
Chrome Plugin
I should mention that if you are using a Chrome browser, there is also a useful extension available, you can find it here.
Final Thoughts On Improving Your Episode Titles
I can virtually guarantee that your episode titles will improve through a tool like this.
The reason I'm so confident is not just because it is a great tool: It’s the iterations that count
It is the practice and discipline of iterating — when you create 7 variations of a title, which Headline Studio practically makes you do, you’re bound to improve. It makes you think about your listener, your SEO, your episode topic in a new way. And the end result of choosing one of 5-7 variations will predictably create more interesting episode titles and gain you more listeners.
In conclusion, Headline Studio is a great tool for creating new titles and improving your old ones. It works for your blog and for your podcast episode titles. It provides you with a fair measure on how your title would do and provides you details steps on what to do to increase your own score, which certainly beats figuring out why your titles are not doing well through trial and error.
Disclosure: This paragraph above contains an affiliate link, and we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
Conclusion, Links and Resources
This was the second of a multi-part series highlighting the workflow tools we use as an agency to produce high impact show notes for our podcast clients. We have seen the success of this approach last and build through several years, as podcasting has become ever more competitive and celebrity driven.
It does not have to be this way, and podcast show notes are the key to ever-green discoverability for any podcast that has a business content strategy intent. And, as we covered in this episode, better podcast titles are key.
Do you have a podcast? Then you're doing “content syndication” already, at least for your podcast audio. But what about podcast content syndication for show notes and web content?
And while you’ve probably heard of "content syndication", do you know what it is and how to use it for your show and website? Most people understand "content syndication" as the process of distributing your audio as widely as possible.
But why stop there? Why not also distribute your show notes and web content too!
The concept is simple, but the benefits are often not clearly understood. This isn't just about traffic or even subscribers. It's about increasing your podcast website's rank and visibility in Google search results.
So subscribe on YouTube or to Season 2 of “The Podcast Growth Show” and join us to learn more about podcast content syndication! And sign up for our email list below so we can keep you updated on all things related to podcasts and content syndication!
Podcast Content Syndication For Show Notes — Table Of Contents
I'd like to introduce our new video series, and incidentally also season 2 of “The Podcast Growth Show” podcast. In this series and season where we'll be talking about content syndication as a method for podcast and web growth.
In this first episode, I want to give a brief introduction to the series overall. And we'll focus on the benefits, ROI and outcomes with a couple of case studies. And then in the next upcoming videos, we'll dive a little deeper into how and why it works and is so effective. So with that said, let's get started.
If you have a podcast, you’re syndicating already
Now, you may not know it, but if you have a podcast, you already do content syndication by distributing your audio as widely into as many platforms as possible.
So why not also take it to the next level and do this for your show notes and website content? The concept is simple, but the benefits are often not clearly understood. This isn't just about traffic or even subscribers, this is about increasing your podcast website's rank and visibility in the search result pages with Google.
Courtesy of Edison Research — In Podcast Content Syndication For Show Notes, Google Search Is Important
Have a look at this chart from Edison research, it kind of makes my point. The most popular discovery platform for podcasts is not Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Social media, but internet search. And so the lesson is this:
Google search is what really matters for podcast discovery
Ranking factors for your podcast or business website
Let’s think about what the ranking factors are. What contributes to your podcast or business website being visible, what's involved in that?
What are some of the ranking factors for podcast websites?
Domain Authority of your podcast website
Some of you may know about domain authority, and that is a industry standard term for how much power your site carries in the search engines. And mostly that's influenced by age, but there are a lot of things that you as a podcast or a business owner can do to improve this over time.
Inbound Links
Inbound links, for example, are one of the most important factors to have your website rank in the search results. For example, remember to ask your guests to write about your interview on their own site, and this creates a “backlink” for your own site. But, as we will explore in this series, there are far better and faster ways to get high quality backlinks from our podcast content syndication for show notes methodology.
Podcast content syndication for show notes as long form content
First of all, long form content is also something that Google values. So with SEO optimized show notes for example, this longer form content tends to rank a lot more quickly and a lot higher in the search results overall.
Low bounce rate drives engagement
Then having engagement on your website and the low bounce rate for your audience is also a critical factor. It means your show notes need to be good enough to get people to read them, to stick around, and to explore more content or other related episodes on your site.
Social Media signals
And then social media and actual traffic also contributes. So these are just some of the factors that contribute to the overall visibility of your site.
And what I'm saying here, my point is that podcast content syndication for show notes that we'll be talking about in this video series, addresses all of these ranking factors resulting from a syndication strategy that doesn't limit itself to just your audio, but also widely syndicates your show notes articles.
Content Syndication Method Quick Overview
The methodology and our whole systems usually start with some form of SEO research. We provide this as a podcast content marketing service for the “Done For You” entrepreneurs too busy to do this all themselves, but it can also be learned by DIY podcasters.
Podcast Content Syndication For Show Notes, step by step
SEO Research is a starting point
It is important to know how people search, what they type into a search engine. How are they likely trying to find the topic of your episode or of your subject matter or of your guests subject matter?
Click Worthy Episode Titles
And that's an important piece of knowledge and that informs creating and crafting click where the episode titles as well. I mean, obviously, if you see a boring title or a title that's non-descriptive, people won't click on it, so… Or will open it.
And that's true not just on the web, but that's true also on most podcasts listening platforms. When you're scrolling through what new episodes are there, episode titles are super important.
Long-form SEO-optimized show notes via transcripts
These are augmented mind you, it's not enough to simply paste or copy paste the transcript on the bottom, but we carefully optimize these with headings, images, quotables, tables of contents that we make these look like authority articles, which then appear to Google as index worthy and as worthy to feature in the search rankings. So I'll go over the rest of these rather quickly.
The focus of this content series will be on syndication, not technical SEO
We follow pretty standard formulas for technical optimization of show notes, for example these include headings and images and alt-tags. There are a number of different SEO techniques we often talk about elsewhere on this blog. And we even have courses around that.
But where we are going to be focusing in this series is this idea of multichannel syndication and link building, as well as sort of social influencer marketing campaigns that are building and sending social signals to Google.
Content Syndication ROI Case Studies
So for the rest of this video, just as an introduction, let me just illustrate with a case study. Here's a podcast called “Deeper Dating” and this was a screenshot from about a year after launch.
Deeper Dating: A podcast content syndication for show notes case study
So he's had 190,000 downloads in that time. And the question that I like to ask most podcasters is:
A podcast with 190,000 downloads, how many of those downloads do you think actually resulted in visits to the website? What %?
Because most people I asked this, say between five and 10%.
Getting people to visit your podcast’s website is hard, right?
We think that getting people to come from your podcast listening experience to go and visit your website is hard. Most people think so. And I think that's caused people to undervalue how important it is that you get those visits.
Now, here's the answer: a 138% download to web visits ratio
It's not 5% or 25, 50. If you thought 75, you'd be wrong. What if I told you it was 138%? And you're probably going, "What? That doesn't even make sense."
Flipping the script
Because what happens is that people actually search for the content. So for example, “sexual attraction” is something that he did an episode about. People searching for this typed that into a search engine and his episode came up on page one of the search results, the topic of this podcast. And then when they go and open those pages, they see that, “oh, look, there's a podcast here!” They discover it.
It's exactly the other way around. That's what we mean by flipping the script. So he's had 261,000 page views and people are visiting his website during this time because of the SEO optimized show notes that are showing up in the search results and that are driving traffic to his website. And this was a snapshot from a year. Two years into the journey he has had 500,000 website visits for about 450,000 or so downloads. So my point is, is that that ratio sort of keeps going. And the amount of traffic and the amount of signups and the amount of subscribers that he's getting is a result of that.
The ROI of SEO optimized show notes and website visits
And there's some real value here. It's also something that people often don't consider. There's an ROI. He's ranking in this time. It was a brand new website with zero domain authority. That's also something that people who know. If you've had a website for 10 years, it's a little easier to get into the search results, where then with a brand new one. This was a brand new one.
And he now, a year after, ranked for about 177 keywords. And that translated into about 2,000 clicks a month. These numbers are per month. And if you had to pay Google AdWords for the traffic, for the clicks, you would have to pay $2,000+ a month. So he's getting $2,000 a month of free traffic to the site. And now , after 2 years, the numbers are even more impressive.
And there are lots of other examples like this. And then you're saying, "Well, so what? What about all this traffic?" Well, if your web strategy is good, then what happens is, is that it has a knock on effect.
The real-life value of podcast content syndication for show notes
So not only Deeper Dating getting $2,000 plus a month in free traffic, the host is growing their email list. They are selling out all of his workshop, group coaching intensives, no more Facebook ads and paying for that.
No more sales webinars are necessary because they are getting all of the monetization strategy for his subject matter from organic traffic via Google. And so that's what the value is that we're talking about here.
What's Next In The Series
So that's to introduce this series. I hope it arouses some curiosity, and in the coming few episodes we're going to be diving next into what podcast content syndication for show notes is, and how it works exactly. And we'll dive a little bit deeper into this form of content marketing and why it works so brilliantly.
Where to find us
In the meantime, if you like this, please subscribe to our Podcast Growth Channel on YouTube. Also, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter with under @polymash and on Instagram @polymashdesign. Love to hear back with any questions that you have. Feel free to leave a comment below.
https://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/PodcastContentSyndicationIntro_7f44d9caaf9d7a7d6cfc7fa850d5085f_2000.jpg7201280Juergen Berkesselhttps://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Polymash-Logo-2019-680px-Web2.pngJuergen Berkessel2021-08-27 10:11:032021-10-11 14:39:37Podcast Content Syndication For Show Notes — Series Introduction
NOTE: What follows is a guest post from Amir Shahzeidi on YouTube For Podcast Promotion – and while we at Polymash may not agree with all the points in this article, we agree with the power of YouTube for creating short native video content for your podcast growth. Here is Amir’s article with a lot of insights and tips on how to make this work:
Your podcast is out there. You’ve consistently put in the hours to create amazing episodes to attract more listeners. But something’s amiss… You can’t seem to get any traction. You’re not generating the growth you need. Here’s the thing, building a business and brand today is less about selling and more about showing how you can add value to your audience’s lives.
And that’s probably one of the main reasons why you started your podcast.
Adding value, however, involves more than just creating great content. You need to promote it feverishly to capture the attention and hold the attention of your target audience.
The former, unfortunately, isn’t always the easiest for brands to accomplish. Most brands still believe in building content and hoping their ideal customers will stumble upon it.
That does not make for sound marketing practice or strategy.
Marketing needs to be consistent.
Take the rule of seven, it dictates that customers need to see or hear of you brand seven times before they become a customer. What’s more, with the increase in web content and social media posts produces each day, I’d argue that customers may need more than seven interactions.
So, how do you promote your podcast effectively?
Have you considered YouTube?
Consider using YouTube for podcast promotion – Photographer: Sara Kurfeß | Source: Unsplash
It may seem almost counter-intuitive as an idea, but there’s a lot of logic behind using it as a marketing channel to grow your podcast.
For example, YouTube is still the 2nd largest search engine in the world. It receives 1 billion users each month (that’s almost a 3rd of the internet).
It’s also great for reach. More than 70% of YouTube users watch content on mobile devices, making it the perfect platform to engage more people. In fact, today YouTube is available in 80 languages, making it accessible to 95% of the Internet population.
As you can see, you can leverage YouTube. In fact, you could grow your podcast with the help of a YouTube marketing funnel filled with content that attracts and helps convert viewers into subscribers and paying customers.
But can you really promote your podcast on YouTube?
Yes, and I’ll show you four ways to do so.
What do the results look like? Here’s a snapshot of the first five results for the search term podcast on YouTube:
Take a look at the number of views that each podcast has received.
This is an easy action to take. Simply upload your podcasts to your YouTube channel. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to shoot video content to get views.
In the example below, CrypoWZRD shows that it’s possible to build an audience with a simple still image and podcast audio.
2. Create Shorter Videos
Another great way to promote your podcast is by creating a trailer or shorter videos from your material. This gives viewers a taste of what to expect, and if promoted using paid media, you should be able to generate a fair amount of reach, too.
Carrier created a trailer for their podcast that’s both captivating and has generated over 2,300 views.
3. Go Live
Live streaming isn’t limited to social media or special events. It’s also used for podcasts. RachelVlogs hosts a podcast called “All Things Internet.” She shows that it’s possible to live stream your podcast on YouTube, without a sophisticated studio or equipment.
4. Create Video Podcasts
Most podcasts are released as pre-recorded videos, and you should give this option a go. Video podcasts are intimate due to the ability to see the host and guest.
Because they are also pre-recorded, you’re able to edit your footage and include different camera shots and special effects to create a more engaging viewer experience.
Now that you have four ways to market your podcast, let’s take a look at how to make your content stand out on YouTube.
Four Tips on Generating Better Rankings When Using Youtube For Podcast Promotion
Here are four more tips to help you generate better rankings, more views, and subscribers.
Tip #1: Use YouTube SEO
Like Google, YouTube videos and content can also be optimized for search. In fact, when using YouTube for podcast promotion some of the same principles apply and can help you rank your podcast videos higher in search results and get more views on YouTube.
For example, you should be using keywords in video titles. Beyond the obvious benefit of viewer spotting search terms, YouTube will be able to return your podcast as a result.
Be sure to include your keywords in descriptions as well. YouTube sees descriptions as valuable, because, just like Google, YouTube wants to provide users with the best possible results for their searches.
Should you use tags?
The jury is still out on this feature. It appears to be available for a reason, so use them, but only add relevant tags to describe your video.
Brian Dean on video SEO when using YouTube For Podcast Promotion
Tip #2: Design a Captivating Thumbnails
Want to make your content stand out? Here are four tips on designing a thumbnail that will grab attention:
Use Color
The human eye is drawn to color. While it can see 7,000,000 colors, creating a combination that’s attractive is really what will stop viewers from scrolling through their feeds.
When you use color, focus on contrasting complementary colors (colors further away from each other on the color wheel). Doing so will create the right amount of contrast between colors you use and help your content stand out.
Use of color when creating YouTube Thumbnails for podcast promotions
Add Your Face
People are attracted to faces that show a certain emotion or appear to be communicating a message.
If you’re only uploading audio of your podcast, don’t add a clip of your face. This could be perceived as clickbait and might hurt your brand.
Using Faces when creating YoutTube Video Thumbnails for Podcasts
Brand Your Content
Building a brand is all about becoming recognizable for what you do. Don’t miss the opportunity to brand your thumbnail with your logo.
Branded content example when using YouTube for podcast growth
Create Interesting Titles
Get creative with your thumbnails by using different copy, but keep it related to your video title. This hack makes your content appear more interesting than using repetitive messaging.
Interesting titles are key when using Youtube for podcast marketing
Tip #3: Focus on Watch-Time
Watch-time is one of the most important ranking factors YouTube applies. Briggsby conducted a study that showed a correlation between watch-time and rankings. They found that the more watch-time a video receives, the higher it ranks in search. So how do you use this insight when using YouTube for podcast promotion?
One of the most effective ways of increasing watch-time is by introducing pattern interrupts. These are ideas that are abruptly introduced to completely change the focus of your listeners.
And they’re effective! Buzzsumo used pattern interrupts to grow its channel by 59% in just 30 days.
Why do pattern interrupts work?
They force listeners to pay attention for longer. By asking a question or painting a picture, you automatically engage your audience.
If they’re paying attention for longer, you’ll be able to increase your watch-time and increase the likelihood of better rankings for your podcast.
Tip #4: Use a Call to Action
You’ve managed to attract new YouTube viewers, but what happens when they are done with your video?
While call to actions are a universal component in marketing, they’re often not allows applied.
Don’t be like other marketers.
Include call to actions at the end of each video you upload to ensure that you grow and retain your audience.
What kind call to actions should you use?
In the YouTube for podcast promotion example below, Tom Ferry uses a video suggestion and a link to his website where you can get show notes and also listen to other podcasts.
Ferry also takes advantage of the description section on YouTube. In addition to his brief write-up, he pushes viewers to other links that include the episode’s show notes, various platforms to listen to his podcast, and his social media accounts to connect with him directly.
Ferry also has his own branded website. If you plan on growing your podcast, with the prospect of developing a multimedia platform of your own, you could create a video website.
By creating your own platform, you’re able to generate revenue for your brand by selling your podcast and video content directly to your subscribers.
Conclusion
Podcasts, like all other marketing channels, can only grow if promoted. One of the most interesting ways is to expand your content with video and to use Youtube for podcast promotion. It’s a large platform with over a billion users, making it the perfect place to find your audience. It also affords podcasters the opportunity to promote their content in various ways, making is easier to attract and engage more viewers and turn them into subscribers.
About Our Guest Author Amir Shahzeidi:
Amir Shahzeidi
Amir is the digital marketing manager at Uscreen, an all-in-one video monetization and live streaming platform that empowers video entrepreneurs and creators to monetize their content and build thriving businesses around their videos.
https://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/promote-podcast-on-youtube_7d5535bb80168c8fbf0c799c8670c453_2000.jpg5861200Alijaz Fajmuthttps://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Polymash-Logo-2019-680px-Web2.pngAlijaz Fajmut2019-10-26 07:01:532023-09-16 08:01:54How To Use YouTube For Podcast Promotion
Things are always changing, and this is especially true in content marketing. Podcast content strategy is still wide open to get your brand, message, or business out there. If you're in this field, you'd be aware that the internet runs on content. With regards to lead generation and attracting the right traffic with SEO savvy, the rules change often.
Add to this a bewildering array of potential channels for content, it's no wonder that navigating this terrain can seem difficult. With so many bright shiny objects everywhere, many of us lose our way.
I. A Podcast Content Strategy Avoids Digital Sharecropping
We've seen exhausted clients pour all of their efforts into “rented” social media platforms, posting on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Medium, Twitter, YouTube and other channels. To them, it seems like they are doing the right thing. They gravitate to where they feel their audiences' attention is.
Nothing seems wrong with that. But often there is a lack of underlying strategy. More on that in a minute.
Meanwhile, our clients' website's content often lies neglected. It is no longer at the center of their efforts or content they publish. For most clients, social media seems so much easier than blogging. The occasional viral attention gained appears more attractive than building a body of authority content – a convenient and sexy shortcut.
The issue is that social media content has a limited life span. It disappears up Facebook's or Twitter's timeline. Thus it serves no real purpose in growing a website, domain authority and SERP rank. The social posts need to refer to and drive traffic and engagement back to the central website.
The social networks fight this tooth and nail, they want ALL engagement to take place on their own platforms.
So what's the solution?
I won't pretend to have all the answers, but in the last couple of years we have discovered a self-generating content strategy that seems to works well for the “content marketing” challenged: Podcasting as a Content Strategy.
This might surprise you, or you may think of it as another content fad; but hang on for a minute and allow me to explain the often surprising benefits.
II. Podcasting Builds Relationships With Other Influencers
Podcasters are often overly obsessed with subscriber growth, metrics and statistics. Yet one of the most important and meaningful success criteria for most podcasters is hard to measure:
Podcasting establishes lasting relationships
Whenever we review podcasting programs with our clients, one of the benefits they appreciate the most is that they have connected and even become friends with influencers and people active in their field.
So how do you go about this? Reaching out to thought leaders in your field is so much easier if you have a podcast, and then invite them to talk about their passions and insights on your show. Most are happy to oblige, especially once you have an established show. After all, you are helping them promote and grow in return.
In addition, opportunities to be a guest on influencer podcasts yourself will also appear over time, as many influencers have podcasts themselves. But even “guesting” on other shows in your niche will establish you as a thought leader and influcener yourslef over time.
III. Podcasting is a Self Generating Content Strategy
Instead of laboring over creating blog content, our clients interview other people in their field. They love doing it, it’s fun, energizing and not as time consuming as blogging. They jump on a Skype call, hit the record button and discuss a topic they and their guest find energizing, and voilà: original content.
I’m not saying it’s easy or less work, but it’s a less intense effort for clients. They focus on recording a meaningful conversation, and we, as their podcasting partner, take care of the rest. For example, we use a transcription service and edit these conversations, and have an almost instant 5,000+ word article. We then apply both technical and other SEO optimizations – in fact the topics and episode titles are based on SEO research and low competition key phrases in the first place.
Podcasting can serve as the missing center for a multi channel strategy
Once a podcast is recorded, the show notes become the central business asset from which all multi-channel and social media efforts emanate. So yes, we still do “traditional” social media content distribution campaigns to share and boost the podcast show-notes. But that’s only the beginning.
Podcast Content Strategy as Multi Channel Content Distribution
We often produce videos from our podcast episodes. There are some automation tools that help us. These transform audio into video. Later, we publish these episodes on YouTube, DailyMotion and other social video channels.
And for a completely automated tool that converts audio into video, check out a tool called “Headliner”. It produces audiograms and even adds relevant images and slides to the videos. In our previous post, Podcast Audiogram Alternatives For Promotion and Visual Storytelling, we are excited to show how we now use the Invideo platform as our video platform of choice.
Social Content Platform Syndication:
We syndicate the content to platforms with existing engaged audiences and built-in internal search engines, for example Medium, Blogger, Facebook Stories or LinkedIn.
Snackable Videos:
Michael Seltzner’s “Social Media Examiner” team recently cancelled 3 Facebook video shows. He moved them from Facebook to YouTube. Why? Because the data shows that videos longer than 1-2 minutes penalize your Facebook page rank. So when publishing video to Facebook, the idea is to take 15-45 seconds from the podcast video episode and publish it as “teaser content“ with subtitles. I’m still working on automating this part of the process.
Syndication And Content Distribution Automation:
We use a smart and affordable content syndication and distribution platform from a Belgian company called StoryChief. The reason I like it so much is that it can publish natively to multiple platforms (like WordPress, Drupal etc.), and supports podcast player embeds.
What’s smart about it is their use “rel=canonical” tags. You get to decide where your primary content should live. For those unfamiliar with this tag, it lets search engine indexing bots know where to apply the SERP rank credit and link juice. This way, your podcast show notes will rank pointing to your site, NOT to Medium or other platforms.
Podcast directories RSS syndication:
Promoting a podcast requires submission to dozens of podcast directories. These directories will automatically link to each published episode and your primary website. This results in a valuable SEO benefit, namely, links from high domain authority sites.
IV. Podcasting as SEO Cornerstones
A lot of podcasts tackle content themes. In podcast parlance, these can be thought of as "Seasons". For example on an SEO podcast, you might focus on "Technical SEO" in Season 1, and "Link Building Techniques" in Season 2.
This is the genesis of a cornerstone strategy. You cross link this content to other important long form content pieces on your site. Such content will naturally rank higher because of the relevance of all participating articles. Furthermore, we have seen this content rank very quickly.
Podcast Guesting as a Lead Generation & SEO Link Building Initiatives
For people not interested in launching their own podcast, “Podcast Guesting” is an alternative. It results in effective link building, lead generation and launch strategy for any business. For example, this method has become a very popular book launch technique. The idea is that you find relevant podcasts in your niche and then run an outreach campaign to approach the hosts of these podcasts to invite you on as a guest.
Benefit: Intimacy With Your Ideal Audience
The first set of big benefits include getting to talk to your ideal and relevant audience when they are in a receptive mode. Think about what people are doing when listening to their favorite podcast, the one you are appearing on. They are likely commuting, working out, going for a walk. The modality is very different from interrupting an audience in the middle of browsing through their Facebook feed.
This is why Podcast Listeners are such a lucrative audience. And you get to present your core ideas to them.
Benefit: SEO Back-Links
The second big benefit is SEO related. Each podcast you appear on will create show notes that feature highly valuable back-links to your site and product or launch. SEO agencies charge a lot for high Domain Authority back-links. And the link building process can be onerous.
You can automate the outreach campaigns, or you can hire agencies to do this for you. We have a free downloadable podcast guesting outreach automation system for this, including outreach email templates and mail merge tools. To learn more how these campaigns can be automated for free, check out our podcast guesting system and templates.
Podcasting Benefits Summary
Our clients love having a podcast. It helps them re-connect with content as their own business asset. “Having a show” re-introduces a strategic purpose and promotes content discipline. Our clients keep on a weekly schedule much more easily than when they were just “blogging”.
The ROI is in lead generation and list building and SEO. A year into their podcasting journey, most our clients with medium sized shows get 65% of their traffic and leads from organic search and podcast listeners. These are for keywords they would otherwise have to pay $1,000's a month for on Google AdWords.
Guest post by author and SEO expert Andrii Gorh. Podcasts are one of the hottest content types right now. Recent acquisitions by Spotify in podcast media hubs just prove this point. It can be super challenging to create a high-quality podcast, which will gather the attention of millions of listeners, but SEO and search engine discoverability can help. In this blog, Andrii presents some SEO tricks, which might help you grow your podcast to be discovered in different mediums.
7 Methods to Grow Your Podcast
In short, you need to know how to grow your podcast and leverage it for SEO, but also how to rank well on the platforms, where you publish it.
Start with a well-written title. This is how one can find your episodes on iTunes or Google Play. These marketplaces put a heavy emphasis on keywords, which are in your title.
Of course, also if the title is catchy and engaging – there is much more chance a user will click on it. For Youtube videos it is thumbnails, but for podcasts – it is all in a title. Check out Polymash's own post about 4 Ways to Create Amazing and SEO Savvy Episode Titles.
Certainly, don’t try to clickbait or stuff your podcast title with keywords – you might be punished by the algorithm of podcast search engines.
If you own a website – use it to earn more traffic to your show notes, and increase your episode downloads at the same time. If your show does not have your own website – I highly recommend creating one on your existing domain, or with your own new domain name. It is the entire idea behind creating a podcast as an inbound content strategy.
A podcast is a fantastic content type, which can attract a lot of organic traffic and backlinks to your site. Don’t waste this opportunity.
To get more organic traffic to your site, you can use a standard SEO playbook: original content, link building, on-page optimization, keyword research, tech setup, etc.
I would really recommend transforming your audio content to text, SEO optimizing it and using it on a blog for show notes entries.
Also, consider expanding your podcast's blog beyond episodes, additional content ideas for your podcast blog could be:
Some key takeaways from recent episodes;
Introducing a new series of episodes and explaining why;
Include lead magnets or some downloadables – e.g. checklists, e-books – a great way to collect e-mails;
But, don’t just copy paste your transcript – make it more engaging, readable – so it can produce a long session time on your website. We have an entire workflow to transform your show notes into an SEO asset for your site.
Another reason to have a website – it is an insurance strategy against algorithm changes on podcast networks. Let me explain. If you host your podcast only on third-party mediums – you are completely dependent on their rules. If one day something happens (e.g. Spotify doesn’t want to rank content about pets :) ) – your website would be a supporting channel to distribute your podcast.
RSS feed might sound like an old-school phenomenon, but it is really important for podcasts – this is how your content is distributed to iTunes, Google Play and most other platforms.
So, you need to keep best practices for titles, descriptions, images, category updates as well as your latest copyright information etc.
Youtube is the second biggest Search Engine in the world after Google. You should obviously use the power of Youtube to bring more traffic to your podcast.
Create a channel and post highlights or full recordings of your podcasts. Maybe they will gather millions of views and subscribers!
Also, there are many services, which can convert your audio podcast to Youtube video.
High-quality content might take a lot of effort and time. It would be a shame to use it only once. Repurpose your content in different forms. For example, from one podcast episode you can make:
Infographics and visuals
Slide decks
Blogs and articles
Videos
Downloadables and so on.
With more content, you will definitely increase your reach.
Pinterest is the fastest growing visual search engine in the world. Personally, I like Pinterest more than Instagram – because it brings evergreen traffic. It means, that even old posts bring traffic to your podcast or site, unlike Instagram or Facebook.
Learn Pinterest tactics, test different pin designs, see what works for you. Ideal pins are those, which bring click-throughs and traffic. Try to solve a problem within a pin text: e.g. “Find out 10 ways to save money in our new podcast episode”.
A viral podcast episode can bring a lot of backlinks – other sites linking to your site. It will be a huge benefit for your website, where you embed podcast episodes (check out advice #2). Backlinks are one of the most important factors in Google ranking – the more you have the higher you are on SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
A Tool For Link Building Campaigns
Link building campaigns work best when SEOs use strategies based on insight as opposed to guesses.
Check out Linkio. It is a software platform that helps you run more successful link building campaigns as a podcaster or blogger. The tool provides everything you need for effective (and enjoyable) backlink campaign management, and they offer a free trial.
Collaboration
The easiest way to get backlinks is to collaborate with guest speakers, publish content on their sites and get free backlinks, mentions to your site. Also, try outreach – email other bloggers, influencers in your niche, mentioning your podcast and asking for a backlink. You can also ask for a guest contribution on their blog, in exchange for a backlink.
About our guest author:
Andrii Gorh: SEO ninja
Andrii Gorh: SEO ninja with 10+ years of experience. He LOVES keyword research, rank tracking and tech SEO tricks. Check out his advanced SEO blog: Online Hikes and other tech hacks at MrHack.io. Featured image credit: Web Hosting
https://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/5ea723f85a56b_PM-GrowYourPodcastWithSEO-FEATURED-Clipboard-1200x500_df5efe946048637cff8f26bde97d3530_2000.jpg5001200Juergen Berkesselhttps://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Polymash-Logo-2019-680px-Web2.pngJuergen Berkessel2019-07-11 13:36:582020-04-27 14:27:007 Ways To Grow Your Podcast With SEO
Podcast directories aren't enough for podcast distribution. In this episode we will learn why. We will also learn how to automatically and widely syndicate episode show notes content for quick traffic and SEO rank wins. This is the primary marketing approach we are taking for our podcasts.
Content syndication is the process of pushing your blogpost, article, video or any piece of web-based content out to other third-parties who will then re-publish it on their own sites.
So this applies to podcasts as well. We want to create Brand Awareness for our podcasts by publishing our show notes stories on multiple websites, communities, social media and email channels.
What Are The Benefits?
Podcast Distribution & Show Notes Syndication Benefits
Question: Why should podcasters care about content syndication?
Aren't we already doing a form of this when distributing our episodes to iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and Google Play?
Answer: Yes indeed we are.
However, we are only publishing audio content on iTunes.
And we ought to do the same with episode show notes.
Multi Channel Presence
Content syndication is to our podcast show notes what podcast directories are to our audio files. A way to distribute our content widely. And a way to establish presence on multiple content and social platforms.
Traffic and Discoverability
This results in greater traffic and discoverability. When your episodes go live, you probably already share your show notes post on Facebook, and perhaps on Twitter. But have you thought about publishing your episode show notes as articles on Medium? (I get a lot of traffic from doing this) Or on Blogger?
The idea we are about to explore involves distribution of your show notes to as many platforms as possible.
And the benefits of this extend far beyond traffic alone.
SEO Backlinks
My backlinks from high domain authority sites have increased by 231% in 2 months of launching my podcast. This is largely resulting from the podcast distribution and syndication method we are covering here. (There are some graphics and figures at the end of these show notes)
For those of you unfamiliar with SEO, increased backlinks mean increased rank in the Google search engines, and this means better placement in the search results. I have some concrete examples of this later on, but some of my podcast episodes and blog posts are ranking on page 1 or 2 of the Google search results within 2-3 weeks after publishing. And my site does not have a particularly high ranking Domain Authority.
How Does This Work, And How Can I Automate It?
Podcast Content Syndication Automation
You could of course distribute your show notes to a bunch of different platforms manually. Generally this involves re-posting your episode article via copy paste, or sharing your own episode show notes URL on social media. And that's perfectly fine, but it is a lot of work, and there are pitfalls:
The manual approach is super time consuming
Each platform has slightly different rules, layouts and features
The more platforms you want to distribute to, the more manual work it becomes
If you are not careful or SEO savvy, then your podcast episodes will rank on 3rd party sites instead of on your own. We've written extensively about how to prevent this, and talked about Digital Sharecropping in Episode 7 "5 Reasons NOT to Promote a Podcast on Facebook [S1E07]"
So doing this manually is a bit foolish. And there are some great content syndication platforms out there. But there is one particular platform that is great for podcast distribution of show notes. And it addresses all the above concerns.
The platform is by a Belgian company called StoryChief, and I'd like to tell you about how we use it, and how it has revolutionized our podcast content syndication process.
Why StoryChief?
We use StoryChief for Podcast Show Notes Content Syndication
Podcasting Ready
Blogging Optimized
Content Calendar
SEO Ready With Canonical Tags
Lead capture integration
Suitable for beginners
Suitable for advanced marketers
Provides ready-made blog
Built-In Coaching for SEO and Readability
Flexible open platform with lots of embeds, integrations
Collaboration & Approval Workflows
Outsourcing Ready
StoryChief Podcast Distribution & Syndication (7:45)
StoryChief podcast distribution and syndication map
Here is a quick summary of where StoryChief can distribute your podcast show notes.
Publish to multiple websites you own (7:55)
With StoryChief you create a layer above all your web sites, which simplifies the show notes production processes. After your show notes are finished in StoryChief, just publish it to your podcast's websites with one click. The layout will automatically be adjusted to defined branding of your website.
I especially like that on WordPress, any images you include are automatically imported into your social media library. And if you use Yoast SEO plugin, as most of us do, the SEO settings you define in your article will transfer over to your WordPress site, such as your SEO keywords or meta description.
Publish to your personal blog you get with StoryChief (9:30)
Don't have a blog website yet? You can use the free blog you get with StoryChief. It's auto generated when you start an account. Personally I don't use it or drive traffic to it, but I still publish each show note article there because I get a back link.
Create Social Media posts which link to the article (9:55)
Create Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin post to promote your story. The links will go to your primary website.
Publish to the new AMP channels (10:25)
Improve click through rate by 70% by boosting loading times on mobile devices. Publish your stories to Facebook and Google as AMP version.
Promote stories through your ambassadors and influencers (10:40)
Increase reach by 1000% by sharing your brand stories through the personal social channels of your colleagues, friends and influencers. My invitation to join our own Ambassador network is below and also at the bottom of this post.
Embed stories in automated newsletters (12:00)
Easily setup news digests by integrating your favorite mailing tools with StoryChief.
Publish to communities (12:10)
Increase reach and brand awareness by publishing to Medium.com, blogger.com communities.
Content Syndication Demo (12:25)
Content Syndication Demo
As you know, this is a both a podcast audio as well as video series, and in this next segment I will doing a video demo. So for those of you listening to this, I'll do my best to describe what's going on:
Podcast Distribution and Syndication Destinations (12:45)
Let's take a look at the integrations that are possible when using StoryChief. Let's go and start with the available channels that are possible to be configured. As I mentioned, StoryChief comes with its built in blog, and we can have a quick look at that so that you can see what that looks like. Here is my Polymash Podcast Growth System blog that I've set up as part of the StoryChief. As I said, I don't really use it, but I do get backlinks from it, and so that's useful.
Publish to Blogs, Website and CMS Destinations (13:10)
My primary place where I publish is WordPress. You can also hook up an API to basically publish to almost any website out there. Some of my marketing buddies out there will be using HubSpot or Magento, that's another famous CMS that's out there. So you can see you there are a whole range of choices. Another good one that's maybe worth pointing out is Shopify. I'm not sure whether that applies to you as a podcaster, but it could.
Content Hubs (13:50)
Content hubs are next, this is where you would configure Medium. Most of the time you have a personal account on Medium, but I also run a publication called Podcasting Strategy Launch and Marketing on Medium. So those are two different places that I typically syndicate this content. Let's go back to content hubs: I've also set that up the Podcast Growth Show on Blogger. As I mentioned, it's owned by Google. And finally I create an RSS feed. There are many purposes for that, that I won't go into any details.
Social Media Destinations (14:30)
On Facebook, both Facebook pages as well as Facebook groups are promoted, Twitter and Linkedin.
Ambassador Networks (14:40)
Here are the referral or the ambassador networks that we talked about a little bit earlier. I have to have them configured at the moment, one for podcasting and one for just general digital strategy. But you can easily see how, if your podcast is about multiple topics, you could easily use it for that. If you have multiple seasons, you could possibly set it up to where your podcast season one has an ambassador list that's different from season two. So this is kind of up to you to decide.
Press Releases (15:05)
Press releases, if you are big enough to warrant occasional press releases, and you have an episode on which you're talking about an event or something that are really not worthy, that would lend itself to a press release, that's a great option to have.
Email Marketing (15:25)
Email marketing, it comes built in with MailChimp. It comes built in with campaign monitor. But we'll go in a minute, we will look at what the integration strategy is. And because you can hook it up to Zapier quite easily, it basically you gain access to almost any marketing automation platform that's out there for capturing leads.
Lead Generation (15:40 & 16:30)
On the Lead Capture site, there are many ways in which you can capture a lead inside your story. So if you're mentioning something in the podcast that's a worthy add on, or you're asking people to sign up for something, or even if you don't have this built into your website. We use Thrive Marketing Automation tools to help with this. But even if you don't have anything like that, StoryChief helps you by providing it.
Mobile Platforms (15:50)
Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles is what's available right now, and that can be quite helpful. I'm still in the process of starting to utilize these.
Other Integrations (16:30)
All right, so here we are in the integration screen, where you set up, and by the way this stuff don't let it overwhelm you. These are one time set up activities. I'm just trying to point out the rich distribution potential that you get on this platform, and most of it is a matter of a one time effort, and then it is as simple as actually just clicking to publish at the end of this.
The web hook is the way that you connect at Zapier, and as I mentioned, that just opens up a whole world of other integration platforms.
Content Calendars (17:00)
StoryChief comes with a built in content calendar. But it also integrates to external content calendars. You can have everything that's gonna go live, including on social media, you can integrate that into your Google Calendar, or into your Upper Calendar or into your Outlook Calendar. So I love that part.
Podcast Syndication Ready Editor Embeds (17:15)
Editor Embeds is where it gets interesting, especially for podcasters. Because what I want to highlight is that StoryChief supports Anchor, Pippa, SoundCloud, Mixcloud and Libsyn as well. StoryChief are working aggressively on adding other audio platforms to be directly supported. I'm sure Blueberry isn't far away.
Podcast distribution ready
Right now, there isn't a native integration with Blueberry at the moment. But, I think that if that's something that you need, let me know. I would reach out to them. I was the one who initiated getting Libsyn on board. I suggested that on their public roadmap, and they've been very responsive in implementing some of the features that we as podcasters were pitching to them.
A Quick Overview of the StoryChief Editing Environment (18:09)
I thought we'd have a quick look at the actual Editor itself. It's broken down into sort of a number of interesting components.
Editing could not be easier (18:17)
Those of you that have you ever written on Medium, the StoryChief editor works very much like that. You just basically get a screen that is as easy as pie to just start typing something in. As you're typing it, you can turn text into headings, into quotes. You can add links, you can even comment back and forth with your team. And this ability to comment is a wonderful collaboration strategy, where you can manage multiple writers, or you could outsource your Show Notes production.
SEO coaching (19:04)
I've mentioned the SEO coaching components before. Here the show notes that I'm actually preparing for this very episode that you're listening to right now. It's in an earlier stage than what you would see on my site, but I thought I'd share with you what this looks like. StoryChief provides an SEO sidebar that actually tells you what to do, and walks you through a number of steps to optimize your show notes for SEO.
Readability Coaching (19:38)
And it also has a area here a way you can get a score on the readability of your posts. So keeping it simple, adding headings, breaking it up, not having too many long sentences, and a flesh reading score. Which is sort of like how complex is the grammar that you're using, and getting a good score of that is an SEO factor now. Google actually uses this as a rank indication signal. I don't know how much weight it carries, but it carries some. Besides it just makes for a better reading experience to have your show notes be very easy and scannable.
The approach that we take is, is that our headings by themselves allow you to scan through an episode and very quickly see what's going on. People do scan a lot these days. So that's how it's organized.
Tabs for staying organized and to simplify the UI (20:30 )
The editing environment is split into wizard-like tabs. This is where you progress from writing, to a summary, to determining your audience, to actually publishing.
And after you write, you basically go to the summary area where you can manage the episode settings and Metadata. This is also where you put a cover image, where you add an excerpt for your WordPress blog, where you apply categories and tags. So this is all baked into StoryChief and it all translates over to any other platform that you publish to. These settings are going to trickle down into WordPress, they are going to trickle down into Drupal and Joomla, and they will be honored on as many platforms as they can be honored in.
Defining your audience (21:15)
The last part of the publishing process is that you select your audience, and this is where you can schedule your shotes notes to go live at some future date.
The best part of that is, at the end of the day when you click that publish button and you see it going live …
The 16 destinations we publish to (21:40)
As you can see here, I'm currently doing my podcast distribution and syndication to 16 destinations. Facebook pages, Facebook channels, my Medium personal profile, my Medium publication, my WordPress Blogs, my Linkedin profiles and so forth. Some people that I've seen have to up to 20 or 30 channels that they've configured. I think it's a great feeling when you then actually click the publish button and you see it go live everywhere.
StoryChief Free Version, Basic and Pro Versions
Try it for free, but the basic version costs only $10
So when I first thought I saw this, I thought it was super-exciting, because it just saves us so much time and it was a no-brainer for me to try to integrate this into our workflow.
Sign Up for Free To Try This For Your Podcast or Blog
I'd encourage you to try this for your own blog or podcast.
If you'd like to sign up for the free version, below is a link. Full disclosure, this is an affiliate link and if you ever upgrade I will earn a small commission at no cost to you. But I hope to have earned your trust with this site, blog and podcast – I have been putting significant work into this in order to provide next level thinking about podcast growth.
Get started for free and set up your account
Get started for free, and then save 50% using our link
StoryChief updated it’s pricing structure in 2020, and now if you sign up for StoryChief free trial with our link, email me and I will personally send you a special code you can use when upgrading for a paid account that will save you 50% on this platform. This includes access for 3 team members, collaboration and content calendar features and the ability to publish unlimited stories on multiple of your websites.
But the paid version is extremely reasonably priced for what it does. Then some of the more sophisticated integrations that we've talked about, are available in the Pro Plan. But I think that podcasters will get a lot of use and time savings, even out of the basic version and I think it's totally affordable to do it.
Feature comparison
As I mentioned, there is a free version that you can get, and then there's a Basic, Pro and Enterprise versions. I'll skip the enterprise one, but here's a feature comparison.
Free version for evaluating the platform
You can see that what you're getting with the free version is quite a lot. You had five stories a month, you could really get a feel for the platform and start utilizing it even with the free version.
Why the Basic version is right for podcasters
With the basic version, you actually get that ambassador network and some of the more, from my perspective, useful features that we've talked a little bit about.
The basic version is actually quite feature rich. For example, you do get the content calendar version history. You get a content approval and rejection, which are the collaboration features, to where you can assign shown notes to someone and communicate back with them.
Here's everything you get with the $8 a month basic plan:
5-30 Stories a month
Unlimited Users and Collaborators
50 Ambassadors/Press/Influencers
Free Blog
Publish to your own Website
Collaboration/Reviewer Comments
Share Story on Social Media
Publish to Medium.com and Blogger
SEO Assistant
API Access
Export to Word/PDF/Zip
Content Calendar
Version History
Content Approval/Rejection
Newsletters/Emailing
Lead Generation Forms (Teamleader CRM, Hubspot CRM)
Custom Domain for your
StoryChief Blog
Editorial Briefs
Access to Talent Pool (only available in Benelux)
Feeds and AMPs (Google AMP, Facebook Instant Articles, RSS, MailChimp)
Version History
PRO Channels (e.g Hubspot)
PRO Integrations (e.g Salesforce, Calendar Sync, …)
Zapier Integrations
Publish to Messengers (soon)
You get that integration into email letters, lead generation forms. You get that custom domain and editorial briefs and a number of other benefits that is appear integration. All of that is included in the baseline version for only $10 a month, or $8 when paid yearly. So I just think this is a smashingly good deal.
Results We Are Seeing
Backlinks to my podcast and site have increased by 229% (Source: KWFinder)
Even though we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what we can do with this tool, I hope you do see the value of distributing your show notes as widely, and to as many different networks as you can, just like you're doing with your podcast audio.
We've certainly had great results from it. Several of my episodes actually resulting in a good amount of traffic. I mean, I'm ranking for keywords that have sort of like 500 visits a month. Click here for the examples from RANK Tracker.
But if I can be on page one for that, I'm happy. I don't expect to be ranking for something that has 25,000 searches a month. That's a bit too competitive for me. I talked about that a lot in our SEO courses, how to basically match your podcasts website with the kind of keyboards and that you can actually rank for. Something that's commensurate with your site. As I mentioned, we'll be going into that in a future episode.
Rank index increases (source: SERPWatcher)
In terms of business benefit, I've landed several clients as a direct result of Google search from the above process. Results that featured my syndicated content. Plus, several people have contacted me to collaborate and to help them with their own podcast content strategy and show launches, something I love doing…
So I hope that you found this inspiring. Please visit PodcastGrowShow.com, get your free sign up link for StoryChief.
Can you see yourself doing this and getting similar results?
Try this out yourself and see what you think, and let me know in the comments what you're thinking, and what your process is and how you could integrate that. I'm hoping that you could see yourself doing this. Scroll up for the link to the free StoryChief sign up.
Invitation To Join Our Ambassador Network
One last thing I almost forgot is the ambassador network. If you'd like to join my ambassador network, I would hugely appreciate it. If we have complimentary topics and our content is in sync from an SEO, or Inbound Marketing or podcasting perspective, maybe there's a way that we could work together and support each other.
So here is a signup form where you could join my ambassador networks. I would love to have you be part of that, and I would love to be able to support you in any way that I can.
https://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/008-Content-Syndication-Featured-Image_cd54803f25dd5fd1660069f73bc9bf3b_2000.png4361200Juergen Berkesselhttps://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Polymash-Logo-2019-680px-Web2.pngJuergen Berkessel2018-12-04 08:30:092021-04-26 18:06:06How To: Easy Podcast Distribution And Content Syndication
Podcast Marketing With Social Contests And Give-Aways
Promoting a newly launched podcast with a Facebook contest used to be a very popular podcast marketing tactic. The idea was to launch a contest featuring a relevant give-away and to boost it with paid Facebook ads. To enter the contest, contestants were asked to subscribe to the show, leave an iTunes review, and then to email the iTunes ID name used for the review to the podcast host as proof. The podcast host would then enter the applicant into the contest drawing.
In today's episode we examine:
The reasons why this is not as popular launch strategy anymore
But also why this podcast marketing strategy is still a good idea today
Prize selection tips and why they are key for this podcast marketing strategy
Contest Structure
We will cover some of the best paid and free contest platforms
Tips for setting up and running such contests
Need some help for your own contest launch?
iTunes Focused Launches Have Changed
Podcast marketing no longer focuses on iTunes alone
The reason this was a successful strategy a few years ago was that the "New and Noteworthy" algorithm within iTunes was driven by the number of reviews a podcast would receive in the initial weeks after launch. And contests were a great way to get lots of reviews in a short amount of time.
Since then, the algorithm to rise to the top of iTunes has changed. It is no longer driven by the number of reviews. Instead, at the time of this writing, the number of new subscribers have the most impact, followed by the number of episode downloads. Therefore the number of reviews no longer contribute to being at the top of the “New and Noteworthy” section.
As I have said elsewhere:
I feel that podcasters needlessly obsess about getting into the "New and Noteworthy" section.
The reality is that over the last two years iTunes has become a highly competitive space, given that major popular radio stations have shifted their energies from terrestrial and satellite radio to podcasts as a way to create a digital presence.
And there has been evidence that being featured in "New and Noteworthy" typically yields only a few hundred additional subscribers.
Podcast marketing through “Launch Contest” is less common now
The main reason is that N&N is no longer as influenced my the number of reviews a podcast gets. Besides no longer being as effective, setting up a launch contest usually takes a good deal of time to set up. You need landing pages, marketing automation capability and time. Or money to spend on contest platforms.
But if you have the passion, time and effort to spare, a launch contest will still give your podcast launch a great boost, for some of the below reasons:
But iTunes Reviews Are Still Important
Reviews are still important and should not be ignored. They lend credibility and social proof to a podcast. Seeing that dozens of people are leaving great reviews for a podcast you might enjoy might tip the scale for you to take action and subscribe. On the other hand, seeing a podcast on iTunes with no reviews at all also tells you something.
Why a Launch Contest is Still A Good Idea
Getting reviews and testimonials is as hard as it ever was. We've seen this play out countless times. People are happy to offer leaving a review, but iTunes doesn't make this process very straight-forward. So when it comes down to it, even your friends and relatives somehow don't get around to it without repeat reminders.
Contest Prize Selection
Prize selection matters in podcast marketing with contests
Adding the right prizes and incentives is key. The selected giveaways don’t have to be expensive. It is more important that they be relevant, and related to the podcast topic or context.
So for example, for a customer experience podcast you might have a contest to win free tickets to the biggest yearly Customer Experience conference. That beats offering an iPad as a prize, simply because your subscriber and contest participants are much more likely to actually care about your podcast and topic, instead of just trying to win an iPad.
Another example might be a podcast about podcasting, podcast growth and promotions such as my own show. If I were to run a contest for the Podcast Growth Show, I would choose to give away a premium microphone or podcasting gear package as the grand prize.
Why Choose Multiple Prizes?
But one prize is not enough. By giving away multiple prizes, you increase the desirability and success of your contest simply because there are better odds and many more ways to win.
The most successful contests offer a single grand prize, and then a number of secondary prizes in decreasing value.
In fact, you should give away a free resource for everyone entering your contest. This could be a simple lead magnet PDF, as long as it is related to your podcast's topic and focus.
Podcast Marketing Contest Example Prizes
For the Podcast Growth Show, here is how I would plan to structure my own podcast contest. My goal would be to attract new podcasters. So my prize selection would focus on thinking about what would be relevant for new podcasters.
Pretty much every podcaster I know tried to save money during their initial studio setup. And the thing they most likely tried to save money on is their microphone boom arm. A cheap version of this can be highly frustrating to use, and a more professional model with greater reach and a more solid feel is a pleasure to use. Believe me, podcasters will appreciate the difference.
2nd Prize: A Great Dynamic Podcast XLR and USB Microphone – The Audio Technica AT2005 (a $79 value)
3rd Prize: 15 copies of our "Podcast Marketing & SEO Online Course" – (a $97 value)
9th-25 Prize: Our Podcast Marketing Bible Ebook (a $9.97 value)
Prize for all contest entrants: "How To Market Your Podcast" ebook and access to our online "Podcasting Resources Guide"
Contest Structure
There are many facets to consider when launching a podcast promotion contest
As I previously mentioned, the launch contests of yesteryear focused on getting iTunes reviews. But that should no longer be the only focus now. For me, it is much more important to attract the right listeners to join my email list and to subscribe to my podcast through email notifications.
These are multiple actions to take, and people might think this is a lot to ask just to enter a contest. And that is right, except:
Each action completed creates additional chances to win the prize
So the logic is this: You must subscribe to my email list, that part is required because otherwise I cannot communicate with you and send you the prize. But if you complete the other additional steps, each completed tasks enters you in the contest additional times, greatly increasing your chances of winning one or more prizes.
And, each action is weighed differently: For example, subscribing to my Youtube channel is worth an additional 5 entries, but leaving an iTunes review is worth 25 additional entries.
The genius of this approach for podcast reviews is that it makes it a no-brainer for a contest entrant to do the hardest thing: Leave you an iTunes review.
Later in the podcast I explore the differences between a DIY approach versus utilizing one of the contest platforms out there. This approach of multiple contest entries for multiple actions is only possible by using proper contest management platforms like.
An example of multiple actions to increase your chances
In our video we feature a great example of this in a contest currently underway. The company is Syrp, and they are giving away some photo gear. Click below to start the video at 10:44 seconds:
At 10:44 – an example of multiple ways to enter a contest
Is it necessary to validate iTunes Reviews?
Unfortunately I don't know of any platform that integrates with iTunes directly to validate if someone actually left an iTunes review. But in my mind, most people will do so if asked, because they are afraid of missing out and being found out. What if you were to ask them for the iTunes name they left a review under before sending them their prize?
Note that with the Gleam.io platform, there are several easy ways to enter a contest by answering a question or by leaving a comment – and here you can simply ask the user to enter the iTunes name under which the review was left.
Creating Contest Landing Pages
If you want to create a contest, you will want to set up a contest landing page. A contest landing page is a distraction free website or page where you can send ad traffic to, and where people can learn about and sign up for your contest.
You can build such pages manually, but you may not need to when using the contest platforms we will discuss a bit later. They handle the creation of and simplify the design of landing pages, and some even allow you to create multiple versions of these pages and conduct A/B tests to see which ones perform best.
Q: Do you need to A/B test pages? A: It depends. There are people out there that have tested their contest pages. Here are some links to these tests and their outcomes. Why not learn from their tests and model your landing page on their winners? This will save you time and effort.
Generally speaking, it seems that contest landing pages with video perform better.
The Facebook Ad Campaign
Once you have a landing page, it's time to set up a Facebook campaign to boost your contest landing page. Facebook marketing is too big a topic to tackle in this episode, but here are a few tips to make this work:
There are many easy ways in which you can create a Facebook ad. You shoot a quick video or FB live post, create one or more images about your contest, and come up with some fun language to use for a Facebook post.
We use the AIDA method when creating Facebook ads and landing pages for contests:
A =Attention – Ask a provocative question or make a statement that earns the attention of your audience
I=Interest – Expand on attention grabbing line with something that will peak their interest and explain.
D=Desire – What's in it for them to enter your contest. Duh, that's easy, right?
A=Action – This is the call to action, what you want them to do
Finding The Right Audience
The key in making Facebook ads effective and affordable is to show your contest ads to only your very best, most relevant audience. In Facebook parlance this is called "audience targeting". If you have never done Facebook ads before, this can be a bit tricky. Basically you are trying to limit the number of people who see your ads to only those interested in your primary topic.
Targeting Podcast Listeners
But that is not all: You also want to make sure the audience your Facebook ads are shown to are likely podcast listeners, and that part is much harder.
The 5 Step Process to Advertise To Podcast Listeners On Facebook
We have a 5 step process to target likely podcast listeners on Facebook. It walks you through our method on Facebook Ads manager, and you will learn how to target people generally interested in your podcast's topic, but who also are likely podcast listeners.
Free vs Paid Contest Platforms
Are paid contest marketing platforms worth it?
Should you use a paid contest platform like the ones we outlined above? Or is there a way to build this all for free?
Advantages of Paid Contest Platforms
Paid contest platforms are the way to go. For a relatively low monthly fee they offer a range of distinct advantages over a DIY approach.
They integrate with social networks. This means they validate that someone actually shared a post, liked your Facebook Page or Youtube channel. All of this before they are entered in the contest.
Most paid platforms offer pre-built contest landing pages for you. You get up and running much more quickly, and don't have to invest in fancy landing page builders.
They send out custom email reminders. This saves you from having to create your own email funnels, saving a lot of time.
Some have A/B testing built in. This means you get to test out multiple landing pages to see which perform better.
Here are some of my favorite contest platforms to consider:
Rafflecopter
Rafflecopter – One of the most affordable platforms out there. Rafflecopter offers a free plan, trials for the more advanced plans starting at $13 a month at the time of this writing. While an easy platform to start with, it is basic.
It lacks some of the more innovative features features found on higher priced platforms.
Gleam.io
Gleam.io – I really like Gleam.io. It is a smart and flexible contest platform. It rewards people to take multiple actions to promote you while entering your contest. This increases the viral potential of your podcast marketing or launch contest. After having reviewed about 10 different contest management platforms, Gleam has emerged as my favorite. It is, however, not the least expensive, the Pro plan being $45 a month.
Upviral
Upviral – a good alternative to Gleam if the expense of that platform is a hurdle. By automatically emailing reminders, setting goals and providing incentives/rewards, your contest entrants stay on track and deliver. They get rewarded, you get new subscribers and everyone’s happy! Upviral has an example case study on their site of their own podcast launch contest which resulted in 7000 contest site visitors, 450 leads and 50+ reviews on iTunes.
Contest Domination
Contest Domination – a flexible platform that offers 7 day trial and a per contest payment option for $100 for a month. The benefit of their approach is that you get access to all features, where some of the other popular platform restrict their features for the basic plans.
To summarize these contest platforms, I feel that Gleam is the most innovative platform to try, and you can expect to spend perhaps $90 for a pro plan for a 2 months campaign. The major spend for podcast launch campaigns comes from Facebook ads anyhow, I would expect to spend between $20-$50 a day for the duration of the campaign. Be sure to check out Episode 3 of our podcast on Paid Podcast Advertising – A Look Behind The Scenes [S1E03]
Free Contest Platform Options
If you want to run your podcast launch contest with absolutely no additional expense, here are some ways to do it as well as some things to keep in mind:
To save money on prizes, you can give away content and prizes that don't cost you anything, like courseware, or eBooks or other premium content you have previously developed
You can use your own email list software like Mailchimp or Constant contact or even free Gmail automation tools like YAMM (we covered YAMM for Podcast Guesting Outreach in episode XX of our podcast)
You will need to develop your own landing pages on your podcast or blogging site.
Rely on your social network for free promotion and awareness of your contest, with a big enough following you can save on promoting your contest with paid ads
You can use tools like GoViral – a free platform from Growth Tools which ensures and validates social sharing. It is great to use as an add-on for thank you pages.
Try out GiveawayTools – a new contest design platform that's currently still in beta, but is free and integrates with several social platforms.
So it can theoretically be done for free, but it will require a large investment of time on your part.
My own view is that a zero cost and DIY approach is not likely to succeed
And the question you should ask yourself is about the relationship between time spent and likely effectiveness of the contest campaign you are setting up.
Need a guide to help with your own contest launch?
I've just published a resource for folks wanting to set up their own contest. This is published in "Open PDF" format, meaning the entire guide is provided on-line with no sign-up required, but you can download it guide as an option if you want.
Podcast Marketing with Launch Contests
I also offer some ways to collaborate around setting up your own launch contest, from low cost "DIY" sanity checks all the way to "Done for you" contest setup and management.
Conclusion
Apart from getting iTunes reviews, a podcast marketing contest with the right prizes and incentives can quickly add a ton of visibility and email subscribers to your podcast.
While it may not reliably get you into the "New and Noteworthy" section of the iTunes podcast directory any more, having some great reviews still lends social proof and credibility to your podcast. And email subscribers to your show are a permanent asset.
If you decide to run a podcast marketing contest, I recommend using a paid contest platform, as this will save you a ton of time and effort.
https://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/006-Podcast-Launch-Contests_10602ba21dc40356c532a06ae5c18c5d_2000.jpg10801920Juergen Berkesselhttps://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Polymash-Logo-2019-680px-Web2.pngJuergen Berkessel2018-11-20 09:02:052021-04-26 18:05:50Podcast Marketing With Social Contests
Podcast guests are key in helping promote an interview style podcast
One of the best things about having an interview style podcast is that you get to know and collaborate with some really cool people. And if you're lucky, your podcast guest will help you to promote "their" episode and your podcast.
If you're even more fortunate, your guests are well connected and have a large social media following – resulting in more people being aware of your podcast and subscribing along the way.
Don't Fall Into The Expectation Trap
You might expect that your podcast guest will help you promote "their" podcast episode.
But make sure this is not an unspoken assumption on your part.
After having launched over a dozen shows, I’ve found that getting your podcast guest to share episode links with their own social networks can be like pulling teeth. It's a bit like asking for reviews, people seem happy to do offer them in principle, but then it rarely happens without gentle reminders. Repeat reminders.
And depending on your own personality type, asking explicitly may not be in your nature. Repeatedly.
Add to this the fact that the more connected and “famous” your guest is, the less likely they are to do this without being prompted.
Getting a podcast guest to want to help co-promote breaks down into 2 parts:
Designing a pleasurable experience of being on your show
Making it super easy to help promote your podcast
So here are some tips to make this easy on yourself, and even easier for your guest.
Part 1: Designing the Podcast Guest Experience
Podcast guest experiences are a matter of design
You want your guests to be excited to be on your show. For guests that have never been on a podcast before, this may require some gentle education about the mutual benefits of being on your podcast. The goal is to foster a sense of excitement, collaboration, co-ownership and reciprocity.
In fact we have found that once guests truly understand all of the benefits of "guesting" on your podcast, they are much more likely to chip in and promote the episode when it goes live.
Explain How You Will Present Your Guest In A Good Light
We have an on-boarding sequence when we book podcast guests on our shows. During this process we reiterate that the process is designed for us to be able to promote the guest, highlight their background, links to their website, current initiatives and so on.
During this phase, we ask them to fill out an on-boarding form. They are to provide social media links, books they are promoting, short bios, profile pictures etc. This is so that we can create a great looking guest section with pictures and links to their work.
In other words, we want to create great looking episode show notes that our guests would be proud to share and to help cross promote. Essentially, we're doing this on THEIR behalf.
Making the Sign Up Process Easy
Still, people are busy, and they hate to fill out forms. Especially if they seem complicated. So here are some design aspects to help make this process easy:
Do not use a super long intimidating looking forms with lots of fields to fill out
Instead, break fields into manageable small sections with fewer fields
If you are on WordPress, use a forms tool that supports a "wizard" like interface, which breaks the sign up process into smaller steps or pages
Display a progress bar on the sign up form
Extra credit for forms that can be "saved" in the middle of filling out a form
Here are some WordPress tools that support multi-step forms
Typeform – not exactly multi step, but their designs provides a similar UX
You want your interview to go smoothly, and making sure there are no last minute technical difficulties is important. Look at it from your guests point of view: They may not be used to Skype. They may not have headphones, earbuds or microphones. They may not know how to connect these or configure Skype in the right way.
We produce some podcasts where our guests are an older demographic or simply "tech averse". Or we get people who cannot use Skype because they are behind a corporate firewall, and we therefore need to offer alternative recording platforms like "Ringrr".
In any case, the last thing you want is to discover these things the last minute before starting to record, which usually results in a flustered guest.
2 tips for eliminating technical issues
Send a "technical setup" email as part of your guest onboarding sequence.
Arrange for a brief test call a day or so before the actual interview to iron out any issues. Some podcasters have a brief 10 minute "test" conversation with their guests right before the interview starts, and this is OK as long as you are confident that your guests have the equipment and experience to handle that.
Prep Your Guests On What To Expect
Being comfortable doesn't just depend on technical issues. Guests appreciate having sense of the flow of the conversation.
A lot of podcasts follow a set interview structure, with predictable segments and questions that the guest will be asked. Take John Lee Dumas' "Entrepreneur on Fire" podcast. He has an episode format with certain questions that each podcast guest can easily prepare for ahead of time.
Open ended conversation with surprise questions may be more unsettling for your guests. But this may make for a much more interesting listening experience for your audience, and result in more surprising and compelling podcasting.
In the end you may have to balance your guests comfort with your listening audience's expectations for compelling conversations.
Tips for balancing guest vs listener experience:
Approach it from a hybrid perspective. Feature open conversation segments, but also have several prepared questions for your guest to fall back on.
Ask your guest to listen to one or more representative podcast episode so they know what to expect.
Send your typical episode structure outline to your guest via email as part of the aforementioned "onboarding sequence". Even if you have mostly unstructured conversations, sending a "guest cheat sheet" ahead of time is a good idea.
Part 2: Getting Your Guests To Co-Promote Their Episode
Make sure your podcast guests know you would like them to share your episode
Make Your Expectations Clear From The Beginning
In our guest on-boarding sequence we already make it clear that we expect podcast guests to share the episode on their social networks, in a nice way. And we tell each guest that when the show goes live, they will receive ready made shareable links and notifications.
Automate The Process
Scripts and templates are designed to make your process easier.
A great tool for this on Mac is an application called Text Expander. This is where you can store pre-written emails. When you are ready to send the email, a popup will prompt you to simply fill in the blanks with the needed information. In this case that would be the name of the guest, name of episode, episode URL, etc.
Which emails are part of our typical on-boarding sequence?
"Thank You Note", sent right after filling out our podcast guest application. This is a short simple email. We don't want to overwhelm with too much information at this point. But we do include a Calendly or YouCanBook.me link to schedule a test call and get this on the calendar.
"What To Expect" email, sent an hour after filling out our podcast guest application. This includes our podcast "one sheet" PDF with typical episodes, show structure, about pages and other useful links. It also contains guides for technical setup, wearing earbuds, Skype etc. We ask guests to ask questions at this point.
"Reminder Email", sent 2 days before recording. By this time you as the host might have formulated some guest specific questions in addition to the normal episode structure. Also this is discussed on the pre-call.
One of the easiest ways to get people to share is to send them an email containing instructions on how to share your show notes post on your website. They will want to check out the show notes pages anyhow, and in many casts that is true.
The problem with that is that you are asking your podcast guest to take the time to visit your website, check out your show notes page and then use social share buttons to share. And in this scenario they have to come up with some clever text to share. This is not exactly distraction free, as they might start reading your show notes, listening to parts of the interview. Next thing you know they have forgotten to share, and OMG, look at the time.
Usually our guests are extremely busy people, what if there is a better way?
Well, there is. By all means, first send your guests to the show notes page to check it all out and to see what a quality job you did.
But then send them ready-made share links in one or more separate follow up emails. A big benefit benefit of this strategy is that you want your guests to share your show notes page. NOT the iTunes link. Not the episode on Stitcher or SoundCloud or Spotify.
Social share traffic needs to go to your website, not iTunes.
There are some really awesome services out there that let you prepare ready-made tweets and Facebook shares. They are easy to use, and you can prepare several social shares for your guest to click on and use. These can simply be sent via email. Your guest does not even have to visit the show notes page to use these:
The idea is to send your podcast guest a separate email with a range of pre-made tweets and social shares.
Click To Tweet – is a twitter specific service that generates tweets. Click here for another example of a ready-made tweet to our "The Podcast Growth Show" homepage.
A Simple Sharing Text Example
Use something like the below for Facebook/LinkedIn and/or Google+
“I was just on the [NAME OF PODCAST] with [YOUR NAME] and talked about [WHAT YOU TALKED ABOUT]. If you’re [REASON WHY SOMEONE MIGHT BE INTERESTED], listen here: [PASTE THE LINK FROM STEP #1)
Use something similar for Twitter and include a service like ClickToTweet:
“I was just interviewed by [YOUR TWITTER HANDLE] and talked about [WHAT YOU TALKED ABOUT]. Listen here: [INSERT SHORTENED LINK FROM STEP #1]”
But be creative, and don't just send one single share. Send a range to choose from. Outline the text for each share and then paste the share link next to the share text in the email
Share The Success And The Once Is Not Enough Rule
You may think that after the initial share of your live episode you should not repeatedly ask your guest to help promote. I get that.
But your podcast guest will love to hear about how popular their episode was. So here are some good ways to stay in touch and to send additional shareable links without being a nuisance:
Let them know how well received the episode was, and place some additional shareables at the bottom of that email.
Even months after the interview, you can reach out to let your guests know that you are getting great feedback. Again, place some share links into that email.
Conclusion
Involving your podcast guest in the promotion of their episode and your podcast overall is a critical element in building a community around your show. I can summarize the important bits like this:
Educate your guests on the benefits of appearing on your podcast
Set an expectation that this is a collaboration that can succeed only with their help, beyond just showing up for an interview
Make it as easy as possible to be on your show
Make it as easy as possible for your guests to share your episodes
https://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/004---Episode-Images-GuestExperience_f78f064803c17bbcc4c1bf7de3b7e0bb_2000.png4361200Juergen Berkesselhttps://polymash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Polymash-Logo-2019-680px-Web2.pngJuergen Berkessel2018-11-06 08:32:062021-04-26 18:05:51How To Get Your Podcast Guest To Promote Your Podcast
