Welcome Episode: About This Podcast Video Series

Last Updated on March 29, 2021 If you’re thinking about launching a show, but you’re intimidated by the idea of marketing it, I feel you. And if you already have a podcast, but not happy with how many subscribers you have, you’re not alone. This podcast video series is here to help, and to provide you with ideas and resources.

Episode Audio: About This Podcast Video Series

How the iTunes Podcast Charts Are Gamed

Add to that the increasing role of Chinese click farms, which have an outsized impact on the top 200 of iTunes. Then it means that the charts are gameable, hackable, and many people are doing just that. There’s a YouTube video I’d love for you to watch in the show notes, by a guy named Lime Link. He uploaded it and did a deep-dive analysis of almost proving how Chinese click farms are influencing the iTunes charts.

So careful, you might get depressed, or worse, be tempted to do the same for your podcast. Don’t do that. This podcast is here to help, and don’t go for any black hat techniques, because iTunes is in a major cleanup mode, and a lot of podcasts, just this week, have gotten thrown out of the iTunes directory. So, you’re just taking a risk. There are better ways.

Podcast Launches Have Changed

Compounding that is how shows are launched today. Not  aren’t the same as it was a couple of years ago either. The old model of running a contest or a giveaway in exchange for some reviews was what worked to drive podcasts to the top of the iTunes store a few years ago, but now, the algorithms really have changed. The way that the store works, and as I said, it is being hacked, has changed, and has had an overall impact.

New Ways to Market A Show

So, really what I’m saying, as a result of the overall landscape, promoting your podcast now has to come from newer sources. But what exactly are those sources, and how do you promote and market your podcast in 2019 and beyond? That’s what we’re going to talk about in this podcast video series, and give you a lot of resources, and ideas, and actionable tips to do that for your show.

Podcasting As Business Content Strategy

Now, at Polymash, we’re focused on podcasting as a content strategy, so this isn’t business podcasting, but it’s leveraging a podcast for your business. So that’s inbound rather than outbound methodology. It’s not trying to sell something, but trying to provide value for your listeners, and allowing them to discover you, to be attracted by your topic, your content, your stories, or your interviews, and otherwise getting to know, like, and trust you, because you’re there providing value in the form of content, knowledge, and attainment. They like to listen to your show. And, the discoverability of your business in search engines, and your authority and reputation in the field kind of goes hand-in-hand with your podcast growth.

An Even Playing Field – Small Players Can Win Big

We’ve launched a lot of shows. We’ve launched shows for large pharmaceuticals, for large nonprofits, but we’ve also launched shows for startups, and authors, and speakers, and solopreneurs, and much smaller businesses, and I found a funny thing.

Podcasting as a content strategy is much more difficult for the large players. There’s just too many departments, too many cooks, too many people who have to approve something. So they don’t do the SEO research, develop better episode titles, voting by committee on an iTunes icon, resulting in something that looks watered down and doesn’t pop in the iTunes store.

Those are all topics that come up in terms of marketing and promoting a show that are more difficult for the larger players, really, so there are some opportunities for independent podcasters to use this to a great advantage and to grow a small business, using this podcasting as a content strategy approach.

About Our Seasons

Now, about this show, the way that I’m structuring it is that we’ll have multiple seasons.

Season 1 – How To Market Your Podcast, Top Strategies, Tactics and Mistakes To Avoid

In season one, we’re covering a kind of very traditional marketing methods, and a number of them. I think these are the basics. These are the things that you definitely want to do for your show, or select the ones that you think are the best fit for your show.
In season two, we’re going to talk about more advanced SEO for podcasters. I’ve written a book about that. There’s also a course about that, and these are some more advanced topics, of how to organically grow your business website, but also your listener base, by virtue of the fact that you’re now getting some traffic for free. Or rather, there’s an ROI to be explored.

Season 2 – The ROI of Marketing A Podcast With SEO

Our typical shows are getting 65% of their traffic from search, and the keywords that they would otherwise have to buy, running into the thousands of dollars a month, so if you do SEO the right way, you can get thousands of dollars of free traffic that you would otherwise have to pay for on Google AdWords. So does that sound interesting? I’m hoping it does.

Season 3 – The Podcast Video Series Interviews

And in season three, we’re going to have some stories and interviews in the field where many of the great podcasts that are out there, we’re going to find out how did they grow their show, what worked for them, and what’s working for them now.
So that sound good? I’m hoping that you stay with us and check out episode one that’s coming up. Our season one opener episode talks about recent changes in podcasting directories, what that means, and how you can tell which ones you definitely must submit to and which ones you can skip. So, find us at the PodcastGrowthShow.com, and see you on the other side for episode one.

Links Mentioned In This Episode

• Video About Chinese Click Farms, and how the iTunes Podcast Charts Are Being Gamed