Every podcaster wants a successful show. However, there are some basic things every podcaster should do that not everyone is doing! Tom Hazzard is here to tell you the three fundamental tips on improving and promoting your show. Doing these three things will help you boost your show and increase your engagement on your site. Stay tuned to learn more about how to make the most of your content and resources and feed your brand!

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Three Powerful Things Every Podcaster Should Do For A Successful Show

In this episode, I want to share with you all a few things that come back and bother me from time to time. I want to talk about three things that every podcaster should be doing in order to get more out of your podcast but in reality, it’s to get almost to me the minimum out of your podcasts, the things that you should be getting. All too often, I do not see enough podcasters doing this. Two of them are, I would consider, to be baseline necessities. Everybody should be doing it and too many of you are not.

The third is something the majority of podcasters should be doing. Maybe not everybody and maybe not if your show is brand new. If your show is at least twelve episodes in or more and maybe twenty at the most then this is something you should be doing too. I want to go over these three things. I hope everybody is ready because I’m going to be going through these. Hopefully, you’ll be able to determine if you’re doing them or not. If you want to in the future going forward, hopefully, you do.

Subscribe To Your Own Show

Here we go, the three things that every podcaster should be doing to be getting the most out of their podcast. Number one, subscribe to your own show. I’m shocked how many podcasters I talk to that are not subscribing to their own show. I know you don’t want to listen maybe to your show. You recorded it the first time. You were there live when you did it. You don’t need to listen to it when it comes out. However, please subscribe to your own show because I all too often hear from podcasters they get surprised by something either in their episode that’s published or they hear from a listener or the guests they had and something surprises them about their show.

This is days or even weeks after it was published and they didn’t have an awareness of it. That’s because they’re not subscribed to their own darn show. It’s very silly to me that you, as the podcast host, might not be subscribed to your own show. Please subscribe to your own show because you’re going to be hopefully then one of the first to see if anything wasn’t quite right about the publication of that show, especially on the Apple Podcasts app, all the iTunes, Apple-related apps, desktop or mobile because the Apple app is confusing. There are a lot of different things going on there.

There are so many different designations to podcasts on Apple. You have full normal episodes, bonus episodes, trailer episodes and season trailer episodes. I’ve seen people select the wrong type all the time. They think their episode hasn’t been published when it has because it’s not showing up. If they’re publishing their episodes as seasons then they designate one as a bonus episode. It doesn’t go in as a part of the season in the Apple apps. It goes in under an unknown season and then it doesn’t show up where you want it to or expect to.

You think maybe your episode hasn’t been published or what’s worse, other people looking for and finding your show think you haven’t published an episode in several weeks when you have because they’re looking in the latest season and not in this unknown season area. That’s because maybe the wrong episode was chosen when you published it or you didn’t select or put it into the season that’s your current season. You might have forgotten to do that or somebody forgot to do it on your behalf.

Regardless, if you were subscribed to your own show, you would have an awareness of this. You would also know if an episode didn’t publish when it was supposed to because I get an alert on my phone from Apple Podcasts when an episode of my show publishes. You want to be aware of that. There are so many reasons why subscribing to your own show is a good idea, even if you’re never going to listen to any episodes.

Listen to your own audio once in a while. Hear how you sound or how your guest sounds. Maybe you could improve your audio quality or maybe you don't realize something you're doing is particularly annoying or distracting. Click To Tweet

Another thing you may want to do is listen to at least the beginning of an episode or go through it quick on 2, 3 or 4 times speed. Listen to your own audio once in a while. Hear how you sound or how your guest sounds. Maybe you could improve your audio quality or you don’t realize something you’re doing is particularly annoying or distracting. I’m going to do something here that I know is like, “I’m going to move my microphone. I’m touching my mic.” That’s annoying. If it’s happening while you’re talking, there’s little that an editor can do to get rid of that without taking that entire section out.

I do think it’s a good idea to subscribe to your show. Listen to one once in a while. Be aware of how your show listing appears, episode descriptions, any links within there and call-outs information about your show. There are lots of aspects to your show within the app that you need to be aware of. That’s my number one tip for three things every podcaster should be doing. Subscribe to your own show. Just do it.

If you have more than one app, maybe you have Apple Podcasts app, Spotify app or another app there, it’s important to subscribe and see how your show looks on a couple of different platforms too because Apple is very unique and has a lot more functions the others don’t. Things don’t always appear the same way on every app. Subscribe to your own show or have other people you know and trust.

Even if they’re not going to listen to every episode, have them subscribe and check it out once in a while. Do your own homework or checking on your own show and help us help you if you’re working with us. We’re doing our best to publish your stuff the way we understand you want them to be published and appear but if you’ve never looked at how it appears, are you sure how you want it to appear?

Share On Social Media

Number two, I know some of you reading may laugh at this because you think, “Of course, I do that.” You may be a hyper-aware marketer of your own show but I’m shocked how many people don’t do this. Every single episode, you should be sharing your show on social media. That is a big reason why we create a blog post for every episode because you can post the link to that blog post on social. It will populate the header image. It looks cool.

When people click, it takes them off social media to your website to the blog post. You’re on a social platform, one of the most popular and trafficked places on the internet and you send people from there to your website. That’s good in terms of traffic and getting people to get off that app and into your turf but you’ve got to share it on social and you’ve got lots of things to share. Everybody should have these things. If you’re working with us, you definitely have these things.

You should at least have an episode graphic that’s unique for every episode. You could post that on social, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or whatever. You can put a link to the blog post in the comments. If you’re doing that type of post, you have the blog post link you can post. You usually have quotes. We’re usually highlighting 3 or 4 unique quotes for every episode. You could have that quote be on a solid color, bold quotes, a card type thing and again post the link back to the blog post on your episode.

 

You might have audiograms. That’s something that we do as an optional. It’s an à la carte added thing but if you have an audiogram, post that on social because that builds anticipation. It’s usually highlighting a great quote from the episode. It’s a cool soundbite. It has captions and the waveform that’s responding to your voice. That gets people’s attention if they don’t have their sound on so they’ll click and turn the sound on and listen. You’re going to post a link again back to the blog post for your episode in the comments right below and push that out.

All these quotes that we do are also easy to tweet out. If you have a WordPress site and we’ve put those quotes in your site for you, we’re using a tool called Click To Tweet, where you can go in and click into these quotes at maybe one on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or whenever you want. It will open up your Twitter account and share the blog post URL but the tweet is that quote. It will link back to your site automatically.

Everybody should be doing that if you’re working with us and you have a WordPress site. If you don’t have a WordPress site, that tool is not available for you but you can still take quotes, you can tweet about them and post the link to the blog post. You can do it manually. There’s not a tool that makes it automatic for you.

If you’re recording video, which is about 35% or 40% of our clients are recording and distributing video. If you’re doing that, we’re usually also creating a short video clip of the episode. That’s something you should all be posting as well, especially on platforms that are hypervideo-focused. An audiogram is also a video so that works too. If you have actual video footage, take a clip, post it on social and link back to the blog post on your website.

I also want to point out, are you noticing a common theme here in a lot of these social posts? I keep saying, “You can post this and that. You have all these different materials that we create for you.” Every one of them, though, I keep saying, “Link back to the blog post on your website.” Why do I say that? I keep saying that because if you leave people on that app, you’re helping that app. You don’t know who your listeners are.

If you want to engage with them, you want to potentially lead-generate from them, provide them any additional value, you got to get them off that app and have them identify who they are. How are you going to do that? Your website is the key component of that. That’s what you have to do. Use your website as a way for people to go and get added value but also give you their information, opt-in and let them know who you are so you can communicate with them. Getting them off that app onto your website is supercritical.

That’s why I keep saying, “Every one of these different social posts that you should all be doing for every episode.” With normal production, there are at least 6 or 7 different elements, materials or assets you can post on social media that we create. If you’re doing video, there’s even more. We have additional social media assets we create that are these à la carte add-ons. That’s where you get audiograms, maybe additional video clips and things like that.

Use your website as a way for people to go and get added value, but also give you their information, opt-in, and let them know who you are so you can communicate with them. Click To Tweet

You can opt-in and incrementally pay a little more and get some of those things. You have even a lot more. You should have enough material to post something about your episode every day of the week. In some cases, you’ll have multiple things. Over the course of each day, you could do 2 or 3 posts a day. Even if you’re doing only one episode a week, there are lots of opportunities you have to post on social.

I get a lot of people coming to me, even somebody that I participate in their podcast on a regular basis but it’s not my podcast. It’s not my job to promote it. This is great content and I’m thinking, “There should be tons of people listening to this.” There are 150 listening to every episode. I’m like, “Why are there not 10,000 listening to every episode? There should be.” Lack of awareness is the biggest issue I see. You’re going to raise awareness by posting on social using all these elements and tools that we’re creating and providing for you.

There’s no reason you shouldn’t be getting lots of awareness and attention, increasing your reach for you personally and your show brand. Utilize all of the materials you’ve got for every episode and post on social. I would also add to that. Create some posts that invite people that are seeing the post to communicate back with you either offering them something of value, asking them a question that you want to survey them for or inviting them to ask a question you might answer on a future episode.

There are so many different ways to foster listener engagement. Make those people feel like they’re a part of the show or they’re contributing, participating or supporting you by listening to so many different options. There’s not enough that you’re posting on social enough. You’re not getting enough out of every episode. Post on social.

Tracy does a masterclass on social media posting periodically. Usually, it renews every year. It’s probably getting to be time to do an update on that. I’ll talk to her about that and we may do a whole session just on that. There is enough fundamental baseline stuff you can be doing. It’s not rocket science. It’s putting yourself out there. I focus on two different social media platforms. Some people are hyper-involved in multiple doing 4 or 5.

Pick 1 or 2 at minimum that are the ones that you think are going to benefit you the most. Maybe it’s LinkedIn and Facebook or maybe it’s LinkedIn and Twitter. Maybe an Instagram if you’re more visual or your audience is more visual. Pick 1 or 2 and start there. You can always add incrementally once you get that into a groove but systematize it, plan it out and do something every day. It doesn’t take that much time. It doesn’t even take five minutes a day if you sit down and do it. Put it on your calendar and do it.

Promote Your Own Stuff

Number three thing that certainly every podcaster who has hosted on Podetize should do and it’s not that I don’t think others should. If you’re not hosting on Podetize, I think you should but your hosting provider may not be capable of this because most are certainly not to the level that we are at Podetize because we’ve created our own software for doing this. If your show is older than 12 to 25 episodes, if your show is at least that mature, you are in business in some way, shape or form.

 

Most of our customers, all these podcasters behind me, the vast majority of them are in business in some way. They’re podcasting to serve and provide value for free but they also intend to support that community and either market and sell to that community or lead-generate from it. You’re in business in some way. You’re not just doing this for your health or as a passion project.

If that’s the case, you should be putting audio ads or call them promotions or whatever you want for your own stuff into your episodes. If you’re not doing that, you’re missing an opportunity. You’re providing great value for your listeners and that’s admirable and a great thing that you’re doing but if they’re coming back listening to every episode, they like and trust you.

If what you talk about is in alignment with what you do for business, when you make any kind of an offer to them, promotion of some service or maybe it’s buying your book or getting people to sign up for a virtual event you’re going to be speaking at, whatever it may be, there’s probably something that you could lead-generate from this audience for that will benefit them and you. Are you letting them know in every episode? That doesn’t mean you have to have the exact same promotion in every episode. You can record three.

Tracy and I did this. We have a special series in our 3D Printing Podcast and I know that’s a geeky thing. The 3D Printing Podcast has been around since 2015. We got HP to sponsor a 25-episode series. As part of that, we’ve recorded twelve different ads because we’ve got maybe close to 600 episodes in that entire series. Even though there are 25 series that HP sponsored that’s new, we’re putting their ads into all the episodes. We get tens of thousands of plays every month across all of them.

Whoever is listening to those, it’s new to them now even though it’s an old episode but they’re going to get a current relevant ad or promotion. If you’re hosting on Podetize and you’re in business and you have something to offer people, you should be putting audio promos into your episodes. You can change them at any time. You can try it out if they don’t work or they’re not resonating. Switching it is easy. Upload a new one, push a button and it swaps it out. The next time anybody downloads or listens to an episode, it will have that new promo in it.

This is low-hanging fruit for offering your audience something of value that also has value to you and helps you monetize your show. This is the fastest way to monetize any show. There are shows out there that are getting 250,000 plays a month and more but they’re the minority of shows. I don’t care if you have that many plays or if you don’t even have 10,000 plays.

I would rather you have 1,000 raving fans coming back to listen to every episode because they’re probably hyper-focused on your niche. Out of that 1,000 people, you probably with a call-to-action could easily get 250 to 300 to respond to a call-to-action that’s in an episode because if they’re listening to you, they like you already. They trust you.

 

This is something that I don’t see enough podcasters are taking advantage of. There’s a little incremental cost in hosting over the basic level of hosting to be able to do this but you have complete control. You can use this the way you want. You can A/B test. You can do a certain promo that is on one thing, another promo that is on another and see which ones resonate or maybe the way you talk about it. Is it in your voice or somebody else’s voice?

There are many things. You can split-test, run all these, see which ones resonate and get a lot more out of it. That’s the third thing and that’s what I wanted to share. This has been bugging me. I keep talking to people that are trying to get more out of their podcast but they’re not subscribed to their own show. They’re not aware of how their show appears to others whether it’s in the app, looking at it or listening to it. I’m not saying you have to listen to every episode but once in a while, you should do it.

Subscribe to your own show. Promoting your own stuff on social media is number two. If you’ve got all this material, do it. No one else is going to do it for you. You got to raise awareness and promote on social. Three, use the ad system if you’re on Podetize and promote your own stuff. You got to market it. That’s what I wanted to share. I hope you have found that helpful. I will be back next episode with hopefully another exciting subject. It’s something I may be fired up about again to try to help you get more into your show. Until then, this has been Tom on the show.

Important Links:

• Click To Tweet
• Masterclass – Tracy’s Social Media Master Class
• 3D Printing Podcast
• HP

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