In honour of Small Business Saturday coming up at the weekend, I wanted to remind you of this great quote from the author and inspirational speaker, Simon Sinek:
“Dream big. Start Small. But most of all, start.”
When you first start making podcasts, it’s all too easy to let perfectionism get in the way. There’s so much that needs to come together. But let’s say you’ve launched your podcast and you’re happy with your content. What’s the next step?
It’s growing your podcast audience.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Always think about new listeners, and make sure they feel welcome.
Imagine you’re in a cafe with a couple of friends. You’re chatting to friend number one about a subject that you both know about. Friend number two is sitting across from you and doesn’t know anything about what you’re talking about. Friend number two is your new podcast listener. Are you using jargon that might need to be explained to them? Do you have any “in jokes” that friend number two isn’t aware of? If you always think about your audience as “friend number two”, then you’re ready to not only welcome new podcast listeners, but keep them coming back for more.
- Appear as a guest on other podcasts.
This is a hugely effective way to let new audiences know about what you’re up to. Have a look at the other podcasts that are out there in your genre and offer to do a guest swap. Podcasting is a friendly and collaborative world, so you’ve got nothing to lose by asking!
- Make some great social media assets and share them with your guests so they can post too.
If you’ve got a guest with a good social media following, make life as easy as possible for them to shout about you! There are so many ways you can do this. Audiograms, Instagram collaborations, pre-written Tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook posts are just a few examples.
- Keep your intro snappy.
There’s nothing worse for a new podcast listener than a rambly intro that keeps them guessing. Tell them what the podcast is about and why they need to listen to the brilliant content you’ve got coming up, as early as you can.
- Keep your content relevant and on point.
This one leads nicely on from the previous point. There are millions of podcasts out there, so your new podcast listener has plenty of other places to go, if they get bored. So don’t shilly shally, get your brilliant content out there and shout about it from the rooftops!!