You can powerfully market your podcast with a limited budget. There are many unconventional techniques that yield positive results for advancing your podcast. Below are three specific efforts you can take when you are talking face-to-face with someone about your show or are hoping to connect with any individual.
- Consider an Elevator Speech Sandwich rather than just an Elevator Speech. An Elevator SpeechSandwich is where you share a one sentence intro about yourself and your show and then immediately ask the person you are speaking to about themselves. Then, when they conclude, encourage them to listen to one of your episodes that connects to something they said. Using this technique you have the opportunity to share your information first and also get the opportunity to have the last word, which is often the most remembered.
- Keep an assortment of podcast business cards on you at all times. This is for two reasons. First, with the business cards always available you can share them when appropriate. Second, when you have business cards on you, it puts you in the mindset of looking for marketing opportunities. Even if you are just pinning cards on community bulletin boards or dropping your cards in ‘Free Lunch’ fish bowls these kinds of marketing efforts will be rewarded.
- When recording your podcast intros and calls to action, write to address your listeners individually. Use “You” all the time and not “Dear Listener” or even “if each of you would…” Just use “You,” your audience will feel like you are talking to them specifically.
Below are three efforts you can take when you are marketing to groups of people.
- Use targeted Facebook Ads. When you have a specific episode or podcast that you want to promote, consider using Facebook Ads when you can target the ad almost individually. For example if you have a podcast episode about Magic the Gathering, you can spend $5-$10 dollars and target younger people in your state. You will notice higher downloads for the episodes, which should garner more subscriptions for your show. Smaller targeted ad buys that yield subscribers are arguably worth it.
- Create a 30-second and 60-second promo that you can share at a moments notice. Make the 30-second promo heavy on your personality and the 60-second promo twice as heavy on
your personality. More people will check out your show if they hear the promo and connect with your personality vs. the number of people who will check out your show because they are interested in your topic.
- Finally, get a booth or attend any public event you can. The best example of this would be a convention or bizarre. And when you do this, have a microphone easily available for guests. Foot traffic and engaging conversations at events might be what makes your show statistics explode!
Marketing is just one part of having a successful podcast, above are some marketing suggestions. Have you been holding back from starting your podcast because of other questions you have? Do not let podcast hosting be a barrier to your podcasting success, consider Blubrry as your Podcast Host. Also, do you have any no- or low-cost marketing ideas that have served you well? Please enter your best tips in the comments below.