This month's consultant: Dan Page
Dan is founder and CEO of Podspike and has made it his mission to give podcasters access to easy, affordable and effective marketing services.
Matt Jerr, host of You Are Not Alone, asks:
Where is the best place to spend my time marketing my podcast? Is it social media? Should I be creating video content?
Dan says:
Hi Matt, this a great question – and one that I could write many articles on but, for now, I’ll try to keep it simple.
The short answer is: spend your time wherever your target audience hangs out.
The slightly longer answer is: spend time figuring out the Who, Where, What and Why.
- Who is your target audience?
- Where can you find them online?
- What are they interested in?
- Why might they want to listen to your podcast?
Who
Is your audience mainly older men or younger women? Parents or those without kids? People just starting their career or those about to retire? Think about the kind of person who might want to listen to your show (often they’re a similar person to the host!). Stats from your podcast platform might help you with this – for instance, looking at the time of day people listen can give you clues about who they might be. Mornings can mean commuters, evenings can mean parents, and daytime those who spend more time at home.
Where
Once you’ve got a rough idea of your audience, the next step is to work out how they tend to spend their time online. Are they Reddit fans, do they love commenting in Facebook groups or are they happiest watching YouTube? Again, without hard and fast data this can be tricky to pin down for certain, but the simplest thing to do can be to take a look for yourself. Facebook forums tend to skew towards a 30s-50s demographic with niche interests, while Instagram and TikTok skew younger and focus more on memes and trends.
What
Once you’ve understood where you can find your audience, the next step is to consider what interests them in the context of your show. So if your target audience is younger male commuters, consider what might be important to them when it comes to podcast listening. Is it to be entertained? To be informed? To learn a new skill? Perhaps it’s companionship or knowing there are others out there in the same situation. Figuring out this part can be the most tricky – but also the most rewarding.
Why
So you now have an idea of who your target audience is, where they hang out and what’s important to them. The final piece of the puzzle is to offer this audience something they value – a reason why they should listen. The golden rule here is that, rather than jump straight in with a ‘listen to my podcast’, instead offer something else they might value: tips and tricks, links to articles, jokes, insights, a sense of belonging, a shared story – whatever feels right in context. Then, when they start engaging with this content, it gives you an opportunity to introduce your podcast as something that offers them even more of what they care about.
