5 Strategies to Extend the Reach of Your Podcast to More Audiences

According to Podcast Insights, 17% of the U.S. population listens to podcasts weekly, while 26% tunes in at least once a month. That’s roughly 73 million podcast listeners in the country alone. Getting close to that number takes a long time, more so if you're only starting out. It's a good thing that there are now foolproof methods and strategies that can definitely help you build a wider audience than what you have today.

Here are 5 strategies to extend the reach of your podcast:

1. Improve Content Quality.

Thrive to better your content every time you release an episode. This one is standard, it is one of the basics of podcasting. People subscribe to podcasts offering excellent content that people can’t get anywhere else - be it news, entertainment, or educational. Make your podcast worth listening to, to grow your listener base and retain your current subscribers.

Another important note is to make sure you put out consistent content and build your podcast on only one area. It is critical to risk jumping from one area to another, as this brings confusion to listeners.

2. Involve Influencers and other Figures.

Invite social media influencers, public figures, or other podcasters to have guest appearances on some of your episodes and vice versa. By doing this, you'll be able to:

- open new marketing opportunities,

- expose yourself to other people’s audiences, and eventually

- gain a substantial number of new subscribers.

3. Promote your Podcast on Social Media.

Since podcasts are held on the internet, there is a high possibility that the majority of listeners are social media users too. This makes it a great promotional tool for your podcast. Creating content for social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter boosts web-visibility. Instagram is also invaluable in social media marketing as brand posts are received exceptionally well by its users. In fact, 65% of Instagram posts are actually branded or promotional ads.

4. Re-purpose Content.

Developing content is an essential yet time-consuming task if you wish to establish your podcast’s presence on the web. Re-purpose your existing marketing materials instead to free you some time for strengthening the actual content of your podcast. Quickly convert blog posts into infographics or downloadable PDFs,. You can even create instructional video tutorials, or even a SlideShare that you can easily embed to relevant blog posts. This strategy increases website traffic and at the same time gives your page content variety.

5. Publish Transcripts.

A fantastic way to reach people pressed for time but still wants to get the latest information on a spectrum of topics is by publishing episodic podcast transcripts on your webpage. Not only that, but audio transcriptions can also help your podcast extend its reach to people hard-of-hearing. If you want to store your podcast in an archive, it is highly advisable to compile them in print documents for easy access. This is also beneficial to avoid the hassle of listening back to audio files when searching for a particular information.

Other important reminders

Apart from these five strategies, there are also little yet significant methods you can fo to further grow your podcast audience.

It's also worth it to put yourself out there on social media. Yes, you should promote on social, but it's also important to engage with the people. Interact with audiences or fellow podcasters, join conversations, and more. Not only will this help you connect with your current and potential audience, but it will also help you connect with notable figures and forge relationships.

Related to improving content quality, you should also make sure you have quality tools and equipment. Without these, you won't be able to improve the quality of your podcast in its entirety. A good microphone, headphones, plus other related software can help you create high-quality podcasts. And high-quality podcasts will be favored by many.

You can also track your stats so you can understand your growth and have the chance to analyze where you can improve. Determine benchmarks and set your goals. With this, you'll be able to track your growth and check if your efforts are in fact paying off.

Last but not the least, you can also keep on educating yourself about all things podcasting. Read up on news about podcasting, learn more about the industry or your specific niche, look for studies or articles on the Internet, and more. The more you learn about being a podcast host and about podcasts, the more you can work on improving and growing your audience.

Make the most out of your current marketing materials and identify other potential tools that will gain you recognition and extend the reach of your podcast.

If you’re looking into it - with TranscriptionWing, you don’t even have to worry about the transcription service cost as we offer inexpensive but great quality podcast transcriptions complete with state of the art features (like ListenLink) and flexible turnaround times.