Guerrilla marketing for podcasts
No podcaster wants to feel it’s just them up there
The other day I was searching for information on something we don’t hear much about any more: independent podcasts. The shows that started podcasting off years before I even launched my own show in 2012. Which in podcasting years is ancient history: pre-’Serial’, pre-big-audiences, pre-celebrity-hosts. Back then I would search online using terms like ‘podcaster’ or ‘podcasting’ and the content that came up was thin. There was very little written on the medium.
How things have changed.
Today there’s an explosion of podcasts and of writing about podcasts, but most of it is focused on what’s now known as the podcast industry, and on well known, well funded shows or networks. So I was happy to come across a 2018 piece from Nieman Lab by former NPR and Audible executive Eric Nuzum. It’s always nice when an audio bigwig confirms what humble moi has always suspected: that regular marketing tactics don’t work for podcasts.
You should read the piece because there’s a lot of good stuff in there. Its focus is podcast networks (and how smaller shows should form networks of their own to help them grow). It deals with the difference between indy shows and the shows released by large networks. I want to write more about that later as it’s a topic close to my heart. But the crux of the article for me was when Nuzum cited Guerrilla Marketing author Jay Conrad Levinson, and started talking about guerrilla marketing for podcasts.
Let’s look at what tactics work at building audience for podcasts. And to answer that, let’s start with what doesn’t work: almost everything.
- Eric Nuzum
He’s right. More on that in the piece. But as I read his description of guerrilla marketing tactics as used for podcasts, I realized I’d been doing this for years. I’m sure others have too - and it works.
Here’s Eric Nuzum again:
Levinson preaches that guerrilla marketing is also understanding that “marketing” includes every contact you have with the outside world. It means that marketing isn’t an event, but an ongoing process of engaging with your audience and potential audience.
YES. One thing I have done since day one of my show is engage with listeners and solicit their feedback. Within the first month of producing The Broad Experience, when I had a tiny presence on social media and the show wasn’t even on iTunes yet, two complete strangers managed to find the first episode, listened, then emailed me to share their feelings about it. They urged me to keep making the show. I got in touch with both of them to thank them and even met one of them for a drink one evening.
Ever since then I have used every listener Facebook message, tweet or email as an opportunity to do market research. I always write back, thank them for writing (even if the feedback is a critique) and ask them something about themselves so I can gather information about who my audience is and what they want.
A lot of people might think of this as a chore and not ‘marketing,’ but it really is. I enjoy communicating, probably wouldn’t have started a podcast if I didn’t, but doing this is also crucial to understanding who’s listening. I often ask them for topic suggestions and many listeners have starred in the podcast. (If you have tens of thousands of listeners and receive a torrent of email clearly this tactic isn’t practical. But if you have a smaller show, it’s doable.)
Lately I’ve taken to posting the occasional video on my show’s Facebook page asking for suggestions or feedback. Again, this has been a great way to find out what people are thinking, and to reiterate that I want to listen to them - that this show is a two-way street. It helps that Facebook’s algorithm will surface video ahead of other content. Pick your social media network and try the same thing.
I haven’t said what perhaps is obvious, that you need to be making something people like for them to want to engage with you in the first place. Also, don’t try to sound like someone else - be yourself, as clichéd as that sounds, and as embarrassing as it can sometimes feel.
Being in touch with listeners, listening to them, replying to their emails, has taught me a lot about them and it’s also helped to build goodwill, which in turn helps the existing audience recommend the show to other people.
Producing and hosting my podcast is just about the most rewarding thing I have ever done professionally, even though it’s never had more than 25,000 listeners for any one episode (not that I’m counting), and usually far less. I attribute its rewards to the satisfaction I get from covering what I want to cover exactly how I want, and the community I’ve built by being in touch with the audience.
Of course my interactions with listeners aren’t the only way the show has built and retained a loyal base. I can write about some of the other stuff later on. Other podcasters will also have much to contribute to the discussion. In fact, I plan to interview some of my fellow indy podcasters about their journeys here on this blog in the coming months.
Stay tuned.