118. Podcasting Promotion Mistakes That Are Slowing Your Growth (And How to Fix Them!)

Wondering why your amazing episodes aren’t translating into more downloads and engagement? In this episode, you'll learn what five of the most common podcast promotion mistakes are, why they're slowing your podcasting growth, and how to fix them. 

Check out the Podcast Growth Collective: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/collective

This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Take the quiz to find out what you need to focus on for podcast growth: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/quiz

Transcript

Hey. Hey. And welcome back. This is your podcast teacher, Julia Levine, and you're listening to Podcasting for Solopreneurs. The show that helps online business owners grow their podcast to get more listeners, leads, and sales. Today, we're talking about five common podcast promotion mistakes. If you're putting out amazing episodes, but your downloads are not growing, and when you promote your episodes, it feels like you're shouting into the void. No one is paying attention.

This episode is for you. You'll learn what these common mistakes are, why they are slowing your growth, and what to do instead. And before we dive in, let me just say that I have personally made every single one of these mistakes at some point in time, so please don't feel bad if I'm calling you out with one of these. I have been there, and awareness is the first step toward improvement. Okay, let's kick things off with mistake number one and that is posting that there's a new episode out and calling it quote, unquote marketing. This looks like going on to Facebook or Instagram and posting a picture of your podcast cover art or even an episode specific graphic if you're fancy. And the caption says something like, episode 25 is out now. Go listen.

You are then bummed when the post doesn't get likes or comments, and that episode's download numbers certainly have not gone up. But everyone says that you need to promote it on social media, so what is going on? You probably feel like you checked the promote the episode on social media box, and I do give you credit for creating awareness. Depending on your audience, this strategy might work or it is a good backup plan for those weeks when you're stretched. So thin that you don't have an ounce of extra brainpower to spare. I have been there, my fellow solopreneurs. But if you want to level up and actually drive traffic to your podcast from your social media accounts, you need to give people a reason to care. So the graphics are fine, but the caption is where we really wanna put some effort in. No one is stopping mid scroll to go listen to a podcast just because they saw a caption that says new episode is out.

People need a reason to care, a reason to click, a reason to give you their time and attention. So instead of just announcing the episode, tease it. Help them see what's in it for them and why it's worth their time. Think about what from that episode would stop someone's scroll. What would make them say, oh, I need to hear this. That is what should be in your social content. This shifts it from being about you and asking them to come listen to your podcast into it being about them and the benefit that they will receive. Okay.

Mistake number two is skipping search engine optimization. If you are not optimizing your episode titles for search, you are making it harder for people to find your content. And leaning into SEO is working smarter, not harder, which you know is my favorite thing. When your SEO is dialed in, your podcast is essentially marketing itself. You do not have to lift a finger. The episode title field is one of the most heavily weighted by the search algorithm. So you should carefully craft your episode titles to ensure the words your audience types into the search bar are included. Podcast SEO is a different beast than Google SEO, and I break down all of the secrets inside the first foundational module of the Podcast Growth Collective.

Head to the podcastteacher.com/collective to get access to it. Okay. Mistake number three is not taking advantage of the seventy two hour window after your episode goes live. If you're promoting your episode three, five, or seven days after the episode goes live, I am definitely happy that you are promoting it period, but you will get a better return on investment if you concentrate your promotions within the first seventy two hours. Podcast apps like Apple and Spotify are somewhat similar to social media in that when your new episode gets a bunch of downloads and listens early on, the app is more likely to show it to more people to rank it higher in the search results. So that new status only lasts about seventy two hours. So that's a key window to get as much activity as possible. The more buzz and activity that you can generate in those first few days, the better your chances are of showing up in the search results and getting discovered.

So concentrate on your promotion during those first seventy two hours to make the most impact. Alright. Moving on to mistake number four, which is not promoting your old episodes. Podcast content does not get squashed by the algorithm after twenty four or even seventy two hours. It is still there and it's still discoverable. You can get a lot of downloads weeks, months, and even years after its release if you have your SEO dialed in. But as I mentioned a moment ago, that golden window of newness only lasts for about seventy two hours and then the algorithm is not helping you as much. You can still drive that traffic to the episode yourself though.

You can do a throwback Thursday type of post and talk about an old episode. Just make sure to give them a reason to listen as I described when talking about mistake number one. And if you hang out in communities online, Facebook groups, or you are following hashtags about your topic, and someone asks a question that you cover within an episode, jump into the comments and say something like, oh, I talk about this in episode 84 of my podcast called Podcasting for Solopreneurs. Not only is the person who asked the question likely to tune in because you told them you have the answer, but so are others who have the same question or are interested in the same topic, and they might just be lurking and reading instead of posting. Of course, you want to be mindful of any group rules about sharing resources or self promotion, but many times admins are okay with this since it is sharing a resource to help a fellow member. There's no ask for personal information like an email address, and you don't need to share a link in order for someone to find the episode. Just tell them the name of your podcast. I have gotten a lot of traffic to old episodes by using this method, so I highly recommend it.

Alright, and mistake number five is not repurposing your podcast content. You are sitting on so much amazing content and chances are that you are probably under using it. One podcast episode can turn into a blog post, an email newsletter to your list, several different Facebook posts or Instagram posts, stories, short form videos for, of course, Instagram, TikTok, and or YouTube shorts. You can also turn it into a long form YouTube video, a Pinterest pin, a LinkedIn post, and probably more things too. And that's all just from one single episode. Repurposing content is about reaching new audiences and reinforcing your message. You can post engaging content that drives people to the actual episode for more or for the full story, or you can let that repurposed content just stand on its own. I know that kind of goes against what I am saying about the value of podcasting, but at the end of the day, you want people to connect with you and your business.

And if that happens through Instagram posts that you created from your podcast content, even if they've never actually listened to your podcast, that's okay with me because it is still accomplishing the goal. AI is making it easier and easier to repurpose content these days. So put effort into crafting your podcast episode content, and then squeeze it and reshape it to create content for other platforms as well. Again, we wanna work smarter, not harder. So there you have it. Those are the five common podcast promotion mistakes. If you have been making any of them, no worries, I have been there. Just pick one to focus on correcting and move forward.

The important thing is that now you know what to work on. And, if you're ready for more in-depth marketing strategies that actually work, I invite you to join us inside The Podcast Growth Collective. You can learn more at the podcastteacher.com/collective. Until next time, happy podcasting.