07 Aug Recapping Podcasting 101: Attract Your Audience & Amplify Your Voice
On Tuesday July 22, we wrapped up our four-part ‘Podcasting 101’ series, with the final session focused on attracting your audience and amplifying your voice. Rachel Downey from Share Your Genius led the event series, sharing her insider knowledge on fueling your show’s growth with smart distribution strategies. The company, which also sponsors the podcast and recording studio at Launch Fishers, brought their expertise in shaping content strategies and helping attendees learn to leverage their show’s unique attributes.
The four-part event series, a part of the Learn at Launch programming umbrella at Launch Fishers, provided valuable insights into how to build, grow, and distribute a successful podcast (or really any form of serialized content).
Weren’t able to attend? No worries! Check out the recording on our Launch Fishers YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/zjXncSqacg4
Key Discussions and Timestamps from the Event Recording
🎙️ “It’s Never Just a Podcast” Philosophy & Business Impact (2:00 – 7:00) | Rachel outlined three primary business outcomes for a podcast:
- Build Brand: Establishing authority, credibility, and awareness (longer-term play).
- Drive Demand: Accelerating conversations, leveraging for sales enablement (immediate pipeline focus).
- Grow an Audience: Another longer-term outcome, but advised to start with brand or demand first.
A fourth, unlisted outcome, is leveraging podcasts for recruiting and retention of new talent.
👁️ Getting Clear on Your Point of View (7:00 – 12:40) | Before attracting an audience, it’s crucial to define your show’s purpose and message. Key elements include:
- Your Take/Hot Take: What unique perspective or challenge to industry norms does your show offer? (e.g., video vs. audio in podcasting).
- Credibility: Why should people listen to you? Leverage your experience or even your curiosity as a host.
- Consistency: This trumps everything else, as it builds connection and trust with your audience over time.
🎯 Understanding Your Audience (12:40 – 20:00) | Assuming the audience is already defined, Rachel discussed how to create content that resonates with them:
- How they consume content: Analyze current consumption habits (shorts, long-form, white papers, YouTube streaming vs. audio-only).
- Ask them directly: Conduct informal polls or interviews with your target audience (e.g., the bank with a junior board of advisors).
- Content Clues: “Creep” on your audience to understand what they care about, complain about, or what triggers them.
- Cataloging: Research trending topics and search terms to align with audience interests.
🧠 The Genius Way: A Strategic Framework (20:00 – 29:00) | Rachel introduced her formula: People First, Media-Driven, AI-Enabled. This framework ensures consistent messaging and maximized impact.
- People First: Anchoring on brand story, key messaging/content pillars, defining personas, and selecting the right voice/talent. Emphasizes that the right person on the mic is crucial for brand perception.
- Media-Driven: How one piece of media (the podcast) can be leveraged into multiple content assets (audio, video, web pages, articles, newsletters, clips, social graphics).
- AI-Enabled: Using AI wisely to maintain consistent messaging across channels.
🔊 Activating and Amplifying Content (29:00 – 33:40) | Rachel drove home the importance of getting people to activate and share your content.
- Activators: Hosts, guests, brand voice, internal teams, and ambassadors.
- Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Still the #1 way to grow a podcast; intentionally equipping others to share your content.
📊 Content Distribution Channels (33:40 – 38:00) | Discusses various channels beyond the traditional podcast platforms, emphasizing the need to treat each platform uniquely.
- Native Assets: Create content specifically designed for each platform’s algorithm (e.g., don’t just spread the same content everywhere).
- Prioritize: Focus on doing one channel really well first before scaling to others.
- Show Flow with Distribution in Mind: Design your episode roadmap to pre-identify segments or questions that can be easily repurposed for different channels (e.g., an Instagram Reel from a specific question).
🔗 Deep Dive: LinkedIn (38:00 – 43:00)
- Opportunity: LinkedIn is ripe for opportunity, with less than 2% of users posting more than once a quarter.
- Impact: Builds authority, drives demand by showcasing expertise, strong conversion channel for B2B.
- Content: Talking head clips, point-of-view carousel images (more image-based, less graphic), tagging guests, behind-the-scenes content (authentic, vulnerable).
📺 Deep Dive: YouTube (43:00 – 50:30)
- Purpose: Platform for brand experience, discoverability, and deeper dives (middle-of-funnel content).
- YouTube Shorts: Primary driver for podcast discovery.
- Content: Full-length video (can be MP3 with a graphic), curated standalone clips (e.g., founder point of view vignettes), hooks, captions, keyword-optimized descriptions, and thumbnails.
- Linking Shorts: Manually link YouTube Shorts to the full podcast episode for seamless consumption.
📷 Deep Dive: Instagram (50:30 – 53:30)
- Indexing by Google: Instagram content is now searchable outside the app, emphasizing intentional naming and captions.
- Purpose: Shareability, growing reach through platform tactics.
- Considerations: Don’t use TikTok watermarks on Instagram content, as the algorithm will deprioritize it. Focus on what your audience wants to be found for.
📈 Growing Your Show: Practical Plays (53:30 – 57:20)
- Content Release: Launch with 3 episodes (if possible) for audience sampling and more content. Prioritize sustainability. Equip “ambassadors” with launch kits. Consider a delayed marketing launch after a soft launch.
- Cross-Promotional: Go on other non-competing podcasts where your audience is. Quid pro quo collaborations are common.
- Reviews: Drive reviews for social proof, even if they don’t directly impact rankings.
💡 Ongoing Strategy (57:20 – 1:02:00)
- Organic Growth: Consistently show up, stay top of mind, ensure discoverability on platforms. View the show as a “creative evolution.”
- Strategic Guests: Prioritize guests with the most trust with your audience over celebrities, as credibility trumps celebrity.
- Paid Media: Advised only after 6+ months of organic growth to work out kinks and understand organic performance. Tools like Podroll, Google Display, YouTube ads can be used.