Whether you’re a band, a museum, or a restaurant, podcasts can be a very effective way to engage with your fans. However, podcasts won’t work for everyone. Typically, we advise organizations to use podcasts as a way to deepen an existing relationship with fans, not to try and win fans for the first time. If you are a brand new organization that needs to get word out about its existence, podcasts will be less effective than other marketing tactics. However, if you are an organization with passionate fans that only engage with you from time to time — for example, a theatre or a comedy club that most people go to once a year — then a podcast can be an effective way to keep your organization top of mind among your fans.
One of the biggest challenges new podcasters face is growing their audience. This hurdle is a lot easier to overcome if you already have an audience and you simply need to bring them over to your podcast. With that in mind, here are some signs that a podcast could be an effective way to engage your audience:
1. You have a physical location with foot traffic.
If your organization has a physical location that receives a steady stream of visitors throughout the year, you are well-positioned to launch a podcast. By displaying signage at your venue, you can drive fans to that podcast. Depending on your particular organization, there may be any number of other ways to promote your podcast to people who come to your establishment: on the backs of tickets, at the bottom of menus, through announcements over the loudspeakers, through in-house promotional videos, on the bottom of receipts, etc.
2. You have a robust email database.
Email is a fantastic promotional tool because it allows your fans to check out your podcast with the click of a link. If you have a large active email database, you should definitely consider launching a podcast.
3. You have a strong following on social media.
If your organization has passionate fans on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, a podcast could be an excellent way to further engage with them. By sharing short snippets of your podcast online, you can spread the word quickly and gain new listeners.
4. Your website gets steady traffic.
If your organization regularly publishes new content on its website — through a blog, for example — and as a result, the website consistently attracts visitors, then you’ve already got a strong content marketing game going on. Adding a podcast to your mix of content is an excellent way to level up that game.
5. You have a mobile app.
Not everybody knows how to listen to a podcast, but most people know how to download a mobile app for their smartphone. By including episodes in your organization’s mobile app, you can make them easily accessible to people even if they don’t have a lot of experience listening to podcasts. As a bonus, you can promote your organization’s app and podcast at the same time: “Download our app to listen to our podcast!”
It’s not necessary to have all five of these components in place to launch a podcast, but the more of them you have, the more effective a podcast will be as a fan engagement tool. On the other hand, if none of the statements above describe your organization, you may not be ready to podcast… yet. Reconsider the medium when you’ve built up your fanbase.
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