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How to Grow Your Podcast Audience with Videos [+Free Templates]

How to Grow Your Podcast Audience with Videos

Podcast Insights have recently updated their stats on the total amount of podcasts and stated that there are currently over 1,750,000 podcasts and over 43 million episodes out there as of January 2021. In such a tough market, you want to make sure to use the most up-to-date and competitive promotional techniques. Below we will look at how you can leverage different video marketing strategies and get more listeners for every episode you produce.

How to grow podcast with videos - more gif

During 2020 the percentage of podcasters among Wave.video users has also drastically increased. Many of them realized how effective videos are when promoting the show. We’ve started exploring the topic using all the excellent guides available on the web and interviewing our users. Keep on reading to see what effective methods we have filtered out and what awesome new features we have launched to make your podcast promo stand out. As a bonus, we’ve prepared 6 video templates inspired by our favorite podcasts to help you kickstart your video-powered distribution campaign.     

Video Marketing Techniques for Podcast Promotion

Repurpose your show into a teaser video 

One of the proven ways to distribute the news about your new episodes is to give your social media audience a sneak peek and entice them to listen to the whole thing. If you created a very informative episode, cut out the best advice. If your show turned out to be very emotional and inspiring, choose the moment that has touched you most. The idea here is to give away the value openly. 

People are likely to share the information if they want to be associated with it. Try to get the quote that contains a trendy opinion on a social or political topic, an emotion that many people experience at the moment, or, if you’re ready to argue in the comments and stand for your and guest’s opinion, publish the most controversial idea. 

This method is especially beneficial if you have a famous guest with a solid following. When people get a small bit of recognized expert wisdom, they are likely to want to tune in to the full episode. Don’t hesitate to send the video to your interviewee and ask them to share it with fans.  

Pro tip: Limit the piece of your episode to the 50-sec maximum. Thus it will meet all the social media platforms’ requirements and more people will watch it till the end. 

To make it in Wave.video editor, upload the short video or audio track with the brightest moment from the episode to the editor. After that, you will have plenty of options on how to modify it:

  • Choose different layouts
  • Add captions and adapt them to your brand’s style
  • Add an equalizer to point at the fact that it’s a visualization of the sound
  • Use fun GIFs and stickers to exaggerate emotions 
  • Add call-to-action to lead viewers to your podcast 

How to Grow Your Podcast Audience with Videos - wave.video editor

Publish your teaser videos on all possible social media platforms 

There are two social media marketing strategies you can follow: grow the following on one platform or explore the opportunities of different channels. There is no answer to which one is the right way. However, if you choose to grow the community on various platforms simultaneously, don’t forget to adapt your teaser videos. 

A simple option is to resize one video to square, vertical, or horizontal formats to use the most effective aspects ratio for the particular social media platform. You can easily make it in Wave.video editor by choosing a new format right inside the editor and moving the components of your video to change the composition.

 

If you want to take it further and ensure you get the most out of each social media channel you can also:

  • Experiment with the quote you choose. For example, add a longer and more serious one to the feed and make a short and fun clip for Stories. 
  • Adapt the message in the post. For Twitter, you would need to add short, catchy, and controversial phrases, on Instagram brief and structured opinion posts still remain popular, etc. 
  • Mix serious and fun approaches to remain human for your audience.
  • Add a custom thumbnail. Some social networks offer to upload a thumbnail. Some platforms only allow choosing a freeze-frame. However, you can add your thumbnail as a 1-sec scene on your video and trick this limitation. Harmonious thumbnails are especially important on Instagram, where people can express themselves by designing and planning their feed. You might want to pick a gentle style and use pastel colors like The Papaya Podcast or leave random frees-frames from the shows to express live experience like Spotify Podcasts

How to Grow Your Podcast Audience with Videos - Instagram examples     

Increase your audience’s loyalty with behind-the-scene videos 

If you feel comfortable in front of the camera it’s always great to show how you prepare the show. If you can share the full recording of behind-the-scenes, you can upload it to your website, share it on IGTV or YouTube.

The other option is to show the bits of your internal kitchen. By posting some fun, awkward, and compassionate moments, you step off the pedestal of a distant expert and become closer to your community. I love the way the Knowlton team promotes their podcast using hilarious moments of the show.  

Get traffic from YouTube

Remaining the second largest search engine, YouTube has a big traffic potential for your podcast as well. Not all the topics have a high demand there, but you can check it following this simple instruction created by Ahrefs. If you find out that the theme of your podcast is popular on YouTube, you have a few options to avail of this opportunity. 

An ambitious way is to follow Joe Rogan’s example and grow your own YouTube channel. You can upload the recordings of how you interview people as well as other entertaining videos. If you’re not ready to be a showman and invest in YouTube marketing, you can mix the completed audio with stock assets and text effects and upload such a simple video to YouTube for the sake of getting traffic like Buffer does for their YouTube channel. In both variants, you need to optimize each video for YouTube SEO. 

Pro tip: If you use Wave.video, you can automatically add captions, fix the grammar while editing your video, and download SRT file and upload it to YouTube with no extra work.   

Mix podcast recording with live streaming 

You can mix two marketing instruments and go live while recording your podcast. You can do it on one platform like Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, or YouTube. If you have audiences on multiple platforms, you should start using popular multi-streaming services like Restream and Streamyard. Using this synergy, you will answer your community’s questions and tie people more vital to your show. Although, this approach requires high skills in managing many systems and processes simultaneously.

Try promoting your podcast on Pinterest 

Pinterest is a great promotional channel for those podcasters whose topics are popular here. To check it, simply go to Pinterest trends and type in the main keyword associated with your theme. In a drop-down menu, you will see all the highly searchable terms. 

how to grow your podcast with videos - pinterest

If you see search potential, your teaser videos will help you generate traffic from Pinterest. Videos are gaining momentum here and still pops against the prevailing images. Stick to the tender style of this platform, and don’t forget to add call-to-action. Since Pinterest is more like a mix of a social network and search engine, you will continue getting traffic as long as your episode’s topic remains up-to-date.

Send video invite via email 

Growing email subscribers to your podcast is a very challenging idea, however, the stats continue to prove the effectiveness of this channel. To improve the CTR of newsletters try experimenting with videos. According to Market Adviser, including videos in your email can increase clickthrough rates by up to 300%. Complement the body of your email with different GIF-style videos containing animated quotes, jokes, shocking information, or any other emotional triggers. To learn how to add animation or thumbnail to your newsletter, check out our step-by-step guide.

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6 Teaser Video Templates for Podcast Promotion 

To demonstrate how diverse teaser videos might be, we took 6 podcasts about business and marketing that we enjoy listening to and created videos as if we were promoting them. Use them as inspiration to create dazzling videos and skyrocket your podcast shows. We also highly recommend you to listen to these podcasts and level up your marketing and entrepreneurial skills.

Podcast 1: Engage Video Marketing Podcast

Engage Video Marketing Podcast hosted by Ben Amos;

Episode 154: “Planning an Integrated Video Content Strategy with Glenn Hughes”.

Use this template

Ben has invited Glenn Hughes from Gordian Marketing Team to find out how he integrates videos into the customer journey and how he manages the team’s work to establish a video-centric approach. Glenn has a very inspiring story about how he intuitively figured out what makes video a powerful sales and marketing instrument.  

Podcast 2: Liz on Biz Podcast

Liz on Biz Podcast hosted by Liz Theresa;

Episode 200: “Kara Goldin – On Being Undaunted.”

Use this template

Liz and Kara Goldin, the Founder of Hint, had a very inspiring conversation about what helps an entrepreneur to break through all the challenges and keep the sustainable business in our world full of surprises similar to a global pandemic. Kara was launching a business while growing 4 kids under the age of 4. Her story demonstrates how important it is to fight for a product with value and cherish support from people who understand what you’re delivering to the world.

Podcast 3: Social Media Marketing Podcast 

Social Media Marketing Podcast hosted by Michael A. Stelzner;

Episode 414: “Visual Design for Non-Designer‪s”.

Use this template

In this episode, Michael and Donna Moritz discuss what it takes today for a marketer to start creating visuals with no design skills. It’s a very insightful conversation between Michael, who turned out to spend a decent part of his career in the design field, and Donna, who’s been successfully advocating the ‘design for the non-designers’ concept for many years and proved its viability by her own career. Tune in to pick up the right attitude and learn about simple tools to become a visual pro.   

Podcast 4: Digital Marketing Masters Podcast

Digital Marketing Masters Podcast hosted by Matt Rouse;

Episode 93: “Wave.video with Kate Skavis‪h‬”.

Use this template

In this episode of the podcast, Matt and Kate discuss the importance of using videos for marketing success and how it helps podcasters gain new listeners. This show has become a small but essential step for Wave.video on the way to a better understanding of how we can make our editor better for the podcasters, so thank you, Matt! 🙂  

Podcast 5: Maximize Your Social Influence Podcast

Maximize Your Social Influence Podcast hosted by Neal Schaffer;

Episode 159: “An Introduction to The Age of Influence and Resetting Your Perspective on Digital Influenc‪e‬.”

Use this template

Neal is presenting his book The Age of Influence and explains why it has to become a handbook for every marketing professional. Social media has transformed into a place where people support an endless dialogue and each voice matters. You will understand why and how it changes modern influencer marketing and how to adapt to the new reality.    

Podcast 6: SaaS-Story in the Making Podcast

SaaS-Story in the Making Podcast hosted by Matt Wolach;

Episode 143: “How to Use Inbound Principles to Achieve Quick Growth – with Dan Tyre”.

Use this template

Matt invited Dan Tyre, who stood at the origins of HubSpot, to discuss how inbound marketing has transformed by 2021. Dan explains why gone are the days when the marketing team was playing the secondary role in the company’s success. He also talks about the importance of building intuitive products and picking clients who are likely to be satisfied with them. 

Over to You

Are you leveraging the power of video to increase your podcast listenership? If so, what video marketing strategies work best for you? And if not, what stops you from doing that? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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