A good podcast launch gives you an excellent chance of success, but what needs to be considered when you start a podcast? Here we outline what you need to pay special attention to in the early stages of your podcast development.
Quality
First and foremost, you have to ensure that the quality of your podcast is as good as it can be. There are multiple factors to this, it’s not all about the sound itself – although this is important! Investing in a good quality microphone and considering the location of your recording and any software required will go a long way to ensuring you have good sound quality in each episode. You can read more about this here.
Once everything is sounding great, it’s time to consider the content. Podcasting isn’t just a case of plugging in a microphone and talking for half an hour. You want to ensure that every episode is planned out – having a plan written down in front of you will not only help when recording, but your listeners will be able to follow the episode much easier.
Working with a podcast production agency can help you ensure the quality of your podcast is at a high level.
Get your podcast in the charts
Getting your podcast into the charts, particularly on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, gets you in and amongst the biggest names in the podcasting world – it’s a great way to be discovered by new listeners, and it can have long-lasting benefits when looking at commercial partnerships. But how can you get your podcast into the charts?
Apple Podcasts make sure that the charts are constantly changing with how they measure performance. They include the number of listens you are getting and the completion rate of your episodes, however, the most effective way to get into the charts when you launch is new subscribers.
Apple takes into account the number of new subscribers your podcast has gained in the past 7 days, the more you gain in a shorter amount of time, the further up the charts you go. This is why we always encourage new podcasters to be aggressive in gaining new subscribers when your podcast launches – make sure your family, friends, colleagues, customers and anyone else you have on social media know that you’re launching a podcast and that they need to subscribe. You’d be surprised at how effective this can be.
Branding
Getting the right branding for your podcast can ensure that you stand out amongst the hundreds of thousands of available podcasts on people’s phones. Whether people are scrolling through social media or their podcast platform, you want a podcast logo that makes people stop and take notice. Utilising bright colours, recognisable faces and strong fonts can all help with this.
Platform promotion
As with anything, the launch period is all about the number of people you can hear about your podcast. Luckily, the platforms on which your podcast will be available have some promotion opportunities you should be exploring. With Apple Podcasts, you can apply for promotion via their Apple Podcasts for Creators site, where you can send information about your podcast launch. This is all rewards based, but if they think your series is worth shouting about, they’ll put it into featured collections, New & Noteworthy or even on the front-page carousel.
If you have some budget, it’s also worth exploring paid platform marketing opportunities too like with Castbox.
Get your social media in order
Before your launch, you should ensure that you have social media channels set up for your podcast. This is not only a great way to share content from your podcast, but it’s also an opportunity for your soon-to-be listeners to interact with you – creating that all-important podcast community. Before you launch, you should consider which platform is the best one for your podcast, where is your audience most likely to be? Focusing on 2-3 platforms rather than all of them will give you a clearer focus.
Make sure your accounts are not only sharing content from your podcast but also have a consistent brand across them all and give your followers chances to engage with you and be a part of the podcast. This starts before your first episode launches, so make sure it is a priority in your launch plans.
Listening Dog Media – Podcast Production Agency
If you want help with launching your podcast to ensure it gets the best start it can, speak to the Listening Dog Media team about our Podcast Launch service.
Contact us here to set up a call with one of our team.
