Can you grow your podcast without social media?

Hey Pod Pals!

This newsletter was lovingly curated (without the use of any AI) in real time on Thursday morning at 8:41am CST.

It's a little less freezing here today in St Louis so I was able to take a nice walk and, of course, I still had to sip on some cold brew coffee.

Is it weird that I hate hot coffee???

Real quick before we dive into this week's topic.... ⤵️  

I love helping my clients set up a simple and effective podcast GROWTH strategy.

If you feel like you are ready for some help with your podcast growth strategy, hop on my Podcast Profit Potential Discovery Call calendar.

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This week we are going to dive into one of my favorite questions that I get asked by my Pod Pals:

Do we HAVE TO leverage social media in order to grow a decent sized audience for our podcast?

➡️ My answer: No...you don't have to use social media to grow your audience.

Now, when some of you ask me this question I get the feeling that you actually mean:

Can I just put out podcast episodes and let this thing grow on its own?

➡️ To that question my answer is: You are going to have one heck of a hard time if you just put out episodes and HOPE that people find the show.

 

Let's chat about the Three Buckets of Podcast Growth:

🪣 Bucket #1: Organic Discovery/SEO

In my opinion, this is the most POWERFUL bucket and it has been largely responsible for me being able to cross one million downloads as a podcaster.

This strategy involves leveraging keywords in three core areas:

✔️ The name of your podcast.

✔️ Your podcast host description.

✔️ Your individual episode titles.

Next Tuesday (Feb 10th) I'm releasing my yearly Podcast SEO Manifesto episode on my show....stay tuned!

I honestly feel like only about 5% of podcasters are effectively using this technique.

 

🪣 Bucket #2: Paid Marketing

This is the bucket that everyone tends to avoid because it involves an INVESTMENT....😱

This bucket includes paying for ads in:

✔️ Facebook/IG

✔️ Other podcasts

✔️ Newsletters/email list exposure

✔️ Podcast player app banner ads

This last one is my absolute favorite! I just ran a 30 day banner ad on Overcast FM. 

I paid $150 and I got over 80 new podcast subscribers!

Don't shy away from paid marketing just because it involves an investment...especially if you want to ditch social media!

 

🪣 Bucket #3: Effort Based Marketing

I call this the "burnout bucket" because this is where most new podcasters spend ALL of their energy and it's usually the bucket that takes the longest to develop and get results out of.

This bucket includes:

✔️ Word of mouth marketing.

✔️ Social media promotion.

✔️ Email/newsletter marketing.

✔️ Podcast guesting.

 

So if you want to break up with social media I suggest that you include a heavy dose of the following in your growth strategy:

➡️ Organic Discovery/SEO (this is a MUST)

➡️ Paid banner ads

➡️ Word of mouth marketing.

➡️ Build your email list and leverage that to promote your show.

➡️ Be a guest on 1-4 podcasts per month.

 

If you want a step by step checklist of how to implement these strategies and have me there to guide you through the process, take a peek at my Podcast Growth Bootcamp.

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🤩 Client Testimonial of the week: My clients Stacey & Rachel have a show called Decoding Couples.

Check out what they had to say about doing 1:1 consulting with me for podcast growth and offer creation: 

"We hired Adam to help us market our podcast and leverage our brand in order to gain sponsors and partnerships. He helped us create a new membership program within two months & streamline our recording process! We have successfully locked in our first podcast sponsor! 10 out of 10 recommend!"

Ready for some help with learning how to grow and monetize your show? Hop on my Podcast Profit Potential Discovery Call Calendar.

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New Content for this week:

🎙️ Podcasting Business School EP 607: How to stop attracting freebie seekers with your content.

As podcasters we must make sure we are attracting our ideal fit audience members and potential clients! 

In this live coaching episode I invited one of my audience members onto the show so I could coach her through a new content strategy that will help her attract ideal fit podcast listeners.

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❤️ If you have been enjoying my newsletter I'd really appreciate it if you would share it with one of your Pod Pals that might get value out of this content!

Just hit that FORWARD button and share it out! 😎

If someone forwarded you this email you can CLICK HERE to subscribe and get a fresh newsletter from me every single Thursday.

Talk to you next week!

Your Pod Pal,

Adam

 

⭐️ P.S. Ready for some help with your podcast launch, growth, or with getting more clients from your podcast? 

Hop on my calendar for a Podcast Profit Potential Discovery Call and we can discuss how we can work together.