Distribute and Promote Your Health & Fitness Like a Pro

Get More Listeners by Boosting your Podcast Online with These 5 Strategies

Picture this scenario: you've meticulously crafted an exceptional boot camp class. It's the perfect blend of intensity and progression, with spot-on safety considerations, an epic playlist, variety, and fun. You've even fine-tuned it after months of hard work. But on the day of your class, you're locked inside the studio with no way for clients to enter, and worse, you haven't advertised it. All your effort seems wasted.

This unfortunate situation is similar to creating a podcast and not promoting it everywhere it should be.

In this episode (and article!), we'll explore the critical places on the internet where your podcast should be to reach your dream listeners effectively.

BTW, if you’re wondering who I am and why I’m writing this… I'm Jamie Kennedy, the Executive Podcast Producer behind Brave Moon Podcasts, and I'm here to guide you on your podcasting journey.

In this episode, we talk about...

• How to distribute and promote your podcast online using the podcast-led marketing funnel

• The five key places your podcast should live on the internet

• How to identify your dream listener and convert them into loyal advocates

Transcribed Podcast Episode

Imagine this. You've sequenced an incredible bootcamp class. You've made it the perfect combination of intensity and progression. Your safety considerations are spot on. You've got the most killer playlist. You've added variety and fun. You've even tested and fine tuned it. It's ready to share with the world and you know it's so good it could turn into a global sensation. The morning of you get to the studio where you'll be instructing and you go inside.

You flip on the lights, turn on the playlist, and get ready for your clients to start entering. But then you realize something. You've locked yourself in the studio. There's no way for your clients to get in. Suddenly, you realize you've done nothing to advertise for the class either. You haven't told anyone about your class. You peer through the window and see all of your dream clients simply walking by because they can't find you.

And that, my friend, is exactly what happens when you create a podcast and then not put it everywhere you need it to be on the internet. Picture your podcast as the bootcamp class you've tirelessly worked on, your studio as the podcast hosting platform, and now you need to figure out everywhere your podcast should be on the internet to get recognized and get heard. And that is exactly what you're going to learn about today. So let's dive in.

Here it is, my 10th episode and the final episode that I committed to you originally. When I first started this podcast, I wasn't even sure I could make it to three episodes. Then I committed 10 episodes to you, which felt like a huge undertaking. But once I committed, I wasn't going to give up on you. And as it turns out, I am having so much fun. I'm definitely sticking with it.

What helped me make this decision was that a podcast was actually saving me time in my marketing efforts. And honestly, this podcast has already helped me grow so much. Sitting in front of the mic has changed the podcasting game for me. Never mind the hundreds of episodes I produced before this. Sitting down and committing to your own podcast is a surefire way to grow both personally and professionally.

I'm not only learning so much more about podcasting, but I am growing in my beliefs and understanding of what I actually believe in when it comes to podcasting. I am taking the time to study my craft, get to know the theories and existing beliefs that surround podcasting and seeing what can be done to evolve it, both for myself and for my clients.

And so now my plan is to record and go live with 26 total episodes in this first season. That will be one year content for you. And speaking of a huge thank you for being here and taking the time to listen to this for trusting in me and spending your valuable time with me. If you happen to have a moment, will you do me a huge favor? Will you jump into the listening app that you're currently listening to? Go to my podcast and tap on five stars.

That little act may not seem like too much but it's a huge help in helping other small business owners and podcasters to find this podcast. And I would be so grateful to you. And if you've already left a five star review, thank you so much. It means everything to me. And I will also just mention quickly who I am and why I'm in your ears. I'm Jamie Kennedy, and I am a podcast producer behind the podcast production company Brave Moon Podcasts.

We've produced podcasts for Virgin Active Health Clubs, Functional Training Institute, amazing wellbeing coaches and speakers, and many more. I started this podcast from my own home because I want to prove to you that it's very much possible for you to do the same. Here I am with my Rode Podcaster Mic and a cup of black tea, a habit I picked up from my British friends who I happened to meet living in Sydney, Australia. Everything you hear today is a result of a lot of hours of research and experimentation and I've handpicked the best tools and techniques for you to use. No guesswork involved.

Do you need a comprehensive list of equipment, programs, and softwares that my clients use to launch and grow their podcast? Head to my website and grab my Start a Podcast Guide. Believe me, when I was getting started, it took me months to make decisions on all of this confusing stuff. Everything I learned during those months of research all culminated into the creation of this exact guide, and it's free.

I've narrowed your equipment, software, and program options down to the best in the industry. So download it today. Link is in the show notes. Now for the main event. Everywhere your podcast and you should be on the internet.

You've just launched your podcast. It's your passion project, but secretly hope it will turn into a make money in your sleep project. And you want to reach as many of your dream listeners as possible. So what is a dream listener? Your dream listener is my version of saying target audience or target listener. When you know your target audience and in the case of a podcast, your dream listener,

you can offer them so much more value that they actually need and want. And yes, ideally for you, this value you're providing will be paid products or services that help them in their life and ultimately give you income through paid advertisements, sponsors, affiliates, or your own products or services. And I want to be really clear on something. Your podcast cannot and will not be everything to everyone.

Instead, you have two options. You can be something to everyone, which isn't so special to be honest and can be somewhat forgettable, or you can be everything to someone. When you are everything to someone, AKA your dream listener, you have shifted from being forgettable to memorable. And when you're memorable, your dream listener becomes your biggest advocate and they will share your podcast with everyone in their life who can relate and who is also your dream listener.

And your podcast will build and build until the point where you don't have to hide that what you really want is to become podcast rich, like Joe Rogan podcast rich. If you're still trying to figure out who your dream listener is and more specifically what your podcast niche is, I'm going to tell you right now, this is the absolute first step you need to take before starting your podcast.

So if you haven't already narrowed this down, you need to jump on my website and download the podcast niche worksheet. It will be an absolute game changer for you in figuring out who your dream listener is and what your podcast niche will be. In a majority of cases, I would say the difference between a successful podcast and an unsuccessful podcast are the ones that picked a solid dream listener and niche.

So what this all means is that your job is to take your dream listeners on a journey from becoming aware of your podcast to considering your podcast and whether it's right for them to subscribing to your podcast and listening to episodes to becoming an advocate of your podcast by sharing your podcast and episodes with more people. This is what I call the podcast-led marketing funnel.

Now, if you haven't listened to episode nine, I recommend listening to this episode and then going back and diving straight into that one as well. Because during that episode, I talk a lot about the podcast-led marketing strategy, which teaches you the multiple types of content you can create from just one podcast episode. But keep listening to this episode because I really want you to understand how to set up your podcast on the internet correctly so that you're getting the best bang for your buck in terms of the podcast marketing funnel.

And your first step in the journey for your dream listener is the awareness portion of the podcast led marketing funnel. This part of the journey is all about getting your podcast discovered. And the first place to do that is to get your podcast on the listening apps. Podcast listening apps, also known as podcast directories, are the platforms where listeners listen to podcasts. Think YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, et cetera.

By making your podcast available on the listening apps, you're casting a wide net for potential listeners who share your interests. And the great news is podcast listening apps already niche your podcast down to a potentially good audience because you know that every person who finds you on these podcast listening apps is more than likely a podcast listener to start with. This sets you up for success because the person is primed to understand the point of a podcast.

The second place to do this is to set yourself up on social media. A pretty common recommendation from marketing pros and something I definitely agree with is to set you and your podcast up on two to three social media channels.

Any more than that is frankly a lot to manage. Unless you have a marketing team working for you, I highly recommend going after two to three channels so that you're focusing on quality over quantity.

You'll have more time to create valuable content that actually resonates with your potential listeners instead of creating a lot more content, but perhaps less valuable because you didn't have the time to focus on each channel as best as you could have.

So which social media platforms you ask? If you've done your homework and you have your dream listener in mind, you can easily discover which channels your dream listener is on.

Not sure? Ask Google by prompting it with your dream listener demographics and asking it where your dream listener is hanging out. Example would be TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. This list will absolutely change in the years to come, so be sure to double check other places as well. Now the question becomes, do you create a podcast specific account or create a personal account that features your podcast?

The answer is, it depends on how important you are at the center of your podcast. If you're a personal trainer, for instance, and your podcast is talking about various ways to help 20-year-old college students stay healthier away from home, then I think it's safe to say that your account should be you. But let's say, OK, this is an actual example of a podcast client of mine. You own a herbal tea company for pre- and postnatal care.

But your podcast is a humorous podcast to help moms connect and relate over common struggles. Then I would say you need a separate podcast account for your podcast and a separate account for your herbal tea company. See, your herbal tea company should be a sponsor of your podcast, but they shouldn't be on the same social media account. Why? Because the two entities serve very different value to your dream listener.

That's not to say you don't have the same target audience for the two entities because you absolutely do and you absolutely should. But that's what makes the tea company a perfect sponsor and not a shared social media account. The third place for awareness is a dedicated website or web page. Every podcaster ideally needs a home base.

Create a dedicated website or webpage on your existing site to showcase your podcast episodes, bios, and links to other platforms. What I personally do and highly recommend is I have a webpage via my Brave Moon Podcast website that's dedicated to my podcast. I then add direct links to listen to the podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts, which is where 90 % of my podcast listeners go to to listen to my podcast.

I then add each individual episode and I'll talk about that in a moment. So what you can also do if you don't have a business website per se, or in the case of the herbal tea company, you wouldn't necessarily want to create a podcast webpage on your existing business website is to create a really simple one or two page website. You can go through an easy website builder like Carrd or Wix. Check the show notes for direct links. Keep in mind.

During the process of starting your podcast, you will or will have already distributed your podcast via a podcast hosting platform. Most of these podcast hosting platforms automatically create a dedicated webpage for your podcast. These webpages are indexed by Google and search engines. So technically this could be your dedicated webpage for your podcast. My one dislike though for these is that unless you pay for a premium subscription, you won't have much of a say in terms of branding.

So more than likely, you'll be advertising the podcast hosting platform, like Acast, through your webpage because they will brand your webpage with their fonts, colors, and logo. That's why I personally recommend starting your own webpage, like through Wix or Carrd. There are two more places I recommend you set up online for your podcast, but I mention these in brackets because you'll be setting these up, but really, you're not going to see action from these until your dream listeners are further into the journey with you and your podcast.

But nonetheless, set these up anyway and prepare. The two places are an online community and an email newsletter. So talking about the online community, personally, I feel one of the main reasons to start a podcast is to connect with dream listeners who can relate to your podcast niche. And a great way to do this is through an online community. For example, with my podcast, I started a Facebook group called Podcaster Community for Health and Fitness Professionals.

It's a place where health and fitness business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals network together, talk podcasts and potentially find podcast guests for their existing podcasts. What I love about this community is that it's a place for listeners to connect and carry the conversation online. If you have any questions about an episode or want to bounce some ideas for their podcast with fellow podcasters, this becomes the place to do it. So it's time to consider what your community could look like.

You could go on Facebook groups, LinkedIn group, or Discourse, for example. There are many more opportunities to create online communities which continue to evolve monthly. So just take a couple minutes to search for it and you'll find the right path for you. Now I'm going to talk about the email newsletter. Every podcast should have an email list. Whether you know what you want to sell or not, building an email list is so important. I talk about email lists a lot because it's really the one thing on the internet that you quote unquote own.

Your followers on Instagram are owned by Instagram. Your followers on TikTok are owned by TikTok. Arguably you own your own website, so that's also good. But email lists are so nice because you are proactively reaching out to them via their email addresses rather than waiting reactively for your dream listeners to show up on your website. Does that make sense?

So set yourself up with an email solution software like MailerLite or Omnisend or ConvertKit. Then start to encourage your listeners to subscribe to your list. Give them a reason to sign up such as a nice freebie relating to your podcast niche. For example, if you're a personal trainer whose dream listener is a 20 something college student wanting to get healthier, you could gift them 20 dorm room recipes that taste delicious and require no cooking. I would have

Totally loved that my freshman year of college in that dorm room. So they'll hear about it. They'll click on the link to your lead magnet freebie in your show notes. And then you'll just ask them to give you their email address in exchange for the free download. Okay, so those are all the places on the internet you want to be in order to generate awareness with the exception of one obvious place on the internet, which is everywhere your dream listener starts talking about you and your podcast.

You see, this skillful marketing funnel plan actually becomes a full circle because your dream listener will also start talking about your podcast on the internet, which is free marketing for you and requires very little effort on your part. So let's tackle what happens when you're trying to turn your dream listener from knowing about you to actually hit the subscribe button and start listening to episodes. And that is the consideration phase.

So this is the part of the journey where you'll be posting content that allows your dream listener to consider if your podcast is right for them. In the listening apps, you can be doing this by creating traffic driving show notes.

Essentially, you want your show notes to act as a discovery multiplier, AKA an SEO boost. SEO stands for search engine optimization, essentially meaning get found on Google. If you aren't sure how to do this, check out podcastsmarketing.ai, which is an AI platform that creates audience magnet show notes for you in minutes. In your social media apps, be sure you're sharing teasers, behind the scene clips, and quick tips and advice related to your podcast episode topics.

You can also do things like infographics, videos, and testimonials to help dream listeners decide if your podcast is right for them. And on your dedicated website or webpage, you should definitely create a blog post for each podcast episode. Remember when I said that on my Brave Moon Podcast website, I have a dedicated podcast page?

On that podcast page, I add blog articles for every single episode, which creates that SEO boost discoverability, and it allows my listeners to absorb the information in different ways. So that's what those blog articles are for.

So you can either make this a transcription of your podcast episode, or I prefer and recommend that you actually create an interesting article with SEO keywords and phrases that will turn readers into listeners. And over in your online community, remember you have already more than likely converted these dream listeners, but now it's time to keep them engaged. You should post about new episodes and what will happen to people who take the time to listen. What will they benefit from the new episode? What will improve in their life after listening?

to your episode. And in your email newsletters to your email list, again, you've probably already converted these listeners, but listeners need to be reminded of new episodes. So send out engaging newsletters, exclusive content, and sneak peeks to keep your listeners hooked. Now let's talk about the third phase in your podcast-led marketing funnel, conversion.

This is the time when you need to turn your potential dream listeners, who's trying to decide if your podcast is right for them, into your actual dream listener. If I was a soccer player or football player, the other football Americans, this would be the feeling of scoring a goal. You're a player on the field and you've put in a ton of effort and inched your way down the field, getting the ball closer and closer to the goal.

And then bang, the goalie, AKA your dream listener's hesitations, disappear and you've scored the goal or a new dream listener. So within those five places on the internet your podcast is, what can you be doing to convert your potential listeners to subscribers? Biggest thing is to make sure you're giving your potential listeners a very easy journey to hit subscribe. In your show notes and verbally in your episodes, make sure you're asking your listener to subscribe.

After all, just because they found your podcast doesn't mean they've hit the subscribe button. In fact, I regularly have about 50 % new listeners tune in to every podcast, meaning that I have a 50 % chance of converting a potential dream listener into a subscribing dream listener. In social media apps, make sure you're including a link to your podcast's webpage and including special posts specifically asking for potential listeners to subscribe.

These are standalone posts that have just one call to action to hit subscribe on your podcast. Always give them a reason to do so. Let them know your podcast listeners get exclusive discount codes from time to time. Let them know you're hosting a giveaway and only current subscribers are eligible. A great example of this is if you look at my show notes, only my podcast listeners can get $200 off of my podcast launch startup package.

Now, on your webpage, make sure there's a subscribe now call to action button and make sure that each blog article also asks them to subscribe. And in your online communities and email newsletters, do the same. Just because you have more converted listeners in these online platforms does not mean they're all subscribed. Check in and make sure you've covered your bases. I recommend posting once or twice a month in your various online places with this CTA, AKA call to action.

Last but certainly not least is turning your subscribed dream listeners into your loyal advocates, your biggest cheerleaders. This is huge and truly when it becomes more automated for you. If you can get your dream listeners to start talking about your podcast, that is gold because Word of Mouth is one of the top ways podcasts are discovered by new listeners. In the listening apps, be sure to ask subscribers to leave a five-star review.

This is a great way to tap into social proof directly in the listening apps. Also ask listeners to share episodes to their social media. On social media, ask for people to post about your podcast. Offer a giveaway or special discount to anyone who does so.

Be sure to share any user-generated content you get tagged in, especially if it's good, because it's social proof your podcast is loved and plus people are 70 % more likely to engage in UGC, user generated content. So it's really a win-win. Hint hint, I would love if you would tag my Instagram @about.jamie if you want to share any of these episodes. On your webpage, I recommend offering a share button so listeners can share your blog article on their socials.

And in your online community, ask people to share their favorite episodes with the group or ask them to share the group with their friends and colleagues who can relate. And also in your email newsletter, ask subscribers to leave a five-star review when they listen to your new episode.

And that, my friend, is everywhere your podcast should be on the internet and how you create a podcast-led marketing funnel that really works. Thank you again so much for joining me on your podcasting journey.

Don't forget to subscribe and if you enjoyed the episode, pretty please leave a five star review. Until the next episode, keep those conversations flowing and keep being the amazing creator that you are. And as always, remember to stay consistent, keep promoting the crap out of your podcast, and most importantly, keep it real. Happy podcasting.

Ready to distribute and promote your podcast effectively to finally get it in front of the listeners who need it most?

You’ve got the content—now it’s time to get it heard. Download our free Start a Podcast Guide and start growing your audience with smart podcast promotion strategies.

Happy podcasting.

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